Class 10 English - TAMILNADU
Poetry: How to Tell Wild Animals
How to Tell Wild Animals by Carolyn Wells is a humorous poem prescribed in the Tamil Nadu Samacheer Kalvi Class 10 English syllabus. The poet introduces dangerous wild animals of the jungle using clever, witty, and sometimes absurd descriptions. Through this poem, students learn about the physical characteristics and behaviors of creatures like the Asian Lion, Bengal Tiger, Bear, Hyena, Crocodile, and Chameleon. The chapter is very important for board exams as it tests students' understanding of poetic devices, humor, and comprehension through paragraph questions, memory verses, and line-by-line understanding questions.
Start Learning FreeKey Concepts
Humor and Irony
The poet uses gentle humor and irony by suggesting dangerous ways to identify wild animals, such as getting close enough to be eaten by a lion or hugged to death by a bear.
Poetic Device - Enjambment
Enjambment is the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza, which is heavily used throughout this poem to create a fast, narrative flow.
Poetic Device - Alliteration
The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of adjacent words, such as 'wandering wild' or 'novice might nonplus', used to enhance the musical quality of the poem.
Poetic Device - Poetic Licence
The poet intentionally alters spellings and grammar rules, such as writing 'left' instead of 'lived' or 'lept' instead of 'leaped', to maintain the rhyme scheme.
Animal Identification Traits
The poem highlights specific physical traits: the lion's tawny roar, the tiger's black stripes, the leopard's spots, the bear's tight hug, the hyena's smile, and the chameleon's ability to change color.
Important Formulas
Board Exam Info
In the Tamil Nadu (Samacheer Kalvi) Class 10 English board exam, this chapter typically carries about 3 to 6 marks. Questions often appear as 1-mark objective questions (synonyms/antonyms), 2-mark short answer questions from comprehension, poetic device identification questions, and occasionally a paragraph question based on the appreciation of the poem.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the central theme of the poem 'How to Tell Wild Animals'?
The central theme is the dangerous yet humorous identification of wild animals through their unique physical features and behaviors, written in a witty style by Carolyn Wells.
How can one distinguish between a crocodile and a hyena?
According to the poem, a hyena always comes with a merry smile, whereas a crocodile can always be told by the tears it sheds while consuming its prey.
Why does the poet say a chameleon has no ears?
The poet humorously notes that a chameleon is small like a lizard and has no ears at all, and is not even a single wing if there is nothing on the tree.
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