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A TIGER IN THE ZOO, BY – GEORGE LESLIE NORRIS, POETRY MAP, , Chhiar Chhuak Rawh, , ABOUT THE POET, George Leslie Norris (1921-2006) was a prize winning Welsh poet and short story writer. He, is considered as most important Welsh writers of the post war period and his literary works, have won many prizes. His famous works are Finding Gold, The Loud Winder, Phoenix Living, Poets Series: Ransoms, etc., THEME: Note a ziah tur, The poem written by Leslie Norris explains the agony and helplessness of a caged tiger that, lives in a zoo. The poet explains what his life could be if he had been a free animal. The poet, has tried to explain about the condition of animals that are caged by human beings for their, own fun., MESSAGE: Note a ziah tur, , sc, , l9, , The message conveyed by the poem is that just like humans, animals too long for freedom, and do not like being caged. For instance, the tiger in the poem longs to be in the jungle and he, looks longingly at the shining stars in the sky. By looking at the stars, the tiger hopes to be with, nature some day., , STANZA 1, , hg, , PARAPHRASE [Stanza tin hriatthiam itum ang. Rhyme scheme te kha chhinchhiah tur], , Here the poet says that the tiger that is confined in the zoo moves around in the cage under his, bright coloured skin. He further says that the tiger can take only a few steps because the cage, is small and it is not easy to move in it. One cannot hear his footsteps because he has very soft, feet, like velvet because of which there is no sound of the tiger’s footsteps. The tiger tries to, control his anger by quietly walking in the limited area of his cage. He is angry because he is, not free., POETIC DEVICES, Rhyme scheme: abcb (cage-rage), Personification: The tiger is personified because the poet refers him as ‘he’., Metaphor: Tiger’s paws are compared with velvet (pads of velvet), Enjambment: Sentence is continuing to next line without any punctuation mark., Imagery: poet tries to create an image about the tiger (He stalks in his vivid stripes The few, steps of his cage), Consonance: use of ‘s’ sound (stalks, his, stripes), Assonance: use of vowel sound ‘I’ (in his vivid stripes), Oxymoron: use of adjectives opposite in meaning (quiet rage), STANZA 2
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The poet says that if this tiger was free, he would have hidden himself behind the long grass, near the water bodies so that he could easily catch a deer in order to have it as its food., Basically, the poet wants to say that the actual life of a tiger is to live in jungle where he could, catch his prey and eat it but the tiger in the cage cannot do so., POETIC DEVICES, Rhyme: rhyme scheme is abcb (grass-pass), Enjambment: Line continues to next line without punctuation marks. (Sliding through….deer, pass), Alliteration: use of sound ‘p’ at the start of two words (plump pass), Imagery: The poet has tries to create an image of tiger’s activities (lurking in shadow)., STANZA 3, The poet says that if the tiger would have been free, he would have snarled around the houses, located at the outskirts of the forest. He would terrorize people with his sharp tooth and claws., This would create fear among the people living in the villages., POETIC DEVICES, , STANZA 4, , hg, , sc, , l9, , Rhyme Scheme: abcb rhyme scheme is followed (edge, village), Enjambment: Line continues to next line without punctuation marks (He should be snarling, around houses At the jungle’s edge,), Onomatopoeia: using words which denote sound (snarling), Assonance: use of vowel sound ‘o’ and ‘I’ (should, around, houses), (Baring, his, white, his), Consonance: use of consonant sound ‘s’ (his, fangs, his, claws), , Now the poet comes to the reality of the tiger that is inside the cage. He says that the tiger is, confined in a strong cell which is made of strong building material. He further says that as the, tiger is behind bars, so his ferociousness is also behind the bars. He just stalks in the cage. He, never tries to terrorize the visitors because his power is restricted by the cage. Therefore, he, never tries to terrorize the visitors as he cannot attack them., POETIC DEVICES, Rhyme Scheme: abcb rhyme scheme is followed (bars-visitors), Personification: The tiger is personified because the poet refers him as ‘he’., Synecdoche: ‘bars’- bars represent the whole cage in which the lion was locked up, Assonance: use of vowel sound ‘e’ (he, locked, concrete, cell), Consonance: use of consonant sound ‘s’ (his, strength, bars), Alliteration: use of sound ‘b’ at the start of two words (behind bars), STANZA 5
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The poet says that in the night, the tiger hears the sounds of the patrolling cars. Patrolling cars, are the vehicles of police which are used to guard at night. So, in the night the tiger hears the, sounds of these cars. He then stares at the shining stars with his shining eyes. The poet wants, to say that the tiger is sad and as he is confined in the cage, so, he cannot do anything. Therefore,, he stares at the stars in the night and tries to divert his thoughts towards them., POETIC DEVICES:, Rhyme Scheme: abcb rhyme scheme is followed (cars-stars), Enjambment: Line three continues to line four without any punctuation mark. (And stares with, his brilliant eyes At the brilliant stars.), Repetition: brilliant, Alliteration: use of sound ‘h’ in the starting of two words (he hears), Assonance: use of ‘I’ sound (with, his, brilliant), SUMMARY, , hg, , sc, , l9, , The poem begins with a description of a tiger that is very beautiful and is walking in his little, cage. He has beautiful stripes on his skin and has velvet like soft paws. But the tiger is not, happy and is quite angry about being confined in the cage. The poet says that if the tiger was, not confined to the zoo cage, he would have been hiding himself behind the long grass near, some water body, in order to catch its prey that is the deer. Also, he would have terrorised the, residents of the villages around the forest area. But the reality is totally opposite to this. He was, confined in a cage which was made up of strong building material and he was helpless there., He could not show his power to the visitors, therefore, never tried to terrorize them. The tiger, is described as being powerless and agonized by the poet. He says that during night also he is, alone, hearing the voice of the patrolling vehicles of police and looking at the stars. The cage, life has totally changed the tiger’s personality. The poet is trying to say that the animal which, is famous for its fearlessness and freedom is confined and sad due to the human beings who, want to derive pleasure by looking at him in the zoo cage., QUESTION AND ANSWERS, Q1- Read the poem again, and work in pairs or groups to do the following tasks., (i) Find the words that describe the movements and actions of the tiger in the cage and in the, wild. Arrange them in two columns., (ii) Find the words that describe the two places, and arrange them in two columns., Now try to share ideas about how the poet uses words and images to contrast the two situations., A1- (1), In the Cage, , In the Wild
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Stalks, quiet rage, ignoring visitors, hears the Lurking in shadow, sliding through the long, grass, snarling around houses, baring his white, sound of patrolling cars, stares at stars, fangs, terrorizing the village, (2), CAGE, , WILD, , Few steps of his cage, , Shadow, long grass, , Locked in concrete cell, , Snarling around houses, , His Strength behind bars, , Baring his white fangs, his claws, , Ignoring visitors, , Terrorising the village, , Q2- Notice the use of a word repeated in lines such as these:, (i) On pads of velvet quiet, In his quiet rage., , l9, , (ii) And stares with his brilliant eyes At the brilliant stars., What do you think is the effect of this repetition?, , hg, , sc, , A2- The poet has repeated the words to give a nice impact to his poem. Like the use of quiet, with velvet pads describes that the tiger has to walk in the limited area of his cage. He cannot, run as he would have done had it been in the forest. Whereas ‘quiet rage’ shows the hidden, anger inside him which has grown stronger because of his confinement in the cage. The next, word he used is ‘brilliant’. The word brilliant in the first line means the twinkling bright stars, and the brilliant words used for the tiger’s eyes shows the sadness of the tiger who would have, led a free and fearless life if it were in the jungle., , *** Note ziahtur tlem pdf pakhat zawk tawplamah a awm ang.
