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Treasure Trove A Collection of ICSE Poems Workbook Answers Chapter 4 Notes – After Blenheim

November 10, 2023May 20, 2022 by Raju

Treasure Trove A Collection of ICSE Poems Workbook Answers Chapter 4 Notes – After Blenheim – ICSE Class 10, 9 English

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About the Poem

“After Blenheim” is an anti- war poem written by English Romantic poet laureate Robert Southey in 1796. It was written in the form of a ballad. “After Blenheim” is also known as “The Battle of Blenheim.” Blenheim is the English name for the German village of Blindheim, situated on the left bank of the Danube River in the state of Bavaria in southern Germany.

It centers on the most famous battle in the War of the Spanish Succession (17011714). In November 1700, the grandson of King Louis XIV of France acceded to the throne of Spain as Philip V. Austria and other European nations saw this development as an unfair manoeuvre by Louis to increase his power and influence. Consequently, war broke out in 1701 between Austria and France.

Robert Southey’s ballad offers a particular perspective on one of the most famous battles of the eighteenth century. In 1704, in the War of the Spanish Succession, a coalition of forces, including the English, defeated the French and Bavarian armies at Blenheim.

Southey does not describe the battle directly but, through the conversation between an old farmer and his grandchildren, it gradually emerges that the setting is a former battleground. Peterkin has found something Targe and round’, which his grandfather explains is a skull, one of many to be found in the earth nearby.

Old Kaspar describes the battle and the loss of life. He offers an explanation to the children about why the battle was fought? In spite of the graphic description of bodies ‘rotting in the sun’ and little Wilhelmine’s belief that it was a ‘wicked thing’, the line that Southey frequently repeats has Old Kaspar saying that the battle was ‘a famous victory’. Inevitably, we are encouraged to think about the purpose and validity of war. Many years later, Southey altered his pacifist, questioning view of the war.

About the Poet

Robert Southey was an independent-minded young man who was expelled from Westminster School for opposing flogging. He developed radical religious and political ideas and, at one stage, considered emigrating to America with his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge to set up a utopian commune.

The idea was abandoned, and Southey began writing plays and poems and, in particular, developed the ballad form in poems such as ‘After Blenheim’ and ‘The Inchcape Rock’.

He was “a prolific writer of verse and histories and an accomplished biographer, who wrote The Life of Nelson. If he was not as original and successful in his poetry as contemporaries such as Wordsworth, his prose is highly skilful. Byron called it ‘perfect’, although he felt that Southey had compromised his beliefs for money and fame.

In the early period of his life Southey was a radical republican influenced by the great Thomas Paine and by the early optimistic years of the French Revolution. In 1794, even before he had written After Blenheim, Southey had written a ‘dramatic poem’ in three acts called Wat Tyler. As its name gives away, this was a play about the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. At the start of the play Wat Tyler and his friend Hob Carter are found in Tyler’s blacksmith’s shop in Deptford indignantly discussing the new ‘poll’ tax being imposed by the Crown to pay for its wars in France.

Southey gradually lost his radical opinions and became much more of an establishment figure. Fie was appointed Poet Laureate in 1813.

Central Idea

The poem conveys the futility of war. Thousands of lives are lost of innocent people and of soldiers. But what is achieved except destruction and death. No one knows why these wars are fought , they just believe whatever they are told. Terrible consequences are part of war is what everyone believes. The poem gives an idea of the real value to men of such famous victories as that of Blenheim which is just senseless and useless destruction and loss of human life.

Word Meanings

Sported – played
Green – grass fields
Rivulet – small stream.
Rout – defeated, made to flee.
Ploughshare – the main cutting blade of a plough, behind the coulter.
Slain – killed
Wonder-waiting – awestruck, surprised, expectant.
Quoth – said
Yon – (archaic) there, nearby.
Dwelling – house
To fly – fled
Rest his head – to take shelter
Childing mother – pregnant woman
Wasted – destroyed, razed to the ground.

Paraphrase

Old Kaspar has finished his work and is sitting in the sun in front of the cottage, watching his little granddaughter at play. Peterkin, his grandson, has been rolling a hard round object he found near the stream. He brings it to the old man, who explains “Tis some poor fellow’s skull,” he says.He admits that he often finds them while ploughing in the garden. The children anticipate a story—”And little Wilhelmine looks up/with wonder waiting eyes”. Kaspar explains to the children the story of the battle, that the Duke of Marlborough routed the French, although he admits he never understood the reason for the war himself.

Kaspar then mentions that his father had a cottage by the rivulet—”My father lived at Blenheim then”—where Peterkin found the skull. The soldiers burnt he houses down and killed the villagers with swords. His father and mother had fled, with their child. Kaspar recounts how thousands were killed in the war and among the dead were pregnant women and even children But then this was the collateral of war and it was a great victory says Kaspar.

Thousands of corpses lay rotting in the fields, but he shrugs it off, as part of the cost of war. . Wilhelmine says it was a wicked thing, but he contradicts her, saying that ‘no, it was a great victory. Peterkin questions him asking what good resulted from the war . Kaspar answers that he did not know but everyone said that it was a great victory.

Summary

One evening in fields around the Bavarian town of Blenheim in southern Germany, an elderly farmer named Kaspar sits in front of his cottage watching his grandchildren, Wilhelmine and Peterkin, at play. Peterkin is rolling an object he found near a stream. He takes it to Kaspar and asks what it is. The old man, who has found many such objects while plowing the fields, replies that it is the skull of a soldier who died in the Battle of Blenheim. Their curiosity aroused, the children ask him about the battle and why it was fought. The English routed the French, he says, in what later generations would call a great and famous victory. However, Kaspar is at a loss to explain the cause of the battle. He does know that thousands died in it—not only soldiers but also townspeople, including children. In fact, the fields were littered with corpses. But such terrible consequences are part of war, he says. They do not negate the glory of the victory. Wilhelmine then comments that the battle was “a wicked thing,” but Kaspar tells her she is wrong. “It was a famous victory,” he says. Peterkin asks what good came of the fighting. Kaspar says he does not know, but adds, ” ’twas a famous victory. He told them that a great battle had been fought there, and many of the leaders had won great renown. But he could not tell why it was fought or what good came of it. He only knew that it was a “great victory.” That was the moral of so many of the wars that devastated Europe for centuries. The kings fought for more power and glory; and the peasants fled from burning homes, and the soldiers fell on the fields. The poem gives an idea of the real value to men of such famous victories as that of Blenheim.

Critical Appreciation

After Blenheim’ is a poem about an old man who is sitting in front of his cottage, watching his Grandson playing on the grass. Incidentally, this cottage was situated very near where the Battle of Blenheim was fought between the English and the French many years ago. When the boy was playing on the grass, he found a skull slightly buried in the ground; he took the skull to his grandfather and asked him what it was. The old man said that it must have been a skull from the famous Battle of Blenheim, which was fought there many years ago. The boy asked his Grandfather to tell him about the battle. The poet starts by saying that the Battle was a ‘Great Victory’, and he repeats this idea throughout the entire poem, at the end of nearly every stanza. This poem is separated into 11 equal verses. Rhyme is used to speed up the poem.

After Blenheim is a poem that illustrates the pointlessness of war. Written 94 years after the Battle of Blenheim at the war ground, it is the aftermath of war. It tells the story of an old man and his grandchildren. Old Kasper is sitting outside his cottage when his grandson Peterkin finds a skull. Old Kasper begins to tell the Peterkin and his sister about the Battle of Blenheim that once took place there. In each verse Old Kasper explains a violent scene of bloodshed and death:

“With fire and sword the country round…
And newborn baby died:”

The war caused devastation and hundreds of killings. Old Kasper has a casual attitude towards this claiming that ‘things like that must be’. His gruesome descriptions, followed by his casual sayings create an effect of irony. It is ironic that it was a great war but no one knows why. Old Kasper is a farmer and finds a lot of skulls when he ploughs his fields. This again shows rebirth.

The first indication that something is not right is the introduction of the skull. The poet talks of the child finding something ‘large and smooth and round’ which immediately makes the reader think of a football or similar toy. When it is revealed that the child has found a skull, this makes us feel very uneasy and we know that this is not a poem about pleasant English summer evenings. The thought of the child, so innocent, playing with something so gruesome as a skull and not realising what it was is very shocking. The language changes again in stanza eight when the poet says, ‘And new bom baby died’ this immediately jerks you into another emotion and situation within the poem. For example when the poet says words like, ‘fled’, ‘died’, ‘bodies’ and ‘shocking’ and so on, it is especially effective when he says, ‘newborn baby died’ because the death of someone so very young and completely innocent is very shocking.

He is also using this imagery to describe the soldiers in war who die fighting for the survival of kingdoms. Is this what human life has come to as a result of war? Worth nothing. The poets feelings about war is that they are catastrophically phenomenal, and leave hundreds of people without their homes, and without each other, completely destroyed. Wars affect everyone on a large scale. In ‘After Blenheim’, the poet repeats that the Battle of Blenheim was a huge and great victory for the English. He is saying that he believes that wars always end for one side in a great victory, usually achieved for a good cause but for the other side they are a total failure and the costs are huge.

In several stanzas, Southey uses alliteration to promote rhythm and euphony. Stanza five is an example.
Treasure Trove A Collection of ICSE Poems Workbook Answers Chapter 4 Notes - After Blenheim 1
Various themes are woven into the poem. The poet talks about the inhumanity to man. War represents the worst form of human behavior: “man’s inhumanity to man”. The skull Peterkin finds, as well as those that Kaspar regularly unearths while plowing, are mute testimony to the truth of this observation. The poem implies that the perpetrators of war cannot or will not suppress wayward ambitions that provoke a violent response. The children—as yet uncorrupted by adult thinking—readily perceive war for what it is.

After finding the skull, Peterkin immediately asks what it is. Kaspar tells him that it is part of the remains of a soldier who died at Blenheim. Wilhelmine then asks Kaspar to describe the war and explain its causes. Kaspar can describe what the war was like at Blenheim, but he cannot explain why the belligerents went to war. Nor does he seem curious about the causes. All that matters to him is that Austria and England won a glorious victory.

Old Kaspar unquestioningly accepts the loss of innocent women and children in the Battle of Blenheim as one of the prices of the glorious victory. His complacent attitude is not unlike that of modem politicians who dismiss the deaths of innocent civilians in arenas of war by referring to them with the impersonal phrase “collateral damage.”

Southey uses a skull, as it is the most unique part of the human body. This makes you recognise that the skull was once part of a human body that was ruthlessly killed, and again emphasises the pointlessness of war.

The poet uses repetition, as at the end each verse he repeats the ironic saying:
“But ‘it was a famous victory.”

Old Kasper continuously repeats this sentence as this is all he knows about the war and for him the deaths are a natural consequence of a war.. Although it is constantly mentioned that it was a great victory this is not what the poem is saying. Southey is using ‘ this phrase to emphasise the exact opposite, that it wasn’t a great victory.

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Treasure Trove A Collection of ICSE Poems Workbook Answers Chapter 5 Notes – Television

November 10, 2023May 20, 2022 by Raju

Treasure Trove A Collection of ICSE Poems Workbook Answers Chapter 5 Notes – Television – ICSE Class 10, 9 English

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ICSE Solutions Selina ICSE Solutions ML Aggarwal Solutions

About the Poem

‘Television’ is one of Roald Dahl’s best-known poems. It is a long didactic poem. It has a message relevant to our times. It’ is about the negative effects that television can have on young minds. It also offers the advice that children should read books instead of watching television. This poem appeals to young readers and older ones alike, for the amusing tone that it takes in approaching its subject. Dahl believed that young people need to experience life to really grow and thrive. He was concerned that watching too-much television worked against actualizing a child’s potential. He made his feelings known about that in the poem called “Television.”

Roald Dalai seems to have entered into every contemporary British household as he’s writing this poem. Living as he did in the twentieth century, he saw the introduction of many, many new and innovative electronic products. The television was one of those products, and perhaps the most controversial one among them. Even now, the effects of watching television for long hours are discussed in certain circles with some amount of disapproval. Dahl is quite the vocal one of that company. He also takes the opportunity to create a parallel landscape in which books abound, and are found everywhere within the house. Such a landscape, he is sure, will encourage children to read.

About the Poet

Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, poet, screenwriter, and fighter pilot. He (1916-1990) was born in Wales to Norwegian parents. A prolific writer, he was a member of the British Royal Air Force, during World War II. He was known as a flying ace. After the war, he became a writer who gained world-wide admiration. His stories for children are still being made into films.

Dahl served in the Royal Air Force during World War 11, in which he became a flying ace and intelligence officer, rising to the rank of acting wing commander. He rose to prominence in the 1940s with works for both children and adults and became one of the world’s best-selling authors. He has been referred to as “one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century”. Among his awards for contribution to literature, he received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1983, and Children’s Author of the Year from the British Book Awards in 1990. In 2008 The Times placed Dahl 16th on its list of “The 50 greatest British writers since 1945”.

Dahl’s first published work, inspired by a meeting with C. S. Forester, was “A Piece of Cake” on 1 August 1942. His first children’s book was The Gremlins, published in 1943, about mischievous little creatures that were part of RAF folklore. All the RAF pilots blamed the gremlins for all the problems with the aircraft. Dahl went on to create some of the best-loved children’s stories of the 20th century, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, The Witches, Fantastic Mr Fox, The BFG, The Twits and George’s Marvellous Medicine. Dahl also had a successful parallel career as the writer of macabre adult short stories, usually with a dark sense of humour and a surprise ending. The Mystery Writers of America presented Dahl with three Edgar Awards” for his work. He died on 23 November 1990, at the age of 74 of a blood disease in Oxford, and was buried in the cemetery at St Peter and St Paul’s Church in Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England.

Central Idea

In this poem, Dahl wishes to warn readers about how television can have the effect of dulling children’s minds. Watching television can make children unimaginative, and prevent them from enjoying the fairy tales they are supposed to like. On the other hand, reading is a good habit for children. It sharpens their minds, and introduces them to whole new worlds they never knew existed. Therefore, Dahl requests parents to bring back the books they had read before the invention of television back into their homes.

Word Meanings

Gaping (V) – Watching with eyes wide open for a,long time
Loll (V) – Sit, lie or stand in a lazy, relaxed way
Slop (V) – Laze around
Lounge about (V) – To be idle
Hypnotised (V) – Fascinated
Punch (V) – Hit with fist
Tot (N) – Child
Rots (N) – Decays by the action of bacteria and fungi
Clutters (V) – Covers or fills something with an untidy collection of things
Fantasy (N) – A genre of imaginative fiction involving magic and adventure especially in a setting other than the real world
Rust (V) – Forming a red or orange coating on the surface of iron when exposed to air and moisture
Gadzooks (N) – An expression of surprise
Nursery (N) – A room in a house for the special use of young children
Galore (Adj) – In abundance
Gypsies (N) – Groups of travelling people with dark skin and hair traditionally living by itinerant trade and fortune telling
Smugglers (N) – A person who moves goods illegally into our out of a country
Muffled (Adj) – Not loud sound because of being obstructed in some way
Oars (N) – Poles with flat blade, used to row or steer a boat through water
Cannibals (N) – People who eat the flesh of human beings
Rotter (N) – A cruel, mean or unkind person
Rump-(N) – The hind part of the body of the mammal
Ridiculous (Adj) – Deserving or inviting mockery
Nauseating (Adj) – Causing a feeling of disgust
Foul (Adj) – Offensive to the senses, especially through having a disgusting smell or taste or being dirty
Repulsive (Adj) – Arousing intense distaste or disgust

Paraphrase

In lines 1-6 , Roald Dahl is addressing all British parents and telling them that the most important thing one must learn while raising children is to keep them away from the television set. He also says that it is possible to come to a better solution to the problem by not installing a television set in their homes in the first place.

In lines 7-12, Dahl speaks as if he has undertaken a long research on the bad effects of watching television by visiting a large number of households in Britain. In most houses, he has found the children lazing about all day and staring at the television screen without doing any productive work at all. Next, he indulges in a bit of exaggeration that is nonetheless amusing when he says that sometimes the children stare so hard that their eyeballs fall off & he has seen a dozen eyeballs rolling about on the floor in one house.

In lines 13-16, Dahl says that children entire attention is captured by the television screen and they cannot concentrate on anything other than what they are watching.

In lines 17-24, Dahl admits that he knows that television can be a convenient way to keep children occupied. While watching television, children never cause trouble or throw tantrums. As a result, their parents can go about doing their household chores without any interruption. However, parents do not stop to consider what television might do to their children.

Lines 25-33 are written in capitals to emphasize that they carry the main message of the poem. This message is that watching too much television fills up the mid of children with useless facts while at the same time destroying their ability to create or understand worlds of fantasy in their imagination. It takes away their ability to think and they can only keep staring at the television screen

In lines34-37, Dahl anticipates what the parents’ next question would be. They might agree to take away the television set from their children but will ask how they are supposed to now keep their children entertained and occupied

In lines 38-41, Dahl tells parents that they cannot have forgotten how children kept themselves entertained before the recent invention of the television.

In lines 42-48, Dahl says that before the coming of television children would read and it is a shame that now they don’t.

In lines 49-52, Dahl creates the alternate landscape that has been mentioned in the section on the poem’s setting. In this landscape, children’s rooms are filled to the brim with books.

In lines 53-62, Dahl talks about the kind of typical fantasy stories that the children would read in his day. These were stories of adventure with many interesting characters.

In lines 63-72, Dahl pays a tribute to another children author like him- Beatrix Potter. Potter’s books were known for the use of animals as characters, and the various colourful illustrations.

In lines 73-80, Dahl makes an earnest appeal to parents to throw away their television set and replace it with a bookshelf, ignoring all the objection of their children.

In lines 81-85, Dahl feels sure that sooner or later the children will turn to reading books to pass the time.

In lines 86-94, Dahl says that the children will not be able to stop reading books once they have started & then will wonder why they had ever liked watching television. In the end the children will thank their parents for introducing them to books.

Summary

‘Television’ consists of a total of 94 lines. The poet stresses about the importance of books in the lives of the children and most importantly, how this passion for books has been substituted with the addiction for television. The poet highlights the vitality of books which are, however, ignored because of television. The poet feels that television is like an evil which hinders the growth of brains for the children and hampers their creativity.The poet starts the the poem with the old saying by elders to keep the children away from the television set. The poet has made this statement very aggressively. He compares the television set to be as bad as an idiot box.

Next, the poet says that it is not uncommon to see the children sitting and staring continuously at the television sets. In almost every house, the same scene is to be seen. The children are so obsessed at watching television, they sit in awkward poses. The children do not even care about how are they sitting ,or if they are in fact sitting also or just about to fall from the couch they are sitting on, but the mast interesting part is that their eyes will be deeply focused at the television sets. They do not even care about their eyes. It would feel as if their eye balls will come out, but still they would not be tired of watching the TV.

The poet is then referring to his own experience where he went to someone’s house and was astonished to see so many people staring at the TV continuously as if they were sitting in front of the TV since very long. It looked as if they were hypnotized by the scenes in the TV. They stare continuously and do not even blink their eyes once. It seems as if they have the hang-over of watching the TV, which is nothing more than a junk box.

The poet believes that it is the TV set which make the children immobile. They are in a sedentary position all day and thus, do not move out of the house to play or undertake any physical exercises or sports etc. They do not even move out, mingle with each other, play together or even fight. This hampers their physical ability and growth. Not only their _ physical fitness, even their brains stop working.

The poet then refers to the lack of the personal touch that parents have with their children. The small arguments and even scoldings are also essential in life, else it becomes very dull. In this case, the children in a way are lost in their own aloof world and do not care about anything else. They do not demand any time from the parents. The parents are free to do their own work. This way, an unusual silence comes in the relationships and the personal touch is lost.

But here, is the role of an ideal parent. The poet is shaking the consciousness of the parents in the next part of the poem. He is informing about the ill effects the TV sets.

The TV sets make the children dull, and spoils the important senses in the brains of the child. The imagination and creativity is also jammed and the innovative thinking is also dead. The child stops thinking on his or her own and only fusses on the facts and knowledge he gets from the TV, his own sense of creativity is lost in this case. His thought process stops and corrodes as if it is filled with rust and freezes.

The poet next, focuses on the dilemma suffered by the parents. The parents understand that the televisions are of course not good for the development and growth of their child, but then what should they do to entertain the children? The substitute for television needs to be thought about, which is as entertaining as the TV sets and even overcomes the flaws which TV has. The answer to this is quite simple. In order to get the answer, the parents should take their thinking prior to the time when TV set was invented. In the good old times, children used to get entertained as well without the TV sets. The poet is taking everyone to the past and emphasises on the time when children read books.

The poet now requests the parents to throw away the television sets and instead get those old book shelves and lovely books back to its place. Children should have a lovely book shelf hanging on the wall, which will increase the beauty of the wall. And then, only the shelf is not enough, it should be filled will books and many books. This action by the parents will not be liked by the children at first and the children might oppose this by different actions like screaming, shouting and even worse. But the parents should give in. Things will settle down on their own in some time.

And once they will start reading the books, the real joy will come then. They themselves will understand the joy of reading and soon will gain interest. These books will make their own place in the hearts of the children and they will become fond of reading. That will be the day when they will realize that they had been wasting a lot of their precious time in watching the television. They will understand the worth of the books and how worthless it was watching television. The children will love you (parents) all the more for throwing away the television and bringing them near to the books. Thus, finally, he requests the parents to do away with the television sets from their homes and instead place a nice book shelf at its place and fill it with good books. This will aid the children build their knowledge, creativity and at the end, will make them successful. No matter, the children might rebel at this change and even argue and fight with the parents to throw away their favourite television, but at the end, they will be benefitting out of it. And a day will come, when they will acknowledge and thank the parents for doing so.

Critical Appreciation

The poet makes the television set like an evil which hinders the growth of brains of the children and hampers their creativity. The poet starts the piece of the poem with the old saying by elders to keep the children away from the television set. The poet has made this statement very aggressively. He compares the television set to be as bad as an idiot box. One should keep the children away from the television set or may be the best part would be instead, never install the television sets in the house. The poet is shaking the consciousness of the parents in the poem. He is informing about the ill effects the TV sets causes to the lovely children. The TV sets makes the children dull, and spoils the important senses in the brains of the child. The imagination and creativity is also jammed and the innovative thinking is also dead.

That the television is called the ‘idiot box’ might have something to do with the kinds of effect Dahl imagines it has in children. This phrase is actually a transferred epithet, in the sense that it is not the television set that is idiotic, but that idiocy is produced in the watchers of television. When we watch television, it is a passive process on our parts. We do not actively engage with the material as we do while reading and imagining the words on the page coming to life. This passivity ultimately makes the work of our brain slower and more strained.

Amidst all the people of his time, Dahl was perhaps singularly ahead of his time when he predicted that television would spell the death of imagination in children’s minds. As a children’s author, he must have known more than others how children’s faces light up when they read or listen to a story, and how they often lose themselves in the details of a book as their imagination constructs entire worlds for them in their minds. However, television hands them ready images. As a result, their imagination suffers and they later become sceptical in thinking that what they cannot see is not real. If all children thought that way, an author like Dahl would actually go out of business.

Even though Dahl was writing primarily for children, the message of this particular poem seems more intended for their parents than for them. Dahl believes that it is a parent’s duty to inculcate the habit of reading in his or her children. Children might not know any better than watching television for hours, but parents do. In their hurry to get all their work finished, they ignore their children’s long hours of television-watching. However, by putting their own convenience aside, they should introduce their children to the wonderful world of books.

Roald Dahl always wrote keeping his audience in mind. Therefore it is no surprise that the tone of this poem is light, amusing and entertaining. He obviously meant for his readers’ to not feel that he was preaching to them.

Despite its light tone, the message of this poem still rings true for its readers. That a book can open up one’s mind is a lesson that every writer wants his readers to know. The tone of this poem is contrary to what has led the poet to pen his thoughts here. Dahl is a man who lived through a period of great many inventions, including that of television. However, he is not excited by this so-called progress and development of the human race. He hankers for the olden days when life was simpler, and little pleasures were more easily experienced. He associates television with the loss of innocence in children. He is saddened to see that children do not any longer read books as ardently as they used when he was younger. He longs to change this, and ‘Television’ comes out of his meagre attempt to do so. In characteristic style, his aim is both to entertain and edify his readers – young and old alike.

This rhetorical device is used when a poet addresses his or her poem to an absent audience. Dahl uses the device of apostrophe when he addresses his poem to English parents and advises them on doing away with their television sets.

This rhetorical device is used to give human qualities to something that is incapable of human actions. Dahl uses the device of personification in two cases – first, when he gives television the human ability to kill something, and second, when he gives ‘Imagination’ the human ability to die at its hands.

The other device used by Dahl is the hyphen. The pause made by the he hyphen gives a sense of hanging. It means to invite the readers to read and think at a certain pace. As a result, voice is able to make the up and down to the emotional effect and in the same time infiltrate the readers with a continuous meaning transfer.

Any type of font does not changes the meaning of the words. But the font changing in the middle of a written line will change the focus and the emphasis. Here, the poet uses capitalized word for all words in the line 25-33 in a row.

Roald Dahl follows the same simple rhyme scheme throughout this poem – AABB and so on in a series of rhyming couplets. Only on one occasion does he diverge from this when the end words of the lines rhyme in lines 31, 32 & 33.

Thus we see that stylistic techniques used show the intention and/or the reason of the poet in making the poem which is usually hidden. Dahl adeptly uses language, style etc to highlight the ill effects of television versus the positive results of reading.

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Treasure Trove A Collection of ICSE Poems Workbook Answers Chapter 6 Notes – Daffodils

November 10, 2023May 20, 2022 by Raju

Treasure Trove A Collection of ICSE Poems Workbook Answers Chapter 6 Notes – Daffodils – ICSE Class 10, 9 English

English Maths Physics Chemistry Biology

ICSE Solutions Selina ICSE Solutions ML Aggarwal Solutions

About the Poem

The poem is a word picture of daffodils at Ullswater. In 1802 William and Dorothy Wordsworth’s visited Glencoyne Park. On 15th April 1802, they passed the strip of land at Glencoyne Bay, called Ullswater.

It is this visit that gave Wordsworth the inspiration to write this famous poem. The poem ‘Daffodils’, also known by the title ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’, is a lyrical poem written by William Wordsworth in 1804. William Wordsworth is a well-known romantic poet who believed in conveying simple and creative expressions through his poems. He once said, “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility”

The poem was inspired by an event on 15 April 1802, in which Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy came across a “long belt” of daffodils. William Wordsworth wrote Daffodils on a stormy day in spring, while walking along with his sister Dorothy near Ullswater Lake, in England. He imagined that the daffodils were dancing and invoking him to join and enjoy the breezy nature of the fields.

Written some time between 1804 and 1807 (in 1804 by Wordsworth’s own account), it was first published in 1807 in Poems in Two Volumes, and a revised version was published in 1815. In a poll conducted in 1995 by the BBC Radio 4 Bookworm programme to determine the nation’s favourite poems, this poem came fifth. Often anthologised, the poem is commonly seen as a classic of English romantic poetry.

About the Poet

On April 7, 1770, William Wordsworth was born in Cocker mouth, Cumbria, England. Wordsworth’s mother died when he was eight—this experience shapes much of his later work. Wordsworth attended Hawkshead Grammar School, where his love of poetry was firmly established and, it is believed, he made his first attempts at verse. While he was at Hawkshead, Wordsworth’s father died leaving him and his four siblings orphans. After Hawkshead, Wordsworth studied at St. John’s College in Cambridge and before his final semester, he set out on a walking tour of Europe, an experience that influenced both his poetry and his political sensibilities. While touring Europe, Wordsworth came into contact with the French Revolution. This experience as well as a subsequent period living in France, brought about Wordsworth’s interest and sympathy for the life, troubles, and speech of the “common man.” In 1802, he returned to France with his sister on a four- week visit to meet Caroline. Later that year, he married Mary Hutchinson, a childhood friend, and they had five children together. In 1812, while living in Grasmere, two of their children—Catherine and John—died.

Equally important in the poetic life of Wordsworth was his 1795 meeting with the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It was with Coleridge that Wordsworth published the famous Lyrical Ballads in 1798. Wordsworth’s most famous work, The Prelude (1850), is considered by many to be the crowning achievement of English romanticism. The poem, revised numerous times, chronicles the spiritual life of the poet and marks the birth of a new genre of poetry. Although Wordsworth worked on The Prelude throughout his life, the poem was published posthumously. Wordsworth spent his final years settled at Rydal Mount in England, travelling and continuing his outdoor excursions. Devastated by the death of his daughter Dora in 1847, Wordsworth seemingly lost his will to compose poems. William Wordsworth died at Rydal Mount on April 23, 1850, leaving his wife Mary to publish The Prelude three months later.

Central Idea

The central idea of the poem is the expression of the comfort and cheering the author finds in the beauty of observing the daffodils. The poem expresses the idea of communion with nature and the tranquillity it brings in our lives. The poem is a tribute to the beautiful daffodils and the joy that is inherent in nature.

Word Meanings

Wander (Verb) – To walk slowly around or to a place, often without any particular sense of purpose or direction.
Float (Verb) – To move slowly on water or in the air.
Vale (Noun) – Valley
Fluttering (Noun) – A quick, light movement.
Toss (Verb) – To move one’s head this way or that.
Sprightly (Adjective) – Full of life and energy.
Outdo (Verb) – Surpass.
Glee (Noun) – A feeling of happiness.
Gay (Adjective) – Happy and full of fun.
Jocund (Adjective) – Cheerful
Gaze (Verb) – To look steadily at somebody /something for a long time.
Pensive (Adjective) – Thinking deeply about something, especially because you are sad or worried.
Bliss (Noun) – Extreme happiness.
Solitude (Noun) – The state of being alone, especially when you find this pleasant.

Critical Appreciation

This simple poem, one of the loveliest and most famous in the Wordsworth canon, revisits the familiar subjects of nature and memory, with a particularly (simple) spare, musical eloquence. The plot is extremely simple, depicting the poet’s wandering and his discovery of a field of daffodils by a lake, the memory of which pleases him and comforts . him when he is lonely, bored, or restless. The characterization of the sudden occurrence of a memory—the daffodils “flash upon the inward eye / Which is the bliss of solitude”— is psychologically acute, but the poem’s main brilliance lies in the reverse personification of its early stanzas. The speaker is metaphorically compared to a natural object, a cloud— “I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high…”, and the daffodils are continually personified as human beings, dancing and “tossing their heads” in “a crowd, a host.” This technique implies an inherent unity between man and nature, making it one of Wordsworth’s most basic and effective methods for instilling in the reader the feeling the poet so often describes himself as experiencing.

This poem, is well-loved because of its simple yet beautiful rhythms and rhymes, and its rather sentimental topic. The poem consists of four six-line stanzas, each of which follow an ababcc rhyme scheme and are written in iambic tetrameter, giving the poem a subtle back-and-forth motion that recalls the swaying, daffodils. The poem comprises four stanzas and each stanza has six lines. There is the use of alliteration and assonance. The poet has used simile in the title of the poem and in the second stanza. Daffodils are animated as dancing and further personified as ‘sprightly’. Metaphors like inward eye and the heart can be found in the poem. The language is simple in this poem. By comparing himself to a cloud in the first line of the poem, the speaker signifies his close identification with the nature that surrounds him. He also demonstrates this connection by personifying the daffodils several times, even calling them a “crowd” as if they are a group of people.

The poem goes through a gradual shift:from wandered lonely (line 1) to but be gay (line 15) and pleasures fill (line 23). This in actual reflects Wordsworth’s life. The feeling of loneliness was marked by the death of his brother John. Dorothy had been a great sister to Wordsworth and also Wordsworth got married in the same year 1802 (his second marriage). These life events were actually responsible for Wordsworth’s happiness in his life and thus correlates with the joyful Daffodils.

Daffodils analysis will be incomplete without illustrating the tone of the poem. This poem is typically Wordsworth an. It portrays Nature at its best and encompasses her grace to the pinnacle which every poet cannot reach. It projects Wordsworth’s extraordinary delight in understanding and exploring common place things. Emotions recollected in tranquility are the distinct factor which differentiates Wordsworth from other poets. The emotions associated with Wordsworth in this poem, Daffodils is not ephemeral but rather permanent and everlasting. The poet derives the same bliss from his thoughts about the daffodils as when he actually saw them.

They flashed upon the inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude:
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dance with the daffodils.

The first three stanzas deal with the description of the nature whereas last stanza is the recollection of the poet’s experiences. Another important romantic element is the spontaneous expression of personal emotion in simple and ordinary language: this was the revolution brought about by the Romantic Movement.

In his lonely condition, he could be compared to a cloud floating in the sky over hills and valley. All at once he saw a large number of golden daffodils growing under the trees on the bank of the lake. A light breeze was blowing and the daffodils moved gently and danced merrily in the breeze. The daffodils grew along the bank of the lake in a line that extended as far as the poet’s eyes could reach. They looked like a continuous line of stars shining in the Milky Way. The flowers were so many that the poet imagined he could have seen at least ten thousand of them at a glance.

They were tossing their heads in a merry dance. The waves in the lake were dancing too. But the daffodils excelled the dancing waves in happiness. It was quite natural for a poet to feel happy in such a delightful company. The beautiful sight filled him with a great joy, and he kept gazing at the flowers for a long time. At that time he did not, however, realize how valuable this scene would prove to him in the years to come. Later, whenever the poet lay on his couch in a sad or thoughtful mood the daffodils would flash in his imagination. He acknowledges that one of the greatest blessings that solitude can offer is that old memories can be easily and vividly revived. The memory of the daffodils would immediately fill his heart with pleasure and he would begin to dance along with the flowers.And then the poet’s mind starts dancing along with the daffodils as the sheer memory of them is enough to feel his heart with ecstasy. The poem, in this way is not only a description of natural beauty but also a celebration of the fact that nature is always a source of inspiration for people.

The idea of remembering the beauty of nature even when not in its presence appears in several of Wordsworth’s later poems, including “Tintern Abbey,” “Ode; Intimations of Immortality,” and “The Solitary Reaper.” Even though the speaker is unable to appreciate the memory he is creating as he stands in the field, he later realizes the worth that it takes on in sad and lonely moments.

The title is apt as the whole poem is about the daffodils and how they have become a source of perennial joy to him.

The poem depicts a clear shift from the real world full of tensions to the utopian world of nature where peace and happiness prevail. The very opening line , ‘ I wandered lonely as a cloud,’ shows the poet’s sense of loneliness. There is then a sudden shift to the beautiful world of nature where the beautiful flowers capture his attention, and he is transported to another world of bliss.

The form of the poet is a lyric. It gives expression to a single feeling of joy in nature. It is short and musical and appeals more to the heart than the intellect. The poet uses various literary devices. Personification is used when he compares himself to a ‘cloud’ and the daffodils to a ‘crowd’. He uses similes when he compares his idle wanderings to a cloud floating over hills and valleys. He then compares the dancing daffodils to the twinkling stars in the sky.

As for structure the poem is divided into four stanzas- each having six lines with the rhyme scheme of ababcc in iambic tetrameter.

Alliteration can be seen in the line,’ I gazed and gazed.’
Inversion is evident : ‘For oft, when on my couch I lie’.
The ‘inward eye’ refers metaphorically to the poet’s memory.
The poem has a light and delicate sound that reminds us of a dance. It is the dance of the speaker’s heart, described at the end of the poem. The stanzas are like mini-poems that share the same form and subject matter.

One of the big ideas of Romanticism is the notion that the spiritual vision – the imagination – can hold greater truths than those given by our senses. We can never fully express what goes on in our imagination, but the notion of an “inner eye” captures the sense of reality that it gives us. Wordsworth is all about that “inner eye.”

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Treasure Trove A Collection of ICSE Poems Workbook Answers Chapter 7 Notes – I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

November 10, 2023May 20, 2022 by Raju

Treasure Trove A Collection of ICSE Poems Workbook Answers Chapter 7 Notes – I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings – ICSE Class 10, 9 English

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About the Poem

Caged Bird By Maya Angelou was first published in her book, “Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing?” in 1983. Inspired by Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem “Sympathy,” Angelou contrasts the struggles of a bird attempting to rise above the limitations of adverse surroundings with the flight of a bird that is free. She seeks to create in the mind of the reader empathetic sentiment towards the plight of the misused, captured creature—a symbol of downtrodden African Americans and their experiences. The poem is a metaphor illustrating the differences between African-Americans and Whites during the civil rights era. The author, a black who grew up in the South during this era, is expressing her feelings at the discrimination she faced during her life. Her first autobiography published in 1970 is titled, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”

About the Poet

Maya Angelou (Marguerite Ann Johnson) was bom in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928 to Bailey Johnson, a door attendant, a naval dietician, and Vivian Baxter Johnson, a nurse, a real estate agent and later a merchant marine. Angelou’s brother, Bailey Johnson Jr., gave her the nickname “Maya”. Maya Angelou is an American poet, memoirist, actress. Angelou is known for her series of six autobiographies starting with ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’, which was nominated for a National Book Award and has been called her magnum opus. Her volume of poetry, ‘Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Die’ was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Angelou recited her poem, “On the Pulse of Morning” at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration in 1993. She has been highly honored for her body of work, including being awarded over 30 honorary degrees.Angelou became involved in American presidential politics in 2008 by placing her public support behind Senator Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party presidential nominee, despite her good friend Winfrey’s public support of Barack Obama. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is an autobiography about the early years of author Maya Angelou’s life.

Maya Angelou’s racially centered poetry has a very powerful tone. Maya’s poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” is about the repression of the African American race. As a young black woman growing up in the South, and later in war time San Francisco, Maya Angelou faced racism from whites and poor treatment from many men.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was written at the end of American Civil Rights movement. The poet was inspired by the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a leader in the American civil rights movement. A Baptist minister, he became a civil rights activist early in his career. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.

Word Meanings

caged bird – symbolizes the people from the black race who were discriminated by the white society which is symbolized by the free bird.
cliped wings and tied feet – symbolize the disadvantage black people had because of their skin color.
Breeze – symbolizes, the hope black people have that their situation will change someday.
Downstream – symbolizes the common belief that the people with white skin are superior
Free Mrd – white people
Back of the wind – common thought that the white race is superior
Bars of rage – anger black people felt
Things unknown but longed for still – what would the world be like if blacks had the same rights as whites?
caged bird singing – black people protesting

Paraphrase

A free bird flies and enjoys flying with the wind. A caged bird does not have freedom and is imprisoned between the bars. He cannot fly, so he sings. The caged bird sings about freedom because he cannot fly. The free bird can do whatever he wants, he has food and feels like the sky belongs to him. The caged bird dreams but cannot have his dreams come true and just sings. The caged bird sings about freedom because he cannot fly.

The free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wings in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky.

But a caged bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage.His wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing. The caged bird sings with fearful trill of the things unknown but for which he still longs and yearns.

His tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom

The free bird thinks of another breeze and the trade winds blow softly through the sighing trees and the fat worms wait on a dawn-bright lawn. The free bird names the sky his own. But the caged bird stands on the grave of his dreams. His shadow shouts a nightmare scream. His wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing as that is all he can do. The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but for which he still longs. And his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom.

Summary

Maya Angelou’s highly romantic “Caged Bird” first appeared in the collection Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing? in 1983.

The first two stanzas contrast two birds. Lines 1 through 7 describe the actions of a bird that is free; it interacts with nature and “dares to claim the sky.” The second stanza (lines 8 through 14) tells of a captured bird that must endure clipped wings, tied feet, and bars of rage; yet he still opens his throat and sings.

The third and fifth stanzas are identical. Lines 2, 4, and 6 and lines 5 and 7 of these identical stanzas rhyme. This repeated verse elaborates on the song of freedom trilled by the caged bird; though his heart is fearful and his longings unmet, the bird continues to sing of liberty. The fourth stanza continues the comparison of two birds, the caged and the free. The free bird enjoys the breeze, the trees, the winds, the lawn, the sky, and the fat worms; the caged bird with his wings still clipped and his feet still tied continues, nevertheless, to open his throat and sing. Like the refrain of a hymn, the fifth and final stanza is a reiteration.

Angelou’s characterization of a bird that is free (first and fourth stanzas) provides an effective contrast with the bird that is caged (second, third, fourth, and fifth stanzas). The sentiment that Angelou evokes in the reader is suggestive of Dunbar’s inspirational poem.

Critical Appreciation

The poem serves to provide a relevant piece of art that can withstand the test of time. It manages with ease to inspire a mass of people to better their lives by using the power of words, an honor prominent authors only dream about achieving. In today’s society many people struggle with the feeling of being under lock and key, unable to reach and are prevented from making any goals for themselves. The Poem ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ discusses this dilemma.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou is arguably one of the most moving and eye opening poems ever written. It is clear that this title had great significance to Angelou, as it was the title of her entire life story. She often felt that her words were not heard because of the color of her skin. She felt that in some ways, she was still experiencing slavery. Although African American people were free people in Angelou’s time, there were still many restrictions on them in society, making it so that many black Americans did not feel free at all. This poem reveals the depth of those feelings. The poet uses the title, 1 Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, to emphasize the importance of liberty. To a caged bird, liberty is very important. The only liberty he has while he is imprisoned, is to sing.

Maya Angelou uses dramatic metaphors and detailed imagery to compare and contrast the differences between a caged bird and a free bird. With these descriptions, inferences * can be drawn to produce the much deeper meaning behind the symbol of a trapped bird.

The words were actually first written by one of the first nationally acclaimed African American poets, Paul Laurence Dunbar, in his poem, “Sympathy.”

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;

A, clearly not-so-happy, bird is throwing itself against the bars of its cage. It struggles so much that it begins to bleed and needs to stop, but once its wounds are healed, it tries again. It’s persistent. And in the final stanza, it sings a prayer, wishing to be free.

Angeloushe calls her young self a caged bird. So what’s her cage? What keeps her from freedom? And what cages her are racism, sexism, insecurity, poverty, and abuse. But no matter how many times these forces push against her, she continues to fight back.

Angelou gives us some insight into what the caged bird means for her in the last stanza:
Treasure Trove A Collection of ICSE Poems Workbook Answers Chapter 7 Notes - I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings 1

Angelou’s bird is angry. In the rest of the poem, we learn that not only is it caged, but its wings are clipped and its feet are tied so it can barely move. While the free bird gets to fly around looking at all the awesome things life has to offer—like fat worms— the caged bird stands on “the grave of dreams.” Angelou’s bird has never been free, but it still sings a song of freedom. Singing is all Angelou’s bird can do. At first, she doesn’t even know what freedom is, but she understands that her life is not the one she wants. So she does what she can, singing her song, and by the end she’s a little bit closer to freedom.

Maya Angelou’s touching poem revolves around the theme of freedom. The poem is about the heroic of the perfect and good leader to guide the minority black race from out of suffering and lead them to get the acknowledgement that is given to majority of the white people. The first lines of the poem discuss what a free bird does. Angelou writes, “The free bird leaps / on the back of the wind / and floats downstream / till the current ends / and dips his wings / in the orange sun rays / and dares to claim the sky” (1-7). With these words we get a real sense of sensory experiences from giving the wind a back, to making the rays of sun something that can be touched or dipped. This adds to the intensity and impact of the poem right from the start. Notable characteristics of the free bird can be seen here as well. It leaves no stone unturned and is not afraid to try new things. It has a sense of adventure that is unparalleled and has a fighting spirit. When the writer says that the free bird “dares to claim the sky” she is saying that the free bird doesn’t wait for anyone to tell it to do something. It does what it waits and this defines its freedom.

The free bird is brought up later on in the poem for a second time. This instance describes what the bird is thinking about. It has dreams and can imagine and freely think of other things beyond himself and his environment. The author writes, “The free bird thinks of another breeze / and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees / and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn / and he names the sky his own” (22-25). The ability of this bird to declare the sky as belonging to him shows confidence and selfassurance. This bird knows what it wants and not even the sky is the limit.

The caged bird on the other hand is very different from its free counterpart. The reader is introduced to the second bird quite dramatically. This serves to show the extant of how contrasting the two creatures are. Maya Angelou writes, “But a bird that stalks / down his narrow cage / can seldom see through / his bars of rage / his wings are clipped and / his feet are tied / so he opens his throat to sing” (8-14). The line that stands out the most is the fact that the birds’ wings are clipped. Wings give birds freedom to fly above the rest. It allows them to get from one point to the other. It is the ideological independence. Opening his throat to sing also gives a poignant image of pain and distress. Mostly the caged bird is suppressed. More is stated about the cries of the caged bird. It is a piercing sting of a song that spreads far and wide. Although the singing is full of pain, anger and fear, the bird sings of “things unknown.” The caged bird craves to learn about its surroundings. It dreams of a better life.

The issues of dreams and goals comes into question with the caged bird as well but in a different fashion. The author writes, “But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams/ his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream/his wings are clipped and his feet are tied/so he opens his throat to sing” (26-29). These lines paint such a vivid image of dreams that cannot be fulfilled. A grave, for instance, is a symbol of death. A grave of dreams is rather grim. It shows an environment where dreams can’t be fulfilled. Instead of happy and positive dreams they are nightmares instead, nightmares that keep the caged bird grounded.

These two birds however serve to symbolize much more than what lies on the surface. As examined, the cage keeps the bird locked in unable to escape and enjoy the freedoms life has to offer. Maya Angelo grew up in a time and place where African Americans were segregated by law and were heavily discriminated against. These unfair laws are similar to the way the cage keeps the bird locked in. Also the caged bird sings and screams a dreaded tune. This was a way of rebellion and protest of the enslavement. A lot of African Americans at this time also used music as their means of defiance against unlawfulness. These songs although insignificant to outsiders served as a means of freedom.

The forms of ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ is described as a lyric, written in combine Quintets and Quatrains stanzas. As lyric form, it is a short poem expressing personal thoughts and feelings. It is meditative.Each stanza follows the rhyming scheme of AAAB. The flexibility of the first two lines in the stanza following a rhyming scheme symbolizes the imprisonment of the bird. Each stanza follows the rhyming scheme of AAAB (thrill, hill, shrill, freedom). The rigidity of the first three lines in following a rhyming scheme signifies the captivity of the bird. However, the last phrase of each stanza breaks off from the rhyme with the last word being far from the original rhyme: “trill, still, hill, freedom.

One of the stanzas is repeated, which brings attention to the idea of the caged bird singing for freedom. Repeating different words or phrases creates structure within a poem, and it helps readers focus on a specific thought or emotion that the poet would like them to notice.
Treasure Trove A Collection of ICSE Poems Workbook Answers Chapter 7 Notes - I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings 2

This poem uses a metaphor to compare caged birds to African Americans fighting for equality during the civil rights movement. Metaphors compare two objects or concepts without using the words “like” or “as.”
Treasure Trove A Collection of ICSE Poems Workbook Answers Chapter 7 Notes - I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings 3

In addition to using metaphor, Angelou utilizes repetition to reinforce the idea that African Americans cried out for freedom from oppression even in the bleakest of times when their oppressors did not want to “hear” them. Angelou repeats the third and fifth (final) stanzas, with the caged bird singing for freedom:

The caged bird sings/with fearful trill/of things unknown/but longed for still/and his tune is heard/on the distant hill/for the caged bird/sings of freedom.

In the above quotation, the end rhyme in the second, fourth, and sixth lines with “trill,” “still,” and “hill.” We also find end rhyme as well as alliteration in the second stanza of the poem, when Angelou describes how the caged bird is physically confined. In the second stanza, the caged bird is in “his narrow cage” and “can seldom see through/his bars of rage” (“seldom see” forms the alliteration, while “cage” and “rage” form the end rhyme).

There is vivid imagery in the first stanza when the free bird “dips his wing/in the orange, sun rays” and personification and alliteration in the fourth stanza when the caged bird’s “shadow shouts on a nightmare scream.” The repetition of the consonant “s” and giving the caged bird’s shadow the human quality of shouting, emphasizes the bird’s nightmarish existence living in confinement.

The tone of this poem is reflective and critical because it compares the situation of the black people to the one of the white people. The poem transmits the ideas that this situation is unfair

Many have grown to use this poem to symbolize different obstacles in their lives. This poem can represent a wide range of things from society, physical barriers, fear,addiction or any negative behaviour. The free bird can then represent the longing and desire for a better way of life. A better life is a universal desire.

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Treasure Trove A Collection of ICSE Poems Workbook Answers Chapter 7 I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

November 10, 2023May 20, 2022 by Raju

Treasure Trove A Collection of ICSE Poems Workbook Answers Chapter 7 I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings – ICSE Class 10, 9 English

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Comprehension Passages

Stanza 1

Read the above lines and answer the questions that follow.
Question 1.
Explain with reference to the context.
Answer:
These lines are taken from the poem, ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ written by Mary Angelou. The theme of the poem is the suffering of African- Americans and the contrast of slavery versus freedom. Maya Angelou’s 1983 poem “Caged Bird” compares the plight of a caged bird to the flight of a free bird. Many readers have interpreted Angelou’s poem as an extended metaphor with the caged bird representing the historical struggles of African Americans.

In these lines the poet refers to nature. She describes the way “a free bird leaps on the back of the wind”. She describes the bird’s flight against the orange sky. The free bird has the right “to claim the sky”. The way she describes the “orange sun rays” gives the reader an appreciation for the natural beauty of the sky, and her description of the way the bird “dips his wing” helps the reader to appreciate the bird in his natural habitat, enjoying his freedom.

Question 2.
What does the caged bird’s singing reveal about him?
Answer:
It reveals that he is unhappy and wants to be free.

Question 3.
Which birds are used to describe the state of the free bird?
Answer:
The words used are leaps, floats, dares and claims.

Stanza 2

Read the above lines and answer the questions that follow.

Question 1.
Explain with reference to the context.
Answer:
These lines are taken from the poem, ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ written by Mary Angelou. The theme of the poem is the suffering of African- Americans and the contrast of slavery versus freedom. Maya Angelou’s 1983 poem “Caged Bird” compares the plight of a caged bird to the flight of a free bird. Many readers have interpreted Angelou’s poem as an extended metaphor with the caged bird representing the historical struggles of African Americans.

This stanza is in stark contrast with the first. By using the word “but” to begin this stanza, the speaker prepares the reader for this contrast. Then she describes the “bird that stalks his narrow cage”. The tone is immediately and drastically changed from peaceful, satisfied, and joyful to one that is dark, unnerving, and even frustrating. She describes that this caged first “can seldom see through his bars of rage”. While the free bird gets to enjoy the full sky, the caged bird rarely even gets a glimpse of the sky. She claims that “his wings are clipped and his feet are tied”. Text from her autobiography reveals that Angelou often felt this way in life. She felt restricted from enjoying the freedom that should have been her right as a human being. The speaker then reveals that these are the very reasons that the bird “opens his throat to sing”. The author felt this way in her own life. She wrote and sang and danced because it was her way of expressing her longing for freedom.

Question 2.
What docs the word “clipped” mean in this poem?
Answer:
Maya Angelou’s poem “Caged Bird” is full of avian metaphors and imagery. The poem itself is a metaphor for the limitations one experiences in a life of oppression. “Caged Bird”. draws from Angelou’s own experiences as a Black woman in the racially-segregated United States following the Civil War and even beyond the Civil Rights Movement. To this day, many Black Americans face limitations based on a systemic cycle of racial oppression which prevents class mobility. In talking of birds, “clipping” involves trimming a bird’s wing feathers so that they cannot fly. Some bird owners or caretakers trim just one wing or enough feathers on each side, so as to render the bird unstable in flight but leaving them able to glide for a short distance. In Angelou’s poem the bird longs for freedom but is restricted as not only is it caged but its wings are also clipped.

Question 3.
Why does the caged bird sing?
Answer:
The caged bird sings because it is the only way it knows to express itself.

Stanza 3

Read the above lines and answer the questions that follow.
Question 1.
Explain with reference to the context.
Answer:
These lines are taken from the poem, ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ written by Mary Angelou. The theme of the poem is the suffering of African- Americans and the contrast of slavery versus freedom. Maya Angelou’s 1983 poem “Caged Bird” compares the plight of a caged bird to the flight of a free bird. Many readers have interpreted Angelou’s poem as an extended metaphor with the caged bird representing the historical struggles of African Americans.

The third stanza reverts back to the free bird, further cementing the difference between the free bird and the caged bird in the minds of the readers. She writes that a “free bird thinks of another breeze” that he can enjoy the “sighing trees” and be free to find his own food. The tone with which she writes the first and third stanzas sharply contrasts with the second stanza. The first and third stanzas give the reader a sense of ecstasy and thrill, which serve to make the second stanza seem all the more oppressive.

Question 2.
According to the poem, how can the free bird be best described ?
Answer:
The free bird is free to do what he pleases and so he is happy and content.

Question 3.
What is meant by “free bird thinks of another breeze”?
Answer:
The poet wants to show the freedom which the free bird has. It can soar in the skies to various places , wherever it wants to go to find its food and enjoy the breeze.

Stanza 4

Read the above lines and answer the questions that follow.

The fourth stanza continues the parallel between the free bird and the caged bird. The first line serves to starkly contrast the last line in the third stanza. It is dark and daunting. The reality of the life of the caged bird is revealed in this line. That bird, “stands on the grave of dreams”. This reveals the author’s feelings about her own dreams. She has so many dreams that have died because she was never given the freedom to achieve all that her white counterparts were able to achieve. Discrimination and Racism made up her cage, and although she sang, she felt her voice was not heard in the wide world, but only by those nearest her cage. The second line of this stanza in not only dark, but even frightening. The speaker describes the bird’s cries as “shouts on a nightmare scream”. At this point, the caged bird is so despondent in his life of captivity that his screams are like that of someone having a nightmare.
The author then repeats these lines:

His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.

Maya Angelou’s 1983 poem “Caged Bird” compares the plight of a caged bird to the flight of a free bird.- Many readers have interpreted Angelou’s poem as an extended metaphor with the caged bird representing the historical struggles of African Americans.

Reaffirming the idea that the bird opens his mouth to sing because his desire for freedom and his desire to express himself cannot be contained.

Question 2.
What does the line “and his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream” mean?
Answer:
The line describes the caged bird who “stands on the grave of dreams/ his shadow shouts
on a nightmare scream.” The grave of dreams can refer to a person who has given up on his dreams. The shadow, rather than the bird itself, shouts, revealing a sense of powerlessness, for who would hear the shout of a shadow? This contrasts with the free bird described in the previous stanza who boldly “names the sky his own.”

The caged bird’s “nightmare scream” gives an otherworldly sense that, again, the cry will not be heard. The words “shadow” and “nightmare” evoke a dark outlook, where only the bird’s shadow or nightmares may escape the confines of the cage. The speaker, describes the bird’s cries as “shouts on a nightmare scream”. At this point, the caged bird is so despondent in his life of captivity that his screams are like that of someone having a nightmare.

Question 3.
What is the main conflict in this poem?
Answer:
The main conflict is that the caged bird wants the life of the free bird. The caged bird also wants the freedom to do whatever he wants.

Stanza 5

Read the above lines and answer the questions that follow.

This last stanza focuses on the caged bird yet again. The author implies that even though the caged bird may have never experienced true freedom, deep down that bird still knows that it was created to be free. Although freedom, to the caged bird, is “fearful” because it is “unknown”, he still sings “a fearful trill” because he still longs for freedom. Here, the speaker reveals that his cry for freedom is “heard on the distant hill”. The last line states, “For the caged bird sings of freedom”. With this, the speaker implies that although the caged bird may never have experienced freedom, he still sings of it because he was created for freedom. This is paralleled to the African American struggle in Maya Angelou’s time. She feels that black Americans wrote and sang and danced and cried out for the freedom they deserved, but they were only heard as a distant voice. Yet, this would not stop them from crying out for freedom and equality because they knew they were made for freedom, and they would not relent until they were given their rights as human beings to enjoy the freedom they were created to enjoy.

Question 2.
What parallel can be drawn to the poet’s feelings and that of the caged bird?
Answer:
The line “For the caged bird sings of freedom” parallels to the author and her cry for freedom in the form of equality. She feels that her cries are heard, but only as a soft background noise. She still feels that she is caged and that although she sings, her cries are heard only as a distant noise. And because of being discriminated she is restricted and cannot realise many of her dreams.

Question 3.
Explain, ‘stands on the grave of dreams / his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream’.
Answer:
The grave of dreams can refer to a person who has given up on his dreams. The shadow, rather than the bird itself, shouts, revealing a sense of powerlessness, for who would hear the shout of a shadow? This contrasts with the free bird described in the previous stanza who boldly “names the sky his own.” The caged bird’s “nightmare scream” gives an otherworldly sense that, again, the cry will not be heard. The words “shadow” and “nightmare” evoke a dark outlook, where only the bird’s shadow or nightmares may escape the confines of the cage.

Project

Question 1.
Is there repetition used in the poem? Why?
Answer:
Repetition is a technique used to draw a person’s attention to a certain idea. Think about school. If a teacher wants to get her point across, is she going to say it once? No. She is going to repeat it multiple times so it begins to sink in. The same works with poetry. While the use of repetition doesn’t necessarily mean a poem is wonderful, it does help it to stand out. Sometimes a little repetition goes a long way. But too much repetition can make the poem boring to read, so it’s a delicate balance. This technique can be used in a variety of ways:

A word is repeated throughout the poem.
A phrase is repeated.
An entire line is repeated.

Question 2.
What does the word “clipped” mean in this poem?
Answer:
Maya Angelou’s poem is replete with avian metaphors and imagery. The poem itself is a metaphor for the limitations one experiences in a life of oppression. Angelou has drawn from her own own experiences as a Black woman in the racially-segregated United States following the Civil War. In talking of birds, “clipping” involves trimming a bird’s wing feathers so that they cannot fly. Some bird owners or caretakers trim just one wing or enough feathers on each side, so as to render the bird unstable in flight but leaving them to be able to glide for a short distance. In Angelou’s poem, she uses the word “clipped” as a metaphor for the systemic forms of oppression. Being “clipped” in society on the basis of race (or other identities) prevents an individual from ever testing their capability for success. Historically, Black Americans have been denied access to schooling and certain kinds of work, and even today it is not uncommon for Black Americans to be turned down for jobs on the basis of their appearance. To be “clipped,” as Angelou implies, is to never be given a chance for success in life.

Question 3.
What docs the line “and his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream” mean?
Answer:
Maya Angelou’s poem compares the plight of a caged bird to the flight of a free bird. Angelou’s poem can be interprets an extended metaphor with reference to the caged bird.

Question 4.
Who and what does the free bird symbolize?
Answer:
In Maya Angelou’s poem a juxtaposition is provided of a free bird’s life with that of a caged bird. The free bird symbolizes people who live in this world unencumbered by prejudice of any type whether it be racial, socioeconomic, or psychological.

The free bird has the opportunity to move through life soaking in its abundance. The people who are afforded this freedom, forge through life making their own decisions and choices. “The sky is the limit” for those who are free; those who do not face oppression. Without worrying about restrictions, the free bird is able to experience life as an enjoyable adventure. The people represented by the free bird are able to think of the mundane things in life, instead of battling for survival.

Question 5.
What is the message of Maya Angelou’s poem?
Answer:
Angelou’s poem uses metaphor and juxtaposition to express the idea that freedom is a natural state and knowledge of this fact cannot be undone by any amount of oppression, „ imprisonment or limitation of opportunity. Oppressed people suffer psychologically and emotionally, the poem suggests, but never loses sight of the inverse of that suffering. In the poem, the free bird has power and “names the sky his own” while acting on inborn impulses to fly and float on the sky. The language and imagery surrounding the free bird is soft and also indicative of authority, innate rights and self-ownership.

Contrasted to the free bird, the caged bird is associated with darkness, pain, and fear. Reduced to an unnatural and lesser version of itself than the free bird, the caged bird cannot fly yet retains the desire to be free and to find self-expression (and, also, to claim self-ownership).

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.

The message of the poem then is largely related to the emotional and psychological effects of being oppressed and removed from the possibility of self-determination. The means of oppression and delimitation are only given metaphorical explanation in the poem and are not connected to social or political realities outside of the poem.But the deeply felt difference between being powerfully free or being oppressed and caged is expressed in varied ways

Angelou deals with a sense of limitation, separation and marginalization through the metaphor of the bird in a cage. Importantly, her poem suggests that the desire to be free will always be expressed, despite circumstances that might quell the spirit. There is an innate understanding of what it means to be alive that translates into a demand or an unquenchable impulse to see oneself in an open sky of one’s own.

Question 6.
Explain what is imagery in a poem. Flow has Angelou used it in the poem?
Answer:
When an poet creates imagery, he or she uses words that create a mental picture in the reader’s mind. Only sensory words can create mental images; therefore, imagery concerns any words or phrases that pertain to the five senses: touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell. Maya Angelou’s poem is certainly full of imagery in every line and every stanza.

The very first image we see is that of a “free bird” leaping on the “back of the w ind.” Since we can literally see a bird in nature leaping, jumping, or flying against the wind, we can see how this counts as a sight image. Other images we see are that of the bird floating “downstream” and dipping its wing “in the orange sun rays.” Since the poet is now speaking of a bird in relation to a stream, we get the sense she is speaking of a waterfowl, like a duck. Plus, since we can literally see things floating downstream we know that the phrase “floats downstream” counts as a sight image. In addition, though a bird will not literally dip its wings into the rays of the sun, we know that the sun’s rays reflect on surfaces of water. Hence, based on the final couple of lines in the first stanza, we can picture the bird literally dipping its wings into the image of the sun reflected on the water and then flying off into the sky. Since w’e can literally see a bird doing such things in nature, we know that these count as sight images as well.

The sight images of the bird free in nature stand in great contrast to the sight images of a bird held captive in a cage in the next stanza. The juxtaposition of images of free and caged birds help to illustrate her themes concerning the effects of captivity, such as slavery.

Question 7.
What are the fears of the caged bird? Answer with examples from Maya Angelou’s poem.
Answer:
The “caged bird” stands for none other than the oppressed blacks. Devoid of liberty and basic human rights, the blacks have led hellish lives, full of pains and sufferings, for centuries. Its song of freedom demonstrates the rage and optimism of the blacks that toughen them to endure. Although the caged bird “sings of freedom”, she sings “with a fearful trill”.The dream of liberty has been seen by the blacks for ages. The poet’s uncountable ancestors have spent their whole lives hoping to see the light of freedom. This discomforting sense of undergoing persecution for years is well evoked in the following lines:

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream

The blacks’ dream of liberty is very old. Despite their continued struggle, they have suffered defeat and frustrations repeatedly.
Thus, the caged bird’s fear is about the uncertainty of achieving freedom in the future. Its fears reflect those of the blacks who no more wish to go through the pains of racism, discrimination and bestial treatment at the hands of the whites. The blacks are scared of the darkness hanging over the lives of their offspring.
The word “nightmare” is suggestive of the blacks’ unspeakable suffering and “scream” reflects their expression of agony.

Question 8.
Why does the caged bird stand on the “grave of dreams?”
Answer:
Maya Angelou creates a vivid image with the line “But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams.” This is a death image. The hopes and dreams of a whole race of people are dead.
Angelou uses the images of a free bird and a caged bird to compare the lives of those who are free to create their own destiny, and those who are oppressed based on their race. Those who are oppressed have hopes and dreams but they are unattainable not because the people are incapable, but because they are born as people of color. She goes on to say that the bird, representing the oppressed people, lives with its feet “tied” and wings “clipped,” which renders it devoid of choices to better its situation. In spite of the dire circumstances, the bird chooses to sing. In other words, its spirit will not be broken.

Question 9.
How is the theme of self-awareness shown in the poem “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou?
Answer:
The theme of self-awareness is shown in the poem when the poet highlights how this bird has a rage within itself. This rage is because this caged bird senses it is missing out on a freedom that other birds and living creatures know. This bird “.stalks down his narrow cage.” This “stalking” alludes to the fact that the bird is prowling for release from his restricted way of life.This bird is self-aware that it is living in an unnatural environment. To this caged bird the bars of the cage are “bars of rage.” In addition, self-awareness is conveyed by the fact that this bird makes a bold effort to sing. Because its wings and feet are restricted (due to clipping and tying), its only recourse to let anyone know of its desire to be free is to sing.The bird sings to let anyone who will listen that it is straining for freedom. Self-awareness here (the bird understanding its plight) is shown by the fact that the bird longs for something that is unknown. It desires this unknown that is out there because it senses that the unknown is better than being caged and, in essence, a slave to its man-made environment, where it cannot spread its wings and soar.

This feeling of being ‘caged in’ can be extended to the human condition as well. Many people feel trapped in their respective life situations. They long to be free of poverty, sickness, addictions, dead-end jobs, bad relationships, destructive behavior and more. Every day, many people are crying out, through their words and actions, for some kind of release from their burdensome stations in life, where they feel caged and unable to realize their dreams. They are self-aware, as this bird is, that there is a better way of life that must be fought for, even though this better way of living can be elusive.

Question 10.
What arc the poetic devices used in Maya Angelou’s poem “Caged Bird”?
Answer:
Maya Angelou uses a myriad of poetic devices in the poem, including metaphor, rhyme, imagery, alliteration, personification, and repetition.In the poem, Angelou employs these poetic devices to contrast a free bird with a bird who is confined to a cage; the two different birds serve as metaphors for people free from oppression and people who are oppressed by society, respectively. Considering Angelou’s personal history and the themes of her autobiographies, the caged bird, more explicitly, is a metaphor for African-Americans who experienced racism and discrimination through slavery. Like the caged bird in the poem, African- Americans were physically confined or restricted due to slavery and segregation, but they still vocally demanded their freedom.

The caged bird sings/with fearful trill/of things unknown/but longed for still/and his tune is heard/on the distant hill/for the caged bird/sings of freedom.

Finally, there is vivid imagery in the first stanza when the free bird “dips his wing/ in the orange sun rays” and personification and alliteration in the fourth stanza when the caged bird’s “shadow shouts on a nightmare scream.” In this example from the fourth stanza, note the repetition of the consonant “s” and giving the caged bird’s shadow the human quality of shouting, which emphasizes the bird’s nightmarish existence living in confinement.

Question 11.
What do you like about this poem?
Answer:
This question is asking for an opinion about Maya Angelou’s poem “Caged Bird.” This means you have to assess and analyze the poem to determine what you find appealing about it.
Personally, I enjoy Angelou’s use of vivid imagery when describing the free bird and the caged bird. When I read her descriptions of the birds, I can feel the carefree freedom of the free bird as it soars through the air. On the other hand, I can feel the desperation of the caged bird as it paces with clipped wings in its cage. Because Maya Angelou is so masterful in her descriptions, I experience the breeze as the free bird “leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream.” When the caged bird sings, in spite of its circumstances, I identify with its song, “for the caged bird sings of freedom.” The imagery evokes emotions within me.
Others might like the lyrical writing, or the message of the poem.

Question 12.
What is the implied meaning of “his bars of rage” in the poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”?
Answer:
The poet is creating the image of a bird held in a barred cage which is in opposition to a bird flying free that she describes in the first stanza. The bird is “stalking” around in that cage which connotes anger and frustration. It is blinded by that “rage” and understands that there is no escape from its bars of incarceration. The bird cannot visualize what the free bird can because it is caged with pent up anger. The “bars of rage” are a metaphor for the feelings of people who are bound by slavery, ignorance, and prejudice. Ms. Angelou goes on to explain that the bird cannot obtain its freedom but it chooses to express itself joyously implying that although it maybe be angry and unable to break those bonds, it will not be silenced.

Question 13.
In “Caged Bird,” what does the line “and his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream” mean?
Answer:
Maya Angelou’s 1983 poem “Caged Bird” compares the plight of a caged bird to the flight of a free bird. Many readers have interpreted Angelou’s poem as an extended metaphor with the caged bird representing the historical struggles of African Americans.

The line above is in the 5th stanza, which describes the caged bird who “stands on the grave of dreams/ his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream/ his wings are clipped and his feet are tied/ so he opens his throat to sing.” The grave of dreams can refer to a person who has given up on his dreams. The shadow, rather than the bird itself, shouts, revealing a sense of powerlessness, for who would hear the shout of a shadow? This contrasts with the free bird described in the previous stanza who boldly “names the sky his own.”

Extra Questions

Question 1.
How does the poet describe the world of nature?
Answer:
The poet uses various images to describe nature. She presents the image of a “free bird” leaping on the “back of the wind.” Since we can literally see a bird in nature leaping,jumping,or flying against the wind. Then she she writes of the bird floating “downstream and dipping its wing “in the orange sun rays.” Since the poet is now speaking of a bird in relation to a stream, we get the sense she is speaking of a waterfowl, like a duck. Plus, we can literally see the bird floating downstream. In addition, though a bird will not literally dip its wings into the rays of the sun, we know that the sun’s rays reflect on surfaces of water. Hence, based on the final couple of lines in the first stanza, we can picture the bird literally dipping its wings into the image of the sun reflected on the water and then flying off into the sky. Thus, the poet gives us beautiful sight images of nature.

Question 2.
What is the symbolic significance of the sun, sky and wind in the first stanza?
Answer:
The sun, sky and wind symbolically signify open spaces and skies or n other words freedom.

Question 3.
What is the free bird metaphor for.
Answer:
In Maya Angelou’s poem “Caged Bird” she provides a juxtaposition a free bird’s life with that of a caged bird. The free bird symbolizes people who live in this world unencumbered by prejudice of any type whether it be racial, socioeconomic, or psychological.

Question 4.
What is the encaged bird fearful of ?
Answer:
The “caged bird” stands for none other than the oppressed blacks. Devoid of liberty and basic human rights, the blacks have led hellish lives, full of pains and sufferings, for centuries. Its song of freedom demonstrates the rage and optimism of the blacks that toughen them to endure. Although the caged bird “sings of freedom, ” she sings “with a fearful trill. ” The dream of liberty has been seen by the blacks for ages. The poet’s uncountable ancestors have spent their whole lives hoping to see the light of freedom. This discomforting sense of undergoing persecution for years is well evoked in the following lines:

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream

The blacks’ dream of liberty is very old. Despite their continued struggle, they have suffered defeat and frustrations repeatedly.Thus, the caged bird’s fear is about the uncertainty of achieving freedom in the future. Its fears reflect those of the blacks who no more wish to go through the pains of racism, discrimination and bestial treatment at the hands of the whites. The blacks are scared of the darkness hanging over the lives of their offspring.The word “nightmare” is suggestive of the blacks’ unspeakable suffering and “scream” reflects their expression of agony.

Question 5.
His tune is heard on the distant hill’. Explain
Answer:
The author implies that even though the caged bird may have never experienced true freedom, deep down that bird still knows that it was created to be free. Although freedom, to the caged bird, is “fearful” because it is “unknown”, he still sings “a fearful trill” because he still longs for freedom. Here, the speaker reveals that his cry for freedom is “heard on the distant hill”. The last line states, “For the caged bird sings of freedom”. This is paralleled to the African American struggle in Maya Angelou’s time. She feels that black Americans wrote and sang and danced and cried out for the freedom they deserved, but they were only heard as a distant voice. Yet, this would not stop them from crying out for freedom and equality because they knew they were made for freedom, and they would not relent until they were given their rights as human beings to enjoy the freedom they were created to enjoy.

Question 6.
How is the theme of self-awareness shown in the poem “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou?
Answer:
The theme of self-awareness is shown in the poem “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou in that the poet highlights how this bird has a rage within itself. This rage is because this caged bird senses it is missing out on a freedom that other birds and living creatures know. This bird “…stalks down his narrow cage.” This “stalking” alludes to the fact that the bird is prowling for release from his restricted way of life.This bird is self-aware that it is living in an unnatural environment. To this caged bird the bars of the cage are “bars of rage.” In addition, self-awareness is conveyed by the fact that this bird makes a bold effort to sing. Because its wings and feet are restricted (due to clipping and tying), its only recourse to let anyone know of its desire to be free is to sing. The bird sings to let anyone who will listen know that it is straining for freedom. Self-awareness here (the bird understanding its plight) is shown by the fact that the bird longs for something that is unknown. It desires this unknown that is out there because it senses that the unknown is better than being caged and, in essence, a slave to its man-made environment, where it cannot spread its wings and soar.

Question 7.
What do ‘trade winds’ and ‘fat worms’ symbolise?
Answer:
Trade winds symbolise the freedom of movement, the free will of the free bird to go anywhere it pleases unlike the caged bird who is restricted behind the bars of its cage. Fat worms symbolise the freedom to choose what it wants to eat by going anywhere it wants which is denied to the caged bird. The caged bird is restricted and discriminated and cannot exercise free will even for the most ordinary things.

Question 8.
How does the poet use the contrast between the two birds to reveal racism in America?
Answer:
Angelou celebrate her survival and that of all African Americans in oppression. In the poem “Caged Bird” are two traditional literary themes: reversal of fortune and survival of the unfittest. By presenting the free bird before depicting the caged bird, Angelou helps the reader visualize what the caged bird must have been like before its capture; the description of the two contrasting environments helps the reader feel the sense of loss of the captured bird because of its reversed fate. Even with its clipped wings, tied feet, narrow quarters, and bars of rage, however, the fragile, caged bird is still able to survive and to soar again through its song; this imprisoned bird truly epitomizes the survival of the unfittest, the major theme in the verse.

These contrasting environments—the freedom of the open world and the restrictive surroundings of the caged bird—create the setting for the poem. The reader can feel the breeze, see the sun, imagine the rich feast of fat worms, and hear the sighing trees of the world of the free creature; in contrast, the reader feels the fear and restricted movement, sees the bars, imagines the wants of the oppressed. Racism and discrimination bound the Africans and they were not free to realise their aspirations. Many readers have interpreted Angelou’s poem as an extended metaphor with the caged bird representing the historical struggles of African Americans. The poem expresses the emotional and psychological effects of being oppressed and removed from the possibility of self determination due to racism in American society.

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