How to Tell Wild Animals

 How to Tell Wild Animals

Central Idea of the Poem
The poem ‘How to Tell Wild Animals’ by Carolyn Wells revolves around the dangerous ways to identify the wild animals. The poet tries to distinguish one animal from the other in a humorous way. The poet suggests that its very risky to be in such a close proximity to these wild beasts. The poem is, thus, very educative as it tells us about various features of wild animals.

How to Tell Wild Animals Question and Answers

Q1-Does ‘dyin’ really rhyme with ‘lion’? Can you say it in such a way that it does?

A1-The actual word is dying which does not rhyme with lion. In order to create rhyme, it is written as ‘dyin’ in the poem.

Q2- How does the poet suggest that you identify the lion and the tiger? When can you do so, according to him?

A2-The poet differentiates between the two in the following manner-

He says that if the beast is of yellow- brown colour that is tawny colour and it roars out so fiercely that you may die out of fear, then this is an Asian lion.
Whereas, if the animal has black stripes on yellow background of hthe skin and he attacks to kill you, then it is a Bengal tiger.

Q3- Do you think the words ‘lept’ and ‘lep’ in the third stanza are spelt correctly? Why does the poet spell them like this?

A3-The words ‘lept’ and ‘lep’ have not been spelled correctly. It is a poetic device known as poetic license which is used by the poet to lay emphasis on the actions of the leopard.

Q4- Look at the line “A novice might nonplus”. How would you write this ‘correctly’? Why is the poet’s ‘incorrect’ line better in the poem?

A4-The correct order of the sentence is ‘a novice might be nonplussed’. The poet wrote it in order to bring rhyme to her poem. nonplus rhymes with thus.

Q5- Much of the humour in the poem arises from the way language is used, although the ideas are funny as well. If there are particular lines in the poem that you especially like, share these with the class, speaking briefly about what it is about the ideas or the language that you like or find funny?

A5- Yes, it is true that the poet has used the language in a way that it arises humour. The poet has used many lines that are funny. One such is ‘If he roars at you as you’re dyin’.You’ll know it is the Asian Lion...’ or the other one is ‘A noble wild beast greets you’. So his idea of explaining the characteristics of the wild animals is quite funny.