A Tiger in the Zoo by Leslie Norris

A Tiger in the Zoo by Leslie Norris

Theme:  The poem contrasts a tiger in the zoo with the tiger in his natural habitat. The poetess describes how the basic freedom of movement and free will of a tiger is curtailed when he is imprisoned behind the confined space of a zoo. The Tiger in the poem is the metaphor for all the caged animals, who are stripped off their natural habitat and thereby restricting them to the miseries of the caged wall. They languish for the entire duration of their lifespan behind the caged cell of the zoo.

The poem moves from the zoo to the jungle, and back again to the zoo. By comparison the poem shows the merits of roaming in his natural habitat vis a vis demerits of of caged life. Thus the poem conveys the message that wild animals appear to be beautiful in their natural habitat just like a child looks beautiful on the lap of his mother. We should not deprive them of their basic and rightful freedom by captivating them in the zoo cell.

Word Meanings

Sr. No.	Vocabulary	Meanings
1	Stalks	Walks slowly
2	Vivid	Clear
3	Pads	Feet
4	Rage	Anger
5	Lurking	Hiding
6.	Water hole	A water body where animals drink
7	Plump deer	Young deer
8	Snarling	Showing the teeth
9	Jungle’s edge	Border of the forest
10	White fangs	White teeth
11	Claws	Nails
12	Cell	Cage
13	Behind bars	Caged; locked
14	Stalking	Walking

Thinking about the Poem

i)                  Find the words that describe the movements and actions of the tiger in the cage and in the wild. Arrange them in two columns.

        Ans:

Sr. No.	In the Cage	In the Wild
1	Stalks	Lurking in the shadow.
2	Few steps of his cage	Sliding through the long grass
3	Quiet rage	Snarling around houses
4	Locked in a concrete wall	Baring his white fangs, his claws.
5	Stalking the length of his cage	Terrorising the village

ii)                 Find the words that describe the two places and arrange them in columns.

Sr. No.	In the Cage	In the Wild
1	Few steps of his cage	Shadow
2	Concrete cell	Long grass
3	Locked	Water Hole
4	Behind Bars	Place where plum deer passes
5	Visitors	Houses at the jungle’s edge
6	Patrolling cars	Village

2. Notice the use of a word repeated in lines such as these:

(i) On pads of velvet quiet, In his quiet rage.

(ii) And stares with his brilliant eyes At the brilliant stars.

What do you think is the effect of this repetition?

The repetition is a poetic device which is used in order to give emphasis to the meaning of the words that are repeated.

i)              In the first sentence, ‘velvet quiet’ refers to soft velvet pads/feet of the tiger when it moves on the surface of the zoo, whereas the ‘quiet rage’ refers to the suppressed anger of the tiger at not being able to exercise his natural freedom of movement.

ii)             In the second sentence ‘brilliant eyes’ refers to the dazzling and beautiful eyes, which are the creation of the almighty God, yet confined in artificial zoo,  which is contrasted with the natural ‘brilliant stars’, which are in their natural habitat.

EXTRA QUESTIONS WILL BE UPLOADED SHORTLY

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