Class 10 NCERT Solutions English Chapter 3 - How To Know The Wild Animals [Poem]

Although the word 'dyin' does not rhyme with 'lion', it can be pronounced in such a way that it rhymes with 'lion'.

The poet says that if you ever go to the jungles in the east and a large, tawny beast approaches you, it is an Asian lion. You will be able to identify it when it roars at you, frightening you to death.

If you are roaming around and are greeted by a noble wild beast with black stripes on a yellow background, that animal is a Bengal tiger. He will eat you as soon as he comes near you.

The words 'lept'and 'lep' in the third stanza are spelt incorrectly. The poet intends to rhyme them with the first syllable of the word 'leopard'.

The poet spells them in this way to maintain the rhythm of the poem.

Students are recommended to discuss with their parents and find out similar expressions and popular ideas about wild animals in their own language.

For instance, in Hindi, there is a phrase called 'safed haathi' (white elephant in English). It refers to a valuable but a troublesome possession that can neither be kept nor disposed by the owner.

The correct way of writing "A novice might nonplus" would be "a novice might be nonplussed'.

The poet's incorrect line is better because it fits into the rhyme scheme of the poem and maintains its rhyme scheme since 'nonplus' rhymes with 'thus'.

Here is an example in English of a poet taking liberties with language.

 The Most magnificent Zoo

 Bumbleraffes and small Squiroose, The Hipponoceros is loose! The Babooeetah's running wild, The Pandelot is looking riled! Salaphants and sleepy Froat, The Doladillo's in a boat! The Carigators stalk around, The Kangarat is much renowned!

 Otterunks and Jagupus, The Scorpiark I cannot suss! My wonder zoo has no known match, But it's not real, now that's the catch!

In this poem the poet has created portmanteaus of animal names (blending two words to create a third one). By doing so, the poet has used his creative liberty to invent new words.

This is a model answer just for reference. Students are recommended to answer this question based on their interpretation.

Some guidelines:

• "…just notice if he eats you" -This line is humorous simply because one wouldn't want to be a tiger's meal to be able to identify him.

• "…as soon as he has lept on you, you'll know it is the leopard"- This line is also humorous because it would be terrifying to identify a leopard only after it has leapt on the victim. Identifying it after it has attacked you would also be futile. The humour in this line comes from the irony of the above mentioned fact.

• "….he'll give you just one more caress…."- A bear hug is actually a giant embrace resulting in bodylock. Thus, if a bear hugs us it will definitely not be a happy experience as they are very aggressive.

• "hyenas come with merry smiles but if they weep they're crocodile"- Hyenas are said to produce different sounds in defense, and laughing is one of them.  Similarly, an anecdote states that crocodiles weep to attract their prey. The humour comes from the fact that these two animals seem to show false emotions to catch their prey.