Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
A Tiger in the Zoo
Interpret the contrast in 'A Tiger in the Zoo'.
Cage and jungle. The poem moves from the zoo to the wild and back:
- stanzas 1, 4 and 5: the tiger in the zoo;
- stanzas 2 and 3: the tiger as he should be, in the wild.
In the cage. He 'stalks' (a hunter's word) only 'the few steps of his cage', on 'pads of velvet quiet', 'in his quiet rage'. He is angry but can do nothing with it. His strength is 'behind bars'. He ignores the visitors.
In the wild. He should be 'lurking in shadow', 'sliding through long grass' near the water hole where 'plump deer pass'. He should be 'snarling around houses' at the jungle's edge, baring his fangs and claws, terrorising the village. That is his natural life.
The two repeated words.
- 'quiet': soft, silent paws and a silent, helpless anger.
- 'brilliant': 'brilliant eyes' staring at 'brilliant stars'. At night, hearing only the patrolling cars, he looks at the open sky he cannot reach.
A rhyme check: in stanza 2, shadow / grass / hole / pass gives a b c b.
Are zoos good or bad? The book adds three short poems: Niblett's 'The Tiger' (a caged tiger who thinks the wild is dangerous too), Rilke's 'The Panther' and Sackville-West's 'The Greater Cats'. Think about both sides:
- for zoos: protecting endangered animals, breeding them, teaching people;
- against zoos: small cages, boredom, a broken spirit;
- other answers: sanctuaries and national parks.
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