Two Stories about Flying
How to Tell Wild Animals
Explain the humour and poetic licence in 'How to Tell Wild Animals'.
A funny, dangerous guide. Carolyn Wells gives silly 'rules' for telling wild animals apart. Each rule works only when the animal attacks you:
- Asian lion: large, tawny, and roars at you 'as you're dyin''.
- Bengal tiger: black stripes on a yellow ground (background). 'Just notice if he eats you.'
- leopard: a hide 'peppered' with spots. He leaps on you again and again.
- bear: the one that hugs you very hard, then gives you 'one more caress'.
More rules.
- crocodile or hyena: hyenas come 'with merry smiles', but 'if they weep they're crocodiles' (crocodile tears);
- chameleon: small, like a lizard, no ears and no wings. 'If there is nothing on the tree, 'tis the chameleon you see.' It has changed colour to match the tree (camouflage).
Irony. 'A noble wild beast greets you' and a bear gives you 'a caress' (a gentle, loving touch). The words say something kind, but the animal means to kill you. That gap is the joke.
Poetic licence: breaking rules on purpose. The poet changes words to make rhymes and jokes:
- 'dyin'' for dying, to rhyme with 'lion';
- 'lept' and 'lep' for leapt and leap, to sound like 'leopard';
- 'A novice might nonplus' (correctly: a beginner might be nonplussed, confused), to rhyme with 'thus';
- ''Twill' and ''Tis' to keep the rhythm.
In your own language. We have animal sayings too: घड़ियाली आँसू (crocodile tears, false sorrow) and गिरगिट की तरह रंग बदलना (to change colour like a chameleon).
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