SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF THE DUCK AND THE KANGAROO CLASS – VIII- CBSE- ENGLISH

ABOUT THE POET

·        
NAME – Edward Lear.
·        
Born – 12 May 1812,
Middlesex, England.
·        
Died – 29 January, 1888,
Liguria, Italy.
·        
He is famous for his
literary Nonsense and lime ricks.
·        
He was an artist,
illustrator writer and a poet.
·        
Notable works –         i) The scroobious Pip
ii) Nonsense
Alphabets
                                                iii)
Book of Nonsense (1846)
                                                iv) Laughable Lyrics
(1877)
Summary
            The Duck and the Kangaroo, both were very good friends.
As the duck lived in a pond and does not get a variegated life of visiting
world, he wanted to have a pleasure tour all around the world. So he requested
the kangaroo to allow him to sit on the top of his tail and have a pleasure
tour. The kangaroo accepted the wish, but at the same time put some conditions
too. According to him the duck’s feet were unpleasantly wet and cold. This may
cause with rheumatism. At this the Duck assured him with the remedies he
thought about. According to him he has already bought four pairs of woolen
socks to put on. Besides he has bought a cloak to cover himself and he will
smoke cigar too. In this way both the duck and the kangaroo started their tour
and continued their happy journey.



STRUCTURE OF THE POEM
·        
The poem ‘The Duck and The
Kangaroo is a poem of 32 lines divided into 4 eight line stanzas.
·        
They rhyme scheme of the
poem is – ABABCCDD.
·        
The poem has various poetic
devices –
a)      Inversion – i) “Said the duck to the kangaroo”
                        ii) “As if you never
would stop”.
b) Antithesis
–            i) “over the fields and water
too”
c) Tautology-
i) “Your feet are unpleasantly wet and cold”.
d) Anaphora   i)  “And to keep out the cold I ‘have bought a cloak”.
                               And
everyday a cigar I shall smoke”.
e)
Alliteration-i) “Good gracious”.
                        ii) “One objection”.

TEXTBOOK SOLUTIONS
Working with the poem
Q.3.     The
Kangaroo does not want to rheumatism. Spot this word in stanza 3 and say why it
is spelt differently. Why is it in two parts? Why does the second part begin
with a capital letter?
Ans:-    ‘roo – matiz’ – this has been put in two
parts for the sake of rhyme scheme. To match with the sound force of ‘Kangaroo’,
this has been divided.



            The second part ‘matiz’ purely talks
about the disease ‘rheumatism; and is made capital. Besides this is even the
beginning of a  line of a poem which must
start with capital letter.

Q.4.     Do you
find the poem humorous? Read aloud the lines that make you laugh.
Ans.     Indeed, the poem is humorous. The poem is
filled humorous conversation and ludicrous thoughts.
The lines
which make me laugh are –
a)      “And everyday a cigar I shall smoke”.
ii) “And would
probably give me roo-matiz”.
iii) “My life
is a bore in this nasty pond.” 

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