A Tiger in the Zoo

Critical Analysis of 'A Tiger in the Zoo' written by Leslie Norris

1. A Tiger in the Zoo A Poem by Leslie Norris Created by- Mrs. Mousmi Majumdar

2. Leslie Norris George Leslie Norris  (21 May 1921 – 6 April 2006), was a prize winning Welsh poet and short story writer. He had published his first poem at the age of seventeen. His personal works deal with such themes as his Welsh home, his past, especially the pre-war period, his experiences as a teacher, nature, and the life of the instinct. He taught at academic institutions in Britain and the United States, including Brigham Young University. Norris is considered one of the most important Welsh writers of the post-war period, and his literary publications have won many prizes.

3. He stalks in his vivid stripes The few steps of his cage, On pads of velvet quiet, In his quiet rage. 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 white fangs, his claws, Terrorising the village! But he’s locked in a concrete cell, His strength behind bars, Stalking the length of his cage, Ignoring visitors. He hears the last voice at night, The patrolling cars, And stares with his brilliant eyes At the brilliant stars. A Tiger in The Zoo

4. Stalk- to follow someone over a period of time in a frightening way Vivid- strong, clear picture Snarling- to make an angry sound while showing the teeth Baring- exposing, showing Lurking- lying hidden in order to attack Fangs – long sharp teeth Concrete- bricks and cement( construction material) Vocabulary

5. ‘A Tiger in the Zoo’, written by Leslie Norris, was published in 1938. The poem talks about the misery and helplessness of a caged tiger inside a zoo. The poem also talks about the kind of life the tiger would have had, had he been free to roam in the jungle. The poem highlights the sad plight of the wild animals whom human beings capture for fun and money. About the Poem

6. Detailed Summary He stalks in his vivid stripes The few steps of his cage, On pads of velvet quiet, In his quiet rage. The tiger, with his bright and noticeable stripes, moves around in the cage. The phrase ‘few steps’ indicate that the cage is small where he can’t move with ease and is able to take only a few steps. His footsteps are quiet because his padded soft feet, which are like velvet, allow him to walk soundlessly. The tiger tries to control his anger by quietly walking in the limited area of his cage. He is angry because he is not free.

7. Detailed Summary He should be lurking in shadow, Sliding through long grass Near the water hole Where plump deer pass. The poet says that the tiger should be hiding in the shadows of long grass in a forest, waiting near water bodies, ready to pounce upon a deer or any other animal that comes to drink water. The tiger should be able to hunt its prey. The poet feels that the actual habitat of a tiger is the forest where he should live, roam around freely, hunt and eat.

8. Detailed Summary He should be snarling around houses At the jungle’s edge, Baring his white fangs, his claws, Terrorising the village! The poet further says that the tiger would have snarled around the houses located at the edge of the jungle. He would scare the villagers with his sharp teeth and claws. This stanza is a subtle hint at what happens when we destroy the habitat of wild animals. Wild animals fail to find food in the forest and they are forced to turn to the towns and villages for food.  Also, the snarl may be a warning for the villagers to keep away from the jungle. He means to scare the villagers so that the villagers don’t destroy the tiger’s natural habitat. .

9. Detailed Summary But he’s locked in a concrete cell, His strength behind bars, Stalking the length of his cage, Ignoring visitors. In this stanza, the poet comes back to the reality. He says that instead of all that (roaming freely in the jungle, hiding, hunting, terrorising villagers), the tiger is confined into a concrete cell. He further says that as the tiger is behind bars, it is as if his ferociousness, his strength is also behind the bars, imprisoned. He just walks the length of the cage quietly. Instead of terrorising, he actually ignores the visitors because he knows he is incapable of wielding his powers from behind the bars .

10. Detailed Summary He hears the last voice at night, The patrolling cars, And stares with his brilliant eyes At the brilliant stars. In the last stanza, the poet says that although the tiger doesn’t get any sleep during the day because of visitors, he doesn’t sleep at night. Being a nocturnal animal, he lies awake till the last man of the zoo has left. He even hears the sounds of the patrolling cars all night long. He stares at the shining stars with his own shining eyes. Perhaps he tries to divert his thoughts or he compares his confinement with the freedom of the stars free to shine out there in the sky.

11. Theme of the Poem The poem is an honest take on the plight of caged animals. Through the life of a caged tiger, the poem offers an insight into the lives of the animals in a zoo. Since time immemorial, human beings have hunted, captured and used animals to satisfy their insatiable hunger for pleasure and money. The poet wants to pass on the message that freedom is elementary for all living beings, be it human beings or animals and birds. Just as it’s cruel to enslave human beings, it’s cruel and malicious to keep animals locked behind bars for fun and money.

12. He stalks in his vivid stripes The few steps of his cage, On pads of velvet quiet, In his quiet rage. 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 white fangs, his claws, Terrorising the village! But he’s locked in a concrete cell, His strength behind bars, Stalking the length of his cage, Ignoring visitors. He hears the last voice at night, The patrolling cars, And stares with his brilliant eyes At the brilliant stars. Rhyme Scheme - abcb a b c a b c b a b c b a b c b b b b c a

13. Figures of Speech

14. Figures of Speech Personification – Personification is the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something non-human, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form. The pronoun used for the tiger in the poem is ‘he’ instead of the commonly used ‘it’. By using ‘he’ for the tiger, the poet has tried to attribute the human emotions of sadness and anger to the tiger. Hence, we can say that the tiger has been personified in the poem.

15. Figures of Speech Metaphor – Metaphor is a figure of speech in which Implicit or indirect comparison is made between two dissimilar objects. It is a word or phrase applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. Several metaphors have been used in the poem. In the phrase ‘pads of velvet quiet’ in line no. 3, the pad(paw) of a tiger’s foot has been compared to velvet.

16. Figures of Speech Alliteration – Alliteration is the occurrence of same sound at the beginning, middle or end of successive or alternate words . Stanza 1: The repetition of ‘s’ and ‘ i ’ sound He stalks in his vivid stripes The few steps of his cage, On pads of velvet quiet, In his quiet rage.

17. Figures of Speech Alliteration – Alliteration is the occurrence of same sound at the beginning, middle or end of successive or alternate words . Stanza 2: The repetition of ‘p’ sound He should be lurking in shadow, Sliding through long grass Near the water hole Where plump deer pass.

18. Figures of Speech Alliteration – Alliteration is the occurrence of same sound at the beginning, middle or end of successive or alternate words . Stanza 3: The repetition of ‘ ou ’ and ‘s’ sound He should be snarling around houses At the jungle’s edge, Baring his white fangs, his claws, Terrorising the village!

19. Figures of Speech Alliteration – Alliteration is the occurrence of same sound at the beginning, middle or end of successive or alternate words . Stanza 5: The repetition of ‘h’ , ‘t’ and ‘s’ sound He hears the last voice at night, The patrolling cars, And stares with his brilliant eyes At the brilliant stars. .

20. Figures of Speech Oxymoron – Oxymoron is a a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory(opposite) terms appear side by side for a heightened rhetorical effect. In line no. 4, the phrase ‘quiet rage’ is an oxymoron. ‘Rage’ means uncontrollable violent anger. It can never be ‘quiet’. Yet , the words have been placed next to each other for a heightened effect.

21. Figures of Speech Enjambment – It’s the continuation of a sentence, without a punctuation, beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza. When one sentence seeps into another line, without a punctuation, the arrangement is called enjambment. In stanza 1, the first line is an example of enjambment. He stalks in his vivid stripes The few steps of his cage, On pads of velvet quiet, In his quiet rage . In stanza 2, the second and third lines use the device of enjambment. He should be lurking in shadow, Sliding through long grass Near the water hole Where plump deer pass .

22. Figures of Speech Enjambment – It’s the continuation of a sentence, without a punctuation, beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza. When one sentence seeps into another line, without a punctuation, the arrangement is called enjambment. In stanza 3, the first line is an example of enjambment. He should be snarling around houses At the jungle’s edge, Baring his white fangs, his claws, Terrorising the village! In stanza 5, the third line uses the device of enjambment He hears the last voice at night, The patrolling cars, And stares with his brilliant eyes At the brilliant stars .

23. Figures of Speech Onomatopoeia – Onomatopoeia is the act of creating or using words that include sounds that are similar to the noises the words. Third stanza, line no. 3 has the word ‘snarling’ which is onomatopoeic. The word ‘snarl’ mimics the sound this action makes.

24. Figures of Speech Imagery – Imagery means to use figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas in such a way that it creates a visual representation of ideas in our minds. The word “imagery” is associated with mental pictures . The entire poem is rich in imagery. The words and phases like ‘stalks in vivid stripes’, ‘cage’, ‘sliding through long grass’, ‘water hole’, ‘plump deer’, ‘snarling around houses at the jungle’s edge’, ‘baring his white fangs’, ‘concrete cell’, ‘visitors’, ‘patrolling cars’, ‘brilliant eyes’, ‘brilliant stars’ create a visual representation of these images in our mind.