Question

(i) Which lines in the poem express the poet’s comment? Read them aloud.

(ii) Write the comment in your own words.

Answer 1

(i) The lines in the poem that express the poet’s comment are “Folks call this a fable. I’ll warrant it true.”

(ii) This comment by the poet means that this poem is indeed a fable as it had a moral behind it. The cricket did not have anything to eat during the winter because it did not bother to store some food during summers. It was negligent and sang all through the summers. The ant, on the other hand, had built a nice home for itself and had stored food so that it would not starve during winters. It worked hard during summers to achieve this. Thus, the moral of the poem is to be prepared for adverse times and always work hard instead of being negligent.