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Question
Mention any two reasons why Walt Whitman appreciates animals more than humans.
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Solution
The poet believes that animals are content and self-sufficient, he values them more than he does people. Compared to humans, they hold higher values. Animals are more comfortable in the poet's opinion than people.
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RELATED QUESTIONS
Notice the use of the word ‘turn’ in the first line, “I think I could turn and live with animals…”. What is the poet turning from?
Do humans kneel to other humans who lived thousands of years ago? Discuss this in groups.
What are the ‘tokens’ that the poet says he may have dropped long ago, and which the animals have kept for him? Discuss this in class .
(Hint Whitman belongs to the Romantic tradition that includes Rousseau and Wordsworth,which holds that civilisation has made humans false to their own true nature.
What could be the basic aspects of our nature as living beings that humans choose to ignore or deny?)
Get into pairs and attempt the following:
“The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog.” - Mark Twain.
Discuss with your partner what Mark Twain means from the above quote. Write in your own words.
Match the words given in table A with their meanings in table B.
| No | A Words |
B Meaning |
|
| (i) | whine | (a) | an offence against religious or moral law |
| (ii) | sin | (b) | complain in an annoying way |
| (iii) | evince | (c) | craze |
| (iv) | mania | (d) | failing to take proper care |
| (v) | negligent | (e) | show |
The poet wishes he could ______.
Animals do not complain about ______.
State whether the following statement is true or false.
Animals quarrel for their possessions.
State whether the following statement is true or false.
Humans have given up many good qualities.
With the help of the poem find the differences between animals and human beings.
| Human beings | Animals |
| Always complain about their condition | Never complain about anything |
Read the text again, and complete the web, highlighting the good values/habits which we can learn from animals.
Justify how ‘Animals’ by Walt Whitman is a criticism of mankind and its ways.
Read the following extract and do the given activities.
A1. State whether the following statements are true or false: (2)
- Animals show their relations to us.
- Humans have given up many good qualities.
- Animals sweat and whine about their condition.
- Animals are placid and self-contained.
| I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain'd, I stand and look at them long and long. They do not sweat and whine about their condition, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things. Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth, So they show their relations to me and I accept them, They bring me tokens of myself, they evince them plainly in their possession. I wonder where they get those tokens, Did I pass that way huge times ago and negligently drop them? |
A2. Answer the following question with the help of the given extract: (2)
(i) What craze do animals never display? Why?
A3. Pick out one example of Rhetorical question from the extract. (1)
List any two things that animals do and humans don't.
What two attributes of the Animals please the poet?
