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Class 8 English On The Grasshopper and The Cricket

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216 views13 pages

Class 8 English On The Grasshopper and The Cricket

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bhavrajsinghchinjar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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On the Grasshopper and

Cricket
Class 8
ENGLISH

ST. JOHN’S HIGH SCHOOL


SECTOR 26, CHANDIGARH
Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to:

• comprehend the topic / poem locally and globally.

• enjoy the beauty of the poem.

• appreciate nature
An Introduction to the poem
“On the grasshopper and the Cricket” by
John Keats is a fine piece of sonnet written in
December 1816. The poem was inspired by
the beauty of nature, the most common
theme among the Romantic poets. To be
precise, the poet here celebrates the ‘poetry
of earth’ – the music of nature which is
omnipresent. The two opening lines of the
octave and the sestet “The poetry of earth is
never dead” and “The poetry of earth is
ceasing never” say it all. While the octet
concentrates on the grasshopper’s voice in
summer, the sestet deals with the cricket’s
song in winter.
Keats has introduced two little creatures – the grasshopper and the
cricket, as the title of the poem suggests – to represent the vitality
and joyous mood of nature even in the scorching heat of summer
and in bleak and bitter cold of winter. The sonnet is all about how
the grasshopper and the cricket carry on with the endless song of
the earth.
The sonnet opens with the poet
asserting that the ‘poetry of earth’,
the ‘voice of nature’ is always
live. Even when all the singing
birds are tired in the hot summer
and take shelter under the shady
branches of trees, the nature’s
song can still be heard. A voice
which runs then from hedge to
hedge and around the freshly-cut
grasslands (mead) is the
Grasshopper’s.
The Grasshopper has the luxury
of taking over the duty of
carrying on with the everlasting
song of earth in summer, as he is
‘never done with his delights’.
The Grasshopper is fun-loving
and cheerful in summer. He takes
rest under the pleasant weeds
only when he is ‘tired out with
fun’.
The poet repeats the main theme of
the sonnet that the voice of earth
never comes to an end. In an isolated
winter evening, when frost has put
everyone and everything to silent
mode, you can still hear the song of
the Cricket coming from the stove.
So, the chilly atmosphere forces the
cricket to seek warmth indoors but
cannot stop his music. Rather, his
music gets louder with time (in
warmth increasing ever).
To a man who is feeling sleepy (in drowsiness
half-lost) the Cricket’s song sounds like the
Grasshopper’s voice among some grassy hills.
The poet means that people like to feel the
warmth of summer even in bleak winter by
mistaking the Cricket’s song for the
Grasshopper’s.
The poem is symbolic where the Grasshopper
and the Cricket both symbolize the constant
joyous mood of nature irrespective of the
season. In the lucidity of language, in its
spontaneous rhythm and theme of nature, the
sonnet has been a fine example of a romantic
poem.
THEME OF THE POEM

That nature is always a spontaneous source of optimism and


happiness is the theme of the poem. Nature never imparts
pessimism and is never sad. Nature is always singing through the
mediums like grasshopper in summer and cricket in winter.
Change in situation on weather does not bring hindrances in the
ever continuous mirth of nature.
LITERARY DEVICES

1. Metaphor –A word or phrase that is used in an imaginative way to show that somebody/something has
the same qualities as another thing.
e.g. ―The Cricket‘s song, in warmth increasing ever…
This line says that the cricket’s song will remind of the warmth during the winter season when it is cold outside.

2. Personification- Personification is a poetic device in which a thing or an idea is given human attributes.
e.g. ―The poetry of earth is never dead….
This line means that the earth will continue to be beautiful and poetic in its own way.
"he rests at ease,"
"frost has wrought"
Frost is personified as a person who brings silence.
"A voice will run"
Grasshopper’s voice is powerful and can be heard from far away.
Continued…

3. Alliteration - Alliteration means “letters of alphabet”. It is a stylistic device in which a number of words, having the
same first consonant sound, occur close together in a series.
e.g. "mown mead“

4. Imagery - Imagery is the name given to the elements in a poem that spark off the senses.
Despite "image" being a synonym for "picture", images need not be only visual; any of the five senses (sight, hearing, touch,
taste, smell) can respond to what a poet writes.
e.g., "voice will run from hedge to hedge".
― all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in the cooling trees . . .”

"rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed."


―On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The Cricket's song . . .”

Rhyming scheme - On the Grasshopper and the Cricket' is a fourteen lines sonnet with a rhyme scheme of abba abba
cde cde.
DUTY TO PROTECT NATURE

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