Chapter's summary : Text and Summary of Prose and Poem

Which newborns can fend for themselves? A young wildebeest in Africa is born with its eyes open and with a well-developed coat of hair. Within a few minutes it can stand; within a day it can run well-enough to keep up with the herd. A hunting dog, from the same part of Africa, has its eyes closed at birth. Bears are born in an even less developed state, not only blind but naked and often weighing less than a pound. For Part-1 of Animal Facts, Please click the below link 'Text' >> Text In general, plant-eating mammals are more fully developed at birth than predators. One of the main survival traits of such creatures as deer and wildebeest is the ability to hide or run from danger - and the sooner they can do it, the better. A young carnivore, in contrast, has much to learn about hunting, and develops its skills during a long period of time. Who uses baby-sitters? Baby-sitting is not a human invention. When a pack of hunting dogs goes out in search of prey, the younge...

What is an animal? The word animal comes from a Latin word meaning "breath" or "soul." We tend automatically to think it synonymous with "mammal". However, to scientists and many others, animals include not only mammals but also birds, reptiles, fish, frogs, clams, lobsters, and insects - not to mention such humbler creatures as jellyfish and worms. In the past, when the word seemed simpler, scientists classified all life into two kingdoms. Every living was either an animal or a plant. Today we know that life is far more complex, with a host of "lesser" species (such as myriad forms of bacteria) that fall into neither one kingdom nor the other. How long do animals live?           Through the life span of an animal depends on a number of factors (among others, the availability of food and exposure to disease), each species also seems to have a built-in biological clock that controls its aging.  Turtles and tortoises, with their slow metabolism...

About the poet: Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era. She started writing poetry at the age of six. Her early poems, compiled and published by her mother form one of the largest extant of juvenilia by any England writer. She married the leading Victorian poet Robert Browning. She was very popular both in England and America during her lifetime. About the poem: How Do I Love Thee? was published in 1850 as sonnet 43 in the collection entitled Sonnets from Portuguese. It is a sonnet. It expresses the poetic persona's passionate feelings for her husband Robert Browning. For the Summary of "How Do I Love Thee?", Please click the below link 'Summary' >> Summary How Do I Love Thee? How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day's Most quiet...

Ozymandias | P.B. Shelley This famous sonnet of P.B. Shelley mocks at the wordily power glory and grandeur of the kings and great men. He tries to bring to light that even the greatest of kings and men in power turn to dust with the passage of time. Pride and arrogance do not last unto posterity. They get wiped out with the ravages of time. The poem talks about the proud and arrogant king Ozymandias who had a huge statue of himself made. But the ravages of time had shattered it and only the lone and level sand of the desert remained. This conveys to us that God's creation is eternal while man's creation gets destroyed with time. For the whole poem 'Ozymandias', Please click the below link 'Poem' >> Poem The poet met a traveller who had just returned from an ancient land. He talked about a broken statue he had seen in the vast desert. Only the two vast legs of stone were left while beside on the ground lay the visage (the face) half sunk in the sand. The fa...

Wordsworth's poems have a nostalgic effect. His attachment will nature is clear in the poem. Through he does not know what a cuckoo really us, he's enthralled by its double fold uncomposed singing beats which he calls the wandering voice. He considers nature as his friend, philosopher and guide. The poet was wandering in the valley. He heard the sweet voice of a Cuckoo. He felt delighted. It was spring season. The valley was full of beautiful flowers. Clear sunshine made the atmosphere in the valley serene and enjoyable. The poet in his extreme gladness addresses the Cuckoo as 'blithe new-comer'. The Cuckoo appears first when spring comes to the earth. It sings happily. The poet was lying on the grassy field when he heard the song of the Cuckoo. The song seemed to him a composition of two shouts such as koo-hoo. Further he heard the song being echoed by hills around him. Although the Cuckoo was singing in the valley, it brought to his mind the memory of his boyhood days...

The poem 'Still I Rise' conveys to the readers the need for standing tall against all odds and fighting till the very end. It is an emotional poem addressed to the white oppressors of black people. The poet wants the white people to realize that the black will no longer bend down to the atrocities of the whites. Without reacting to the harshness, she requests the blacks to stand up and walk with their head held high. It invokes a feeling of confidence in the blacks to not surrender to the oppression of the blacks. The poem is both political and highly personal. The poet is responding to decades and even centuries of oppression and mistreatment. The readers can feel the sympathy with her spirited rejection of further oppression. The poet considers herself as the dream and hope of the slaves who will be freed from the bondage of the whites. For Whole Poem of "Still I Rise", Please click the link 'Poem'  >> POEM The first two lines are about writing. She us...

THE TOYS - Coventry Patrome My little Son, who look'd from thoughtful eyes And moved and spoke in quiet grown-up wise, Having my law the seventh time disobey'd, I struck him, and dismiss'd With hard words and unkiss'd, His Mother, who was patient, being dead. Then, fearing lest his grief should hinder sleep, I visited his bed, But found him slumbering deep, With darken'd eyelids, and their lashes yet From his late sobbing wet. And I, with moan, Kissing away his tears, left others of my owns; For, on a table drawn beside his head, He had put, within his reach, A box of counters and a red-vein'd stone, A piece of glass abraded by the beach And six or seven shells, A bottle with bluebells And two French copper coins, ranged there with careful art, To comfort his sad heart. So when that night I pray'd To God, I wept, and said: Ah, when at last we lie with tranced breath, Not vexing Thee in death, And Thou rememberest of what toys We made our joys, How weakly und...

In the Kingdom of Fools       In the Kingdom of Fools, both the king and the minister were idiots. They didn’t want to run things like other kings, so they decided to change night into day and  day into night. They ordered that everyone should be awake at night, till their fields and run their businesses only after dark, and go to bed as soon as the sun came up. Anyone who disobeyed would be punished with death. The people did as they were told for fear of death. The king and the minister were delighted at the success of their project. One day a guru and his disciple arrived in the city. It was a beautiful city, it was broad daylight, but there was no one about. Everyone was asleep, not a mouse stirring. Even the cattle had been taught to sleep by day. The two strangers were amazed by what they saw around them and wandered around town till evening, when suddenly the whole town woke up and went about its nightly business.           ...