appreciation of the poem the inchape rock

About the poet and poem:

This is a ballad, written by Robert Southey. It is the  story of the 14 th century attempt by the Abbot of Aberbrothok  to install a warning bell on the Inchcape , a notorious stone reef about 18 km off the east coast of Angus occupied by the  Bell Rock Lighthouse . The poet was inspired by the legendary story of a pirate who removed the bell on the Inchcape rock and invited death for himself because of his own deed.

The Theme

The Abbot of Aberbrotok installed a bell on the Inchcape rock to alert the mariners to avoid the collision ,the pirate plucked  the bell in jealousy. In return journey ,he invited death due to the lack of an Inchcape bell.

Poetic Device

The figure of speech used in the poem is aabb

The tone of the poem is energetic as it is a balled. There are 4 lines in each stanza, figures of speech like personification, simile, metaphor, beautiful word pictures of the story. We find many old English words here.

Special features

We observe a beautiful presentation of the natural beauty of the sea, it has thus a sea background  . Being a balled, we find great energy while reading the poem. The poem depicts a word of an image of marine beauty.

My opinion/message

The poem is  didactic  , with a great moral message

‘as we sow, so shall we reap’

This message is useful to everyone, we are responsible for our destruction the qualities like jealousy and hatred invite destruction for us.

Lion and the Mouse

Once upon a time, there lived a lion in the dense Amazon rainforest. While he was sleeping by resting his big head on his paws, a tiny little mouse unexpectedly crossed by and ran across the lion’s nose in haste. This woke up the lion and he laid his huge paw angrily on the tiny mouse to kill her.

The poor mouse begged the lion to spare her this time and she would pay him back on some other day. Hearing this, the lion was amused and wondered how such a tiny creature could ever help him. But he was in a good mood and in his generosity he finally let the mouse go.

A few days later, a hunter set a trap for the lion while the big animal was stalking for prey in the forest. Caught in the toils of a hunter’s net, the lion found it difficult to free himself and roared loudly in anger.

As the mouse was passing by, she heard the roar and found the lion struggling hard to free himself from the hunter’s net. The little creature quickly ran towards the lion’s trap that bound him and gnawed the net with her sharp teeth until the net tore apart. Slowly she made a big hole in the net and soon the lion was able to free himself from the hunter’s trap.

The lion thanked the little mouse for her help and the mouse reminded him that she had finally repaid the lion for sparing her life before. Thereafter, the lion and the mouse became good friends and lived happily in the forest.

Moral of the Story:

Love and kindness are never wasted. You can accomplish by kindness, which you cannot by force.

the ant and the dove

One day, an ant went to a nearby river to quench his thirst. As he bent down, he slipped into the river and was carried away by the strong current. He started shouting for help, but all his efforts seemed to go in vain. But soon, a dove saw the ant struggling and decided to help him. He immediately plucked a leaf from the nearby tree and threw it in the river. The ant climbed on the leaf and reached the shore safely. After a few hours, the ant saw a hunter aiming his gun at the dove sitting on a nearby tree. The ant quickly ran to the hunter and stung him on his heels, making him scream in pain. The hunter got distracted by the pain and ended up missing his target. The dove heard the loud sound and realised what had happened. He flew away immediately. The ant also left for his home happily.

Moral Of The Story

The moral of the story is – A good deed never goes unnoticed and comes back to us in one form or another.

Q.1 : Answer the following questions :

(a) Where did the ant go and why ?

Ans:  The ant went to a river to drink water .

What happened to the ant ? 

(b) How did the dove save the little ant ?

Ans: The eagle dropped a big leaf into the water. After climbing the leaf, the ant arrived on the banks of the river.

(c) Who wanted to kill the dove ?

Ans:  A hunter wanted to kill the dove

(d) Why did the ant bite the hunter ?

Ans: Ant bites the hunter to save the dove .

(e) What is the moral of the story ?

Ans: We should help each other .

Give a title to the story