How to Tell Wild Animals | CBSE Class 10 English Notes

This note covers the poem "How to Tell Wild Animals" by Carolyn Wells: a stanza-by-stanza summary, the poetic devices, the themes, key quotations and answers to the textbook questions.

Who wrote "How to Tell Wild Animals" and what is it about?

The poem is written by Carolyn Wells. It is printed as a humorous poem that "suggests some dangerous ways to identify (or 'tell') wild animals".

The chapter note tells readers to "read it aloud, keeping to a strong and regular rhythm", which signals that the poem works best as a spoken, sing-song piece rather than a serious nature guide.

On the surface the poem offers a traveller advice on recognising six creatures: the Asian Lion, the Bengal Tiger, the Leopard, the Bear, the Hyena and Crocodile, and the Chameleon.

The joke is that every "method" of identification only becomes clear once the animal has already attacked the person, so the "rule" is useless as real advice and exists purely for comic effect.

The poem belongs to a tradition of nonsense verse, where exaggerated danger is treated lightly and ordinary logic is turned upside down. Because the poem depends so heavily on sound and wordplay, it is meant to be enjoyed for its rhythm and rhyme as much as for its content.

What happens in the poem, stanza by stanza?

Stanza 1: the Asian Lion

The poet imagines a traveller going "by chance / To jungles in the east" who meets "a large and tawny beast".

The identifying sign is grim: "If he roars at you as you're dyin' / You'll know it is the Asian Lion". The animal is only identified at the moment of death.

Stanza 2: the Bengal Tiger

A "noble wild beast" with "black stripes on a yellow ground" greets the roamer. The advice is: "Just notice if he eats you." This "simple rule" supposedly helps the reader "The Bengal Tiger to discern", again only after being eaten.

Stanza 3: the Leopard

A beast "whose hide with spots is peppered" is seen while strolling. "As soon as he has lept on you, / You'll know it is the Leopard." Roaring in pain is useless, because "He'll only lep and lep again," with the deliberately odd spelling of "lept" and "lep" for comic rhyme.

Stanza 4: the Bear

In your own yard, a creature that "hugs you very, very hard" must be a Bear. If in doubt, "He'll give you just one more caress," turning the bear's deadly grip into a mock gesture of affection.

Stanza 5: the Hyena and the Crocodile

The poet admits that "to distinguish beasts of prey / A novice might nonplus," but offers a trick: "Hyenas come with merry smiles; / But if they weep they're Crocodiles." This plays on the popular ideas of the hyena's "laugh" and the crocodile's "tears".

Stanza 6: the Chameleon

The final creature is small, has "no ears at all, / And not a single wing." The joke here reverses the earlier pattern: instead of being seen, "If there is nothing on the tree, / 'Tis the chameleon you see," a nod to the chameleon's famous camouflage.

What poetic devices does the poet use in this poem?

The poem relies on a tight, musical structure to deliver its humour, so most of its devices work through sound rather than imagery alone.

What is the rhyme scheme of the poem?

Each six-line stanza broadly follows an ABABCC pattern: for example, "chance/advance" and "east/beast" rhyme across alternating lines, before the stanza closes on a rhyming couplet that names the animal, such as "dyin'/Lion". This closing couplet gives every stanza a punchline feel.

How does the poet use rhythm?

The instruction to read the poem "keeping to a strong and regular rhythm" points to its bouncy, sing-song metre, typical of comic or nursery-style verse, which makes the gruesome content feel playful rather than frightening.

Where does the poet take liberties with language?

The poet stretches normal spelling and grammar for rhyme: "dyin'" is made to rhyme with "Lion", and "lept" is respelled as "lep" so that it rhymes with "pain" in "'Twill do no good to roar with pain, / He'll only lep and lep again." The line "A novice might nonplus" also reverses normal word order for rhyme with "thus".

What irony and exaggeration does the poem use?

The central comic device is irony: every "helpful" identification method only works once the animal has already attacked, so the advice is useless in practice even as it sounds practical in tone.

What themes does the poem explore?

Humour built from exaggeration

The poem takes a genuinely dangerous idea, being attacked by wild animals, and turns it into comedy by describing the attacks as gentle, almost friendly acts: a bear's deadly hug becomes a "caress", and a leopard's leap becomes something you only notice "as soon as he has lept on you."

Playful, deliberately "incorrect" use of language

The poem shows that poets can bend spelling, grammar and word order to create rhyme and rhythm. Words like "lept"/"lep" and the twisted line "A novice might nonplus" demonstrate that the poet values sound and humour over strict correctness.

Popular ideas and expressions about animals

The poem draws on common sayings about animals, the hyena's "merry smiles" and the crocodile's weeping ("crocodile tears"), and on the everyday idea of a warm "bearhug", to build its jokes on ideas readers already recognise.

The absurdity of "rules" for survival

Each stanza offers a supposedly useful rule for telling animals apart, but the rule always arrives too late, after the beast has already roared, eaten, leapt or hugged its victim, which quietly mocks the very idea of giving practical safety advice in rhyme.

What are the key quotations from the poem?

"If he roars at you as you're dyin' / You'll know it is the Asian Lion..." — Carolyn Wells

"With black stripes on a yellow ground, / Just notice if he eats you." — Carolyn Wells

"As soon as he has lept on you, / You'll know it is the Leopard." — Carolyn Wells

"Who hugs you very, very hard, / Be sure it is a Bear." — Carolyn Wells

"Hyenas come with merry smiles; / But if they weep they're Crocodiles." — Carolyn Wells

"If there is nothing on the tree, / 'Tis the chameleon you see." — Carolyn Wells

These six closing couplets carry the poem's main joke each time: a calm, rule-like statement followed by a punchline that shows the "rule" is useless in practice, which is the heart of the poem's humour.

Why is the poem funny? How does language create humour?

Much of the humour, as the poem's own closing questions point out, "arises from the way language is used, although the ideas are funny as well." The ideas are funny because they describe fatal encounters as if they were calm, observational moments: noticing stripes, noticing if you are eaten, noticing a hug.

The language is funny because the poet deliberately bends spelling and grammar for rhyme. "Lept" and "lep" look wrong on the page, but they let the line "He'll only lep and lep again" land as a neat rhyming joke rather than a correct but flat sentence.

Similarly, "A novice might nonplus" sounds grammatically odd, since normally a novice would be nonplussed by something, but the inverted order lets "nonplus" rhyme with "thus" two lines later. The poet accepts this oddness because, in a comic poem, sound and surprise matter more than textbook correctness.

The combination of grim content delivered in a bouncy, regular rhythm is itself part of the joke: readers expect danger to sound dangerous, but here it sounds like a nursery rhyme, which is exactly what makes it funny rather than frightening.

How does rhyme and rhythm work in the poem?

The poem is built from six-line stanzas with a steady, strong and regular rhythm, as the introductory note instructs readers directly: "Read it aloud, keeping to a strong and regular rhythm." This rhythm gives the poem its sing-song, almost chant-like quality.

Within each stanza, the rhyme pattern alternates before closing on a couplet: lines such as "chance" and "advance", or "east" and "beast", rhyme across the stanza, and the final two lines always rhyme with each other while naming the animal, for example "dyin'/Lion" or "smiles/Crocodiles".

This closing couplet works like a punchline in a joke: the build-up describes a dangerous encounter, and the final rhymed line delivers the comic twist by naming the animal only after the danger has already happened.

The poet even manipulates spelling to preserve this rhythm and rhyme, as with "dyin'" instead of "dying", and "lep" instead of "leapt", showing that the metre and rhyme scheme guide word choice throughout the poem.

What animals does the poem describe, and how are they identified?

The poem describes seven creatures across six stanzas, with the Hyena and Crocodile sharing one stanza, each creature given its own mock "rule" for identification, moving from large predators to a tiny lizard.

The Asian Lion is a "large and tawny beast" identified by its roar as it kills you. The Bengal Tiger is a "noble wild beast" with "black stripes on a yellow ground", identified by whether it eats you.

The Leopard has a hide "with spots is peppered" and is identified once it has "lept on you" and keeps leaping.

The Bear is met in your own yard and identified by a very hard hug, or caress. The Hyena and Crocodile are distinguished from each other by their expressions: hyenas "come with merry smiles," while crocodiles "weep" as they attack.

Finally, the Chameleon is "small, / A lizard sort of thing" with no ears and no wings, identified paradoxically by its absence: "If there is nothing on the tree, / 'Tis the chameleon you see," since it blends into its surroundings.

What is the significance of the poem's title and tone?

The title, "How to Tell Wild Animals," sounds like a serious instructional title, the kind found in a nature guide or survival manual. This sets up the poem's main irony, because the actual content is anything but a useful survival guide.

The tone throughout stays light, mock-serious and conversational, as if a calm expert were genuinely teaching the reader useful facts. Words like "simple rule," "notice," and "be sure" imitate the voice of an instructional text, which makes the gruesome punchlines land as jokes rather than as horror.

By keeping this instructional tone while describing attacks as "caresses," "merry smiles" and gentle "weeping," the poet creates a gap between how the lines sound (helpful and informative) and what they actually describe (a wild animal attack), and that gap is the main source of the poem's comedy.

What are the answers to the textbook questions?

1. Does 'dyin' really rhyme with 'lion'? Can you say it in such a way that it does? Not in standard pronunciation; "dyin'" and "Lion" are close but not an exact rhyme.

If "dyin'" is said with the stress and vowel sound shifted slightly, closer to "dy-un," it can be made to sound like it rhymes with "Lion," which is likely how the poet intends it to be read aloud for comic effect.

2. How does the poet suggest that you identify the lion and the tiger? When can you do so? The lion is identified by its roar "as you're dyin'," and the tiger by its "black stripes on a yellow ground," confirmed by whether it eats you.

In both cases, the identification is only possible at the moment of attack, when it is already too late to be of any practical use.

3. Are 'lept' and 'lep' spelt correctly? Why does the poet spell them like this? They are not standard spellings; the usual forms are "leapt" and "leap." The poet spells them this way to create a rhyme with "pain" and "again," and the clipped, odd-looking spelling also adds to the poem's playful, nonsense-verse humour.

4. What is a 'bearhug', and are there similar expressions in other languages? A bearhug is "a friendly and strong hug, such as bears are thought to give, as they attack you," just as hyenas are thought to laugh and crocodiles to weep (crocodile tears) while attacking their prey.

Many languages and cultures have similar popular sayings that link animal behaviour with human expressions; students should share examples from their own language(s).

5. How would you write "A novice might nonplus" correctly, and why is the poet's line better? Grammatically, a novice is nonplussed by something, so the standard order would place "novice" as the object, not the subject, of "nonplus." The poet's inverted line is "better" in the poem because it keeps the rhyme with "thus" and keeps the playful, slightly off-kilter tone that suits the humour of the rest of the poem.

6. Can you find other examples of poets taking liberties with language? This poem itself is one example, through "dyin'," "lept/lep" and the reordered "nonplus" line. Students are asked to find further examples in English or their own language(s), based on poems they already know.

7. Which lines do you especially like, and why? This is a personal, open-ended response.

Students might point to the closing couplets, such as "Hyenas come with merry smiles; / But if they weep they're Crocodiles," and explain what they find funny about either the idea (animals showing human-like expressions) or the language (the neat, surprising rhyme).

Glossary

• Ground — background, as in the yellow background behind a tiger's black stripes.
• Discern — make out, identify or recognise something.
• Hide — an animal's skin.
• Peppered — here, covered with small marks or spots.
• Caress — a gentle, loving touch.
• Novice — someone new to a job or skill.
• Nonplussed — puzzled, confused or surprised, usually used only in the passive, as in "be nonplussed".
• Tawny — a light brown or orange-brown colour, used here to describe the lion.
• Lept/lep — the poet's deliberately misspelt forms of "leapt" and "leap", used so the lines rhyme with "pain" and "again".
• Beast of prey — a wild animal that hunts and kills other animals for food, used of the hyena and crocodile.
• Chameleon — a small lizard with no ears and no wings, identified in the poem by its camouflage rather than by sight.
• Bearhug — "a friendly and strong hug — such as bears are thought to give, as they attack you!" used as the poem's joking image for a bear's deadly grip.
• Crocodile tears — the popular idea that crocodiles weep "as they swallow their victims," used by the poet to distinguish them from hyenas.
• Dyin' — the poet's clipped spelling of "dying", chosen so the word can be read as rhyming with "Lion".
• Roam/roaming round — wandering about without a fixed direction, as the traveller does when meeting the tiger.

Common errors and misconceptions

• Misconception: The poem is meant as genuine, useful advice for identifying wild animals. Correct: It is a humorous poem in which the "rules" only work after the animal has already attacked, so the advice is comic, not practical.
• Misconception: "Dyin'" is a perfect rhyme for "Lion" in ordinary pronunciation. Correct: It is a near-rhyme that needs a slightly stretched pronunciation to sound exact, as the textbook question itself asks students to test.
• Misconception: "Lept" and "lep" are correct standard spellings. Correct: They are deliberate misspellings of "leapt" and "leap", used by the poet purely to create rhyme and rhythm.
• Misconception: The line "A novice might nonplus" follows standard grammar. Correct: Standard grammar would make the novice the object of "nonplus"; the poet reverses this for rhyme with "thus".
• Misconception: The chameleon stanza describes the animal being seen clearly. Correct: The joke is the opposite; the chameleon is identified by its absence, "If there is nothing on the tree, 'Tis the chameleon you see."
• Misconception: The poem names only three or four animals. Correct: Seven creatures appear across six stanzas: the Asian Lion, Bengal Tiger, Leopard, Bear, Hyena, Crocodile and Chameleon.

Exam-style questions with model answers

Q1. Name any two animals described in the poem and the identifying detail given for each. [2 marks]

1. The Bengal Tiger is identified by "black stripes on a yellow ground," confirmed by whether it eats you.
2. The Bear is identified because it "hugs you very, very hard."

Q2. What is ironic about the methods of identification suggested in the poem? [2 marks]

1. Each method only confirms the animal's identity after it has already attacked, so the "rule" offers no real protection.
2. Dangerous acts, such as eating, leaping or hugging hard, are described as if they were calm, observational clues.

Q3. Explain, with the lines, how the poet uses spelling and word order to create humour in the third and fifth stanzas. [4 marks]

1. In the third stanza, "lept" and "lep" are deliberate misspellings of "leapt" and "leap", used to rhyme with "pain" and "again" in "He'll only lep and lep again."
2. This odd spelling adds a playful, almost childish sound to a dangerous image of being attacked by a leopard.
3. In the fifth stanza, "A novice might nonplus" reverses normal grammar, where a novice would usually be nonplussed by something.
4. The reversed order lets "nonplus" rhyme with "thus" two lines later, showing the poet choosing rhyme over strict correctness.

Q4. Compare how the poem identifies the Hyena and the Crocodile. Why is this comparison funny? [4 marks]

1. The poet says "Hyenas come with merry smiles; / But if they weep they're Crocodiles," distinguishing the two "beasts of prey" by facial expression alone.
2. This draws on the popular idea that hyenas seem to laugh and that crocodiles produce "crocodile tears" while attacking prey.
3. The comparison is funny because it takes a difficult, serious task, telling apart two dangerous animals, and reduces it to noticing whether the creature "smiles" or "weeps".
4. It is also funny because both expressions, smiling and weeping, are human reactions, so attributing them to predators feels absurd.

Q5. Describe how the poem builds humour across its six stanzas, using details from at least four stanzas, and explain what makes this a "nonsense" or comic poem. [6 marks]

1. Each stanza follows the same pattern: a traveller meets a wild animal, and a "rule" is offered to identify it, but the rule only becomes clear once the animal has attacked.
2. The Lion is identified by its roar "as you're dyin'," linking identification directly to the moment of death.
3. The Tiger is identified by its stripes and by whether it "eats you," again confirmed only through danger.
4. The Leopard's attack is softened by calling its leaping almost playful, as it "will only lep and lep again," using a deliberately odd spelling for comic rhyme.
5. The Bear's deadly hug is renamed a "caress," making a dangerous act sound affectionate.
6. The Hyena and Crocodile are told apart by a human-like expression, smiling or weeping, rather than by any physical feature.
7. The Chameleon stanza reverses the pattern entirely, identifying the animal by its invisibility rather than its presence.
8. Together, these choices show a "nonsense" poem's typical technique: taking a serious situation, wild animal attacks, and describing it through calm, almost polite instructions, so the mismatch between tone and content produces the humour.

Q6. What does the poem's introductory note ask readers to do while reading it, and why might this matter for understanding the poem's humour? [3 marks]

1. The note asks readers to "read it aloud, keeping to a strong and regular rhythm."
2. This matters because the poem's comic effect depends heavily on its sing-song rhythm and rhyme, which can be missed if read silently or slowly.
3. The bouncy rhythm makes the grim content, such as roaring "as you're dyin'," sound light and funny rather than frightening.

Key takeaways

• The poem is a humorous verse by Carolyn Wells that offers mock "rules" for identifying six wild animals.
• Every identification method only works once the animal has already attacked, which creates the poem's central irony.
• The poet deliberately misspells words like "lept" and "lep" to create rhyme and comic rhythm.
• The line "A novice might nonplus" reverses normal grammar for the sake of rhyme with "thus."
• The Hyena and Crocodile are told apart by their expressions, "merry smiles" versus "weeping."
• The Chameleon stanza is identified by absence: no creature seen on the tree means it is the chameleon.
• The poem should be read aloud with a strong, regular rhythm to bring out its humour.
• Much of the poem's comedy comes from playful use of language as much as from its exaggerated ideas.

Test yourself

Which creatures are named in the poem?

The Asian Lion, Bengal Tiger, Leopard, Bear, Hyena, Crocodile and Chameleon.

How is the Asian Lion identified in the poem?

By his roar, heard "as you're dyin'," which confirms the beast was a lion.

What phrase describes the Leopard's spotted skin?

Its "hide with spots is peppered," meaning the skin is covered with spots.

How does the poet distinguish the Hyena from the Crocodile?

Hyenas "come with merry smiles," while Crocodiles are identified by weeping as they attack.

How is the Chameleon identified, unlike the other animals?

By its absence; "if there is nothing on the tree," it is the chameleon, since it blends into its surroundings.

Why does the poet spell "leapt" as "lept"?

To create a rhyme with "pain" and "again" and to add a playful, nonsense-verse feel to the Leopard stanza.

What instruction is given about how to read the poem?

Readers are told to read it aloud, keeping to a strong and regular rhythm.