Critical Analysis of 'A Tiger in the Zoo' written by Leslie Norris

1. A Tiger in the Zoo
A Poem by Leslie Norris
Created by-
Mrs. Mousmi Majumdar

2. Leslie Norris
George Leslie Norris (21 May 1921 – 6
April 2006), was a prize
winning Welsh poet and short
story writer. He had published his first
poem at the age of seventeen. His
personal works deal with such themes
as his Welsh home, his past, especially
the pre-war period, his experiences as a
teacher, nature, and the life of the
instinct. He taught at academic
institutions in Britain and the United
States, including Brigham Young
University. Norris is considered one of
the most important Welsh writers of the
post-war period, and his literary
publications have won many prizes.

3. He stalks in his vivid stripes
The few steps of his cage,
On pads of velvet quiet,
In his quiet rage.
He should be lurking in shadow,
Sliding through long grass
Near the water hole
Where plump deer pass.
He should be snarling around houses
At the jungle’s edge,
Baring his white fangs, his claws,
Terrorising the village!
But he’s locked in a concrete cell,
His strength behind bars,
Stalking the length of his cage,
Ignoring visitors.
He hears the last voice at night,
The patrolling cars,
And stares with his brilliant eyes
At the brilliant stars.
A Tiger in The Zoo

4. 1. Stalk- to follow someone over a period of time in a frightening
way
2. Vivid- strong, clear picture
3. Snarling- to make an angry sound while showing the teeth
4. Baring- exposing, showing
5. Lurking- lying hidden in order to attack
6. Fangs – long sharp teeth
7. Concrete- bricks and cement( construction material)
Vocabulary

5. ‘A Tiger in the Zoo’, written by Leslie Norris, was published in
1938.
The poem talks about the misery and helplessness of a caged
tiger inside a zoo. The poem also talks about the kind of life the
tiger would have had, had he been free to roam in the jungle.
The poem highlights the sad plight of the wild animals whom
human beings capture for fun and money.
About the Poem

6. Detailed Summary
He stalks in his vivid stripes
The few steps of his cage,
On pads of velvet quiet,
In his quiet rage.
The tiger, with his bright and noticeable stripes, moves around in the
cage. The phrase ‘few steps’ indicate that the cage is small where he
can’t move with ease and is able to take only a few steps. His footsteps
are quiet because his padded soft feet, which are like velvet, allow him to
walk soundlessly. The tiger tries to control his anger by quietly walking in
the limited area of his cage. He is angry because he is not free.

7. Detailed Summary
He should be lurking in shadow,
Sliding through long grass
Near the water hole
Where plump deer pass.
The poet says that the tiger should be hiding in the shadows of long
grass in a forest, waiting near water bodies, ready to pounce upon a
deer or any other animal that comes to drink water. The tiger should be
able to hunt its prey. The poet feels that the actual habitat of a tiger is
the forest where he should live, roam around freely, hunt and eat.

8. Detailed Summary
He should be snarling around houses
At the jungle’s edge,
Baring his white fangs, his claws,
Terrorising the village!
The poet further says that the tiger would have snarled around the
houses located at the edge of the jungle. He would scare the villagers
with his sharp teeth and claws.
This stanza is a subtle hint at what happens when we destroy the habitat
of wild animals. Wild animals fail to find food in the forest and they are
forced to turn to the towns and villages for food.
Also, the snarl may be a warning for the villagers to keep away from the
jungle. He means to scare the villagers so that the villagers don’t destroy
the tiger’s natural habitat..

9. Detailed Summary
But he’s locked in a concrete cell,
His strength behind bars,
Stalking the length of his cage,
Ignoring visitors.
In this stanza, the poet comes back to the reality. He says that instead of
all that (roaming freely in the jungle, hiding, hunting, terrorising
villagers), the tiger is confined into a concrete cell.
He further says that as the tiger is behind bars, it is as if his
ferociousness, his strength is also behind the bars, imprisoned.
He just walks the length of the cage quietly.
Instead of terrorising, he actually ignores the visitors because he knows
he is incapable of wielding his powers from behind the bars .

10. Detailed Summary
He hears the last voice at night,
The patrolling cars,
And stares with his brilliant eyes
At the brilliant stars.
In the last stanza, the poet says that although the tiger doesn’t get any
sleep during the day because of visitors, he doesn’t sleep at night. Being
a nocturnal animal, he lies awake till the last man of the zoo has left. He
even hears the sounds of the patrolling cars all night long.
He stares at the shining stars with his own shining eyes. Perhaps he tries
to divert his thoughts or he compares his confinement with the freedom
of the stars free to shine out there in the sky.

11. Theme of the Poem
The poem is an honest take on the plight of caged animals.
Through the life of a caged tiger, the poem offers an insight into the
lives of the animals in a zoo. Since time immemorial, human beings
have hunted, captured and used animals to satisfy their insatiable
hunger for pleasure and money.
The poet wants to pass on the message that freedom is elementary for
all living beings, be it human beings or animals and birds. Just as it’s
cruel to enslave human beings, it’s cruel and malicious to keep animals
locked behind bars for fun and money.

12. He stalks in his vivid stripes
The few steps of his cage,
On pads of velvet quiet,
In his quiet rage.
He should be lurking in shadow,
Sliding through long grass
Near the water hole
Where plump deer pass.
He should be snarling around houses
At the jungle’s edge,
Baring his white fangs, his claws,
Terrorising the village!
But he’s locked in a concrete cell,
His strength behind bars,
Stalking the length of his cage,
Ignoring visitors.
He hears the last voice at night,
The patrolling cars,
And stares with his brilliant eyes
At the brilliant stars.
Rhyme Scheme - abcb
a
b
c
a
b
c
b
a
b
c
b
a
b
c
b
b
b
b
c
a

13. Figures of Speech

14. Figures of Speech
• Personification – Personification is the attribution of a
personal nature or human characteristics to something
non-human, or the representation of an abstract quality in
human form.
The pronoun used for the tiger in the poem is ‘he’ instead
of the commonly used ‘it’. By using ‘he’ for the tiger, the
poet has tried to attribute the human emotions of sadness
and anger to the tiger. Hence, we can say that the tiger has
been personified in the poem.

15. Figures of Speech
•Metaphor – Metaphor is a figure of speech in which
Implicit or indirect comparison is made between two
dissimilar objects. It is a word or phrase applied to an
object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
Several metaphors have been used in the poem.
1. In the phrase ‘pads of velvet quiet’ in line no. 3, the
pad(paw) of a tiger’s foot has been compared to velvet.

16. Figures of Speech
•Alliteration – Alliteration is the occurrence of same
sound at the beginning, middle or end of successive or
alternate words.
Stanza 1: The repetition of ‘s’ and ‘i’ sound
He stalks in his vivid stripes
The few steps of his cage,
On pads of velvet quiet,
In his quiet rage.

17. Figures of Speech
•Alliteration – Alliteration is the occurrence of same
sound at the beginning, middle or end of successive or
alternate words.
Stanza 2: The repetition of ‘p’ sound
He should be lurking in shadow,
Sliding through long grass
Near the water hole
Where plump deer pass.

18. Figures of Speech
•Alliteration – Alliteration is the occurrence of same
sound at the beginning, middle or end of successive or
alternate words.
Stanza 3: The repetition of ‘ou’ and ‘s’ sound
He should be snarling around houses
At the jungle’s edge,
Baring his white fangs, his claws,
Terrorising the village!

19. Figures of Speech
•Alliteration – Alliteration is the occurrence of same
sound at the beginning, middle or end of successive or
alternate words.
Stanza 5: The repetition of ‘h’ , ‘t’ and ‘s’ sound
He hears the last voice at night,
The patrolling cars,
And stares with his brilliant eyes
At the brilliant stars.
.

20. Figures of Speech
•Oxymoron – Oxymoron is a a figure of speech in which
apparently contradictory(opposite) terms appear side by
side for a heightened rhetorical effect.
In line no. 4, the phrase ‘quiet rage’ is an oxymoron. ‘Rage’
means uncontrollable violent anger. It can never be ‘quiet’.
Yet , the words have been placed next to each other for a
heightened effect.

21. Figures of Speech
•Enjambment – It’s the continuation of a sentence, without a
punctuation, beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza. When one
sentence seeps into another line, without a punctuation, the
arrangement is called enjambment.
•In stanza 1, the first line is an example of enjambment.
He stalks in his vivid stripes
The few steps of his cage,
On pads of velvet quiet,
In his quiet rage.
•In stanza 2, the second and third lines use the device of enjambment.
He should be lurking in shadow,
Sliding through long grass
Near the water hole
Where plump deer pass.

22. Figures of Speech
•Enjambment – It’s the continuation of a sentence, without a
punctuation, beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza. When one
sentence seeps into another line, without a punctuation, the
arrangement is called enjambment.
•In stanza 3, the first line is an example of enjambment.
He should be snarling around houses
At the jungle’s edge,
Baring his white fangs, his claws,
Terrorising the village!
•In stanza 5, the third line uses the device of enjambment
He hears the last voice at night,
The patrolling cars,
And stares with his brilliant eyes
At the brilliant stars.

23. Figures of Speech
•Onomatopoeia – Onomatopoeia is the act of creating
or using words that include sounds that are similar to the
noises the words.
Third stanza, line no. 3 has the word ‘snarling’ which is
onomatopoeic. The word ‘snarl’ mimics the sound this
action makes.

24. Figures of Speech
•Imagery– Imagery means to use figurative language to
represent objects, actions, and ideas in such a way that it
creates a visual representation of ideas in our minds. The
word “imagery” is associated with mental pictures.
The entire poem is rich in imagery. The words and phases
like ‘stalks in vivid stripes’, ‘cage’, ‘sliding through long
grass’, ‘water hole’, ‘plump deer’, ‘snarling around houses
at the jungle’s edge’, ‘baring his white fangs’, ‘concrete cell’,
‘visitors’, ‘patrolling cars’, ‘brilliant eyes’, ‘brilliant stars’
create a visual representation of these images in our mind.