Reading Indian

Poetry
Indian Poets:
1. Bhartrihari (Seventh Century)
- experienced an inner conflict between love of
religion and love of the world. It is said that seven times
he tried to renounce the world by entering a monastery,
only to forsake it each time.
Indian Poets:
2. Kalidasa
- flourished about 375 – 415
- was an Indian court poet and dramatist.
- an outstanding figure in Oriental literature, his
poetry is noted for its fine descriptions of nature and of
poignant emotions.
Indian Poets:
3. Rabindranath Tagore
- an essayist, poet, musician and mystic
- founded an important school of Indian studies called
Visva-Bharati
- his father taught him to love solitude and nature
- a precocious child, at the age of 8 began writing
poems; at twelve he wrote drama, at 13 he did a
translation of Macbeth into Bengali
The Tame Bird and the
Free Bird
Vocabulary Words

• Decree – Mandate, Legal Order

• Perched – Sit atop of
• Intense – forceful , severe ,
passionate
• Woodlands – land covered with
woods or trees
• Tame – domesticated , compliant
• Yearning – desire strongly
 QUESTIONS:
1. Which lines show that the caged
bird has never been free?
2. What does the caged bird’s singing
reveal about him?
3. Why does the caged bird sing?
4. What is the main conflict in the
poem?
5. What is the poem all about?
6. What is the lesson of the poem?
7. For you, what does the poem
symbolize?
Poem Analysis
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGES

 Personification
The free bird cries.
The cage bird whispers.
The forest bird sings.
 Hyperbole
I should not know where to sit
perched in the sky.
 QUESTIONS:
1. Which lines show that the caged
bird has never been free?

The cage bird whispers, "Alas, my wings are

powerless and dead."
 QUESTIONS:
2. What does the caged bird’s singing
reveal about him?

He wanted to be heard.
 QUESTIONS:
3. Why does the caged bird sing?

It is his only way of expressing himself.

 QUESTIONS:
4. What is the main conflict in the
poem?

The caged bird longs for the life of the free bird
 QUESTIONS:
5. What is the poem all about?
 QUESTIONS:
6. What is the lesson of the poem?
 QUESTIONS:
7. For you, what does the poem
symbolize?
Journal Entry No. 2

Cite instance/s in your life when you

felt you were caged. What is it and
how did you overcome the said
circumstance/s?