A Legend of The Northland
By Phoebe Cary
Analysis
of the poem: 
§
The poem ‘The
Legend of Northland’ is composed by Phoebe Cary who is an American poetess.
§
This is a ballad. It narrates a story in short stanzas containing four lines each. It is
divided into 16 stanzas that tell us a story.
§
The story is a
part of the folk culture of small region. It is the story of the Northern area,
which is near North Pole. The poet doesn’t specify the exact place but
‘Northland’ means the area in the northernmost part of the earth.
§
The word ‘legend’
refers to a historical or very old story that has been orally passed from
generation to generation.
§
The tone of the
poem is didactic as the poet wants to teach the readers a lesson or a moral.
§
A very
significant message is conveyed through the poem that we should not be selfish
and greedy. We need to be helpful, kind, generous and sympathetic towards others.
Summary
/ Synopsis
·
The poem opens
with the scene of a beautiful place in northern part of the world where a woman
was baking cakes.
·
In Northland the
days are short because the sun’s rays reach for very little time and during
winter, the duration of the night is much longer that the people can’t sleep
them through.
·
The region
experiences severe cold conditions as it snows most of the time there. The
people, there use reindeers to pull their sledges and the children look like
polar bear cubs as they wear clothes made of the fur and the skin of the bear.
·
The elders tell a
strange and interesting story about the young ones. However, the poet does not
believe that the story is true but it gives an important message.
·
The story goes
like this – Saint Peter goes around the world giving sermons, spiritual lectures to the people.
Once, while giving lectures, he reached the door of a cottage where a small
woman was making cakes in the fireplace. Saint Peter was very hungry as he
hadn’t had a meal for days and was feeling weak. So, he approached the woman
and asked for one cake out of many baked by her.
·
The woman was
selfish and she could not give him a cake from the store. In its place, she
made a very small cake for Saint Peter but when she placed the cake for baking
she thought that was too big to give away. The miserly woman then again started
making a smaller cake but couldn’t give any cake to Saint Peter. She felt that
when she ate them they seemed to be small but they seemed to be too big to be given
away that’s why she put all the cakes on her kitchen shelf and didn’t give any
to Saint Peter. This shows she was very selfish lady who thinks too much about her gains, pleasure and pains
·
Saint Peter got angry and cursed the woman because she was selfish, greedy and did not deserve
to live as a human being. He cursed the woman to become a bird (woodpecker) who had to build
its nest and found it food by boring into the wood and to collect very little
food by working the entire day.
·
The woman became
a woodpecker and flew through the chimney. The woman’s body became black due to
fire and smoke of chimney and her red head dress remained there as the red cap
of the woodpecker. The people in the countryside tell this story seeing
woodpecker in the surroundings and the school kids who hear the tale can find the bird in the jungle.
Wind
Poetic
Devices
Away, away in
the Northland – Repetition
Where the hours of the day
are few – Repetition
And the nights are so long in winter –
Assonance
That
they cannot sleep them
through – Alliteration
To the sledges, when it snows –
Alliteration & Imagery
And the children look like bear's cubs – Simile & Imagery
Where they harness the swift reindeer – Imagery
In their funny, furry clothes – Imagery
In their funny, furry clothes –
Alliteration
They tell them a curious
story – Assonance
And yet you may learn a lesson –
Alliteration
If I tell the tale to you –
Alliteration
And being faint with fasting –
Alliteration
To give him a single one –
Assonance
And rolled and rolled
it flat – Repetition
And rolled and rolled it flat –
Repetition
And baked it thin as a
wafer
- Anaphora
you shall build as the
birds do – Simile
By boring, and boring, and boring – Repetition
All day in the hard, dry wood –
Consonance
Black as a coal in the flame – Simile
she lives in the trees till this very day – Assonance
she lives in the trees till this very day – Consonance
Rhyme
Scheme
ABCB for each stanza
Message
This folklore brings out a very
significant message that we need to be helpful and sympathetic towards the poor
and needy people. We should not be selfish and greedy and must not think about
only our needs, desires, gain, loss and pleasure and pain. The poem gives a message to nurture human values of
love, kindness and compassion for the entire mankind.
Video on Road not Taken
RTC
Then Saint Peter grew angry
For he was hungry and faint ‘
And surely such a woman
Was enough to provoke a saint
Qa. Why did Saint Peter become angry?
Qb. How did the woman provoke Saint Peter?
Qc. What does the poet mean by the phrase ‘such a
woman’?
Qd. Pick out the poetic device in second line.
Qe. What type of woman was she?
Qf. Who was saint Peter? Why was he hungry?
Answers:
a. Saint Peter became angry because the greedy woman
didn’t give him any cake and he was very hungry.
b. The woman provoked Saint Peter by not giving him any
of the cakes that she had baked for him. Saint Peter was provoked to curse such
a greedy and selfish woman.
c. The phrase ‘such a woman’ means that the lady was extremely greedy and selfish and could not give even the smallest cake to a hungry person.
d. Alliteration is used in second line.
e. The woman was very greedy and selfish who could not give a small cake to a hungry saint.
f. Saint Peter was a religious teacher. He used to
roam about the world and preach the people about goodness. He had been preaching entire day
and hadn’t eaten anything so he was hungry and about to faint.
Thank you
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