How to Tell Wild Animals

The poet pretends to teach us how to tell wild animals if we go to eastern jungles. The method is funny because you identify each beast only when it is too late - when it attacks you.

NCERT introduces the poem as a humorous guide with a strong rhythm. "If ever you should go by chance / To jungles in the east" - the tone is mock-serious. Recognition comes through danger, not careful observation from safety.

An Asian Lion roars at you as you are dying - that is how you know it is a lion. A beast with black stripes on yellow ground is a Bengal Tiger if it eats you.

"If he roars at you as you're dyin' / You'll know it is the Asian Lion." The rhyme dyin'/lion is deliberately rough. For the tiger: "With black stripes on a yellow ground, / Just notice if he eats you." The "simple rule" is absurd - identification equals being devoured.

If a spotted beast leaps on you, it is a leopard. Roaring with pain will not help - he will only leap again and again.

"Whose hide with spots is peppered, / As soon as he has lept on you, / You'll know it is the Leopard." Wells spells "lept" instead of "leapt" for rhyme and humour. The leopard keeps attacking - dark comedy about helplessness.

If a creature in your yard hugs you very, very hard, it is a bear. If you still have doubts, it will hug you once more.

"Who hugs you very, very hard, / Be sure it is a Bear." The "bearhug" is normally friendly, but here is a sign of attack. "He'll give you just one more caress" - polite words for a deadly squeeze.

A novice may be confused, but hyenas come with merry smiles while crocodiles weep as they swallow their victims - "crocodile tears".

"Hyenas come with merry smiles; / But if they weep they're Crocodiles." Wells plays on popular ideas: laughing hyena, crocodile tears. The line "A novice might nonplus" uses incorrect grammar on purpose - nonplussed means puzzled.

The true chameleon is a small lizard with no ears and no wings. If you see nothing on the tree, that "nothing" is the chameleon - it blends in.

"The true Chameleon is small, / A lizard sort of thing; / He hasn't any ears at all, / And not a single wing. / If there is nothing on the tree, / 'Tis the chameleon you see." After violent jokes, the chameleon ends quietly - invisible, harmless, funny in a different way.