A Legend Of The Northland Class 9 Summary
Summary of Poem A Legend of Northland by Phoebe Cary Beehive Class 9
Introduction of A Legend of Northland
The poem is about Saint Peter and a greedy Lady. The Lady angered Saint. Saint cursed the Lady. It is a ballad poem which means it tells a story in short paragraphs. Furthermore, in a ballad, all paragraphs consist of four lines. And in total it has 16 verses which tell us a story. They are part of folk culture or popular culture that is passed down orally from one generation to the next. However, folk culture is the stories of a region we know as ballads.
Furthermore, this is the story of the North Zone, which is near the North Pole. The poet does not specify the exact location. But ‘Northland’ means the area in the northernmost part of the Earth, that is, near the North Pole. Furthermore, ‘legend’ refers to a historical story which is very old and is passed on orally from generation to generation.
Summary of A Legend of Northland Class 9
Stanza 1 & Stanza 2
Away, away in the Northland,
Where the hours of the day are few,
And the nights are so long in winter
That they cannot sleep them through;
Where they harness the swift reindeer
To the sledges, when it snows;
And the children look like bear’s cubs
In their funny, furry clothes:
In the first verse, the poet has described Uttar Pradesh. They say that in the region of the far North Pole there is a place named Northland. In the winter season in Uttar Pradesh, the days are short and the nights long. The people of Northland could not sleep because the nights were cold and long.
Northland is a very cold place. The poet says that whenever snow falls in this region, the people of Northland tie reindeers to sledges. Deer is a species of deer found in the polar region. He further says that in the winter season when they wear strange cute clothes, the children look like the children of bears.
Stanza 3 & Stanza 4
They tell them a curious story —
I don’t believe ’tis true;
And yet you may learn a lesson
If I tell the tale to you.
Once, when the good Saint Peter
Lived in the world below,
And walked about it, preaching,
Just as he did, you know,
The third and fourth stanzas of the poem tell us that in Northland parents tell a story to their children. The poet does not think that the story is true but still tells the story. The poet believes that there is an important lesson in this that we all should learn. After this the poet begins the story. Once upon a time, St. Peter lived on earth as a human. He traveled the world teaching about God.
Stanza 5 & Stanza 6
He came to the door of a cottage,
In travelling round the earth,
Where a little woman was making cakes,
And baking them on the hearth;
And being faint with fasting,
For the day was almost done,
He asked her, from her store of cakes,
To give him a single one.
Traveling around the world, Saint Peter came upon the door of an old hut. In the hut he saw a little lady who was making a cake. She was cooking them on the stove.
Since Saint Peter had fasted that day, he was feeling weak. He was almost losing consciousness due to hunger. The fast for the day was over, and he was looking for something to eat. So he asked the woman to give her from the stock of the cake that she had cooked.
Stanza 7 & Stanza 8
So she made a very little cake,
But as it baking lay,
She looked at it, and thought it seemed
Too large to give away.
Therefore she kneaded another,
And still a smaller one;
But it looked, when she turned it over,
As large as the first had done.
The woman was selfish. He thought all the cakes he had baked were big. So, he made a small cake. But, when he baked it, he found it to be big. So, she decided not to give that one and bake another cake.
This time he took a small dough which was smaller than the previous one and started making it. When he baked it and looked at it, he found that it was the same size as the previous one. So, she was not ready to give this piece of cake to St. Peter again.
Stanza 9 & Stanza 10
Then she took a tiny scrap of dough,
And rolled and rolled it flat;
And baked it thin as a wafer —
But she couldn’t part with that.
For she said, “My cakes that seem too small
When I eat of them myself
Are yet too large to give away.”
So she put them on the shelf.
In the ninth and tenth verses of the poem, the woman took a small piece of dough and rolled it out as thin as she could. The cake made from it was as thin as a wafer, but the woman could not give it to St. Peter. She said that her cakes looked too small when she ate them. However, those cakes became too big to give away for free. As a result, he put all the cakes on the shelf and did not give any cakes to St. Peter.
Stanza 11 & Stanza 12
Then good Saint Peter grew angry,
For he was hungry and faint;
And surely such a woman
Was enough to provoke a saint.
And he said, “You are far too selfish
To dwell in a human form,
To have both food and shelter,
And fire to keep you warm.
The woman’s selfish behavior angered St. Peter. He was very tired and hungry. It is not easy for a kind and merciful saint like Saint Peter to be angry, but the woman’s actions were able to do so. Therefore, Saint Peter told her that she was very selfish. She didn’t deserve to be a human being and live a comfortable life with good food to eat, a house to live in with a fire to keep her warm.
Stanza 13 & Stanza 14
Now, you shall build as the birds do,
And shall get your scanty food
By boring, and boring, and boring,
All day in the hard, dry wood.”
Then up she went through the chimney,
Never speaking a word,
And out of the top flew a woodpecker,
For she was changed to a bird.
Saint Peter cursed the woman and turned her into a bird. As a bird, the female must now build her nest and obtain her own food. To get food, he has to dig holes in hard dry wood. As a result, the woman left the chimney of her house without saying anything. She has now turned into a woodpecker.
Stanza 15 & Stanza 16
She had a scarlet cap on her head,
And that was left the same;
But all the rest of her clothes were burned
Black as a coal in the flame.
And every country schoolboy
Has seen her in the wood,
Where she lives in the trees till this very day,
Boring and boring for food.
As a human, the little lady wore a red hat. When he was made a woodpecker, only his red cap was left and all his clothes were burnt. In other words, the head of the woodpecker is red but the rest of its body is black. The poet then says that since then every school child has seen a woodpecker in the forest. He had refused to give a piece of cake to a helpless, hungry man. He had to suffer the consequences of his insensitivity, inhuman behavior by wandering in the forests for food throughout his life. She still lives there, digging in dry and hard wood in search of food.
This may helps you a lot to understand A Legend Of The Northland Class 9 Summary.
A Legend Of The Northland Class 9 Summary In Hindi
कविता ‘A Legend Of The Northland’ एक बूढ़ी औरत के बारे में है जिसने अपने लालच के कारण सेंट पीटर को नाराज कर दिया था। यह कहानी नार्थलैंड इलाके की है, जो कि उत्तरी ध्रुव के पास है।
कहानी इस तरह शुरू होती है। एक दिन, सेंट पीटर दुनिया भर में प्रचार कर रहे थे और एक झोपड़ी के दरवाजे पर पहुंचे जहां यह महिला रहती थी। वह केक बना रही थी और उन्हें चूल्हे पर पका रही थी। सेंट पीटर भूख से बेहोश हो रहा था। उसने महिला से केक का एक टुकड़ा देने को कहा। वह जो केक पका रही थी, वह बहुत बड़ा लग रहा था, इसलिए उसने उसे वह नहीं दिया और इसके बजाय, उसने एक और छोटा केक बेक किया।
वह भी बड़ा लग रहा था इसलिए उसने उसे भी नहीं दिया। दूसरी बार उसने एक और छोटा केक बेक किया लेकिन उसे देने के लिए बहुत बड़ा पाया। तीसरे प्रयास में, उसने आटे का एक बहुत ही छोटा टुकड़ा लिया और उसे समतल कर दिया। उसके पास वेफर जितना पतला था लेकिन वह उसे भी अलग नहीं कर पा रही थी। इसने सेंट पीटर को बहुत नाराज किया। उन्होंने कहा कि वह मानव रूप में रहने और भोजन और गर्मी का आनंद लेने के लिए उपयुक्त नहीं हैं। उसने उसे शाप दिया और उसे कठफोड़वा पक्षी में बदल दिया।
सेंट पीटर के श्राप के बाद, छोटी महिला चिमनी के माध्यम से ऊपर चली गई और एक कठफोड़वा में बदल गई, जिसे अपना कम भोजन पाने के लिए कड़ी, सूखी लकड़ी में बोर करना पड़ा। चिमनी से ऊपर जाने के कारण उसका पूरा शरीर कोयले का काला हो गया था। उसकी लाल टोपी कठफोड़वा की लाल परत में बदल गई। उसके बाद से लोग उसे दिन भर पेड़ों/लकड़ी में देखते रहे जहां वह भोजन की तलाश में सूखी लकड़ी को बोर और बोर करके रहती है।
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