A Tiger Summary in English

This poem is showing the pitiful condition of the tiger in the zoo. It shows the poor condition of the tiger in a cage.
In a zoo, the tiger walks in the limited space provided to it in the cage. He can take a few steps. There are stripes on
his body which are easily noticeable. His paws are soft like velvet. He does not make any noise while walking on his
‘pads of velvet’. Usually, the tiger is silent but in anger.
Poet suggests that the cage is not the proper place for the tiger, as it is not its natural habitat. Thus, the tiger in the
cage is a victim of human cruelty. Generally, tigers are found sitting under some bushes or long grass near some
water bodies. So that the tiger can see its prey like deer coming there to drink water, and consequently can slide
silently through the grass and kill them. The poet wants to convey to all humankind that the tiger should be there in
the forest and not in a cage.
Further, the poet gave a suggestion that the tiger should be sitting at the jungle’s edge near the village. It may
terrorize the people passing that way by showing its sharp teeth, baring its claws and producing a roaring sound of
anger.
Poet has deep sympathy due to the unpleasant situation of the tiger who is imprisoned in a cell made of concrete.
Tiger is unable to come out due to the strong bars fixed at the concrete cell. So, the tiger’s strength is locked behind
the bars. All such circumstanced are making tiger having no interest in the visitors. And, he keeps on stalking in the
limited space of the cage.
The poet is trying to make realize the people about a tiger who is sitting in the cage and feeling unpleasant and
restless. Tiger is still showing no interest in the sound created by the patrolling cars of the zoo authorities. The poet
is showing him staring at the shining stars with his brilliant eyes. The poet is raising a moral issue here and he
intends to present a strong case against the cruelty of humans for the animals kept in cages.
Conclusion of A Tiger in the Zoo
In this poem, the poet is conveying an important message that wild animals should be in their natural habitat.

Poetic Devices in A Tiger in the Zoo:

Rhyme scheme:Each of the five stanzas of “A tiger in the Zoo” follows the same simple rhyme scheme –
ABCB.

Central Idea of A Tiger in the Zoo:

The poet shows his readers that a tiger is better suited to living in the wild rather than living in a zoo. In the
wild, it can roam freely and hunt as and when it requires food. It can approach human habitation and intimidate
its inhabitants, but will not harm them unless it is provoked. On the other hand, in the zoo, its radius of
movement is very small, it feels like a prisoner in a jail cell, it is fed by the zoo authorities and so it unlearns
how to live by itself and is made lazy. It does not appreciate humans coming to look at it. It cannot even sleep at
night because it is angry at being caged. All in all, the tiger lives an unnatural and unhappy life in the zoo.

Theme of A Tiger in the Zoo:

Tiger as a proud creature: In this poem, the poet shows how proud a creature the tiger is, and as a consequence,
why it should never by caged on zoo premises. In the wild, the tiger hunts its own food all alone and without
any help from others of its kind. The stealthy hunting of deer at the water hole may seem cruel, but it is merely a
survival strategy. Tigers hunt only when they need to eat. Moreover, this helps to keep the food chain of the
forest balanced and thus it keeps the ecosystem healthy as well.

Even when the tiger occasionally strays into human habitation, it only growls at the inhabitants but does not kill
them or harm them in any other way unless it is put under extreme provocation. In the zoo as well, the tiger’s
pride is noticeable to all. Hundreds of visitors flock to its cage every day, but it ignores them all, roaming about
on its own. However, in the reduced space of the cage, it cannot move freely. That is why the poet believes that
all tigers should live in the wild and none in the zoo. They are not really a danger to human life, and so they
should not be confined.

Conservation of natural habitat: Zoos came up not only as a source of passing entertainment for man, but also
because forest lands are now hard to come by. Most of these lands have been cleared for agriculture or
industrialisation. As a result, many animals like the tiger have lost their natural habitat and have been forced to
live at zoos or travel as part of a circus. However, the poet shows that an animal is always more majestic when
seen in its natural habitat rather than in an artificial setting such as a zoo. In doing so, his message to readers is
that we should all strive to conserve the natural habitat of the earth’s animal life. We should plant trees and stop
the activities of hunters and poachers in order to make forests available and safe for the habitation of animals
like the tiger.

Tone of the Poem A Tiger in the Zoo:

The tone of this poem is quite ambiguous. When the poet describes the setting of the zoo, his tone is one of
regret because he believes that this is not the kind of life that a tiger should be living. However, there is also a
tone of suppressed anger, of the same kind that the tiger feels at being caged. On the other hand, when the poet
describes the setting of the forest, the tone is one of admiration and awe at seeing the tiger in its natural habitat.
In the last stanza, the tone of regret returns as the poet describes how lack of effort and running ground in the
day prevents the tiger from sleeping at night. Only in the last two lines, the tiger’s defiance comes through and
the poet makes it seem that the tiger is issuing a challenge to all the worlds (symbolized by the stars in the sky)
to produce something as majestic as itself.

Literary devices: ‘A Tiger in the Zoo’

Synecdoche– part for whole.

Vivid stripes – the stripes represent his whole body.

Metaphor– (Indirect comparison)

Velvet quite – it was as quiet as walking on velvet

Personification – (Giving characteristics of humans to animals or inanimate objects)

Tiger has been personified as he moves in quiet rage and ignores visitors.

Oxymoron – use of opposites for emphasis

Quiet rage – Anger is usually loud.

Alliteration– (repetition of same sound in proximity)

Consonance – (repetition of consonant sound)

Plump deer pass – ‘p’ sound has been repeated
Concrete cell – ‘c’ sound is repeated
Behind bars – ‘b’ sound is repeated

Repetition– (repeating words for emphasis)

Velvet quiet/ quiet rage
Brilliant eyes/ brilliant stars

Asyndeton – absence of conjunction between parts of sentence

His fangs, his claws
Enjambment – a sentence continuing in the next line without punctuation
Stanzas 2, 3 and 5

Imagery – use of words to help the reader create a sensory image

Kinesthetic imagery – image of movement

He stalks in vivid stripes

Sound imagery
Snarling around houses