Reading Comprehension and Critical Thinking (Updated)

Read through the following poem. 

What do you get from reading the poem? 

• What is it about? 
• Is there a message? 
• Can one extend the meaning to correlate it to human behaviour?
• What is the use of imagery found in the poem?
• What is the use of selected words in the poem?

My Feathered Friend

I spied thee, my feathered friend,

Pecking furiously at thy perceived foe,

Thy hard beak pounding at thy reflected self;

It too had its head thrust to the mirrored pane

With its chocolate-hued wings spread from its dark body

And red-rimmed eyes staring, unblinking, unyielding;

Aye, thy foe, postured much like thyself, was ready for battle,

Returning peck for peck with like ferocity, like enmity.

In the next post, suggested responses to the above questions will be forwarded. Do take the time to come up with your own responses for answers can differ from individual to individual and there need not be a `correct' answer.

If you would like us to take a look at your responses, do send them to us at admin1@thepeartree.info



Guiding Questions:

My `feathered friend', with references to being `feathered', and with a `beak' and `wings' would naturally be a bird. 

• Thus, based on the other descriptions of the bird, what would be the colours that you would expect to see on the different parts of the bird's body. (An outline is given below for you to colour in the various hues adorning the bird.)

• What are effects of using words such as: 

`spied' instead of `saw'; `pounding' instead of `hitting'; `thrust' instead of `bent forward'; `postured' instead of `standing'

•  What is the feeling that the bird is experiencing? Why is it feeling that way?
• Is the feeling justified?
• Can the bird's reaction be extended to the human experience? Would some people react in a similar fashion?
• What lesson may we, as humans, derive from the bird's reaction?

Tenses and its relationship to Timeframe

In the earlier post, it was mentioned that tenses, in particular, the ones that are highlighted below, will be examined more closely in the next post. Let us look at the extract, with the highlighted tenses, that is reproduced below:

The poet hopes that the ability to appreciate the wonders of nature, which he had at his infancy and right up to adulthood, will continue to be a part of him even when he becomes elderly. He would rather die than have this sense of awe and wonder disappear as he ages. For to him, life becomes meaningless if he were to lose interest in the natural beauty around him.

 Tenses are used in writing to indicate the time-frame in which a particular action or state of being occurs. Let us now look at the examples given above.

In using the present tense at the start, `hopes', the author is saying that the hope is ever-present, something that is still present in the poet. The appreciation of nature is something that the poet had in the past, in his infancy and he hopes it will continue, be with him int he future too.

So far, so good - the use of the different tenses is easy to understand when one realises that the different tenses are used to denote different periods of time, present, past and future. However, now, we come to the tricky part.

`life becomes (present tense)... if he were (past, plural)'

If' indicates a conditional state of affairs. Whatever is stated hasn't happened. So, here, what is stated is a possibility, and in English the past tense is used in such situations. It is probable that the intention is to suggest a situation in which the probability, or hypothesis, has already occurred and hence, the past tense should be used. Once the reader is placed within the time-frame of the occurrence of the hypothesis, the natural outcome or `truth' or `statement of fact' takes place and so, the present tense is employed. Now, why is the tense for plural subjects used even though the subject or pronoun is in the singular? When such conditional situations are presented, `were' is used even when the subject or pronoun is singular. It could be, because, since the situation or action is merely a hypothesis and is not real, it does not matter if the subject is singular or plural, hence a neutral `were' is used, merely to indicate past tense and not subject-verb agreement.