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A Legend of the Northland
1.0About the Author
Phoebe Cary (September 4, 1824 - July 31, 1871) was an American poet, and the younger sister of poet Alice Cary (1820-1871). The sisters co-published poems in 1849, and then each went on to publish volumes of their own. After their deaths in 1871, joint anthologies of the sisters' unpublished poems were also compiled.
2.0Central Idea
This poem narrates the legend of an old lady who angered Saint Peter because of her greed. The Northland is a polar region as it is located very close to the North pole. For this reason, it is always covered with snow. This poem is set in the backdrop of Scotland. This place has a cold weather and gets very few hours of sunlight. In this poem, the poet is unsure of the authenticity of this legend yet he decides to describe it. In this poem, the poet mentions of St. Peter who was on his usual round of travelling and preaching people. He felt hungry and came in front of a cottage of a little woman who was baking cakes. He asked her for some cakes to eat as he was greatly hungry. The woman was greedy enough to part with even the thinnest of the cakes and kept on baking thinner and thinner cakes but couldn't part with them as well. Saint Peter in turn got angry with the woman and punished her by turning her into a woodpecker who would have to search for food boring in the tree. This poem put forth the theme that we should not be selfish and always help the needy.
3.0Greed is Grave Sin
Here the poet talks about Scotland which is situated near the northern tip of the United Kingdom. The poet says that the hours of the day are few, and the nights are so long in winter. People can't sleep whole nights there. People harness reindeers here to the sledges during the snowfall. Children wear furry clothes and look funny like bears' cubs. They tell them a curious story which the poet doubts if it's true, yet he feels obliged to share it. He says that one might learn a lesson if he tells it to others. He says once, when the good Saint Peter lived in the world below, he went preaching others while travelling round the earth. He stood in front of a small cottage. A woman was baking cakes there on the hearth. As St. Peter was already very hungry since he was fasting, he asked for a single cake from the woman from her store of cakes, so she made a very little cake but when she was baking it, it looked too large to give away, then she kneaded another and a smaller one; But it looked, when she turned it over as large as the first one. Then she took a tiny scrap of dough, and rolled it flat as thin as a wafer. Yet she failed to part with that also.
4.0Greed Always Gets Punished
She said that her cakes seemed too small when she herself ate them, however they appeared very big when she had to give them. Therefore, she put them on the shelf. It angered Saint Peter because he was hungry and faint. There's no doubt that such a woman was enough to provoke a saint. He said that she was far too selfish to live as a human being. She does not deserve both food and shelter, and fire to keep her warm. He added now she would build as the birds do, and would get her scanty food by boring time and again all day in the hard, dry wood. Then up she went through the chimney, and never spoke a word. Out of the chimney flew a woodpecker, as she was changed to a bird. She had a scarlet cap on her head which was left the same. All the rest of her clothes were burned black as a coal in the flame. They say that every country schoolboy has seen her in the woods, where she lives in the trees till this very day, boring and boring for food.
5.0Poetic Devices used in the Poem
- Alliteration - It is the repetition of a letter at the start of closely placed words. Examples : They tell them a curious story Seem too small. Build as the birds. He was hungry. By boring, and boring, and boring. Sledges, when it snows. Funny, furry. Faint with fasting. Learn a lesson
- Enjambment - The sentences are being continued to the next line without a break. Examples : And the nights .them through; Where they when it snows;
- Assonance - Prominent sound of the vowel. Example: Sound of the vowel ' ' in the second line.
- Repetition - It is the repeated use of a word of line to lay emphasis. Examples : Away, away in the Northland, Boring and boring for food.
- Simile - A figure of speech comparing two unlike things that is often introduced by like or as Examples : And the children look like bear's cubs And baked it thin as a wafer Clothes were burned Black as a coal in the flame.
6.0Recall
- A Legend of Northland is a ballad.
- A ballad narrates a story in short paragraphs.
- Ballads are part of the folk culture that orally passed from one generation to the next.
- The Northland is an area near the North Pole.
- The days are short because the sun's rays reach for very little time.
- The nights are very long that people cannot sleep throughout the day here.
- People harness reindeers to sledges.
- Children look like bear's cubs wearing the funny furry clothes.
- Here, the elders tell a strange and interesting story to the children.
- The poet does not believe in the authenticity of the story.
- Still he feels to narrate it since it gives an important message.
- Saint Peter lives in the world and went around, giving spiritual lectures to the people.
- One day he reached the door of a cottage where a small woman was baking cakes in the hearth.
- Saint Peter was very hungry that day, so he asked her for one cake out of the many baked by her.
- The woman baked a thin cake for him, yet could not give it away.
- She did this three-times but didn't give any cake to Saint Peter.
- Even after baking the thinnest of the cakes, she was not able to part with any of them.
- Finally, she put all the cakes on her kitchen shelf and didn't give any cake to the saint.
- This made Saint Peter very angry.
- She reasoned that when she ate them they felt small. But when she had to give them they felt too big to give to someone.
- Saint Peter got angry and cursed her because he was very hungry and felt very weak.
- He said to her that she was selfish and did not deserve to live as a human being.
- He even added that God has given her food, shelter, and fire to keep her warm but she, for her selfish and greedy nature, she did not deserve it.
- Hence the woman became a bird who had to eat by boring into the wood and collect very little food by working the entire day.
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