The Mountain and the Squirrel

 

Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803-1882)

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a famous American writer and thinker. He is best known for his ideas about believing in yourself, being independent, and respecting nature. His writings, like Nature and Self-Reliance, still inspire people today.

Prig: A self-righteous, moralistic person. (Always consider oneself as superior)

Spry: Lively and energetic.

Quarrel: An angry argument or disagreement.

Disgrace: A state of shame or dishonour.

Prig: A righteous person (A person who thinks himself as a morally superior person)

Theme Of  The Poem

The poem is about a verbal argument between an inanimate thing, a mountain, and a little creature, a squirrel, but it also teaches us a valuable life lesson. 

We should learn to appreciate everyone, no matter how insignificant they appear to us. We must also recognize that no one is faultless, and we have no right to humiliate people for their mistakes or to try to establish our superiority over them.

Appreciation of the Poem

"Mountain and the Squirrel" is a fun and meaningful poem that teaches us to accept ourselves and respect others. In the poem, a mountain and a squirrel talk to each other. They both say what makes them special. The mountain calls the squirrel a "Little Prig," which means someone who thinks they are always right. But the squirrel answers with confidence and shows that both of them are useful in different ways.

The squirrel says, "all sorts of things and weather must be taken in together to make up a year and a sphere." This means the world needs many different things and types of weather to be complete. In the same way, the world needs both big things like mountains and small creatures like squirrels.

The mountain is big and strong. The squirrel is small but quick and smart. The poem tells us that both are important in their own way.

The poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, makes the mountain and the squirrel talk like people. This is called personification. It makes the poem fun to read. The rhyming words like squirrel-quarrel, Prig-big, weather-together, year-sphere, and I-spry give the poem a nice rhythm.

The main message of the poem is that everyone is special in their own way. We should be proud of who we are and respect others for their unique talents.

                                                                Poetic Figures

Personification: Attribution of human character to non-human things. 

The mountain and the squirrel are given human qualities, as they have a conversation and express opinions.

Metaphor: Metaphor is a comparison between two things that are otherwise unrelated.

The mountain and squirrel represent the different strengths and qualities of the world.

 

All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players.

Sphere is a metaphor for the earth or complete balanced globe. 

 

Alliteration: Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of neighbouring words. 

"so-small", "so-spry", "cannot-carry". "all is well and wisely put"

Betty bought a bit of butter but the butter was very bitter so Betty bought some better butter to make the bitter butter better.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:

Hover through the fog and filthy air.

Assonance: Repetition of similar vowel sounds to in two or more nearby words. 

"Very pretty", "And I think it a disgrace", "Former called the latter"

Parallelism:

Parallelism means using the same pattern of words or grammar to show that two or more ideas are equally important or connected.

The poem creates a parallelism between what a mountain and a squirrel can do. 

Eg. If I'm not so large as you, / You are not so small as I.

Julius Caesar: "I came, I saw, I conquered"

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.
Government of the people, by the people, for the people

Dialogue:

The use of dialogue between the mountain and the squirrel makes the poem engaging and helps to convey the message.

QUESTION ANSWERS 

What is the tone of Squirrel's response to the mountain?

The squirrel’s words display a tone of confidence in himself and a slight mockery with respect to the mountain. It also uses clever comparisons to make its point.

A. 1. Talents; wisely

2. a. The mountain called the squirrel ‘prig’.

b. A person who exaggerates himself as a very righteous person and thinks that he

is superior to others.

c. The squirrel replies that though the mountain is larger in size compared to him,

everything has its own importance and role to play in nature (‘a year and a sphere’).

And he says that he holds his own place of importance in such a system.

3. The squirrel accepts that his size is very small compared to the mountain.

4. If I cannot carry forests on my back, / Neither can you crack a nut.

5. The squirrel’s words display a tone of confidence in his own self, and a slight mockery

with respect to the mountain.

6. Regardless of size or mater, everything in the universe has its own significance.