BLOOM'S TAXONOMY: PARROT IN A CAGE

Text Profile:

Writer: Lekhnath Paudel 

Genre: Poem

The event of writing: Against the then Rana rule

Major theme: Seeking freedom

Bloom's Taxonomy:

1. Remember:

The poem parrot in a cage is written by Nepali writer Lekhnath Paudyal and translated by Laxmi Prasad Devkota. The poem is a dramatic monologue of a parrot trapped in cage. The parrot laments about how his dreams are trapped along with him inside that man made daungeon. He sometimes blames his fate and sometimes blames the god.

He remembers his parents and feels sad for his family. His beak is blunt by trying to break free of those bars. Out of desperation, he thinks of ending his life. In the end, he blames for his capability of speaking for his bad curse.

2. Understand:

Through the parrot, the poet has tried to express the agony of being controlled and not being able to run free soar higher skies and eat what duration at which the poet lived in. Tyranny ruled over people like the master ruled upon the parrot. Even the food he ate and water he drank was tasteless and not what he wanted but it was a natural compulsion to just sustain his life. Through the metaphor of twice-born child, the poet shows two phases of the parrot which he used to live i.e. free and the latter what he considers a curse one in the dungeon. He tries to escape but his beak is blunt and he is left with nothing but hopeless.

Through this poem, it is indicated how we find faults in the next person other than yourself when you can not do things by yourself. Like the parrot, we sometimes blame the fate, the supernatural guardians, his own attributes and finally the very human existence.

3. Application:

The parrot is capable of mimicry and speech. For this talent, parrots are kept tamed in many households and are made to be a merry winding doll of human beings.

The parrot here is the representation of the people who are willing to break free. The parrot is speaking for its rights. But, he is kept in cage and is mocked and controlled by people possessing higher potential than him. Similarly, people fighting for their rights are suppressed closed inside iron bars and tormented limiting their access to their very basic requirements.

People with great specialties are framed and are used to fulfill what people at higher posts wish for. They are deprived of their freedom for some luxuries like the parrot who is deprived of flying to easy food and water for its beauty.

4. Analyze:

The poem is more of an appeal of the then people who were brutally ruled by the Ranas. This indirectly expresses the hatred the poet feels towards the government. Since people were not allowed to speak against the rulers, literature was only the way to express their disapproval. The poem has effectively expressed this feeling and made others aware as well. It urges the people to understand that the condition they are in is not due to their fate but it was due to their ill-will and reluctance to fight against them.

The parrot repeatedly puts the blame on his fate. This clearly depicts the human nature as to how they put the blame upon others when they make any mistakes and find themselves in trouble. The parrot might have been warned to not go closer to human habitats but he refused to follow the rules and finally found himself in trouble.

Through the parrot, the poet inspires us to be responsible for our deeds and take responsibility for our own mistakes. Instead of blaming fate we should believe in our intellect and strength.

5. Evaluate:

The poem was originally written in Nepali and later translated in English. During translation, the originality of the poem is lost. The effectiveness which we can find in the Nepali version is absent in English. Since the poem was written some decades before the relevance of the poem is quite absent. Nevertheless, the poem still urges us to have faith in yourself and stop surrendering to fate.

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