The Sacred Turtles of Kandavu A Fijian Legend 1. What is a legend? A legend is a very old story or set of stories from ancient times about famous events or persons. These stories are not always true . 2. Where does the story “The Scared Turtles of Kandavu” take place? The legend of the sacred turtles of Kandavu takes place in the Fijian island of Namuana. 3. Fiji: Fiji, a country in the South Pacific, is an archipelago (group of islands) of more than 300 islands. It's famed for rugged landscapes, palm-lined beaches and coral reefs with clear lagoons. 4. How, according to the legend, did the warriors of Kadavu save themselves a long journey by sea? The Fijian islands are surrounded by sea. The legends says that the warriors of Kadavu saved the time for a long journey by sea, by sliding their canoes on rollers up over the na...
Analysis:
“Dusts
of Snow” is a simple and beautiful poem by Robert Frost. The poet regretted the
better part of the day for reasons known
only to him. Naturally he was quite sad and unhappy.
It
was then, a crow shook off the dusts of snow, from its feathers sitting on
hemlock tree.
We
have very few images in this short poem, namely “the man”, “the crow”, “the
hemlock tree”, and “the dusts of snow”.
x
x
Naturally it is the season of winter. A crow is perching on an ever green pine called the hemlock tree and the poet stands under the tree. The crow is shaking off the snow from its wings. It too might have been very cold and wanted to save itself from the biting cold.
The
tree on which the crow rests is hemlock. It is quite a majestic and beautiful
tree native to America . In some pagan religions hemlock tree is associated
with protection and healing.
Do
not confuse hemlock tree with hemlock plant which is poisonous and grows only
three to five feats. Greek philosopher Socrates, when condemned to die took
hemlock drink.
Robert
frost has a habit of bringing in various aspects of nature and especially trees
and woods into his poems, like birches, apple trees, pines, fir tree etc.
The
bird crow, is not usually associated with good tidings. Nor is it a beautiful
bird. It is a harbinger of bad tidings, and even death. Why did the poet choose
such a bird? Is it because of his mental state?. He was unhappy for some
unexplained reason.
The
snow is normally is a symbol of purity. But the crow, in such a cold winter has
little reason to love the snow flakes on its body. But when the dusts of snow
falls on the poet, his earlier mood changes. He becomes happy.
He
might have been reminded of his childhood days, when he played in snow and
swung on the birches. Here the nature, in the form of winter, hemlock, crow and
snow, gives a fresh heart to the poet. Nature has a healing power.
The poem is written in two stanzas of four lines each. The rhyme scheme
of the poem is abab cdcd.
The metre of the poem is iambic dimetre,
though there are two lines of anapaestic feet
(“From a hem/ lock tree” and “Has giv/en my heart”).