NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Poem 5 A Legend of the Northland

Short Note:

• Phoebe Cary was an American poet, and this poem retells a folk legend from the cold Northland about an old woman who refuses to share food with a hungry visitor.

• In the story, Saint Peter, disguised as a beggar, asks the old woman for a pancake, but she keeps making the cakes smaller out of greed each time she considers giving one away.

• As punishment for her selfishness, Saint Peter transforms her into a woodpecker, condemning her to forever search for food by tapping on trees.

Short Note:

• The poem's central theme is that selfishness and greed bring their own punishment, while generosity and kindness are truly valued.

• It uses a folk-tale format to teach a moral lesson about sharing with those in need, especially in a land of scarcity and harsh winters.

• The transformation into a woodpecker, a bird constantly digging for tiny insects in bark, symbolically reflects the old woman's endless, meagre search for food, similar to how she once meagrely measured her pancake.

Short Note:

• Narrative Style: The poem is written as a story-like ballad, making the moral lesson memorable and engaging.

• Symbolism: The shrinking pancake symbolises the old woman's shrinking generosity, and the woodpecker symbolises eternal, petty searching brought on by greed.

• Irony: The old woman ends up eternally hungry and searching for food, the very fate she tried to avoid by refusing to share.