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    1.1 The Raven And The Fox - Class 6 - Poorvi

    Updated: Jul 1

    Author: Jean de La Fontaine

    Textbook: Poorvi – Grade 6

    Genre: Poem / Fable



    📝 Summary


    “The Raven and the Fox” is a short, witty poem that teaches a moral lesson about pride and flattery. The poem begins with a raven sitting on a branch holding a morsel of food in his beak. A fox, named Reynard, sees this and desires the food. Knowing he cannot reach it, the fox flatters the raven by calling him handsome and suggesting that if he could sing, all the birds would crown him as king. The raven, pleased by these compliments, opens his beak to sing and drops the food.


    The fox immediately snatches the food and mocks the raven, laughing and telling him that he has learned an important lesson — to beware of sweet words that feed one's pride. The poem ends with a clear moral that pride and vanity can lead to foolishness and loss.


    The poem uses animal characters to convey this timeless lesson in an amusing and memorable way.


    👤 Character Sketch


    Raven: The raven is proud and vain. He falls easily for flattery and ends up losing his food. His mistake teaches him a hard lesson about pride and trust.


    Fox (Reynard): The fox is clever, cunning, and smooth with his words. He uses flattery to trick the raven and achieves his goal with smart thinking.


    📚 Themes

    Theme

    Description

    Pride and Vanity

    Pride blinds the raven and causes him to act foolishly.

    Power of Flattery

    Flattery is used as a tool to deceive others.

    Cleverness vs. Foolishness

    The fox outsmarts the raven by using words, not force.

    Moral Learning

    The poem ends with a clear lesson about not letting praise fool us.

    ✨ Poetic Devices

    Device

    Example / Explanation

    Rhyme

    Words like "limb–him", "word–bird", "joke–croak", "know–glow" create rhyme.

    Alliteration

    “Such feathers! If you would only sing” — repetition of 's' sound

    Personification

    Animals behave and speak like humans, e.g., Raven singing, Fox giving advice.

    Irony

    Raven thinks he's being honoured, but he is being tricked.

    Moral Ending

    The final stanza gives a direct moral, like in traditional fables.

    📖 Title Justification


    The title “The Raven and the Fox” clearly names the two central characters of the poem. As in all fables, these animals represent human traits — the raven represents vanity and the fox symbolizes cleverness. Their interaction forms the basis of the entire poem. The title is appropriate because it draws attention to the central action and conveys that this is a fable where a lesson will be learned through these characters’ behaviour.


    ✅ One-Mark Questions


    1. Who is perched on the limb in the poem? → Mr. Raven is perched on the limb.

    2. What was in the raven’s beak? → The raven had a morsel (a piece of food) in his beak.

    3. Why did the fox praise the raven? → The fox wanted to trick the raven into dropping the food.

    4. What did the raven do when flattered? → He opened his beak to sing and dropped the morsel.

    5. What lesson did the fox give at the end? → The fox said one should not let flattery make them foolish

    ✅ Three-Mark Questions


    1. How does the fox trick the raven? → The fox sees the raven with a morsel of food in his beak and cleverly praises his appearance. He flatters the raven by calling him handsome and says he would be king if he could sing. The raven, filled with pride, opens his beak to sing, forgetting that his voice is only a croak. As soon as he does, the food falls, and the fox snatches it, revealing that his praise was only a trick.

    2. What is the raven’s mistake, and what does he learn? → The raven's mistake was letting his pride cloud his judgement. He believed the fox’s flattering words and tried to sing, leading to the loss of his food. Through this mistake, he learns that being overly proud and trusting false praise can lead to loss and embarrassment. It teaches him and the reader that one should be wise and not get carried away by compliments.

    3. Why is the poem called a fable, and what is its message? → This poem is a fable because it uses animals that behave like humans to teach a moral lesson. The message is about the dangers of pride and the power of flattery. Like traditional fables, the poem ends with a clear teaching: never trust sweet words blindly and do not let your ego make you lose what you have.


    🧠 Value-Based Question

    Q. What lesson can we apply in real life from the poem “The Raven and The Fox”?→ The poem teaches that we should not let flattery affect our decisions. In real life, people may use praise to manipulate or mislead us. We must learn to stay grounded, think carefully, and not let pride or ego cause us to make poor choices. Being wise, like the fox, is better than being proud like the raven.


    End


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