The Kites Summary and Explanation
CBSE Class 6 English Unit 5- Culture And Tradition Chapter 2- The Kites Summary, Explanation along with Difficult Word Meanings from Poorvi Book
The Kites Summary – Are you looking for the summary, theme and lesson explanation for CBSE Class 6 English Unit 5- Culture And Tradition Chapter 2 – The Kites from English Poorvi Book. Get Lesson summary, theme, explanation along with difficult word meanings
- The Kites Introduction
- The Kites Summary
- The Kites Summary in Hindi
- The Kites Theme
- The Kites Explanation
- The Kites Poetic Devices
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CBSE Class 6 English Poorvi Book Unit 5 – Culture And Tradition Chapter 2 – The Kites
The Kites Introduction
Daphne Lister, through her poetry, ‘The Kite’, explores the imagination and dreams of children. Like her poem ‘The Kite’, her other works, too, explore the themes of freedom, exploration, escapism, dreams, and admiration in other people’s eyes. She deployed simple language yet thought-provoking ideas through a whimsical world. Through ‘The Kite’, Daphne Lister has weaved a fanciful world to invoke sentiment in the readers.
The Kites Summary
The child looked up and described the kites flying in the sky. The kites were compared to the ‘coloured birds’ flying with the wind. The kites, too, like birds, are sharply driven by the strong wind. The child then desired to be small and weightless to climb the kite and fly in the sky. He wants to be atop the kite and listen to the melodies of the wind as it blows fiercely around him. He then imagines the fun he will have while flying. He even cited one of them; he would look down over the park and the rooftops of town. He also imagines how the people below would look at him in awe. They would wish to be in the same position as the child on the flying kite to explore and experience freedom. They would want to be high in the air like him.
Summary of the Lesson The Kites in Hindi
बच्चा आसमान की ओर देख रहा था और आकाश में उड़ रही पतंग का वर्णन कर रहा था। पतंग की तुलना हवा के साथ उड़ने वाले ‘रंगीन पक्षियों’ से की गई। पतंगें भी, पक्षियों की तरह, तेज़ हवा से तेजी से उड़ती हैं। तब बच्चा छोटा और भारहीन होना चाहता था ताकि वह पतंग पर चढ़कर आकाश में उड़ सके। वह पतंग के ऊपर रहना चाहता है और हवा की धुन सुनना चाहता है क्योंकि वह उसके चारों ओर तेजी से चल रही है। फिर वह कल्पना करता है कि उड़ते समय उसे कितना मजा आएगा जैसे वह पार्क और शहर की छतों को देख रहा हो। वह यह भी कल्पना करता है कि नीचे के लोग उसे आश्चर्य से कैसे देखेंगे। वे आज़ादी की खोज और अनुभव करने के लिए पतंग उड़ाते समय बच्चे के समान स्थिति में रहना चाहेंगे। वे उसकी तरह हवा में ऊँचा रहना चाहेंगे।
Themes of the Lesson The Kites
A Different Perspective to Look at the World
The poetess has used the child’s imagination to explore the theme of looking at the world from different perspectives. Daphne has given a magical quality to the kite to explore the world from above. Through her whimsical idea, she wants the reader to look at things from a different perspective. She has poetically used the child’s imagination to see the world from above and highlighted the desire and admiration in other people’s eyes on the ground to be in the sky.
Admiration in the Eyes of Other People
Daphne Lister has critiqued the human nature of being appreciated and admired in other people’s eyes. She used the child’s imagination to look at the world below. She critiques the mindset and the desires of the people on the rooftops or ground. The desire to be high in the sky like the child.
Desires
Daphne has vividly portrayed the dream and desire of humans to be above others. The quest to look at the things from above highlights the human nature of being admired by others. The poetess critiques these desires by using the child’s desire to be in the sky and be admired by the people on the rooftops or ground.
Freedom to Explore
Daphne, throughout her poem ‘The Kite’, explored the theme of freedom to explore the world. The longing to see the world from a different vantage point. The same desire she evoked using the child’s imagination in the people on the rooftops or ground.
The Kites Lesson Explanation
Poem:
Up in the air
See the kites fly,
Like coloured birds
In the wind-whipped sky.
Word Meanings
wind-whipped: something has been struck sharply by the wind
Explanation of the above stanza—In this stanza, the child looked at the sky and described the kites flying in the sky. The kites are compared to ‘coloured birds’ flying with the wind. The imagery of the ‘wind-whipped sky’ was to create a mental image of a windy day in the minds of the readers. Through the child, the poet highlights the vibrancy and freedom one yearns to have in life.
Poem:
I wish I were small
And light as air,
I would climb on a kite
And sail up there.
Word meanings
sail up: move it forward using the wind.
Explanation of the above stanza—In this stanza, the child desires to be small and weightless as air. The child would then climb on the kite and fly in the sky. Through the child, the poet highlights a sense of longing for freedom and exploration.
Poem:
Then I would drift upon
The paper wings,
And hear the songs
That the wild wind sings.
Word meanings
drift: be carried away/along
Explanation of the above stanza—In this stanza, the child wants to be carried away on the kite and listen to the melodies of the wind as it blows fiercely around him. The poet has captured the child’s harmony with nature and the happiness to be carried away by the wind.
Poem:
What fun it would be
To look right down,
Over the park
And the rooftops of town.
Word meanings
rooftops: the outer surface of a building’s roof
Explanation of the above stanza—The child imagines the fun he will have while flying. He even cites one of them, like he would look down over the park and the rooftops of town. The poet, in this stanza, uses the child to see the world through a bird’s or kite’s perspective.
Poem:
The people below
Would stand and stare,
And wish they were me
High, high in the air.
Word meanings
stare: look fixedly or vacantly at someone or something
Explanation of the above stanza—The child imagines how the people below would look up at him in awe. They would wish to be in the same position as the child flying on the kite to explore and experience freedom. They would want to be high in the air like him. The poet, through the child, highlights the quest of admiration in the other people’s eyes and critiques the human desire to be in the other people’s place.
Poetic Devices
Rhyming Scheme
The rhyming scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem. ‘The Kites’ has the rhyming of ABCB, which means that the last word of the second line and the fourth line rhyme. For instance, look at the first stanza of the poem, the words ‘fly’ and ‘sky’ rhyme.
Up in the air
See the kites fly,
Like coloured birds
In the wind-whipped sky.
Simile
A simile is the poetic device used by the poets to compare two things using the words ‘like’ or ‘as’. The poet compared the kites flying ‘like coloured birds’ to depict the vibrancy and freedom the poet yearns to have in his life. The child wants to be ‘small and light as air’ so that he can climb on the Kite and fly in the sky.
Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of the same letters at the beginning of the adjacent or closely connected words. The alliterations used in the poem are ‘wind-whipped’ and ‘wild wind’ to describe the speed of the wind. The poet also used alliteration in the lines ‘stand and stare’ to critique the human nature of admiring other people’s lives.
Imagery
Imagery is a descriptive language used to create images in the minds of readers. The poet has used a ‘wind-whipped sky’ to create the mental image of the windy day in the minds of readers. The desire to ‘climb on a kite’, ‘drift upon the paper wings’, ‘hear the songs’, and ‘the wild wind sings’ highlights the longing for freedom and exploration.
Metaphor
A metaphor is the comparison of two unrelated things. The poet metaphorically refers to the Kite as ‘paper wings’. The kite is given the figurative qualities of the bird. The child wants to be atop the kite and sail through the windy sky.
Personification
Personification gives human aspects to non-human things. The poet has personified wind, giving it a human-like aspect in the lines ‘wild wind sings’. The kite, too, has been compared to the bird to give human aspects to it. It has also been given the agency and freedom to explore.
Repetition
The poet has repeated the word ‘high, high’ to emphasise the human desire to climb higher and higher in the social ladder. The desire of the child to be in the sky. The poet has used the child’s imagination to highlight the same desire in the people on the ground or on rooftops.
Assonance
Assonance is a figure of speech that is characterised by the use of words that have similar vowel sounds. Daphne used assonance to add rhythm to her poem ‘The Kite’. One of the instances in the poem, ‘And the rooftops of town.’
Symbolism
Symbolism is a literary device where symbols such as characters, objects, or ideas represent something else. Daphne has used symbols like ‘kite’ and ‘bird’ to symbolise the longing for freedom and exploration. The ‘people below’ represents the society’s perspective.
Conclusion:
The poem ‘The Kite’ by Daphne Lister explores the theme of the quest for freedom and exploration. Students can take help from the post to understand the poem and also learn the difficult word meanings to get a better grasp of the poem. This post includes the summary of the poem ‘The Kite’ which will help students of class 6 to get a quick recap of the poem.