What a Bird Thought Summary and Explanation

CBSE Class 6 English Unit 3 – Nurturing Nature Chapter 2 – What a Bird Thought Summary, Explanation along with Difficult Word Meanings from Poorvi Book

 

What a Bird Thought Summary  – Are you looking for the summary, theme and lesson explanation for CBSE Class 6 English Unit 3 – Nurturing Nature Chapter 2 – What a Bird Thought from English Poorvi Book. Get Lesson summary, theme, explanation along with difficult word meanings

 

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CBSE Class 6 English Unit 3 – Nurturing Nature Chapter 2  – What a Bird Thought

What a Bird Thought Introduction 

What a Bird Thought is a poem on growth and experience. The poem is told from the bird’s perspective. As it grows up, the bird learns that its perspective has changed with experience. Its perspective has changed about how the world is made, from eggs and nests to leaves, only to learn later that the world is too vast to be understood by small creatures like birds.

 

What a Bird Thought Summary 

The bird is narrating its perspective of the world it has been living in. The first home the bird has been living in was the egg. The bird lived well in the small, round, pale blue egg. 

The second house the bird lived in was the nest. The bird was happy to live with her mother in the straw nest. The bird then flew from its nest to sit on the tree branch. The bird could only see the leaves, which made it realise that the bird had a wrong perspective on the world the whole time. The world isn’t small.

The bird had grown up. It flew away from its nest to fulfil its responsibilities, but the bird realised it couldn’t understand how the world was made up, not even the other birds or animals. The bird wanted to convey that the world was too vast to be understood by small creatures like the bird. It’s a universal truth that the bird stated in the end: the world is too vast to be understood by its inhabitants.

 

Summary  for the Lesson What a Bird Thought in Hindi

पक्षी उस दुनिया के बारे में अपना दृष्टिकोण बता रहा है जिसमें वह रह रहा था। पक्षी का पहला घर अंडा है। पक्षी छोटे और गोल हल्के नीले अंडे में अच्छी तरह से रहता था।

दूसरा घर जिसमें पक्षी रहता था वह घोंसला है। चिड़िया अपनी माँ के साथ भूसे से बने घोंसले में रहकर खुश थी। फिर पक्षी अपने घोंसले से उड़कर पेड़ की शाखा पर बैठ गया। पक्षी केवल पत्तियां देख सका, जिससे उसे एहसास हुआ कि उसने पूरे समय दुनिया के प्रति गलत दृष्टिकोण रखा। दुनिया छोटी नहीं है । 

चिड़िया बड़ा हो गया था। वह अपनी ज़िम्मेदारियाँ निभाने के लिए अपने घोंसले से उड़ गया, लेकिन उसे एहसास हुआ कि वह यह नहीं समझ सकता कि दुनिया कैसे बनी है और न ही अन्य पक्षी और जानवर इसे समझ सकते हैं। पक्षी यह बताना चाहता है कि पक्षी जैसे छोटे प्राणियों के लिए यह दुनिया समझने के लिए बहुत विशाल है। यह एक सार्वभौमिक सत्य है कि पक्षी ने अंत में कहा कि दुनिया इतनी विशाल है कि इसके निवासी इसे समझ नहीं सकते।

 

Themes of the Poem: What a Bird Thought 

Personal Growth and Experience 

The bird’s personal growth came with experience. When the bird was in its cocoon-like egg and nest, its world was limited to what it perceived. When the bird starts to fly away from its nest, the bird understands that the world is too vast to be understood by its inhabitants. 

Life is a Continuous Learning Process

The bird continues to learn new things from its early life. First, it gained an understanding of its home, then the world beyond it. This learning helps the bird overcome its long-perceived notions.

Innocence Versus Knowledge

The bird was innocent in its early life. When it explores the world beyond its nest, it understands that the world isn’t a small egg or nest but too vast to be understood by its inhabitants.

Curiosity to Explore

The bird was curious to explore what was beyond its nest. When the bird says, ‘To see what I could find,’ it emphasises the bird’s explorer instinct. The bird’s curiosity eventually helped it learn that the world is too vast to be understood. The bird’s curiosity helped it dismiss its long-perceived notions about the world.

Reality Versus Perception 

The bird perceived what it saw. The bird thought the world was a small egg or a nest, but, it was too vast to be understood by a small creature like a bird. The bird only learned this reality when it experienced the world beyond the nest.

 

What a Bird Thought: Poem Explanation 

Poem:
I lived first in a little house,
And lived there very well,
I thought the world was small and round,
And made of pale, blue shell.

Word meanings
pale: light colour
shell: a hard covering of eggs

Explanation of the above stanza—The baby bird used to live in a pale blue shell, which was small and round. The bird used to live well there. The bird described it as the first home. For the baby bird, the eggshell is the whole world as it hasn’t seen anything beyond it.

 

Poem:What a Bird Thought Summary image 1
I lived next in a little nest,
Nor needed any other,
I thought the world was made of straw,
And nestled by my mother.

Word meanings
straw: sterns of grain plants
nestled: protected

Explanation of the above stanza—The baby bird here describes its next home, the nest. The bird gives a detailed description of the protected and well-nurtured childhood. The baby bird used to live in a little nest made of straw with its mother. The bird is happy to be with its mother. 

 

Poem:
One day, I fluttered from my nest,
To see what I could find,
I said the world is made of leaves,
I have been very blind.

Word meanings
fluttered: fly unsteadily

Explanation of the above stanza—One day, the baby bird flew away from the nest to sit on the tree branch to see what it could find. Here, the bird is portraying its early days of adulthood. The baby bird’s world is now made of leaves. The bird called itself ‘blind’ to believe the world was only the nest where it lived.  It was unaware that something else also existed beyond the nest. The word ‘blind’ is a metaphor to emphasise that the bird’s perception is limited to a nest while there is a world beyond it.

 

Poem:
At length, I flew beyond the tree,
Quite fit for grown-up labours,
I don’t know how the world is made,
And neither do my neighbours.

Word meanings
beyond: further
labours: work
grown-up: adult 

Explanation of the above stanza—The baby bird has now grown up and turned into an adult. It flew far away from the tree and concluded that the bird would never know how the world was made and even the other animals and birds wouldn’t understand. The ‘grown-up labours’ symbolise the responsibilities that come with adulthood.

 

What a Bird Thought Poetic Devices 

Rhyming Scheme 

The rhyming scheme in the poem What a Bird Thought is ABCB. The last words of the second and fourth lines rhyme throughout the poem to add a poetic flow to the poem. For instance, take a look at the first stanza of the poem.

I lived first in a little house,
And lived there very well,
I thought the world was small and round,
And made of pale, blue shell.

In this stanza, the last word of the second and the fourth lines rhyme. The rhyming scheme of the poem is ABCB.

Metaphor 

A metaphor is the comparison of two unrelated things. The poet has compared the world to many objects. The world has been compared to ‘pale, blue shell’, ‘world was made of straw’, and ‘the world is made of leaves’. Bird has metaphorically called itself ‘blind’ for its long-perceived notions towards the world.

Repetition 

The repetition of the line ‘the world was made of’ emphasises the central idea of the poem. It also emphasises how the bird’s perspective changes at every stage of its life. The repetition of the word ‘I thought’ shows the bird’s perspective towards the world, which turned out to be wrong after being explored.

Personification 

Personification gives human aspects to non-human things. The bird’s thoughts and actions are human-like. Its thoughts about how the world was made give the bird human aspects. ‘Quite fit for grown-up labours’, ‘To see what I could find’, and ‘I thought the world was made of straw’ are some of the instances where the bird is personified.

Alliteration 

Alliteration is the repetition of the same letters at the beginning of the adjacent or closely connected words. The poet uses many alliterations to add rhythmic flow in the poem ‘What a Bird Thought’.  The lines that alliterate in the poem to add musical rhythm are ‘I lived first in a little house’, ‘I lived next in a little nest’, ‘I have been very blind’, and ‘neither do my neighbours’.

Symbolism 

The poet uses many symbols, especially for the bird’s home. For example, the ‘little house’ symbolises an egg, and the ‘nest’ symbolises nurtured childhood. The phrase ‘fluttered from my nest’ symbolises adulthood, and ‘flew beyond the tree’ symbolises maturity and independence in the bird’s life. The ‘grown-up labourers’ symbolise the responsibilities in the bird’s life. The ‘neighbours’ symbolise the other birds and animals.

Imagery

Imagery is a descriptive language used to create images in the minds of readers. Some of the imagery used in the poem are ‘a little house’, ‘pale, blue shell’, ‘made of leaves’, ‘made of straw’.

 

Conclusion 

The poem What a Bird Thought gives a moral lesson that knowledge and experience come from exploring the world. 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 lesson includes the summary of What a Bird Thought which will help students of class 6 to get a quick recap of the poem.

Post written by Deepali Khurana