Crow’s Fall Questions and answers

In this article, you will find important questions and answers from Ted Hughes’s ”Crow’s Fall”.It will also help you to understand the idea and theme of the poem ”Crow’s Fall”.

Table of Contents

• Q1) Why is Crow’s Fall by Ted Hughes considered a fable? (2 marks) or
• What is Fable in literature?
• Q2) What is the theme of the poem “CROW’S FALL”?(2 marks)
• Q3) Do you think “CROW’S FALL” is an animal poem? (2 marks)
• Q4) Do you think “CROW’S FALL” is a children’s poem?            (2 marks)
• Q5) Locate the line and explain -“Where white is black and black is white, I won”  (2 marks)
• Critical analysis of the poem “CROW’S FALL” by Ted Hughes.         (5 marks)

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q1) Why is Crow’s Fall by Ted Hughes considered a fable? (2 marks) or

What is Fable in literature?

Ans) The poem ‘Crow’s fall’ was written by Ted Hughes and was published in 1970. Fable refers to poems or stories which have main animal characters and moral messages or teaching at the end of the story for the readers. And here in the poem Crow’s fall, we have seen “Crow” as the main character and at the end of the poem we get moral teaching that is, we should not have excessive pride or arrogance and never get jealous of others by their qualities as it will lead us to our own destruction.

Q2) What is the theme of the poem “CROW’S FALL”?(2 marks)

Ans) The poem ‘Crow’s Fall” was written by Ted Hughes and was published in 1970. The theme of the poem is pride, arrogance and falsity. We also get the presence of “Hubris” in the poem as the term in Greek mythology refers to excessive pride and arrogance in a person which can lead to his/her own downfall and we can clearly see this in the nature of the “Crow” who had created his own downfall through his excessive pride and anger.

Q3) Do you think “CROW’S FALL” is an animal poem? (2 marks)

Ans) The poem “Crow’s fall” was written by Ted Hughes and got published in 1970. Yes, we can clearly say that “Crow’s Fall” is an animal poem as it contains a “Crow” that is, as the main character and the background gives us the scenario of the Sun, forest and nature and here different symbol has been used to indicate the presence of action and behaviour of the Crow.

Q4) Do you think “CROW’S FALL” is a children’s poem? (2 marks)

Ans) The poem “CROW’S FALL” was written by TED HUGHES and got published in the year 1970. Ted was a great children’s writer and wrote many poems in this genre. And one of them is “Crow’s Fall” as it contains an animal character and also moral values and teaching in it. And most of the children will like it and will get the actual meaning of life with a beautiful storyline.

Q5) Locate the line and explain -“Where white is black and black is white, I won” (2 marks)

Ans) The question quoted line is taken from the poem “Crow’s Fall” by Ted Hughes. It was published in 1970 in the collection “Crow: From the life and songs of Crow”. Here in the poem, the Crow when lost the fight with the Sun, wanted to hide the truth that he did not get the victory and turned charred black for forever when he tried to attack the Sun. And to rectify his mistake, he thought to say to others that, up in the sky when a person loses, he turns into white and the winner turns into black, so he is black and the Sun is white. But being the foolish creature, he did not know that everybody on the earth knew that it was the foolishness of the Crow to fight with the Sun as we all know that there is no one who can fight against it.

Critical analysis of the poem “CROW’S FALL” by Ted Hughes. (5 marks)

Ans) The poem “Crow’s Fall’ was written by Ted Hughes. It was published in the year 1970 in the collection ‘Crow: From the life and songs of the Crow”. Hughes was a nature lover and loved animals and also wrote many poems about them as he used to write stories and poems for the children and he always contained an idea of fable in his writings.

In the poem “Crow’s Fall”, Hughes talked about an arrogant and egoistic Crow, who was self-centred as he could not see the happiness of others and was feeling really proud of his white colour. And even he got jealous of the Sun for being bright and white and being a foolish creature, the Crow planned to attack the Sun in the centre and break it into pieces and destroy it. So, the Crow accordingly, planned to put on his whole strength and fly at the full speed and concentrate on the centre. But the Crow returned charred black and turned black forever. But when other birds asked the Crow about his change in colour from white to black, the Crow lies to them by saying that up in the sky, the winner turns into black and the looser turns into white. So, he turned black, as he is the winner and the sun is still white as it lost to the Crow. But obviously, the reality was different as no one can defeat the Sun and everyone knew it. In the poem, the Crow lost his arrogance and being self-centred made him egoistic and also foolish in front of others and in his own eyes too.

           So, from the “CROW’S FALL”, Ted Hughes wanted to make us understand that, ‘Pride and Arrogance’ can lead a person to destruction and degradation in one’s life. We can also use an allusion to “SATAN” from John Milton’s “PARADISE LOST”, as because of Satan’s pride and selfishness, every Fallen Angles had to go to Hell from Heaven. So, we should always try to spread love and happiness everywhere instead of being selfish, self-centred and egoistic.

           The poem was written in free verse, which contains no rhyme and no meter.