Question

summary on the poem a legend of northland

Answer 1

Hey bro here is your discussion!


1st Stanza:

Away, away in the Northland,
Where the hours of the day are few,
And the nights are so long in winter,
They cannot sleep them through;

In this stanza, the poet introduces the place from which her story is derived, which is the “Northland” that the title of this poem refers to. She says that days are short, and nights are long there. It is so cold that people cannot sleep comfortably the whole night, and often wake up being unable to bear the temperatures.

 

2nd Stanza:

Where they harness the swift reindeer
To the sledges, when it snows;
And the children look like bear’s cubs
In their funny, furry clothes:

In this stanza, Cary continues her description of the people of the Northland. She says that when the snow falls, they like to go sledging and so they tie reindeer up to their sledges. Because of the cold, children are made to wear heavy woolen clothes that cover them up fully and make them look like the cubs of bears.

 

3rd Stanza:

They tell them a curious story —
I don’t believe ‘t is true;
And yet you may learn a lesson
If I tell the tale to you.

In this stanza, Cary talks about how parents in the Northland tell their children a story. She does not think the story is true, but that it should be told nonetheless for it teaches children an important lesson.

 

4th Stanza:

Once, when the good Saint Peter
Lived in the world below,
And walked about it, preaching,
Just as he did, you know;

In this stanza, Cary begins to tell the story. The story is about Saint Peter as he traveled around the world preaching the word of God.

 

5th Stanza:

He came to the door of a cottage,
In traveling round the earth,
Where a little woman was making cakes,
And baking them on the hearth;

In this stanza, Cary continues the story. She describes how Saint Peter once came to a woman’s house as she was baking cakes for herself.

 

6th Stanza:

And being faint with fasting,
For the day was almost done,
He asked her, from her store of cakes,
To give him a single one.

In this stanza, Cary describes how Saint Peter’s body was pale and tired at the end of a long day. To sustain himself, he asked the woman to give him only one of the many cakes that she was baking.

 

7th Stanza:

So she made a very little cake,
But as it baking lay,
She looked at it, and thought it seemed
Too large to give away.

In this stanza, Cary describes how the woman made a very small cake, but before she could give it to Saint Peter, she started thinking that it was too big to just be given away like that.

 

8th Stanza:

Therefore she kneaded another,
And still a smaller one;
But it looked, when she turned it over,
As large as the first had done.

In this stanza, Cary describes how the woman went on to make an even smaller cake but how it looked as big as the first one to her.

 

9th Stanza:

Then she took a tiny scrap of dough,
And rolled and rolled it flat;
And baked it thin as a wafer —
But she couldn’t part with that.

In this stanza, Cary describes the woman’s third attempt to make a cake so small that she wouldn’t mind giving it away. This time she took an extremely small lump of dough, and when she rolled out the dough, her cake was as flat and thin as a wafer. However, she couldn’t even bear to give that insubstantial cake away..

Hope this help you!

Answer 2

.Heya.... here is your answer

13th Stanza:

“Now, you shall build as the birds do,
And shall get your scanty food
By boring, and boring, and boring,
All day in the hard dry wood.”
In this stanza, Cary describes how Saint Peter told the woman that she would have to build her own nest like birds do, and how she must dig holes into wood in order to get worms to feed herself.

14th Stanza:

Then up she went through the chimney,
Never speaking a word,
And out of the top flew a woodpecker,
For she was changed to a bird.
In this stanza, Cary describes how the woman went up the chimney of her house being speechless, and how, she had turned into a woodpecker. This woodpecker could be seen flying out of the top of the chimney.

15th Stanza:

She had a scarlet cap on her head,
And that was left the same,
But all the rest of her clothes were burned
Black as a coal in the flame.
In this stanza, Cary describes how the woman had been wearing a red cap in human form, and how as a woodpecker her head was still the same shade of red in color. However, all the clothes she had been wearing seemed to have been burnt and had become black, and that is what the color of the woodpecker’s body was.

16th Stanza:

And every country school-boy
Has seen her in the wood;
Where she lives in the trees till this very day,
Boring and boring for food.
In this stanza, Cary says that every bow living in the village had seen this woodpecker and that she still digs into the bark of trees looking for worms to feed on.

17th Stanza:

And this is the lesson she teaches:
Live not for yourself alone,
Lest the needs you will not pity
Shall one day be your own.
In this stanza, Cary says that the woodpecker teaches us to have pity for every poor man on earth, because one day they might also suffer from the same hardships.

18th Stanza:

Give plenty of what is given to you,
Listen to pity’s call;
Don’t think the little you give is great,
And the much you get is small.
In this stanza, Cary says that we should share whatever life has given us, and we should never turn ourselves from anyone who deserves our pity. We must not think that our charity is great, or that we have not got as much as we deserve in life.

19th Stanza:

Now, my little boy, remember that,
And try to be kind and good,
When you see the woodpecker’s sooty dress,
And see her scarlet hood.
In this stanza, Cary imagines one if her readers to be a little boy and tells him to be kind-hearted when he sees the woodpecker’s black body and her scarlet head.

20th Stanza:

You may n’t be changed to a bird, though you live
As selfishly as you can;
But you will be changed to a smaller thing —
A mean and selfish man.
In this stanza, Cary says that if her reader is selfish, he may not suffer the same fate as the woman did by being turned into a bird, but he would certainly be turned into a miserly and cruel man, and this she believes is the worse of the two fates

hope it helps!!!!!!