Class 8 English — Chapter 2: The Ant and the Cricket

What you'll learn

• ▸The Fable as a Literary Form
• ▸Character Analysis: The Cricket
• ▸Character Analysis: The Ant
• ▸Theme: Foresight and Responsibility
• ▸Symbolism of the 'Two-Legged Cricket'
• ▸Interpretation of Key Phrases
• ▸Vocabulary and Archaic Language
• ▸Poetic Structure and Rhyme Scheme

Chapter Summary

--- PAGE 1 --- The Ant and the Cricket A fable is a story, often with animals as characters, that conveys a moral. This poem about an ant and a cricket contains an idea of far-reaching significance, which is as true of a four-legged cricket as of a 'two-legged one'. Surely, you have seen a cricket that has two legs! A silly young cricket, accustomed to sing Through the warm, sunny months of gay summer and spring, Began to complain when he found that, at home, His cupboard was empty, and winter was come. Not a crumb to be found On the snow-covered ground; Not a flower could he see, Not a leaf on a tree. “Oh! what will become,” says the cricket, “of me?” At last by starvation and famine made bold, All dripping with wet, and all trembling with cold, Away he set off to a miserly ant, To see if, to keep him alive, he would grant Him shelter from rain, And a mouthful of grain. He wished only to borrow; He’d repay it tomorrow; If not, he must die of starva…

Practice Questions from this Chapter

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1. Explore how ants prepare for winter. Get Solution →
2. Compare ant and cricket survival strategies. Get Solution →
3. Discover what crickets eat in winter. Get Solution →
4. What does the poem say the cricket was 'accustomed to do' during warm months? Get Solution →
5. Why did the cricket begin to complain? Get Solution →
6. What two things did the cricket want to get from the ant? Get Solution →
7. According to the ant, what is the principle of the ants? Get Solution →
8. What did the cricket say he did while the weather was warm? Get Solution →

Did you know?

• 💡 Ants can lift objects up to 50 times their own body weight.
• 💡 Crickets hear sounds using 'ears' located on their front legs.
• 💡 A single ant colony can be home to millions of individual ants.
• 💡 Crickets 'sing' by rubbing their specialized wings together very fast.
• 💡 Some queen ants can live for an astonishing 30 years or more.

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