To a Pair of Sarus Cranes

About the Author & Poem

Manmohan Singh (born 1938): An officer of the Indian Administrative Service and a contemporary poet. His poems are noted for their sensitivity to nature and the animal world.

The Poem: "To a Pair of Sarus Cranes" is a poignant poem that depicts the intense love and loyalty of a pair of Sarus cranes. It contrasts the birds' grace and devotion with the heartless callousness of a hunter who kills the male bird for sport. The poem follows the female crane's descent into a wave of grief that ultimately leads to her death, proving that her love transcended human fables.

I. Comprehension Questions (Brief Answers)

Answer: (a) sunrise

Answer: (b) the sun was unwilling to rise (it was the bird's feeling that the sun was reluctant to rise).

Answer: The figure of speech is Hyperbole. The bird cannot actually touch the sun, but its eager movements are shown thus through exaggeration.

Answer: As the male bird was stretching its neck at the rim of the horizon, it was shot in the neck. When it fell down dead, the hunter casually picked up the bird 'hands and jaws', crumpled it like a piece of paper and threw it into his bag without a second look at it.

Answer: (b) callousness of the hunters.

Answer: (b) the dead body of the bird.

Answer: (b) that the female bird was out of her senses after the death of the male bird (and her desperate act to bring him back to life).

Answer: It is said that 'a wave of the seas she had never seen' came to her and carried her away. It refers to a wave of grief which the bird had never known. Grieving for the male bird and sitting on his blood-stained feathers, the female bird forgot to eat or drink and thus, becoming very weak, met her end.

II. Close Study (Extracts)

a. What does 'wave of the seas' refer to?
Answer: A wave of grief.

b. What hadn't the female bird seen before?
Answer: The female bird hadn't known grief or sadness before.

c. What figure of speech is used in the extract?
Answer: Personification.

III. Paragraph Writing

Answer: The poem brings out a contrast between the birds and the hunter. While the male bird is shown in a graceful act, the hunter shoots it down and, picking it up like a dirty laundry, throws it into a washing bag. The birds are very graceful and beautiful, but the hunter treats them carelessly and with total lack of dignity. After the kill, the hunter goes away without a second look, while the female bird stays there in distress.

Answer: The cranes pair for life. Having seen its mate shot dead and taken away, the female sarus is heartbroken. She circled the sky with grace mourning over the disgraceful end of its partner. After the killers had left, she returned to the death scene and whined for her companion with short and long wails resembling the Morse Code. With her beak, she kissed the bloodstained feathers which the wind had not yet carried away and sat down to hatch them in the hope she could bring him back to life. Finally, she dies of grief, becoming so weak she met her end.

Answer: The first stanza contains a Hyperbole, where the male crane is shown as stretching its neck to pull the sun out from the horizon. This highlights the bird's courage and eager movements. However, the bird was no match for the cunningness and heartlessness of man. Another figure of speech is Personification, seen in the 'wave of the seas' (grief) that carries the female bird away to her death, effectively showing how deep and overwhelming her sorrow was.

IV. Poem Summary

A hunter kills a male sarus crane for sport without realizing the impact it would have on the female sarus crane, nor what it can mean to the eco-system. The female crane is distressed at the scene she witnesses; she gracefully flies around the scene in circles and croons over the disgraceful end of her partner. The bird cries over the careless disregard and lack of dignity with which the dead bird is picked up by the callous hunters. She encircles the death scene making shrill cries, which the poet compares with the dots and pits of Morse code, hinting at the keen ear required to understand such grief. The female crane then pecks at a few feathers of the male crane and, in a desperate attempt to bring him back to life, tries to hatch the feathers into a toddling chick. Finally, a wave of grief that the female crane had never seen before comes and sweeps her away to death and closer to the dead male crane. The poet says the female sarus crane went beyond human words and beyond the legends and fables of human love.