In the poem How to Tell Wild Animals, the poet says that a chameleon is a lizard-like reptile. However both are different as it does not have ears and wings like lizards. And the most important thing that makes it different from lizard is that it can change its colour and thus becomes invisible.

If we find nothing on the branch of a tree, then there will be a chameleon because it has changed its colour.

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In the poem How to Tell Wild Animals, the bear is described as a creature which kills its prey by hugging very tightly. According to the poet, if we find an animal which hugs us very tightly and does not allow us to escape, it is a bear.

It will be useless to cry before him because by doing so, we will make the bear hug more tightly and finally crushing us to death.

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The rhyme scheme of the poem How to Tell Wild Animals by Carolyn Wells is ABABCC.

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Following literary/poetic devices or figures of speech are used in the poem How to Tell Wild Animals by Carolyn Wells:

1. Personification: It is the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something non-human (animal, plant or non-living thing). In the poem, the poet uses personification. e.g. she describes the lion, the leopard and the bear by the pronoun he which is used for humans. In addition, a bear does not hug its prey but crushes to death. This is again an example of personification.
2. Alliteration: It is the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words. In the poem the poet uses alliteration. e.g. “you as you’re dying”, “whose hide”, “when you’re walking”, “round your yard” etc.
3. Enjambment: it is the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza. In the poem, poet uses enjambment. e.g. “if ever you should go by chance to jungles in the East”.

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The poem How to Tell Wild Animals is humorous and does not deal with any serious theme. It simply tells how to recognise wild animals. And they method chose by the poet is queer. She says that we will be able to recognise an animal by the way it kills us.

If it roars while killing us, it is a lion. If an animal with yellow skin and dark spots on it eats us, it is leopard. And if an animal kills us by hugging tightly, it is bear etc. In the end, the poet also mentions how to differentiate between crocodile and hyena and chameleon and lizard.

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