Beehive Poem A Legend of the Northland - CBSE Revision Notesb

CBSE Class 09 English Language And Literature
Revision Notes
Chapter-5
A Legend of the Northland
By Phoebe Cary

This poem narrates the legend of an old lady who angered Saint Peter because of her greed.
The poem is set in Northland ,a very cold region,where hours of the day are few and nights are too long in winter.The duration of night is so long that people are unable to spend the whole night sleeping.
When it snows in Scotland,people harness their reindeer to pull the sledges.As it is extremely cold,children look like bear cubs in their furry and funny clothes.
This story is quite famous and has been passed through generations in Scotland.But the poet doesn't believe in its authenticity but yet is tempted to share it.Mythological stories may not relate to realities but always carry a strong message.
Once Saint Peter was on his usual round of travelling and preaching people. While roaming,he chanced upon an old cottage where a little woman was making cakes. As he was fasting the whole day,he felt hungry. The day was also almost over, so Saint Peter went near the woman and asked for some cakes to eat. The little woman started to bake a small cake for Saint Peter. After the cake was done, she found it too big to be given for free. So she decided to bake an even smaller cake. This went on for sometime till she made a paper thin wafer like cake for Saint Peter. She even kept that wafer instead of giving it to Saint Peter because she was too greedy to part with a single morsel of food. On observing her greed ,Saint Peter became very angry at her. He said that she was too selfish to dwell in human form. He cursed her to become a bird and live searching for scanty food in the jungle, by boring all day in the dry and hard wood. After Saint Peter’s curse,the little woman went up through the chimney and got changed to a woodpecker. Her whole body turned coal black because of going up through the chimney. Her red cap turned to red plumage of the woodpecker. After that people have been seeing her in the wood ,where she lives by boring the dry wood in search of food. This poem puts forth the theme that we should not be selfish and always help the needy.