The Tale of Custard the Dragon · Class 10 English · First Flight Poetry: quick revision, 36 bites

A Humorous Ballad

The textbook tells you what it is before line one.

Takeaway. Everything in it belongs to a story, not a description.

The Characters

Set question 1, and the list must be complete.

Takeaway. Five names, and the pirate later makes six characters.

Why They Are Funny

Every name is chosen for a reason.

Takeaway. Colour, sound and a pun, in three names.

A Dragon Called Custard

And then the fourth.

A dragon given the name of a **pudding** — soft, yellow, sweet, and **sliding off a spoon**.

Takeaway. The only pet whose name matches neither his colour nor his species.

What the Dragon Looks Like

Set question 5 sends you back to stanza three.

Takeaway. Give all five features. Most answers give two.

Not One Item Is Comic

Now read that list again.

**Teeth, spikes, scales, fire and daggers** make a **genuinely alarming** animal.

Takeaway. The gap between how he LOOKS and how he BEHAVES is the joke.

Three Boasts and a Request

Stanza four is entirely about courage.

Takeaway. Three claims, and one admission.

Why the Cage, and Why ‘Cowardly’?

Set question 2 asks two things. Answer both.

Takeaway. Everybody else claimed courage. He asked for protection.

Nothing Has Been Tested

Now notice what has NOT happened.

Takeaway. Remember this. It is the whole point of the second half.

Why Tickle Him?

Set question 3, and the answer is short.

Takeaway. The poem lets that sit there without comment.

The Whole Household Joins In

And she was not alone.

Takeaway. Five separate mockeries, in two stanzas.

Everybody Is Comfortable

What the teasing tells you about the house.

People who are **frightened** do not spend their afternoons **laughing in a wagon**.

Takeaway. A safe house, and a great deal of talk about bravery.

The Turn

A ballad needs a moment when everything changes.

Takeaway. One stanza, and the poem changes direction.

The Complete Pirate

Four props in four lines.

Takeaway. The storybook villain, assembled at speed.

Four Boasts, Demolished

The most efficient stanza in the poem.

Takeaway. Every claim in the poem, undone in four lines.

Trickled, and Mouseholed

Two verbs that could belong to nothing else.

Takeaway. The poem chooses actions that fit the creature and nothing else.

‘Strategically’

And one adverb does more than either.

The word people use when they do **not wish to say 'ran away'** — the word of **retreats**, **withdrawals** and **plans**.

Takeaway. The funniest word in the poem, and it is an adverb.

How Custard Attacks

Three similes in four lines.

Takeaway. After six quiet domestic stanzas, a machine arrives.

A Robin at a Worm

Why the third simile is the best.

Takeaway. Scale, reversed at exactly the right moment.

Gape, Gulp, Fire, Gobbled

The whole fight lasts four lines.

Takeaway. 'Gobbled' is what you do to a sweet. The poem refuses to be solemn.

Embraced, Licked, Gyrated

And afterwards.

Takeaway. Cheerful callousness, in three lines.

The Excuses Begin

Now the part worth studying hardest.

Takeaway. Two lines after the fight, and the boasting is bigger than before.

‘I Quite Agree’

And the dragon's reply.

Custard says he **quite agrees that everybody is braver than he is**.

Takeaway. The best line in the poem.

Nothing Has Changed

And then the poem goes back to the beginning.

Takeaway. A pirate came, a dragon saved them, and nobody learned anything.

Ballad, and Parody

The textbook defines it before line one.

Takeaway. The shape of heroism is intact. The heroism has been moved.

Everything Is There, and Nothing Is Right

Why this counts as a parody.

Takeaway. A heroic ballad with the heroism redistributed.

Five Features, All Present

The chapter lists the form's features at the end.

Takeaway. The guidelines for writing one describe this poem exactly.

The Rhyme Scheme Is aabb

Set question 6, and it takes four letters.

Takeaway. Give the letters and two examples.

Rhymes Obtained By Force

And here is the poet's signature.

Takeaway. A poet who needs a word and has not got one simply makes it.

What Burgess Says About Nash

The textbook prints a tribute in verse.

Takeaway. The note describes exactly what this poem does.

Similes

Set question 4 gives one and asks for more.

Takeaway. Six more, without leaving the poem.

Fireplace, and Chimney

One line contains both devices — be careful.

Takeaway. Both devices, in a single line of stanza three.

Sound in the Poem

Three more devices, with examples attached.

Takeaway. The poem is built for reading aloud, and this is why.

Hyperbole and Understatement

Two opposite devices, a few stanzas apart.

Takeaway. Both are jokes about proportion.

Irony

And one device runs under all of it.

Takeaway. Name irony in an answer, and give one of these three as proof.

Serious or Light-Hearted?

Set question 8 asks for reasons, so give four — and then one more thing.

Takeaway. Fun first, and the serious idea last. That is a full-mark answer.