Narrative poem
A poem that behaves like a short story.
Setting, characters, a problem, events in order, an ending. Every stanza moves the story on, so it can be summarised as events.
📚 Chapter Learning Kit
Try Again · Class 7 English · Poorvi
English 3 topics 105 leveled MCQs 51 flashcards 5 games Free
Shared by a Veda teacher · Generated with Veda AI · Oct 2026
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Veda Bites are swipeable micro-lessons — each one teaches exactly one idea. Here's a taste from this kit; the app has the full deck.
Why a king
He had a crown and it did not help.
Starting with a monarch rules out poverty and weakness as excuses. If rank cannot protect you from failure, nothing can.
The blank deed
We never learn what he was attempting.
One great deed to make his people glad, and no details. The gap is where the reader puts their own difficult thing.
Look for the signpost
One question sorts them.
Is like or as doing the comparing? Then it is a simile. No signpost means the comparison is implied, so it is a metaphor.
Is, not like
A metaphor claims more.
Her voice was like music offers a resemblance. Her voice was music asserts an identity. The second is the bolder claim.
When as means while
The test has one hole in it.
As he climbed, the sun rose. Nothing is compared here. Ask what the word is doing, not whether it is present.
📖 Smart notes
What you'll study, topic by topic
1
The Poem: King Bruce and the Spider
A king has failed at something he badly wanted, and decides to stop trying. Then a spider drops past him and starts to climb. It falls nine times. On the tenth it reaches its web, and the king who had written it off goes…
- The poem is written by Eliza Cook and tells a story from beginning to end, which is why it is called a narrative poem.
- King Bruce of Scotland is a crowned monarch, so the poem makes clear at once that failure is not a matter of rank.
- He had been trying to achieve one great deed for the good of his people, had failed repeatedly, and had decided to give it all up.
~33 min · full explanation, examples & memory tricks in the app
2
Figures of Speech and the Poet’s Devices
Why is the spider in this poem, and not simply a stanza telling us to persevere? Because a comparison does work that advice cannot. This topic sorts metaphor from simile, listens for the sounds the poet repeats, and asks…
- A metaphor is an implied comparison between two unlike things. It says that one thing is another, and it never uses like or as.
- A simile makes the same kind of comparison openly, using like or as. The comparison is signposted instead of implied.
- The quickest test is to look for the signpost. If like or as is doing the comparing, it is a simile; if not, it is a metaphor.
~35 min · full explanation, examples & memory tricks in the app
3
Words of Effort and Distance, and Telling Your Own Story
English has four words for trying hard, and they are not spares for one another. This topic separates them, sorts the words that measure distance, listens to an ant who solves what the spider could not, and turns all of…
- The poem supplies pairs of opposites: up and down, fast and slow, glad and sad, win and lose, succeed and fail.
- Toil means to work very hard, and for a long time. The length is part of the meaning, which is why it fits the spider.
- To strive is to try hard towards a goal. The effort is aimed at something, so a person strives for or strives to do.
~34 min · full explanation, examples & memory tricks in the app
❓ Leveled MCQ practice
Try the smart MCQs from this kit
105 questions laddered from warm-up to topper-level, each with an explanation. A taste:
The poem tells a story from beginning to end, which is why it is called a narrative poem, and it has a named author. Writing Try Again was
Beginner
A R Burns
B Rabindranath Tagore
C Eliza Cook
D William Wordsworth
Show answer & explanation
Eliza Cook
The poem is signed by Eliza Cook, a nineteenth-century English poet.
What kind of poem is Try Again?
Beginner
A A limerick, because it is short and comic
B A narrative poem, because it tells a story from start to finish
C An ode, because it is addressed to a single object
D A sonnet, because it runs to exactly fourteen lines and closes with a couplet
Show answer & explanation
A narrative poem, because it tells a story from start to finish
There is a setting, characters, a sequence of events and an ending, which is what narrative means.
When the poem begins, the king has already failed repeatedly at one great deed and has decided to abandon it altogether. King Bruce at that point is
Beginner
A watching a spider spin a thread above his head
B arguing with his advisers
C riding out to inspect his army
D flinging himself down in a lonely, hopeless mood
Show answer & explanation
flinging himself down in a lonely, hopeless mood
He is on the floor in despair before the spider appears at all.
Why does the poet tell us at once that Bruce is a monarch with a crown?
Advanced
A So that his despair cannot be explained away by poverty or weakness
B Because kings were thought the only fit subject for serious poetry at the time
C To warn the reader that he will punish the spider
D Because the great deed he plans requires royal permission
Show answer & explanation
So that his despair cannot be explained away by poverty or weakness
If failure can flatten a king, rank is clearly no protection against it.
🃏 Flashcards
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Sequence Builder
Categorization
Fact Or Myth
Word Match
Memory Match
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