8. Analysis

The poem 'How to Tell Wild Animals' by Carolyn Wells is a very humorous take on the things that we are generally scared of in life. The poem makes the readers understand the salient features of each wild animal. It is also a warning that if one trespass into the wild, which is home to animals, we are more likely to get attacked. The attacks are not portrayed as gruesome, rather the fierceness of the animals is brought out in a very subtle manner. Most of the time, the person gets to know that he is being attacked only halfway through, and there is no escape mid way. It is the language that Wells uses that makes the poem interesting.