one who is coward from nature is brave from inside

1. The Tale Of Custard
the Dragon
By Ogden Nash

2. About The Poet – Ogden Nash
Ogden Nash was born on 19 August 1902 in New York.
He worked as a school teacher before becoming a
copywriter. Nash’s first poems were published in ‘New
Yorker’ in 1930. His first collection of poems entitled
‘Hard Lines’ was published in 1931. ‘The Boy Who
Laughed at Santa Claus’ (1957) and ‘Girls are Silly’ (1962)
are among his famous books. Nash is perhaps best
remembered for his ‘non-sense poetry’. Nash died on 19
May 1971.

3. Introduction of Poem
Ogden Nash wrote a poem about Belinda,
a young girl with many pets, including a
black Kitten named ink, a grey mouse
named blink, a yellow dog named
mustard, and a coward dragon named
custard. Except for the dragon, a coward,
the poet has depicted every character as
brave.

4. Theme of the poem
The theme of the poem is that everyone
has his own capabilities and should never
be judged on the basis of his appearance.
In the poem, Belinda and all pets she owns
boast about their bravery. Belinda is as
strong as barrel full of bears, Ink and Blink
were brave and fearless enough to chase
down lions down the stairs and Mustard
considered itself as brave as an angry tiger.

5. Theme of the poem
However Custard never boasted about its
might and power and instead always cried
for nice and safe cage. Hence Belinda and
all her pets used to make joke of Custard.
They would tease him mercilessly and call
him bad names. But Custard never reacted
and rather accepted what they said.
But, when the pirate attacks the house of
Belinda, all the so-called brave animals run
away to save their lives though Belinda
keeps crying for help.

6. Theme of the poem
At this time, Custard comes forward at
once and faces the pirate. The pirate
tries to kill him by firing bullets.
However they do not hit him and
Custard eats him up. The story tells us
about that we should never judge a
person on the basis of his looks or
what others say about him
Every person is unique is his own way.

7. Central Idea Of Poem
The Tale of Custard the Dragon’ is a whimsical
fantasy. Belinda lives alone in her house with four
pets, a dog, a cat, a mouse and a dragon named
Custard. All other dwellers of the house except
Custard, pride themselves on their fearlessness.
They mock poor Custard for his timidity.
However, when the real danger comes all others
run away in a panic except Custard. Only Custard
fights ferociously and swallows the pirate. The
poem ends ironically. After the danger is past,
everyone begins to boast again about their
courage. Ironically, Custard who fought like a
hero against the pirate agrees that everyone else is
braver than he is. So, appearances may be
deceptive. And even your merit and real value
may not be recognized by your unwilling rivals.

8. Paraphrase of stanza 1
This first stanza of the poem introduces
the readers with the characters of the
poem with a little girl Belinda being the
host and others as her strange and
unusual pets. Belinda lived in a little
white house with her pets and a wagon.
Her pets include a black kitten, a little
grey mouse, a little yellow dog and a little
pet dragon.
The ‘ realio , trulio’ here are devised by the
poet as poetic license to produce rhyme
and also to show that the word ‘dragon’ is
no mockery and it really meant a dragon
but like a little pet.

9. Paraphrase of stanza 2
In this stanza, the poet described the
names of Belinda’s pets. Her little black
kitten was named Ink, the little grey
mouse was named Blink, and the little
yellow dog was named Mustard due to
his sharp and bright yellow colour.
However, Belinda named her dragon
Custard because he was a coward. as he
was not brave and feared a lot.

10. Paraphrase of stanza 3
This stanza is devoted to describing
‘Custard’ having the features of a dragon
that makes dragons powerful and scary.
There were spikes on his top while scales
underneath. The poet said that Custard’s
mouth was fiery red and hot like a fireplace
while his nose was like a big chimney that
emitted huge warm breaths – The poet had
used simile to draw comparisons of the
dragon with fireplace and chimneys. His
toe-nails were like daggers on his feet as he
had dagger-like sharp spikes on his toes.

11. Paraphrase of stanza 4
In this stanza we are told how brave Belinda
and her pets were. Belinda is described as
brave as many bears combined into one i.e.
she alone was equal to the powers of many
bears. Ink and Blink are small in size but have
the power to scare and chase away someone
as strong as a lion. Belinda’s dog’s bravery has
been compared to that of a tiger’s anger. But
Custard is completely opposite to his physical
description and instead of being brave,
always looks for a nice safe cage i.e. he tries to
hide and escape from the situations.

12. Paraphrase of stanza 5
Custard was not as brave as others and others made
fun and mockery him. Belinda used to tickle
(touch) the dragon but in an unmerciful manner as
she might be tickling without stopping. It should
be noted here that tickling is a very soft touch on
body and it is related to softness. Since the dragon
was such a coward, tickling worked on him. It does
not work on rough bodies; hence it’s another proof
of the dragon’s softness. It was rudely mocked as
Percival by Ink, Blink and Mustard. Seeing the
dragon react to the tickling made all of them laugh
and they laughed in the wagon at the cowardly
dragon.

13. Paraphrase of stanza 6
Belinda laughed at the cowardice of
Custard so loud that she shook the whole
house with her big laughter. Blink the
mouse laughed at Custard too. When
Custard asked to live in a nice safe cage,
the kitten Ink and the dog Mustard asked
Custard about his age as they wanted to
make fun of Custard by calling him a
baby.

14. Paraphrase of stanza 7
While all of them were busy making fun of
the dragon, there came a very unpleasant
sound from the house. Mustard, the dog,
looked around growling for the source of
that sound. Ink cried ‘Meowch’ and
Belinda cried ‘Ooh’ when they saw that
there was a pirate climbing the window of
the house to loot it.

15. Paraphrase of stanza 8
The appearance of the pirate seemed very
dangerous as he was carrying many arms
with him. He had a pistol in both hands
and he was carrying a bright sharp blade
between his teeth as well. He had black
beard and a wooden led indicating that
he was a tough man, who must have lost
his leg in some fight or battle. His looks
made it very clear to the housemates that
the pirate meant to harm the people and
pets living there.

16. Paraphrase of stanza 9
Looking at the pirate, Belinda became pale
with fear and cried for help. All her brave
pets could not help her and everyone fled
from the scene. Mustard made a huge cry
and ran away; Ink silently went to the
bottom of the house and blink very smartly
disappeared in a mouse hole, leaving
Belinda all alone in front of the pirate.
Their bravery could not do them any good.

17. Paraphrase of stanza 10
When everyone fled on seeing the pirate, it
was the coward dragon, Custard who came to
rescue and fought the pirate bravely. He
jumped in front of the pirate and made large
noises through his nose like an engine,
indicating his anger. He started to move his
tail and it made clattering sounds like an iron
rod striking the walls of a prison in a dungeon.
With all these dangerous sounds, he followed
the pirate like a robin follows a worm to eat it.

18. Paraphrase of stanza 11
Custard shocked the pirate and he took a
good look at him and drank some wine
from a bottle that he carried in his pocket.
The pirate then took out his pistol and
fired two bullets of Custard. But he failed
to hit him and Custard remained
unharmed. Then Custard swallowed the
whole pirate, without leaving any trace of
him.

19. Paraphrase of stanza 12
Everyone was surprised to see the bravery of
Custard and so were their reactions of relief
and appreciation. Belinda hugged Custard
to appreciate him for his bravery. Mustard
the dog licked him with love. The kitten and
mouse danced happily around Custard who
was eating the body of the pirate, to show
him their love. It seemed a celebrating
moment for the act of bravery as well the
death of the deathly enemy the pirate.
Nobody mourned for the pirate who was
gobbled up by custard.

20. Paraphrase of stanza 13
It became very clear that, who is brave and who is
a coward after the pirate incident. But, Mustard
started to give excuses for his cowardice and said
that he would have been twice as brave as Custard
if he had not got nervous, when the pirate came.
Ink and Blink said that they would have been
thrice as brave as the dragon. They could not
believe that Custard, the coward dragon, had done
such a heroic act and so they started giving
excuses for running away. The humble dragon
accepted that he was the most coward and
everyone was braver than him.

21. Paraphrase of stanza 14
Here the poet talks of as how after the
fearful incident of the pirate breaking into
the house, the lives of Belinda and her pets
went back to normal. To show this, the poet
had repeated stanza one which states that
Belinda still lived in the same little white
house with her kitten, mouse, dog and
dragon. She still owned that little red
wagon.

22. Paraphrase of stanza 15
This stanza is same as the fourth stanza of
the poem. This repetition is shown to affirm
no change after the scenario after the scary
incident of the pirate. The story of Belinda’s
house was still the same even after Custard
was proved to be the bravest of them all.

23. Poetic device (simile)
Simile is a poetic device used by the poet to
draw a clear comparison between two or more
things or people with the help of words ‘like’
and ‘as’.
The phrases – ‘sharp as Mustard’, ‘mouth like a
fireplace’, ‘as brave as a barrel full of bears’,
‘brave as a tiger in a cage’, ‘snorting like an
engine’, and ‘clashed his tail like iron in a
dungeon’ pirate like a robin – are examples of
simile in the poem.
Through this device, Nash creates humorous
descriptions of the characters in the poem.

24. Poetic device (Metaphor)
Metaphor is a literary device used to
represent a comparison without using the
words “like” or “as”.
1.chimney for a nose
2.And realio, trulio daggers on his toes.

25. poetic device (repitition)
The poet uses repetition at various points in the
poem to create a rhythmical effect in the poem.
He also uses it to build humour in the poem.
For example, the word ‘little’ has been repeated
multiple times in the first two stanzas.
Similarly - Belinda tickled him, she tickled him
unmerciful.
Suddenly, suddenly they heard a nasty sound.
Pistol in his left hand, pistol in his right .

26. poetic device (Onomatopoeia)
This poetic device is used by the poet to
describe the sounds produced with the help
of the words. It uses the sound-descriptive
words like ‘hiss’, ‘bang’, ‘splash’, etc.
The word ‘weeck’ is an example of
onomatopoeia in the poem. It mimics the
sound of a rat’s giggle.
Similarly, ‘Meowch’ for cat’s sound
Similarly, the words ‘clatter’, ‘clank’ and
‘jangling’ are examples of onomatopoeia in
the poem.

27. (Poetic License)
When a poet disregards the rules of
language, he uses poetic license in his
works.
The words ‘realio’, ‘trulio’ and ‘weeck’ are
made up words that Nash uses to impart
humour to the poem. Through this, he
practices poetic license.
Also, he has changed window to ‘winda’ to
maintain the rhyme scheme of the poem.

28. poetic device (Alliteration)
Alliteration is the repetitions of the same
sound used in the beginning of the closely
placed words.
The line ‘Belinda is as brave as a barrel full of
bears’ is an example of alliteration in the
poem.
Other examples –
Belinda lived in a little white house.
And he held in his teeth a cutlass bright.
With a clatter and a clank and a jangling
squirm.
And gulped some grog from his pocket
flagon.

29. poetic device (Allusion)
An allusion is an indirect reference to a
person, place, thing, and idea.
In the poem, the characters make fun of
Custard by calling him ‘Percival’.
Percival was one of King Arthur’s knights who
was known for running away due to lack of
courage.
Thus, the characters call Custard ‘Percival’
because they consider him a coward.

30. Mcq’s of the poem
1. Who lived with Belinda?
(a) her father
(b) her mother
(c) her pets
(d) all of the above
► (c) her pets
2. Who was Blink?
(a) kitten
(b) mouse
(c) dog
(d) dragon
► (b) mouse

31. Mcq’s of the poem
3. What did the other animal make fun of the dragon?
(a) for his cowardice
(b) for his small size
(c) for his big mouth
(d) all of the above
► (a) for his cowardice
4. Who was Percival?
(a) a timid soldier
(b) a knight of King Arthur
(c) a handsome cowherd
(d) a giant
► (a) a timid soldier

32. Mcq’s of the poem
5. Which of Belinda’s pet always sought a safe cage?
(a) Ink
(b) Blink
(c) Mustard
(d) Custard
► (d) Custard
6. What type of pet is custard?
(a) a dragon pet
(b) a mouse pet
(c) a dog pet
(b) a cat pet
► (b) a mouse pet

33. Mcq’s of the poem
7. Who killed the pirate?
(a) Belinda
(b) Ink and Blink
(c) Mustard
(d) Custard
► (d) Custard
8. This poem is a ________ ballad.
(a) humorous
(b) fearful
(c) tragedians
(d) None of the above
► (a) humorous

34. Mcq’s of the poem
9. What was the pirate doing?
(a) he was dancing a jig
(b) he ran to kill Ink and Blink
(c) he tried to fight with Mustard
(d) he was trying to get into the house by climbing
through a window
► (d) he was trying to get into the house by climbing
through a window
10. What type of pet is custard?
(a) a dragon pet
(b) a mouse pet
(c) a dog pet
(b) a cat pet
► (b) a mouse pet
Made by anmol guleria
Class - 10
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