Corona Says Summary
The poem “Corona Says” has been written by a Nepalese poet, Vishnu S. Rai. He has written this poem on the theme of the present world crisis Corona and its devastating impact on human life. The poem presents a subtle satire on man’s conduct and attitude. It views COVID 19 as the byproduct of man’s treatment to nature.
The speaker in the poem is Corona Virus. He says to the human beings to listen to him. He says to us to stop crying and shouting at him because he has not visited the earth in his own interest. He has come here because he was called by the human beings. He says to believe him that he had not any option to visit the earth. He asks us to count the dead bodies because more people have been killed in the wars than killed by him in the world.
He blames us that human beings consider themselves as the most superior animals among all the living creatures of the earth. He talks about the aerial (flying) animals, aquatic (water living animals), and the reptiles (crawling animals). Similarly, he talks about the sources of oxygen, i.e. trees. He seriously warns that these things are not the human beings’ slaves and they are not for selling and killing in our own desire. Instead, they are the part of ecosystem/nature and they have as equal right as the human beings to be in the earth.
He tells us not to blame him because he wanted to show us that the blue sky is clean without dust and smoke. We have been heavily producing smoke and dust in the name of development which causes the environmental pollution. Likewise, he says that we have kept the animals in the cage in the zoo. He wanted to make us realize the feeling of captive animals which are supposed to be very free in the forest. He asks us just to live without any freedom and feels the confiscated moment. He says that he came to visit the earth not to check us. He states his purpose of visiting here is to give a little rest to the mother Earth so that she can feel free out of pollution and all the activities against her done by the human beings. Corona says us not to think that we know everything. He just wanted to make us understand that this earth does not belong to the human beings only; it is the common home for all and everything has equal rights to have her ownership.
At last, he says that he will surely go from the earth one day. But, he threats us to remember that there are many other viruses like him and they will visit the earth. So, he suggests us to leave our ego (feeling of oneself); otherwise, we will go back to our ancient time.
The poem tells us that we should love everything in the earth and save them for our own safety. Otherwise, we will dig our own grave.
Corona Says Questions And Answer: Understanding the text
Answer the following questions.
a.Who is the speaker in the poem ?
Ans: Corona Virus is the speaker in the poem.
b. Who claim that they are superior to all ?
Ans: The human beings claim that they are superior to-all.
C. Why has the speaker come to the Earth?
Ans: The speaker has come to the earth because human beings have invited it.
d. What positive changes have occurred on Earth after the speaker’s visit ?
Ans: After the speaker’s visit, the following positive changes have occurred:
People become conscious regarding environmental pollution;
Nature becomes happy with blue sky without dust and smoke;
People become kind to animals;
People learn to use the natural resources wisely;
They start taking the earth as a common home for all the living creatures; and
They start deflating their ego.
Reference to the context
a.What does the speaker mean when he says:
But have you ever counted
How many have died so far
Because of you and your wars?
Ans: These lines are taken from the second stanza. The speaker here is the Corona Virus. He is addressing to the human beings in the earth as it has been travelling through the world. He is asking the human
beings to count the dead persons in different wars caused and created by human beings themselves. He is blaming that more people are killed in wars than from such a pandemic. He is alarming about the bad impacts of wars through which we have been digging our own graves. In conclusion, he says that it is us (human beings) for our own destruction because of our involvement in the wars.
b. Explain the following:
I will depart one day.
But remember
There’re many others like me.
They’ll come too.
If you don’t get rid of your inflated ego,
You’ll be back to your cave time
That you endured
Long, long, long ago
Ans: These lines are taken from the last stanza. The speaker, Corona Virus is reminding us that one day he will go away from us; but he says that he is not only one to affect us as there are many other fatal viruses which can take our life easily. He warns that the human beings are inflated with ego which leads to their destruction; as they have been facing through the regular intervals of different diseases such as The Spanish Flu, Bird Flu, Swine Flu, and so on and so forth. He suggests through warning that if we do not deflate our ego, their fellow viruses will hover around us and we will be compelled to spend our life in the caves as before the Stone Age; and the situation will be the worst to overcome it.
c.What does the speaker mean in the following lines
The earth is not your property alone –
It’s as much ours as yours.
Ans: This couplet is taken from the fourth stanza of the poem. The speaker, Corona Virus wants us to know that this earth does not belong to the human beings only; but it is the common home of all the living creatures that are in it. So, we do not have solo ownership to claim about it. The earth is as much theirs (living creatures) as ours. We have been just claiming that we are the most intelligent animals but our intelligence is inclining toward selfishness, cruelty and brutality and these qualities lead us to the wars for our own graves.
Reference beyond the text
a. What human behaviours are responsible for the suffering in people’s lives?
Ans: Human beings claim that they are the master of the earth; but, it is just a foolish idea and the feeling
of the inflated ego. It is certain that none other than human beings are responsible for all the causes claim they are modern, they have been pushing the world into a deep ditch of pains, sufferings, and of their pains and sufferings. Human beings are the solo agents of all the misfortune. Although they ultimately destruction. They are full of egos and become blind about nature. Their construction of skyscrapers, indiscriminate behaviours against the nature just to be rich and powerful overnight is the solo cause for digging their own graves. Because of their egos and bad deeds against the mature. they have been facing a lot of problems, crises, and challenges in different periods. All the activities are the solo causes of wars, diseases, and so on for which they have to deflate their egos and take this earth as the common home for all so that they can get a rid of such things.
h. How does an epidemic differ from pandemic? Briefly explain the impact of Corona Virus on human life and environment.
Ans: Epidemic is taken as a large number of cases of a particular disease happening at the same time in a particular community like diarrhea, a flu epidemic, etc. whereas pandemic is a disease that spreads over a whole country or the whole world like The Spanish Flu, COVID 19, etc.
The impact of Corona Virus is very severe to the human beings. In front of it, even the rulers full with egos and selfishness of the most powerful and developed countries have knelt down as it has killed millions of people and infected billions people across the world. It has been still showing its power through its various forms, i e. Variants. People are compelled to spend their days locking up in their four walls. Even the road in front of their house has become a foreign land. They have to suspect each others; so should maintain social distance. Their daily activities have been affected very badly and having a great loss of property which may lead the world again to poverty. They have been surviving in a panic terror. They might have understood about the roles, impacts and importance of environment upon the human beings because of this fatal pandemic to purify the environment. Corona Virus has become a great threat and lesson for the human beings to step ahead for the conservation of environment.