In "Animal Crackers," Sri Lankan poet Richard de Zoysa tells a harrowing story from Black July, the 1983 riots in which Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority attacked the Tamil minority after Tamil militants bombed a Sinhalese military convoy. During these riots, the poem's speaker tries to distract a three-year-old child by drawing animals. But those animals—the lion and the tiger, symbols of the Sinhalese and Tamil contingents respectively—only remind the speaker of the horrors going on outside the window. The poem's speaker laments a horrific moment in Sri Lankan history while uneasily wondering if violence might simply be part of human nature. "Animal Crackers" was collected in de Zoysa's posthumous collection This Other Eden (1990).

• Read the full text of “Animal Crackers”

• “Animal Crackers” Summary

• “Animal Crackers” Themes

  • 

    Political Violence and Misgovernment in Sri Lanka

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Before Line 1
    • Lines 1-46
    • After Line 46
  • 

    Childhood Innocence and Human Evil

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Before Line 1
    • Lines 1-46
    • After Line 46

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Animal Crackers”

  • Lines 1-11

    “Draw me a ...
    ... of ancient pride.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 12-15

    (Outside, the sunlight ...
    ... long, deep sleep.)

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 16-22

    Then ...
    ... bars on gold.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 23-31

    “DRAW!” ...
    ... ARE ONLY LIONS.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 32-39

    And their jackals ...
    ... his tender feet.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 40-46

    “Put down that ...
    ... some silly cat."

    

    

    

    

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• “Animal Crackers” Symbols

  • 

    The Lion, the Tiger, and the Elephant

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-11
    • Lines 13-15
    • Lines 17-22
    • Lines 29-31
    • Lines 32-39
    • Lines 45-46

• “Animal Crackers” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Pun

    

    

    

    

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    Where pun appears in the poem:

    • Line 23: ““DRAW!””

  • Allusion

    

    

    

    

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    Where allusion appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “a lion”
    • Line 17: “a tiger”
    • Lines 18-21: “Vision of a beast / compounded of Jim Corbett yarns / and Blake / stalks through my mind”
    • Lines 35-36: “My Lord / the Elephant”
    • After Line 46: “Colombo, 25 July, 1983”

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: ““Draw me a lion.””
    • Line 17: ““Draw me a tiger.””
    • Line 23: ““DRAW!””
    • Line 45: “and,” “and”

  • Imagery

    

    

    

    

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    Where imagery appears in the poem:

    • Lines 3-4: “Produce a lazy, kindly beast... / Colour it yellow”
    • Lines 12-15: “(Outside, the sunlight seems a trifle dulled / and there’s a distant roaring, like a pride / of lions, cross at being awakened / from long, deep sleep.)”
    • Lines 21-22: “blazing Nature’s warning, / black bars on gold”
    • Lines 28-29: “all hell breaks loose; quite suddenly the sky / is full of smoke and orange stripes of flame.”
    • Lines 35-37: “My Lord / the Elephant sways in his shaded arbour, / wrinkles his ancient brows”

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “So,” “set”
    • Line 3: “kindly”
    • Line 4: “Colour”
    • Lines 10-11: “biddable, / basking”
    • Line 12: “sunlight seems,” “dulled”
    • Line 13: “distant”
    • Line 18: “beast”
    • Line 20: “Blake”
    • Line 21: “blazing”
    • Line 22: “black bars”
    • Line 28: “suddenly,” “sky”
    • Line 29: “smoke,” “stripes”
    • Line 33: “run,” “rabid,” “roaring’s”

• “Animal Crackers” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Biddable
  • Indolent
  • Basking
  • A trifle
  • Pride
  • Cross
  • Compounded of
  • Force majeure
  • Jackals
  • Arbour
  • Curious
  • (Location in poem: Line 10: “But for the most part, indolent, biddable”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Animal Crackers”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Animal Crackers” Speaker

• “Animal Crackers” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Animal Crackers”

• More “Animal Crackers” Resources

  • External Resources

    • Richard de Zoysa's Death — Read an article discussing de Zoysa's assassination.

    • Richard de Zoysa's Legacy — Read an essay in memory of de Zoysa written by his niece.

    • Black July — Learn more about Black July, the massacre this poem commemorates.

    • Background on de Zoysa — Learn more about de Zoysa's life and read another of his poems.

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