Six Blind Men and The Elephant

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Guide Questions

1. Did anyone among the blind


men give the correct answer?
Why or why not?
2. In the context of the elephant
story, what do you think is a
holistic perspective? What is a
partial point of view?
3. What is the importance of a
holistic perspective as pointed out
by the poet John Godfrey Saxe?
4. In the last stanza, John Godfrey
Saxe related the legend to the
religious wars during his time.
What do you think is John
Godfrey Saxe trying to say in this
poem?
Six Blind Men and the
Elephant

John Godfrey Saxe


(Indian Legend)
It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were
blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind
The First approach’d the
Elephant
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy
side,
At once began to bawl:
“God bless me! But the Elephant
Is very like a WALL!”
The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, -”Ho! What have we here
So very round and smooth and
sharp?
To me ‘tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a SPEAR!”
The Third approached the
animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his
hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a SNAKE!”
The Fourth reached out his
eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What most this wondrous beast
is like
Is mighty plain,” quoth he,
“’Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a TREE!”
The Fifth, who chanced to touch
the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles
most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a FAN!”
The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Then, seizing on the swinging
tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “the Elephant
Is very like a ROPE!”
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the
right,
And all were in the wrong!
MORAL.
So oft in the theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!
Guide Questions
1. Did anyone among the blind
men give the correct answer?
Why or why not?
2. In the context of the elephant
story, what do you think is a
holistic perspective? What is a
partial point of view?
3. What is the importance of a
holistic perspective as pointed out
by the poet John Godfrey Saxe?
4. In the last stanza, John Godfrey
Saxe related the legend to the
religious wars during his time.
What do you think is John
Godfrey Saxe trying to say in this
poem?

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