Paraphrase/Summarise THE PHOENIX How the writer achieves

effect? (Literary Devices)

Lord Strawberry, a nobleman, collected birds. He had the finest aviary in Europe,
so large that eagles did not find it uncomfortable, so well laid out that both
Lord Strawberry, a bird-loving nobleman, had humming birds and snow-buntings had a climate that suited them perfectly. But
the finest aviary in Europe. for many years the finest set of apartments remained empty, with just a label
saying: “PHOENIX. Habitat: Arabia.”
Many authorities on bird life had assured Lord Strawberry that the phoenix is a
fabulous bird, or that the breed was long extinct. Lord Strawberry was
LS is shown to have a strong passion towards unconvinced: his family had always believed in phoenixes. At intervals he
the phoenix, bordering on obsession: he received from his agents (together with statements of their expenses) birds which
willingly spent his fortune to search for the
phoenix.
they declared were the phoenix but which turned out to be orioles, macaws,
turkey buzzards dyed orange, etc., or stuffed cross-breeds, ingeniously assembled
from various plumages. Finally Lord Strawberry went himself to Arabia, where,
after some months, he found a phoenix, won its confidence, caught it, and
brought it home in perfect condition.
It was a remarkably fine phoenix, with a charming character – affable to the Diction* – Adjectives describing the
Finally, LS acquired a phoenix. It was given a other birds in the aviary and much attached to Lord Strawberry. On its arrival in phoenix.
lot of attention. England it made a greatest stir among ornithologists, journalists, poets, and
milliners, and was constantly visited. But it was not puffed by these attentions, Personification *
and when it was no longer in the news, and the visits fell off, it showed no pique
or rancour. It ate well, and seemed perfectly contented.
It costs a great deal of money to keep up an aviary. When Lord Strawberry
died he died penniless. The aviary came on the market. In normal times the Rarer
LS died penniless, the aviary’s future was birds, and certainly the phoenix, would have been bid for by the trustees of
uncertain. Europe’s great zoological societies, or by private persons in the U.S.A.; but as it
happened Lord Strawberry died just after a world war, when both money and
bird-seed were hard to come by (indeed the cost of bird-seed was one of the
things which had ruined Lord Strawberry). The London Times urged in a leader
that the phoenix be bought for the London Zoo, saying that a nation of bird-
lovers had a moral right to own such a rarity; and a fund, called the Strawberry
The war had affected the economy.
Phoenix Fund, was opened. Students, naturalists, and school-children contributed
Sensibly, people prioritized their needs first. according to their means; but their means were small, and there were no large
donations. So Lord Strawberry’s executors (who had the death duties to consider)
The Strawberry Phoenix Fund was established
but with very little funds. Finally, the phoenix
closed with the higher offer of Mr. Tancred Poldero, owner and proprietor of
was bought by the crafty Mr Poldero. Poldero’s Wizard Wonderworld. Personification*
For quite a while Mr. Poldero considered his phoenix a bargain. It was a civil
and obliging bird, and adapted itself readily to its new surroundings. It did not
cost much to feed, it did not mind children; and though it had no tricks, Mr.
Only for a while did Poldero make profit out of Poldero supposed it would soon pick up some. The publicity of the Strawberry
the bird. The audience begin to lose interest due Phoenix Fund was now most helpful. Almost every contributor now saved up
to the bird’s passive nature. another half-crown in order to see the phoenix. Others, who had not contributed
to the fund, even paid double to look at it on the five-shilling days. Diction*– Adjectives describing the
But then business slackened. The phoenix was as handsome as ever, and phoenix.
The phoenix’s elegant and stoic nature is in amiable; but, as Mr. Poldero said, it hadn’t got Udge. Even at popular prices the
direct contrast to the ‘freakish’ nature of phoenix was not really popular. It was too quiet, too classical. So people went
Wonderworld. instead to watch the antics of the baboons, or to admire the crocodile who had
eaten the woman.
One day Mr. Poldero said to his manager, Mr. Ramkin:
“How long since any fool paid to look at the phoenix?”
“Matter of three weeks,” replied Mr. Ramkin. Exaggeration *
“Eating his head off,” said Mr. Poldero. “Let alone the insurance. Seven
shillings a week it costs me to insure the Archbishop of Canterbury.”
“The public don’t like him. He’s too quiet for them, that’s the trouble. Won’t
mate nor nothing. And I’ve tried him with no end of pretty pollies, ospreys, and Diction – short, terse sentences to
indicate anxiety.
Cochin-Chinas, and the Lord knows what. But he won’t look at them.”
“Wonder if we could swap him for a livelier one,” said Mr. Poldero.
“Impossible. There’s only one of him at a time.”
“Go on!”
“I mean it. Haven’t you ever read what it says on the label?”
They went to the phoenix’s cage. It flapped its wings politely, but they paid no
attention. They read: Diction *– ‘pansy’ is slang; a
“PANSY. Phoenix phoenixissima formossisima arabiana. This rare and disparaging term for weak, cowardly
fabulous bird is unique. The World’s Old Bachelor. Has no mate and doesn’t males.
want one. When old, sets fire to itself and emerges miraculously reborn.
Specially imported from the East.”
“I’ve got an idea,” said Mr. Poldero. “How old do you suppose that bird is?”
“Looks in its prime to me,” said Mr. Ramkin.
“Suppose,” continued Mr. Poldero, “we could somehow get him alight? We’d
 advertise it beforehand, of course, work up interest. Then we’d have a new bird,
and a bird with some romance about it, a bird with a life story. We could sell a
bird like that.”
Mr. Ramkin nodded.
“I’ve read about it in a book,” he said. “You’ve got to give them scented
woods and what not, and they build a nest and sit down on it and catch fire
spontaneous. But they won’t do it till they’re old. That’s the snag.”
“Leave that to me, “ said Mr. Poldero. “You get those scented woods, and I’ll
do the ageing.”
Poldero decides to fasten the ageing process of It was not easy to age the phoenix. Its allowance of food was halved, and
the phoenix to gain profit from the ticket sales. halved again, but though it grew thinner its eyes were undimmed and its plumage
glossy as ever. The heating was turned off; but it puffed out its feathers against
Mr Poldero represents humanity’s greed; a
the cold, and seemed none the worse. Other birds were put into its cage, birds of
capability to exploit and destroy Nature for a peevish and quarrelsome nature. They pecked and chivied it; but the phoenix
profit . was so civil and amiable that after a day or two they lost their animosity. Then
Mr. Poldero tried alley cats. These could not be won by manners, but the phoenix
darted above their heads and flapped its golden wings in their faces, and daunted
The phoenix, seen as a symbol of Nature, is ill-
them.
treated and forcibly aged in several ways and Mr. Poldero turned to a book on Arabia, and read that the climate was dry.
the author sets up the events of the plot to show “Aha!” said he. The phoenix was moved to a small cage that had a sprinkler in
how Nature unexpectedly fights back. the ceiling. Every night the sprinkler was turned on. The phoenix began to cough.
Mr. Poldero had another good idea. Daily he stationed himself in front of the
cage to jeer at the bird and abuse it.
When spring was come, Mr. Poldero felt justified in beginning a publicity
campaign about the ageing phoenix. The old public favorite, he said, was nearing
its end. Meanwhile he tested the bird’s reactions every few days by putting a few
tufts of foul-smelling straw and some strands of rusty barbed wire into the cage,
to see if it were interested in nesting yet. One day the phoenix began turning over
the straw. Mr. Poldero signed a contract for the film rights. At last the hour
seemed ripe. It was a fine Saturday evening in May. For some weeks the public
interest in the ageing phoenix had been working up, and the admission charge
had risen to five shillings. The enclosure was thronged. The lights and the
cameras were trained on the cage, and a loud-speaker proclaimed to the audience
the rarity of what was about to take place.
“The phoenix,” said the loud-speaker, “is the aristocrat of bird-life. Only the
rarest and most expensive specimens of oriental wood, drenched in exotic
perfumes, will tempt him to construct his strange love-nest.”
 Now a neat assortment of twigs and shavings, strongly scented, was shoved
into the cage.
“The phoenix,” the loud-speaker continued, “is as capricious as Cleopatra, as Alliteration* – Repetition of the
consonant sound, c, l, p. to show
luxurious as la du Barry, as heady as a strain of wild gypsy music. All the marketing strategy to draw in the
fantastic pomp and passion of the ancient East, its languorous magic, its subtle crowd.
cruelties…” Simile*
“Lawks!” cried a woman in the crowd. “He’s at it!”
A quiver stirred the dulled plumage. The phoenix turned its head from side to Visual Imagery*
side. It descended, staggering, from its perch. Then wearily it began to pull about
The crowds and cameras flock to watch the the twigs and shavings.
phoenix as it dies. As expected, it bursts into The cameras clicked, the lights blazed full on the cage. Rushing to the loud-
flames and was born again. speaker Mr. Poldero exclaimed:
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the thrilling moment the world has breathlessly
awaited. The legend of centuries is materializing before our modern eyes. The Satire - the audience who thronged the
show to witness the phoenix’s death
Everybody, including Mr, Poldero was phoenix…” ultimately died themselves.
incinerated in the blaze. It was certainly an anti- The phoenix settled on its pyre and appeared to fall asleep.
climactic ending! The film director said: Irony – The death of the phoenix
The author seems to say that man cannot play
“Well, if it doesn’t evaluate more than this, mark instructional.” conversely resulted in everyone’s
At that moment the phoenix and the pyre burst into flames. The flames death.
God- you cannot mess with laws of Nature.
streamed upwards, leaped out on every side. In a minute or two everything was
burned to ashes, and some thousand people, including Mr. Poldero, perished in
the blaze.

Footnote: Sylvia Warner (1893-1978) was a closeted homosexual novelist who lived together with poet Valentine Ackland, from 1930 until Ackland’s death in
1969.