what is the summary of the poem 'the ant and the cricket'

• OBJECTIVES 1-To make the students recite the poem. 2-To comprehend the gist of the poem. 3-To make them enjoy the rhythm of the poem with its rhyming scheme. 4-
• Summary It is a fable in poetic form. A fable is a story, often with animals as characters,that conveys a moral.This poem about an ant and a cricket contains an idea of far reaching significance, which is as true of a four legged cricket as of a two legged ones. You must have seen a cricket that has two leggs.This is the story of a cricket who spent his summer singing. When the winter came he started starving. He went to ant and wished to borrow grain. But they asked him what he did in summer.He replied that he sang in the summer. They asked him to dance in winter. There are crickets in our society. Some have four legs some have two.
• POEM STANZA:1 A silly young cricket, accustomed to sing Through the warm,sunny months of gay summar and spring, Began to complain when he found that,at home, His cupboard was empty,and winter was come. Not a crumb to be found; On the snow-covered ground; Not a flower could he see, Not a leaf on a tree. ‘ Oh! What will become,’ says the cricket,’of me?’
• At last by starvation and famine made bold, All dripping with wet,and all trembling with cold, Away he set off to amiserly ant, To see if, to keep him alive,he would grant Him shelter from rain, And a mouthful of grain, He wished only to borrow; He’d repay it tomorrow; If not, he must die of starvation and sorrow.
• Moral of the poem: Lay by for the rainy day. If we are lazy and do not want to work,Nobody will help us and we’ll have to starve.

 Once upon a time, it was Spring and the flowers were blooming. A little ant had been spending all of her days and nights carrying leaves to the ant hill. 
And the cricket was only singing all day long. Summer came and the ant said to the cricket: Dear sister cricket, you should work and gather grain too. But the cricket wouldn´t listen. She only wanted to sing. Fall came and the cricket kept on singing, while the ant kept on working and advising , but the cricket wouldn´t listen. When it was winter, the ant had a lot of grain stored up for herself and stayed at home to wait for the Spring, his job had been done. Then, the cricket knocked on the ant´s door asking for help because he was broke. And the ant asked her: What were you doing when the weather was good? And the cricket answered – I was singing all day long. The ant replied - Singing? So dance now! And the sad cricket left in the cold night. The moral of the story is – There are many men that are like the cricket: go bankrupt and want people who have been saving money to give them what they have struggled to achieve. HUMOR VERSION – Rumor has it that there is another end to La Fontaine´s fable. They say it has been told by Madam Pompadour - "Then, the cricket left and got over the whole situation. When to a night club to dance the night away and before the winter was over, went down to the ant´s house, wearing very warm fur coats, to thank the ant for the advice..." CONTESTING the author´s view – Biologists and naturopaths discuss the author´s ignorance about the biology of the ants, bees and crickets, each one playing their own role in nature´s big picture, as it is unfair to use nature as we please or consider ourselves harmed by animals or plants that are not in accord with our own interests. Nature is not centered on men. 

Moral

1. Do Hard Work

2. Never Borrow, Never Lend

3. Do not depend on others

THE ANT AND THE CRICKET

The Brothers Grimm

Once upon a time... one hot summer, a cricket sang cheerfully on the branch of a tree, while down below, a long line of ants struggled under the weight of their load of grains; and between one song and the next, the cricket spoke to the ants. "Why are you working so hard? Come into the shade, away from the sun, and sing a song with me." But the tireless ants went on with the work... "We can't do that," they said, "We must store away food for the winter. When the weather's cold and the ground white with snow, there's nothing to eat, and we'll survive the winter only if the pantry is full."

"There's plenty of summer to come," replied the cricket, "and lots of time to fill the pantry before winter. I'd rather sing! How can anyone work in this heat and sun?"

And so all summer, the cricket sang while the ants laboured. But the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months. Autumn came, the leaves began to fall and the cricket left the bare tree. The grass too was turning thin and yellow. One morning, the cricket woke shivering with cold. An early frost tinged the fields with white and turned the last of the green leaves brown: winter had come at last. The cricket wandered, feeding on the few dry stalks left on the hard frozen ground. Then the snow fell and she could find nothing at all to eat. Trembling and famished, she thought sadly of the warmth and her summer songs. One evening, she saw a speck of light in the distance, and trampling through the thick snow, made her way towards it.

"Open the door! Please open the door! I'm starving. Give me some food!" An ant leant out of the window.

"Who's there? Who is it?"

"It's me - the cricket. I'm cold and hungry, with no roof over my head."

"The cricket? Ah, yes! I remember you. And what were you doing all summer while we were getting ready for winter?"

"Me? I was singing and filling the whole earth and sky with my song!"

"Singing, eh?" said the ant. "Well, try dancing now!"