Unit 5 · Culture and Tradition · NCERT Class 6 Poorvi

The Kites

A poem can make a paper kite feel alive. Learn how poets do it — with imagery that paints pictures, a simile and a metaphor that compare, personification that breathes life into things, and a joyful mood in which a kite becomes a symbol of freedom. We borrow only the title of the Poorvi poem ‘The Kites’; every verse here is original. Tap each idea to explore it.

👥 3 topics⏱ ~25 min📝 12-question quiz

Play with it

The poet's box of colours

Poets paint with pictures and comparisons, not paint. Tap each term to see how imagery, simile, metaphor and personification combine to create a joyful mood and a soaring symbol.

Explore · Figurative languagetap a term

Learn

The three big ideas

Imagery is sensory language. It makes you see, hear, feel — scarlet kites against a sky-blue afternoon, strings humming, the snap of paper in the breeze.
It can mix several senses at once. A single line — “bright kites snapping in a singing wind” — gives sight (bright), sound (singing) and touch/movement (snapping) together.
Imagery creates experience. Rather than telling you “kite-flying is fun”, a poet shows the colour and motion so you feel the fun yourself.
Read for the picture. As you read, pause and let each image form in your mind — that is how a poem comes alive.

Simile — an open comparison using like or as. The kite soared like a bird; it was as light as a feather.
Metaphor — a direct comparison that says one thing is another, with no “like/as”. The kite was a dancer in the sky.
Personification — giving human qualities to a non-human thing. The wind whispered to the kites; the sky smiled.
Why they matter — figures of speech turn a flat statement into a sharp picture and stir feeling, doing far more than plain words.

Worked example. Name the device in each original line: (a) The kite climbed as high as a hawk. (b) Each kite was a flame of colour. (c) The breeze tugged the strings and laughed.

(a) “as high as a hawk” uses as — a simile.

(b) “was a flame of colour” says the kite IS a flame — a metaphor.

(c) the breeze “laughed”, a human action — personification. Three different tools, all building the same joyful picture.

Common mistake: mixing up simile and metaphor. The test is simple — if you see like or as, it is a simile; if it says one thing flatly is another, it is a metaphor. “Brave as a lion” = simile; “He is a lion” = metaphor.

Mood is the feeling the poem creates. Soaring kites, open skies, colour and laughter build a light, free, joyful mood.
Images create the mood. The bright colours and upward movement are not decoration — they are how the poet makes you feel the joy. Point to the image to explain the feeling.
A symbol stands for a bigger idea. A kite rising free on the wind can symbolise freedom, hope, or soaring dreams — the object means more than itself.
Culture lives in the poem. Kite-flying festivals bring families to rooftops and fields; the poem captures a shared joy, linking the picture in the sky to a real tradition on the ground.

Where you'll meet it

Figurative language, all around

Song lyrics

Your favourite songs are full of similes, metaphors and personification — “my heart is a drum”, “the night sings”. Once you can name the devices, you hear how a lyric paints a feeling in just a few words.

Advertising and slogans

Ad-writers lean on figurative language to make products glow — calling a drink “sunshine in a glass”. Spotting the metaphor lets you enjoy the cleverness while staying clear-eyed about the claim.

Festival kite-flying

On a kite-festival morning the sky really does fill with colour and the strings really do tug like living things. The poem’s imagery is drawn from this shared joy — and your own day on the rooftop becomes easy to describe.