CBSE english
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Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
.......... but soon
put that thought away and
looked out at young
trees sprinting, the merry children spilling
out of their homes, ...
(a) Which thought did the poet put away?
(b) What do the sprinting trees' signify?
(c) What are 'the merry children spilling out of their homes', symbolic of?
a) The poet puts away the painful thought of mother’s ageing and declining health thinking she might not see her mother after returning.
b) The trees appear to be racing past as the car moves towards the airport. They signify the passage of time.
c) These lines symbolise happiness. The sad thoughts of the poet contrasted with merry children spilling out of their homes.
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Surely, Shakespeare is wicked, the map a bad example,
With ships and sun and love tempting them to steal –
For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes
From fog to endless night ? On their slag heap, these children
Wear skins peeped through by bones and spectacles of steel
With mended glass, like bottle bits on stones.
(a) Why is Shakespeare described as wicked?
(b) Explain: 'from fog to endless night'.
(c) What does the reference to 'slag heap' mean?
a) Shakespeare is described as wicked because the beautiful world depicted by Shakespeare is denied to the slum children.
b) The poor slum children are subjected to a life of misery and hopelessness and extreme poverty.
c) Their emaciated wasted bodies are compared to slag (waste) heaped together. He returns to their thin, malnourished bodies, stating that they, “wear skins peeped through by bones.”
Do you think the poet; Pablo Neruda advocates total inactivity and death? Why / Why not?
No, he doesn't. He makes it very clear that 'stillness' should not be confused an equated to 'total inactivity'. Total inactivity brings death. But Neruda has 'no truck with death'. His stillness means cessation of hostile and harmful human activities.
Why and how is grandeur associated with the mighty dead? (A Thing of Beauty)
The 'grandeur' of the 'mighty dead' lies in their noble deeds. They have left behind the beautiful legacy of their brave acts. Their selfless sacrifice for their nation and deeds for the welfare of mankind still continue to inspire us.
What was the plea of the folk who had put up the roadside stand?
The men who had put up the roadside stand pleaded pathetically for some customers. They wanted to earn money from them. They wished the city folk would stop there to buy something from them. It was the intention with which the roadside stand was set up.
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