MP Board Class 9th General English Important Extracts from Poems
MP Board Class 9th General English Important Extracts from Poems
MP Board Class 9th General English Important Extracts from Poems
(Poem 1)
(A) When were you bom, O Light?
Who made you?
O Light, what are you?
What is your nature?
Are you wisdom’s daughter?
But Wisdom sleeps.
Questions:
(a) From which poem have these lines been taken?
(b) Who is the poem addressed to?
(c) Which questions arise in the poet’s mind about the birth of light?
Answers:
(a) These lines have been taken from the poem “O Light!”
(b) The poem is addressed to light.
(c) The questions that arise in the poet’s mind are
(i) When was light bom?
(ii) Who made light?
(iii) What is light’s nature?
(B) O Light, for how long have you befriended the sky?
And wherefore this love of it?
How do you completely merge in it?
She who made you all is a magician
She is enchanter, the bewitcher,
We praise her,
Prosper O Light.
Questions:
(a) What does the poet ask light about the sky?
(b) How much love does light show for the sky?
(c) Which names does the poet give to she (nature)?
Answers:
(a) The poet asks the light for how long has he befriended the sky.
(b) Light shows so much love for the sky that he merges himself into it.
(c) The poet gives these names to mother nature—a magician, an enchanter and a bewitcher.
2. (Poem 7)
Am I an adult or a child?
No ! Not an adult—I do not see
The reasons for adult disputes;
I am safe in non-understanding.
But does that mean that I am a child?
Well, am I a child or an adult?
No ! Not one or the other now;
One pace in front of childhood,
And one behind an adult.
Soon I shall stride into a new world,
The world of adult life.
Questions:
(a) What is the doubt in the poet’s mind?
(b) What is the poet unable to see?
(c) What is the present state of the poet?
Answers:
(a) The doubt in the poet’s mind is whether she is a child or an adult.
(b) The poet is unable to see the reasons for adult disputes.
(c) The poet is one pace in front of childhood and one behind an adult.
3. (Poem 11)
(A) One by one the casements catch
Her beams beneath the silvery thatch,
Couched in his kennel like a log,
With paws of silver sleeps the dog;
Questions:
(a) How do the windows catch the beams of the moon?
(b) How is the sound sleep of the dog described?
(c) Why do only the paws of the dog are silvery?
Answers:
(a) Windows catch moon beams one by one.
(b) The sound sleep of the dog is described as that he sleeps like a log.
(c) It is so because his whole body except for his paws is inside the Kennel, so only his paws look silvery.
(B) A harvest mouse goes scampering by,
With silver claws, and silver eye;
And moveless fish in the water gleam.
By silver reeds in silver stream.
Questions:
(a) From which poem have these lines been taken?
(b) How is the harvest mouse described in the poem?
(c) Who gleam in water? And where?
Answers:
(a) The extract has been taken from the poem ‘Silver’.
(b) The harvest mouse is described with silver , claws and silver eye.
(c) Moveless fish gleam in water by silver reeds in silver stream.
4. (Poem 15)
Woodman, forbear thy stroke !
Cut not its earth-bound ties;
Oh, spare that aged oak
Now towering to the skies !
When but an idle boy,
I sought its grateful shade;
In all their gushing joy
Here, too, my sisters played.
Questions:
(a) What does the poet ask the woodman?
(b) What did the poet do when he was an idle boy?
(c) What’ did his sisters do under the shade of the oak tree?
Answers:
(a) The poet asks the Woodman to forbear his ‘ stroke and not to cut its earth bound ties (i.e. roots)
(b) The poet sought the tree’s grateful shade when he was an idle boy.
(c) His sisters played under the shade of the tree.
5. (Poem 19)
(A) Full are my pitchers and far to carry
Lone is the way
Why, O why was I tempted to tarry
Lured by the boatmen’s song?
Swiftly the Shadows of Night are falling
Hear, O hear, is the white crane calling.
Questions:
(a) What fear does the poetess express?
(b) By what was she attracted?
(c) What was its result?
Answers:
(a) The poetess expresses the fear that her way is lonely.
(b) She was attracted by the boatman’s song.
(c) The result was that she got too late to return to her home.
(B) If in the darkness a serpent should bite me.
Or if an evil spirit should smite me,
Ram Re Ram I shall die.
My brother will murmur,
Why doth she linger?
My mother will wait and weep,
Saying, 0 safe may the great gods bring her.
Questions:
(a) Why does the poetess say “Ram Re Ram I shall die?”
(b) What will poetess’ brother think?
(c) What does the mother say?
Answers:
(a) The poetess says ‘Ram Re Ram I shall die because she fears that in darkness a serpent may bite her.
(b) Poetess’ brother will think why she lingers that is, why is she getting late.
(c) The mother prays great gods to bring her home safely.
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