Shree Niketan Matric Higher Secondary School, Thiruvallur

STD: XII Poem Appreciation Marks:

Unit 1-Poem-The Castle
A) “All through that summer at ease we lay,
And daily from the turret wall
We watched the mowers in the hay
And the enemy half a mile away
They seemed no threat to us at all.”
1) Who lay at ease?
2) What did they watch from the turret wall?
3) Where were their enemies?
4) Who seemed no threat?
5) Give the meaning of the following-ease, turret wall, mowers, threat
B) “For what, we thought, had we to fear
With our arms and provender, load on load,
Our towering battlements, tier on tier,
And friendly allies drawing near
On every leafy summer road.”
6) Why did they think they need not fear?
7) Give the meaning of provender, battlements, allies, tier
C) “Our gates were strong, our walls were thick,
So smooth and high, no man could win
A foothold there, no clever trick
Could take us dead or quick,
Only a bird could have got in.”
8) How were their gates and walls?
9) Why could no man win over the castle?
10) What could not take them dead or quick?
11) What alone could have got in?
12) Give the meaning of foothold and quick .
D) “What could they offer us for bait?
Our captain was brave and we were true...
There was a little private gate,
A little wicked wicket gate.
The wizened warder let them through”
13) Identify the figure of speech in the first line?
14) Why could they not offer them any bait?
15) Who let the enemies in?
16) How did he let them in?
17) A little wicked wicket gate-Pick out the alliterated words.
18) Give the meaning of bait.
E) “Oh then our maze of tunneled stone
Grew thin and treacherous as air.
The cause was lost without a groan,
The famous citadel overthrown,
And all its secret galleries bare.”
19) How did the maze of tunneled stone turn into?
20) Why was the cause lost without a groan?
21) Why the secret galleries became bare?
22) Grew thin and treacherous as air-Identify the figure of Speech
23) Given the meaning of treacherous, groan, citadel, maze
F) “How can this shameful tale be told?
I will maintain until my death
We could do nothing, being sold:
Our only enemy was gold,
And we had no arms to fight it with.”
24) How can this shameful tale be told?-Identify the figure of speech
25) Why could they not do anything?
26) Who was their only enemy?
27) Our only enemy was gold-Identify the figure of speech.
28) Why do they state that they had no arms to fight with?
29) Give the name of the poem and the poet’s name.
Unit 2-Poem-Our Casuarina Tree
G) “LIKE a huge Python, winding round and round
The rugged trunk, indented deep with scars,
Up to its very summit near the stars,
A creeper climbs, in whose embraces bound
No other tree could live.”
30) What winds the tree?
31) “LIKE a huge Python, winding round and round-Identify the figure of Speech.
32) How does the creeper wind the tree?
33) How does the tree survive the tight hold of the creeper?
34) “in whose embraces bound”-What embraces the tree?
35) “in whose embraces bound”-Identify the figure of speech?
36) Give the meaning of summit, indented, rugged, embrace
H) “ But gallantly
The giant wears the scarf, and flowers are hung
In crimson clusters all the boughs among,
Whereon all day are gathered bird and bee;
And oft at nights the garden overflows
With one sweet song that seems to have no close,
Sung darkling from our tree, while men repose. “
37) Who is gallant here?
38) Who is the giant here?
39) What looks like a scarf?
40) What gathers on the tree during the day?
41) What does the garden overflow with during the night?
42) Give the meaning of gallant, darkling, boughs, repose.
43) What seems to have no close?
44) What do the men do during darkling?
I) “When first my casement is wide open thrown
At dawn, my eyes delighted on it rest;
Sometimes, and most in winter, - on its crest
A gray baboon sits statue-like alone
Watching the sunrise; while on lower boughs
His puny offspring leap about and play;”
45) Whose eyes delighted on its rest?
46) On what were the eyes delighted?
47) What sat on the crest?
48) How did it sit?
49) What where the offsprings doing?
50) A gray baboon sits statue-like alone-Identify the figure of speech?
51) Give the meaning of the following-casement, baboon, puny, offspring
J) “And far and near kokilas hail the day;
And to their pastures wend our sleepy cows;
And in the shadow, on the broad tank cast
By that hoar tree, so beautiful and vast,
The water-lilies spring, like snow enmassed.”
52) Who hails the day?
53) Where do the sleepy cows go?
54) Where is the shadow cast?
55) What casts the shadow?
56) Where do the water-lilies spring?
57) How do the water lilies look like?
58) Give the meaning of wend, enmassed
59) What does broad tank refer to?
K) “But not because of its magnificence
Dear is the Casuarina to my soul:
Beneath it we have played; though years may roll,
O sweet companions, loved with love intense,
For your sakes, shall the tree be ever dear.
Blent with your images, it shall arise
In memory, till the hot tears blind mine eyes!”
60) Where did the poet and her companions play?
61) Why is the Casuarina tree dear to the poet’s soul?
L) “What is that dirge-like murmur that I hear
Like the sea breaking on a shingle-beach?
It is the tree’s lament, an eerie speech,
That haply to the unknown land may reach.”
62) What is that dirge-like murmur that I hear-identify the figure of speech?
63) Like the sea breaking on a shingle-beach-Identify the figure of speech?
64) What is the dirge-like murmur?
65) Give the meaning of dirge, shingle beach, lament, haply.
M) “ Unknown, yet well-known to the eye of faith!
Ah, I have heard that wail far, far away
In distant lands, by many a sheltered bay,
When slumbered in his cave the water-wraith
And the waves gently kissed the classic shore
Of France or Italy, beneath the moon,
When earth lay trancèd in a dreamless swoon:
And every time the music rose, - before
Mine inner vision rose a form sublime,
Thy form, O Tree, as in my happy prime
I saw thee, in my own loved native clime.”
66) Unknown, yet well-known to the eye of faith-Identify the figure of speech?
67) Whose wail was heard by whom?
68) Where was the water-Wraith slumbered?
69) And the waves gently kissed the classic shore-Identify the figure of speech?
70) Which country’s shore did the waves touch?
71) When earth lay trancèd in a dreamless swoon-Identify the figure of speech?
72) Give the meaning of slumbered, Water-Wraith, tranced, sublime.
73) Explain happy prime and native clime.
N) “Therefore I fain would consecrate a lay
Unto thy honor, Tree, beloved of those
Who now in blessed sleep for aye repose, -
Dearer than life to me, alas, were they!
Mayst thou be numbered when my days are done
With deathless trees - like those in Borrowdale,
Under whose awful branches lingered pale
Fear, trembling Hope, and Death, the skeleton,
And Time the shadow;” and though weak the verse
That would thy beauty fain, oh, fain rehearse,
May Love defend thee from oblivion’s curse.”
74) What is “blessed sleep”?
75) Who were dearer than life to the poet?
76) “Mayst thou be numbered when my days are done”-What does “thou” and numbered mean here?
77) What is referred to as Deathless Trees?
78) Give the meaning of fain, consecrate, oblivion, rehearse.
79) Give the name of the poem and the poet’s name.
Unit 3-All the World’s a Stage
O) “All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
80) All the world’s a stage-Identify the figure of speech ?
81) And all the men and women merely players-Identify the figure of speech?
82) What does exit and entrance mean?
83) How many acts does a man play in his lifetime?
84) What does parts mean?
P) “At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;
Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school.”
85) What is the first stage in Man’s life?
86) What does the infant do?
87) How does the boy go to the school?
88) Give the meaning of mewling, puking, satchel and whining.
Q) And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth.
89) Who sighs like a furnace?
90) What does the lover make for his mistress?
91) What does the soldier seek?
92) Sketch the characteristic features of a soldier as mentioned in the above lines?
93) Give the meaning of pard, cannon, bubble reputation, oaths.
R) “And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part.
94) Describe the physical appearance of the justice?
95) Explain wise saws and modern instances.
S) “The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound.”
96) How is the physical appearance of man in the sixth stage?
97) How does his voice change into?
98) Give the meaning of pantaloon, hose, shrunk sank, treble
T) “Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”
99) Which stage is second childishness referred to?
100) What does sans and oblivion mean?
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Unit 4-Poem-Ulysses
U) “ It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Match’d with an aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,”
101) What does Ulysses state does not profit him?
102) What does mete and dole mean?
103) What laws does Ulysses create and for whom?
104) Give the meaning of idle, barren, savage, profits.
V) “That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: All times I have enjoy’d
Greatly, have suffer’d greatly, both with those”
105) What do the people of Ithaca do?
106) Who could not rest from travel?
107) Explain-“Drink Life to the lees”
W) “That loved me, and alone, on shore, and when
Thro’ scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vext the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart”
108) What does scudding drifts mean?
109) Vext the dim sea-Identify the figure of speech?
110) For always roaming with a hungry heart-Identify the figure of speech?
111) Give the meaning of Hyades.
X) “ Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honour’d of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,”
112) With whom did Ulysses drink delight of battle?
113) Cite the experience of Ulysses as stated in the above lines?
Y) “Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravell’d world whose margin fades”
114) To what does Ulysses compare his experience to ?
115) The margin of which fades?
Z) “For ever and forever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!
As tho’ to breathe were life! Life piled on life”
116) Explain-To rust unburnished.
117) Explain-As tho’ to breathe were life.
I ) “Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were”
118) What is eternal silence and vile?
119) What is Little remains?
120) For whom little remains?
II) For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.
121) For how long did Ulysses stay in Ithaca after his return from the Battle of Troy?
122) What does gray spirit refer to?
123) To follow knowledge like a sinking star-Identify the figure of speech?
124) Who is the sinking star?
III) This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
To whom I leave the sceptre and the isle, -
Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfil
This labour, by slow prudence to make mild
A rugged people, and thro’ soft degrees
Subdue them to the useful and the good.
125) What does sceptre and isle mean?
126) What is the labour mentioned?
127) How does Telemachus fulfil the labour?
128) How does Telemachus make the people of Ithaca good and useful?
IV) Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere
Of common duties, decent not to fail
In offices of tenderness, and pay
Meet adoration to my household gods,
When I am gone. He works his work, I mine.
129) Who is most blameless?
130) In what areas is Telemachus most blameless?
131) He works his work, I mine-Whom does “he” and “I” refer to?
V) “ There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail
There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toil’d, and wrought, and thought with me -
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed “
132) The vessel puffs her sail-Identify the figure of speech.
133) Give the meaning of dark, gloom.
VI) Free hearts, free foreheads - you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices.
134) What does “the deep” mean here?
135) What closes everything?
136) Give the meaning of strove, wanes, moans, unbecoming
VII) ‘T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
137) What is the life purpose of Ulysses?
138) Give the meaning of smite, baths, Happy Isles, Achilles
Unit 5-Poem-A father to his son
IX) “ A father sees his son nearing manhood.
What shall he tell that son?
“Life is hard; be steel; be a rock.”
And this might stand him for the storms
and serve him for humdrum monotony”
139) Life is hard; be steel; be a rock-Identify the figure of speech?
140) What might stand him for the storms and serve his for humdrum monotony?
141) What is humdrum monotony?
X) “and guide him among sudden betrayals
and tighten him for slack moments.
“Life is a soft loam; be gentle; go easy.”
And this too might serve him.
Brutes have been gentled where lashes failed.”
141) Life is a soft loam-Identify the figure of speech.
142) Brutes have been gentled where lashes failed-Identify the figure of speech.
143) Give the meaning of betrayal, slack, loam, brutes.
XI) “The growth of a frail flower in a path up
has sometimes shattered and split a rock.
A tough will counts. So does desire.
So does a rich soft wanting.
Without rich wanting nothing arrives.”
144) “The growth of a frail flower in a path up has sometimes shattered and split a rock-Identify FOS
XII) “Tell him too much money has killed men
and left them dead years before burial:
the quest of lucre beyond a few easy needs
has twisted good enough men
sometimes into dry thwarted worms.”
145) What has killed men before their burial?
146) What has twisted men into worms?
147) Give the meaning of quest of lucre and thwarted.
XIII) “Tell him time as a stuff can be wasted.
Tell him to be a fool ever so often
and to have no shame over having been a fool
yet learning something out of every folly
hoping to repeat none of the cheap follies”
148) What is the figure of speech employed in the first two lines?
149) How should we handle folly?
XIV) “ thus arriving at intimate understanding
of a world numbering many fools.
Tell him to be alone often and get at himself
and above all tell himself no lies about himself
whatever the white lies and protective fronts
he may use against other people.
150) How should one be to onself?
151) What are “white lies”?
XV) Tell him solitude is creative if he is strong
and the final decisions are made in silent rooms.
Tell him to be different from other people
if it comes natural and easy being different.
152) Why does the poet tell us to be in solitude?
153) Where are final decisions made?
154) How should we be from other people?
XVI) Let him have lazy days seeking his deeper motives.
Let him seek deep for where he is born natural.
Then he may understand Shakespeare
and the Wright brothers, Pasteur, Pavlov,
Michael Faraday and free imaginations
155) Let him have lazy days seeking his deeper motives-Identify the figure of speech?
156) When would the son understand Shakespeare, Pasteur, Pavlov?
XVII) Bringing changes into a world resenting change.
He will be lonely enough
to have time for the work
he knows as his own.
157) Bringing changes into a world resenting change-Identify the figure of speech?
158) What does resenting mean?
XVIII) You know, we French stormed Ratisbon:
A mile or so away,
On a little mound, Napoleon
Stood on our storming-day;
With neck out-thrust, you fancy how,
Legs wide, arms locked behind,
As if to balance the prone brow
Oppressive with its mind.
159) You know, we French stormed Ratisbon-Identify the figure of speech.
160) Where did Napoleon stand?
161) How was he standing?
162) What is prone brow and oppressive?
XIX) Just as perhaps he mused, ‘My plans
That soar, to earth may fall,
Let once my army-leader Lannes
Waver at yonder wall’, –
Out ’twixt the battery-smokes there flew
A rider, bound on bound
Full-galloping: nor bridle drew
Until he reached the mound.
163) Who is the Army Leader spoken of here?
164) How did the rider approach Napoleon on the mound?
165) Give the meaning of soar, waver, yonder, twixt
XX) Then off there flung in smiling joy,
And held himself erect
By just his horse’s mane, a boy:
You hardly could suspect –
(So tight he kept his lips compressed,
Scarce any blood came through)
You looked twice ere you saw his breast
Was all but shot in two.
166) Who flung in smiling joy?
167) Why did he hold himself erect?
XXI) ‘Well’, cried he, ‘Emperor, by God’s grace
We’ve got you Ratisbon!
The Marshal’s in the market-place
And you’ll be there anon,
To see your flag-bird flap his vans
Where I, to heart’s desire,
Perched him!’ The Chief ’s eye flashed; his plans
Soared up again like fire.
168) What was the message conveyed to the Emperor?
169) Who was in the Market place?
170) Who perched the flag at the Market place?
171) Give the meaning of anon and perched.
XXII) The Chief ’s eye flashed; but presently
Softened itself, as sheathes
A film the mother-eagle’s eye
When her bruised eaglet breathes:
‘You’re wounded!’ ‘Nay’, his soldier’s pride
Touched to the quick, he said:
‘I’m killed, Sire!’And, his Chief beside,
Smiling, the boy fell dead.
172) Whose eyes flashed?
173) Why did it soften suddenly?
174) What did the soldier reply to Napoleon?
175) What happened to the Solider?
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