Appreciation of poems Std X

1.1 WHERE THE MIND IS WITHOUT

FEAR
The poem ‘Where the Mind is without fear' is a prayer to God written by
‘Rabindranath Tagore’. This poem is from his Nobel Prize winning anthology
‘Gitanjali’.
The poem consists of eleven lines in total.Lines are not divided in stanzas
but they are divided into segments for understanding its meaning.The poet has
not used any rhyme scheme so it’s a free verse.
The poet has used various figures of speech such as Metaphor, Apostrophe,
Personification, etc.
Metaphor: ‘where the streams of reason have not lost his way’
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit.
In the above line stream is implicitly compared with reason and dreary desert is
compared with dead habit.
Apostrophe: ‘Into that heaven of freedom, my Father let my country awake.’
Here poet directly addressed to the God (Father) as he were present in
front of him

The poem is set in India of the poet’s dream. The poem explains the dream
of the poet for his nation. He reveals his own concept of freedom throughout the
poem. Poet expects such a nation where people can live with respect, each one
should get the right to education, and people should not be divided on the basis of
religion, caste, class and colour in society. He wants such a nation where each
one’s aim will be reached towards perfection and no one will pull down others for
their benefit. Prejudices and superstitions should not divide the people in groups
and break their unity .He asked God to awaken his country into a heaven of
freedom. Poet expects from the poem an idealistic country and countrymen.
This is an extremely beautiful poem composed by Rabindranath Tagore
where he has arranged words very beautifully and given a patriotic message for
all.
 1.4 ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE
The poem titled ‘All the World’s A Stage’ has been written by the famous
English poet and playwright ‘William Shakespeare’ .This poem is taken from his
famous well known play ‘As You Like It’. It is a monologue by one of the
characters in the play.
This 28 lines of beautiful poem doesn’t have a specific rhyme scheme but
the poet has written the poem with a steady rhythm of five beats in each line.
The poem is a blank verse.
There are several figures of speech such as metaphor, alliteration, simile, inversion,
onomatopoeia and transferred Epithet which adds beauty to the lines. The poet has
used
Simile: ‘Creeping like a snail’. Here a schoolboy is compared with a creeping
snail.
Onomatopoeia: ‘Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arm ’.In this line the word
mewling and puking expresses the sound
The poet wants us to be aware of the fact that the world in which we live is a
stage and all of us are players, playing many parts of our life. He has divided life
into seven stages, each having its own varied qualities and features.
The theme of the poem is the cycle of life. Shakespeare has vividly described
all the stages of man comparing him to snail, leopard, soldier, judge and among the
other things. It tells us how one starts out as an infant, helpless, without
understanding and ends the same way, without being aware of what is happening
around us. Imagery is the special feature of the poem. Many of the lines create a
picture before our eyes and help us to imagine the seven stages in man’s life.
The narrative style used by the poet gives continuity to the poem, where
one stage smoothly goes into the next. This is one of the most famous and quoted
poems of Shakespeare.
 2.1 ANIMALS
The poem ‘Animals’ is written by famous American poet ‘Walt Whitman’.
The poet has broken away from the conventional use of a rhyme scheme and has
written the poem in free verse. The poem does not have a rhyme scheme. It’s a
free verse and no rhyming words.
The poet has also used different figures of speech such as Hyperbole,
Alliteration, Tautology and Hyperbole. The chief figure of speech in the poem is
‘Repetition’ lines such as :
e.g. They do not sweat and whine about their condition …
They do not lie awake in the dark…..
They do not make me sick…..
e.g. I stand and look at them long and long
In the above mentioned lines ‘they do not’ and‘long’ these words are
repeated for the poetic effect.
The poet has depicted the simplicity of the animals and the greediness
and complex nature of human beings. He feels more at home with animals rather
than human beings. Animals are placid, contented, and happy and live in harmony.
They possess the greatest virtue of love and compassion but poet finds all these
things missing in human beings. So he wants to emulate those values in him. This
poem is a revolutionary, new kind of poem because at that time in America poems
were rhymed and metrical.
This is a reflective poem. The language used is simple but the tone is
subtle. By describing the qualities that animals possess today, the poet indirectly
implies that we human beings too should possess these qualities.

This poem tells us that we must take some good qualities from animals.
Instead of whining and complaining the whole time, we must be satisfied with life.
 2.4 THE PULLEY
The poem ‘The Pulley’ is written by the great poet ‘George Herbert’ who
was a priest by profession. The pulley is a metaphysical poem which is religious
in nature. Metaphysical poetry flourished in the 17th century when religion was
given a lot of importance.
The poem pulley consists of 20 lines which are divided in 4 stanzas.
Each stanza of the poem has five lines and the rhyme scheme of each stanza is
ababa. Rhyming words are man-span-can. Way-stay-lay, he-me-be, creature-
nature etc. There are several figures of speech in the poem such as paradox,
inversion, metaphor and, pun.
e.g. Inversion: ‘ so both should losers be’ words in the line are not in proper
prose order. Proper order is So both should be losers
Pun : ‘ Rest in bottom lay.’
The word ‘Rest’ has two meanings. Rest-Remaining and Rest- peace of
mind.
The mood of the poem is thoughtful and reflective. The figure of speech
metaphor is used very beautifully in the poem. Poet used pulley as scientific
equipment to lift mankind towards him. The whole poem is written in the form of a
monologue .A religious idea is conveyed to us very clearly.
In this poem we are made aware of a relationship between God and man.
Man is God’s creation. God created man and showered his blessings to his
devotees. God realized that if he gave man all his blessing and gift, man would
very soon forget him. If all gifts will be showered on the man then he will forget
God completely. God realized this; hence he decided to keep back the most
important blessing namely ‘rest’. Though man had everything that money could
buy but he would be restless and it would be this restless which would lift him
towards God just like pulley.
This poem teaches us not to be self-satisfied and contented but to
always remember and thank God for all the blessings he has bestowed upon
us.
 3.1 THE NIGHT OF THE SCORPION
The poem ‘Night of the Scorpion’ It is written by none other than the well
known poet Nissim Ezekiel.
This poem contains lines. The poem has no rhyme scheme so this
poem is a free verse. The figures of speech are several such as simple,
onomatopoeia, Metaphor, Climax, Antithesis, Repetition, Anaphora, etc
Onomatopoeia: ‘and buzzed the name of God a hundred times.’
Here we can hear the buzzing of the prayers of the many peasants.
Antithesis: “Trying every curse and blessings” two words opposite in meaning
curse and blessing used together for greater poetic effect.
This poem depicts the selflessness and unconditional love of a mother
who is stung by a scorpion. It also explains the care and affection of the villagers
and their efforts to comfort the pain of the mother. The central idea of the poem is
how the scorpion bit the mother and she suffered for hours from the
poisonous bite. Villagers and holy men came to help get rid of the poison but to no
avail. The father tried every herb and every possible way of getting rid of the
poison. The mother suffered but she thanked God that it was not one of her child
who was bitten
The special feature of this poem is the imagery and the poem seems like a
story. We get a clear and vivid picture that is happening in the house. One of the
interesting points about the poem is that – Ezekiel narrates it from the point of
view of a child who was purely an observer not involved as the adults were in
taking any action.
It is a beautiful poem showing the extent of love for the family members.
 3.4 WILL TO WIN
‘The will to win’ is a motivational poem written by ‘Berton Braley’.
The poet has written the poem in free verse. The poet has no specific
rhyme scheme but rhymes are used randomly all throughout. The most common
types are ‘for it’, ‘of it’, ‘without it’, ‘about it’, ‘beget it’, ‘sweat for it’ and so on.
Other examples are ‘sagacity’, ‘tenacity’, 'pain ‘ brain.
The poet has used mainly figures of speech such as Alliteration and
repetition “You besiege and beset it” –Here, the sound ‘b’ The Repetition is seen
in abundance of ‘for it’ phrases used throughout the poem.
The poet gives us a formula for sure success. He tells us what we should do and
what we should avoid in order to achieve success. The title of the poem itself tells
us about desire to excel and doing whatever we can to get it. Every line of the
poem provokes the readers to think and plan for the achievement of their goal. If
your goal becomes your living mission and does not let you rest until you have
achieved it then you are on the path of success.
It is an inspirational poem. The poet uses strong emotional words to
motivate the reader. If you do not have the desire for something, you probably
won’t ever get it. This makes the poem interesting to read and understand. The
poem is rich in personality straits. The language of the poem is simple yet forceful.
This poem encourages me to put our best and keep striving for success
because that is the only way to achieve it.
 4.1 A THING OF BEAUTY IS A JOY
FOREVER
The poem ‘ A thing of Beauty is a Joy Forever’ is written by the world
famous poet John Keats. This poem is the first stanza of a longer poem
‘Endymion’ based on Greek Mythology.
In this poem the poet tells us that beautiful things in our lives will always
bring us joy and happiness. Such joy never decreases but only increases. Such joy
never brings us happiness that cannot be overcast by death or any form of
unhappiness. Such joy can become eternal and infinite when they can be read and
absorbed by us in the form of poetry.
The rhyme scheme of the poem is aabb; that is the poem is written in
rhyming couplets. In these lines of poem various figures of speech such as
metaphor, Alliteration, Antithesis, Personification, Imagery but the one that stands
out is ‘Epigram’. The line ‘A thing of Beauty is a joy forever’ expresses the idea
of beauty in a clever way
The special feature about this lovely poem is that many lines of the poem contain
imagery. E.g. Flowery bands. The reader forms pictures and enjoys the poem.
The message from the poem is very apt and appropriate and not meant for some of
us but for all of us. A beautiful thing will give joy throughout one’s lifetime. The
imagery used in the poem gives us a clear picture of nature.
Though the poem is a difficult one, it really makes us stop and think about
what we are missing in life and how we can get real happiness and joy in our
lifetime.
 4.4THE HEIGHT OF THE RIDICULOUS
The poem ‘The Height of the Ridiculous’ by Oliver Wendell Holmes is a
humorous poem written for enjoyment, with plenty of funny expressions. The main
aim of the poet is to simply entertain his audience.
The rhyme scheme of the poem is abcb. There are many figures of speech
such as alliteration, antithesis, onomatopoeia, repetition but the one that stands out
is Transferred Epithet. In the line ‘Ten days and nights, with sleepless eye’, the
adjective ‘sleepless’ should be for the man and not for the eye.

The poet wrote some lines while he was in a happy mood. While reading
them, he found them so funny that he thought that he would die of laughter. When
the poet gave this poem to a servant, he started reading it. The servant read the first
line and started grinning. As he continued reading, the grin grew broader and he
started chuckling. At the fourth line he started roaring with laughter, so much that
his waist band split and he burst five buttons when he read the fifth line. He went
into a laughing fit. Observing the effects of his humor, the poet decided never to
write so humorously again.

This is a humorous poem. There are expressions that indicate funny

moments. The reader forms a mental picture and enjoys the poem. The poem draws
our attention and holds it right up to the end.
This poem is light, simple and entertaining.