Leisure - by W. H.
Davies (1911)
Question 1: What does ‘leisure’ mean in this poem?
Answer: In this poem, the word ‘leisure’ means having free time to pursue one’s passion or to spend
time with nature and admire its beauty.
Question 2: Who are ‘we’ in the poem?
Answer: The word ‘We’ in the poem refers to people who have no time to enjoy nature.
Question 3: The words ‘No time’ are repeated seven times in the poem. What is the poet trying to
say?
Answer: The words ‘No time’ are repeated seven times in the poem to highlight that we humans are
so busy in our daily work that we have no time to admire nature and its beauty.
Question 4: If the poet was living in a town, what would he see on the roads?
Answer: If the poet had been living in a town, he would have seen traffic on the roads and people
around him rushing to their work.
Question 5: How can we live a better life?
Answer: We can live a better life by using our leisure time creatively to strengthen and admire the
beautiful things around us.
Question 6: What does the poet wish to see in his free time
Answer: In his free time, the poet wished to stand beneath boughs and stare for long like wandering
sheep or cows. If he had free time, while passing through woods he would be able to spot where
squirrels hid their nuts in grass. The poet would like to watch streams sparkling in broad daylight. He
wished, he had the time to admire nature’s beauty in its various forms.
Question 7: When and where can we see the squirrels hiding their nuts?
Answer: We can see the squirrels hiding their nuts in grass when we are passing by the woods.
Question 8: How do the streams look in broad daylight?
Answer: The streams shine like stars in the night sky, in broad daylight.
Question 9: Quote the lines from the poem where the poet poses a rhetorical question to his
readers?
Answer: The lines from the poem are:- “What is this life if, full of care We have no time to stand and
stare” Rhetorical question – The poet asks a question to which he does not expect anyone to reply
since the answer to it is very obvious. He asks whether life has any value if a man cannot find the
time to take a break from his hectic schedule and stare at nature.
Question 10: Which ‘life’ is the poet talking about? What is it that we don’t have the time to do but
the cows and the sheep have?
Answer: The poet is talking about one’s extremely busy and stressful life. We don’t have the time to
stand and stare beneath the boughs like cows and sheep.
Question 11: Why do you think the word ‘Beauty’ is written with a capital ‘B’?
Answer: The word ‘Beauty’ is written with a capital ‘B’ to show the importance of the nature’s
beauty.
Question 12: The movements in nature are beautiful like a dancer. Based on your own observation,
describe movements of two things in nature that are beautiful.
Answer: The movements of the leaves and the waves are beautiful.
Question 13: How, according to the poet, is our life poor?
Answer: The poet says people neither have time for themselves nor for nature. People are very busy
to even stand and admire the beauty of nature around them. Hence, according to the poet, our life
is poor.
Question 14: Read the lines and answer the questions:
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began
(a)Who is referred to as ‘her’?
Answer: Beauty is referred to as ‘her’ in the poem.
(b) To what has the poet compared ‘her’ in the poem?
Answer: The poet has personified Beauty as a dancer.
(c) What does the poet lament about?
Answer: The poet laments that we have no time to watch beauty dance and watch her smile.
(d) Give the antonym of ‘enrich’. Answer: Reduce/deplete
Question 15: Is ‘Beauty’ a male or a female? Justify with reference to the poem.
Answer: In the poem, Nature is personified as a beautiful dancing maiden. ‘Beauty’ is referred to as
‘her’. Hence, ‘Beauty’ is a female according to the poem.
