Q8 of 15 Page 1

Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow:

a. Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?


Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find


Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,


Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;


Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,


Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook


Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:


i. Name the poet and the poem from where the above extract has been taken.


ii. Whom has the poet compared Autumn within the above lines?


iii. Identify the phrase which reveals the comparison.


iv. Name two places where Autumn can be found according to the stanza.


v. Identify and name the poetic device used in the fourth line of the above extract.

i. This extract is taken from the poem ‘Ode: To Autumn’ written by John Keats.

ii. The poet describes the figure of Autumn as a female goddess, often seen sitting on the granary floor, her hair “soft-lifted” by the wind, and often seen sleeping in the fields or watching a cider-press squeezing the juice from apples. This comparison is made not only because seasons were traditionally personified as female in European art, but also because this season has ‘oh-so-soft’ hair.


iii. The phrase which reveals comparison is: ‘Among the store of grain, sitting carelessly on a granary floor’.


iv. According to the given stanza, Autumn can be found at two places that is the granary floor and the half-reaped furrow.


v. Alliteration is the poetic device used in the words ‘winnowing wind’. Alliteration is the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.


More from this chapter

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7

You, Hitesh Verma, are working as an anchor in Doordarshan, Delhi. Your channel is planning to celebrate Indian English Literary Week. You have been given the responsibility to prepare for and take an interview of the famous contemporary Indian writer Mr. Vikram Seth. Using the guidelines given below and your own ideas, write a set of three or more exchanges between Mr. Vikram Seth and you.

•secret behind a successful writer


•challenges in taking up writing as a profession


•about his published or unpublished works


•message for future young writers

 7

The following paragraph has not been edited. There is an error in each line. Write the error and the correction in your answer book against the correct blank number.

Along with air or water pollution, (a) or and


our cities are often under an (b) __ __


attack with noise pollution. (c) _____


Marriage procession, loud music from (d) _____


neighbourhood are all not good on the ailing and students. (e) ____

 8

Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow:

b Yes; there are in the backward past


Soft hours to which we turn –


Hours which, at distance, mildly shine,


Shine on, but never burn.


(i) Name the poet and the poem from where the above extract has been taken.


(ii) What does the poet mean by “Soft hours”?


(iii) Explain briefly the impact of such moments.


(iv) What is the learning poet gets from his experience of his walk in the moonlit night?


(v) Identify and name the poetic device used in the above lines.

 9

Answer any one of the following questions in 50-60 words:

(i) How does Lord Weston equip himself to fight against the danger that he sees a threat to his life?


(ii) Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction. The Monkey's Paw is a tale of warning. The short story is a warning to us all about what is really important in life. Elucidate from the play.


(iii) What apprehensions might Sergeant Morris have had in handing over the paw to anyone else? What was the basis of his apprehension?