Q1 of 14 Page 98

Read the extracts and answer the questions:

'That in the small white murder of one kiss


Are born two ghosts, two Hamlets, two soliloquies.


Two worlds apart, tomorrow?'


i) Explain the comparison in the poet’s reference to the ‘two Hamlets’ in your own words.


ii) Murder normally leads to death, but here, murder leads to the birth of two worlds. This is ironical. Explain the irony.


iii) 'Two worlds apart'. How does this expression focus on the title of the poem, 'Curtain'.

(i) Shakespeare’s Hamlet was a tragic character, whose internal conflict led to him becoming progressively confused, miserable and agonized. Hence, calling the lovers two hamlets shows how these two might become similarly broken after their painful separation from one another.


ii) Murder here gives birth to two different worlds. But the irony is that this murder kills the united world of the lovers to give birth to two lifeless and barren worlds of the separated partners.


iii) This expression shows how the curtain draws on the separation of the two lovers, with their world being finally divided into two, severed worlds, in which they are both isolated.


More from this chapter

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1

Read the extracts and answer the questions:

'Already division piles emphasis like bullets, Already the one dark air is separate and strange'.


i) Which words describe the 'dark air'?


ii) Explain 'Already division piles'.


iii) What effect does the repetition of the word 'Already' have on the poem?

 1

Read the extracts and answer the questions:

'Goodbye'


There is no touch now. The wave has broken.'


i) Quote the line which states that the two people who are separating are not within touching distance anymore.


ii) What does the word 'wave' symbolise?


iii) Which one word in the above extract describes the theme of the poem?

 1

'Separation' is always painful. Separation from a loved one when death snatches him/her away, from someone very dear (a parent, brother or sister), from the country/region you grew up in - every separation makes you a stronger person from within.

Write a story of a separation which led to an individual emerging as a character of strength. Add suitable quotes from the poem to highlight your message. [150 words]

 1

In groups of four, discuss how we can overcome the grief of separation from a loved one. What are the qualities needed to bear an irreparable loss?