Poem 1 – DUST OF SNOW by Robert Frost
On a winter day, the poet was standing under the snow-covered hemlock tree.
A crow sat and shook the branch of the tree and the dust of snow fell on the poet.
However, this simple small beautiful act of nature had a very comforting and relaxing effect on him whereas earlier his mood was sad gloomy and despairing.
The falling of the snow made him realise that the whole day has not been wasted.
Theme –Nature healing and helping with negative human emotions. Hope is one of the themes in this poem. Lastly, the poem gives the message that small natural incidents in life can change our attitude from negative to positive.
Poetic Devices- Alliteration-'saved some' sound of 's' 'Has given my heart ' sound of 'ha'
Rhyme scheme- abab
1. What does the poet Robert Frost want to convey through the poem “Dust of Snow”?
2. How has the poet observed 'nature' in the poem “Dust of Snow”?
3. “And saved some part of a day I had rued”. Explain
4. Small things in life make significant changes in our lives. Elaborate on the poem.
- The speaker is out on a walk and happens to walk under a hemlock tree when a crow sits on a branch of the same tree and causes some snow to fall onto the speaker.
- It is not a serious incident, yet it is enough to get the speaker's attention. The snow falling onto him startles him out of his thoughts and makes him realise that he could spend the rest of the day in a better way.
- That one small, harmless jolt completely changes his mood and gets rid of all the negativity. He becomes optimistic and upbeat, and could have gone on to accomplish major goals that day!
- Thus, any incident that forces us to introspect, can bring about significant changes in our lives, irrespective of how insignificant the incident itself is.
Poem 2 -- FIRE AND ICE by Robert Frost
1. What do you think would be enough to destroy the world? Can fire and ice contribute to it, How?
2. What is the underlying idea of the poem -Fire and Ice?
3. -How will the world end twice?
Poem 3-- A TIGER IN THE ZOO by Leslie Norris
1. How does the tiger feel inside the concrete cell of the zoo?
2. Describe the tiger in his natural habitat.
Poem 4-- THE BALL POEM by John Berryman
1. Why does the boy cry over the loss of his ball?
2. What lesson of life does the boy learn through the act of losing his ball?
Poem 5 -- AMANDA by Robin Klein
1. What does Amanda yearn for?
2. Why does Amanda wish to be a mermaid, an orphan and Rapunzel?
Poem 7 -- The Tale of Custard the Dragon by Ogden Nash
1. Describe all the characters of the poem.
2. The dragon Custard was a coward. Isn’t it true? Explain.
Poem -8 How to Tell Wild Animals by Carolyn Wells
- The Asiatic lion is a grand and majestic wild beast. It is found in the jungles of the eastern countries of Asia. It is a huge yellowish-coloured beast. It roars loud and its roar can terrify you to death. If you meet such a ferocious and powerful animal, you must be sure that he is the Asian Lion.
- The Bengal Tiger is a noble wild beast. The tiger has black stripes all over his yellowish hide. The moment you see him, he will not spare but eat you at once.
- When you are strolling forth a forest, you can find a beast. He is the leopard. His hide is peppered with spots. There is no escape from him even if you cry in pain. He will continue pouncing on you and eat you to death.
- If you are walking in your yard, you can be face to face with a bear. The bear hugs you very hard. His hug is not friendly. He may press you so hard that his hug may bring your death.
- An inexperienced person can’t distinguish beasts from prey. He will not be able to distinguish a hyena from a crocodile. Hyenas and crocodiles have very deceptive appearances. Hyenas smile merrily before attacking and killing their victims. Crocodiles pretend to be weeping before pouncing upon their prey and killing them.
- A true Chameleon is a small animal like a lizard. He has no ears at all. Neither has he a single wing. If you see such a creature on a tree, then you are seeing a chameleon.
Inversion: Change in the format of a sentence (if there should to you advance)
Assonance: use of vowel sound ’o’ (you should go, should to you, roars,)
Allusion: Reference to a famous thing, place, species of animal, etc (Asian Lion)
1. How does the poet suggest that you identify the lion and the tiger? When can you do so, according to him?
Whereas, if the animal has black stripes on the yellow background of the skin and he attacks to kill you, then it is a Bengal tiger.
2. Do you think the words ‘lept’ and ‘lep’ in the third stanza are spelt correctly? Why does the poet spell them like this?
The words ‘lept’ and ‘lep’ have not been spelled correctly. It is a poetic device known as a ptic license which is used by the poet to emphasize the actions of the leopard.
3. Look at the line “A novice might nonplus”. How would you write this ‘correctly’? Why is the poet’s ‘incorrect’ line better in the poem?
The correct order of the sentence is a novice might be nonplussed. The poet wrote it to bring rhyme to her poem. nonplus rhymes with thus.
Poem 9-Fog by Carl Sandburg.
- The poet is describing the arrival of fog. He says that the fog comes like little cat feet. Here, the fog has been compared with a little cat.
- As a cat walks silently on its small feet and no one can know about its arrival, similarly, the fog also sets in.
- The fog enters the city very slowly and calmly in such a way that no one can predict its arrival.
- Then the poet says, the thick cloud of the fog similarly covers the entire city as the cat sits silently by folding her legs behind itself.
- The fog engulfs the harbour and the whole city silently and looks around the places, the way a cat does.
- After some time the fog leaves the city and moves on.
- Here, the poet wants to convey that the fog does not stay for a longer time duration in a particular place.
- It disappears after some interval, just like a cat without being noticed by anyone.
Metaphor: Fog is compared to cat (On little cat feet)
Rhyme scheme: There is no rhyme scheme followed. Poem is in free verse
Enjambment: When a sentence continues to the next line (It sits looking….. then moves on)
Personification: fog has been personified – Fog comes, it sits
1. What are the characteristics of fog?
Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth’s surface. Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus.
Poem 10 -The Trees by Adrienne Rich
- The trees are coming out of their artificial glasshouses.
- They are moving out into their natural habitat — the forest.
- The trees are metaphors for nature itself.
- Without trees, forests have become empty.
- No trees are left in the forest where birds can perch themselves on their tops.
- Even insects have lost the places where they could hide.
- The poetess is hopeful that the forest, will be full of trees ‘by morning.’
- To free themselves, the roots continue working all night.
- They tire trying to come out from the cracks in the veranda floor.
- Small twigs become tough and branches move their positions under the roof.
- The night is fresh. The moon is shining and the smell of leaves and lichen is spreading out into the rooms.
- The poet is sitting inside but the struggle of the roots, leaves and branches continues to free themselves.
- The struggling trees have come out breaking the glasshouse and are marching towards the forest victoriously.
Personification - The poet has personified the sun by using burry feet for it.
Enjambment - The sentence is continued to the next line without a break - (the forest that was...trees by morning).
Anaphora - It is the repetition of a word at the start of two or more consecutive lines -
(no insect hide
no sun buries its feet in shadow).
Imagery - The poet has used kinesthetic imagery by giving us a visual description throughout the stanza. small twigs stiff with exertion
Simile - The poet has compared trees to newly discharged patients using like. iii. Personification - The poet has personified the twigs and boughs.
1. What is the central idea of the poem ‘The Trees’?
The central idea of the poem is the conflict between man and nature. A plant is brought inside the house when it is a sapling. But as it grows into a tree, it gets suffocated by the limited space available. So it departs to feel free. The tree is thus moving out to occupy the now empty forest, made so by man’s indiscriminate felling of trees. Humans must understand the negative impact of their actions on nature and mend their ways before it is too late.
2. Where are the trees at present? What do their roots, and leaves do?
The trees are in the house. The roots try to free themselves from the cracks of the veranda floor, and the leaves make efforts to move towards the glass perhaps in search of light. The small branches become stiff as they try to pull themselves towards the light.
3. Justify the revolt of the trees and state two values that the man should possess to stop the revolt
The trees inside the house get suffocated as they grow. They try to free themselves iron the cracks of the veranda floor and the leaves stretch out as if to move towards the glass. They are justified in their revolt. Men should learn the importance of trees.
Poem 11-For Anne Gregory by -William Butler Yeats
- The poem is addressed to a young and beautiful lady named Anne Gregory.
- Her hair is honey-coloured or blonde.
- Every young man loves Anne just because of her beautiful hair.
- Her hair falling on her ears look like the ramparts surrounding a castle.
- The poet says that no one would love Anne Gregory for ‘herself alone’.
- No one cares for her inner beauty or the nobility of her soul.
- Her outward appearance and her yellow hair are the only causes of her attraction.
- In the second stanza, the lady, Anne Gregory herself settles the issue.
- She says that she is free to choose what colour she uses to dye her hair.
- She can dye her hair brown or black or the colour of a carrot.
- Any young man should fall in love with her only after judging her own merits.
- Her yellow hair or outwardly appearance should not make any young man sigh for her in despair.
- She should be loved for ‘herself alone’.
- In the last stanza, the poet resolves the issue.
- The poet quotes a religious text.
- It is beyond human beings not to be attracted by physical appearance or beauty.
- Human beings can be easily swayed by beautiful yellow hair or outwardly appearance.
- Only God can withstand the temptations of physical beauty.
- Men, without God’s strength, simply can’t look beyond physical appearances.
Literary/ Poetic Devices used
Rhyme scheme: If we divide this poem of 18 lines into 3 units of 6 lines each, then each of these units will be found to follow the rhyme scheme ABCBDB.
Apostrophe: In this poem, the poet follows the device of the apostrophe as he is addressing himself to Anne Gregory, but we the readers never see her at any point in the poem.
Metaphor: In this poem, the poet uses the device of metaphor in the 4th line when he compares Anne Gregory’s hair with the ramparts of a castle. Like the ramparts, her hair also protects her face from being seen fully.
Metonymy: the act of referring to something by the name of something else that is closely connected with it like using the white house for the US President.
In this poem, the poet uses the device of metonymy in the 9th line when he uses the word “carrot” to mean the colour orange while making suggestions about what colour she can dye her hair.
Themes
Conventional ideas of beauty: The idea of “beauty” is a cultural conception or one that has been created by human beings themselves. That is why this idea is very one-dimensional and unchanging. It is believed that women with lighter hair (and lighter skin, though that is not the issue here) are beautiful, whereas women with darker hair are ugly. This idea is so pervasive that everyone takes it for granted and believes in it blindly. Even Anne Gregory thinks the same way about beauty. She believes that if she dyes her hair black or brown or red, then she will look ugly.
Men judge only by outer appearance: Throughout the poem, the poet has made cricritiquesn. By repeatedly telling Anne that men love her only for her yellow hair, he has made it clear that men judge women only by their physical appearance. They never look beyond women’s appearance and try to get to know women for their personality or their inner beauty.
1. What does the young man mean by “great honey-coloured / Ramparts at your ear ?” Why does he say that young men are “thrown into despair” by them?
"By the honey-coloured ramparts", the young man means the golden-coloured hair locks of his lover that hung around her ears. By “thrown into despair”, the poet means that the hairs were so attractive that young men gained a strong desire to love her. They loved her for her beautiful hair and not for what she was as a person.
2. Between whom does the conversation in the poem take place?
The poem is a conversation between a speaker, who could be the poet himself, Anne’s lover or friend and Anne Gregory herself. The other speaker believes that young men love Anne for her external beauty but Anne says that external beauty is not real and young men should love her for herself.3. Why do young men love Anne for her hair and not for herself alone?
Anne Gregory is so beautiful that no man is capable of ignoring her external beauty and looking inside her real nature. Her attractive external features stop men from knowing the real person. This is what makes the speaker say that young men love Anne for her hair and not for herself alone.
