1. Where is the pine?

Question

Read the following lines carefully. 

If you can’t be a pine on the top of the hill, . 

Be a scrub in the valley – but be The best little scrub by the side of the rill; 

Be a bush if you can’t be a tree. (Be The Best of Whatever You Are) 

Now, answer the following questions: 

1. Where is the pine?

2. Where is the scrub?

3. It is better to be ……. if we can’t be a tree. 

(a) a brush 

(b) a valley 

(c) a hill

4. What is the poet’s tone in these lines?

5. What figure of speech is used in the line ‘ If you can’t be a pine on the top of the hill, Be a scrub in the valley”?

Answer 1

1. On the top of the hill

2. In the valley

3. (a) a brush

4. Optimism

5. The figure of speech used in this line is antithesis. Antithesis is the figure of speech that conveys two opposite thoughts brought together. Pine is a tall tree while a scrub is comparatively very small.