(a) Name the poem and poet (b) What is the significance of ‘gate’ in relation to the time the poem was written?

Question

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

 " I leant upon a coppice gate

When front was spectre - gray

And winter’s dregs made desolate The weakening eye of day?

(a) Name the poem and poet 

(b) What is the significance of ‘gate’ in relation to the time the poem was written? 

(c) Name and explain the figure of speech in the last line of the extract. 

(d) What are the features of the season that have been described here? 

(e) What is the mood of the poet? 

Answer 1

 (a) The Darkling Thrush / Thomas Hardy 

(b) entry and exit point to a new century. 

(c) Metaphor - Sun compared to eyes 

(d) Description of winter - frost all over - spectre gray - desolate picture - setting sun further weakened by the surroundings. 

(e) Poet shares the gloom and the dullness that surround him - cheerless existence – fervourless