Read the poem given below and answer the questions that follows:
The Poet’s Farewell to Life
The fire of this life’s poison has gone out,
No more does it look forward
To the coming of new leaves.
In the grove of the heart,
Burns the lamp of hope;
The path envelop’d in darkness, lighted
By a single ray of light,
As direction is found
By the pole -star
Among the cluster of stars.
Time to wrap up life’s play
Like the yogi fulfilled,
Or like the common man:
Bhishma watching it all
From his hard bed of arrows.
Mellow’d is the summer’s heat, the rain over,
Past is life’s autumn, covered over with golden hair;
Gone the biting winter, the drunken spring,
Filled with the pleasure mangoes bring.
Spent is the expedition fourfold,
The poet’s assault on life, conquering quarters four
Rich with movement, rhythm and vision,
With sound full of significance,
Endowed with imagery, emotion of art and love:
The ringing arithmetic of music, rhyme, meter,
Has already slipped from these fingers.
Playful acts turned to shame-faced silence,
Fatuous the attacks of rival wrestlers with words,
They’ve gone wide of the mark.
This skin, once taut as a leather-shield,
Hangs in folds from the body.
Come morning once again,
Let it be another round of life.
(a) What does the poet mean by" The fire of this life poison"?
(b) What is directing the poet now?
(c) Explain ' spent in the expedition fourfold'.
(d) What makes the sound significant?
(e) With what has the skin been compared to?
(f) Give the gist of the poem in a sentence.
(g) Give the meaning of 'fatuous'.
