Question

Read the lines given below and answer the questions that follow. 

(a) “And oft at nights the garden overflows With one sweet song that seems to have no close, Sung darkling from our tree, while men repose ”

(i) What overflows the garden at night?

(ii) What is called the ‘darkling’?

(iii) When does the bird sing her sweet song?

(b) “A gray baboon sits statue-like alone Watching the sunrise; while on lower boughs His puny offspring leap about and play; ”

(i) What is called a baboon?

(ii) What is curious about the baboon?

(iii) What do the puny offsprings of the monkey do?

(c) “But not because of its magnificence Dear is the Casuarina to my soul: Beneath it we have played; though years may roll, ”

(i) What is not the cause for Toru Dutt’s love for the Casuarina tree?

(ii) What makes the tree dear to the poet?

(iii) What is the poet unable to forget despite the passage of years?

(d) “For your sakes, shall the tree be ever dear. Blent with your images, it shall arise In memory, till the hot tears blind mine eyes!”

(i) For whose sake the trees will be dear to the poet?

(ii) Whose images bring out hot tears?

(iii) What blinds the poets’ eyes?

(e) “ What is that dirge-like murmur that I hear Like the sea breaking on a shingle-beach?

(i) What do you mean by dirge?

(ii) Why does the tree lament?

(iii) What appears to be an “eerie speech”?

OR

What do you mean by “eerie speech?” 

(f) “Mine inner vision rose a form sublime, Thy form, O Tree, as in my happy prime I saw tbiee, in my own loved native clime.”

(i) What rose in the mind of the poet?

(ii) What was found in the sublime inner vision?

(iii) What do you mean by native clime?

(g) “Therefore I fain rould consecrate a lay Unto thy honor, Tree, beloved of those Who now in blessed sleep for aye repose, ”

(i) What does the poet want to do?

(ii) In whose honour does she want to consecrate the tree?

(iii) What does ‘blessed sleep’ mean?

(h) “Maysi thou be numbered when my days are done With deathless trees – like those in Borrowdale, Under whose awful branches lingered pale’”

(i) What does the poet predict in the words “when my days are done”?

(iii) What were the condition of the trees in Borrowdale?

(iv) Who made the tree deathless? How?

Answer 1

(a) (i) One sweet song overflows in the garden at night.

(ii) Nightingale is called the darkling.

(iii) The bird sings her sweet song when people sleep at night.

(b) (i) Baboon is a type of large monkey.

(ii) The baboon sits like a statue and watches sunrise from the crest of the Casuarina tree.

(iii) The puny offsprings of the monkey were leaping and playing at the lower branches of the tree.

(c) (i) The magnificance or the impressive appearance of the tree is not the cause for Toru Dutt’s love for the Casuarina tree.

(ii) As children, the poet and her friends had played under the tree. This experience has made the tree dear to the poet.

(iii) The poet is unable to forget the wonderful time she had under the tree with her friends.

(d) (i) For the sake of three younger Dutts who died of Tuberculosis, the tree will be dear to Toru ‘ Dutt.

(ii) The images of siblings who died due to TB bring out hot tears.

(iii) Tears fill and blind her eyes.

(e) It is the tree’s lament, an eerie speech, ”

(i) ‘Dirge’ means a lament for the dead.

(ii) The tree laments the absence of the poet.

(iii) The dirge like murmer appears to be an “eerie speech” 

OR

Eerie speech means unearthly or ghostly speech

(f) (i) A glorious inner vision rose in the mind of the poet.

(ii) The tree’s youthful and handsome figure was found in the inner vision of the poet.

(iii) It means natural climate in the home background.

(g) (i) The poet wants to consecrate the tree .

(ii) She wants to consecrate the tree to the memory of her beloved siblings.

(iii) ‘Blessed sleep’ means death.

(h) (i) The poet predicts her own death in the words “when my days are done”.

(ii) The tree was ageing fast. It looked sickly as if it was waiting for the sickle of death.

(iii) William Wordsworth sang about the trees in Borrowdale and thus the trees became deathless