RBSE Class 12 English Literature Reading Unseen Poem

Rajasthan Board RBSE Solutions for Class 12 English Literature Reading Unseen Poem Exercise Questions and Answers.

RBSE Class 12 English Literature Reading Unseen Poem

Extract-1.

Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow :

I know I shall meet my fate 
Some where among the clouds above; 
Those that fight I do not hate, 
Those that I guard I do not love; 
My country is Kiltartan Cross, 
My country-men Kiltartan's poor; 
No likely end could bring them loss 
Or leave them happier than before. 
Nor law nor duty bade me fight, 
No public men, nor cheering crowds, 
A lonely impulse of delight 
Drove this tumult in the clouds; 
I balanced all, brought all to mind, 
The years to come seemed waste of breath. 
A waste of breath the years behind 
In balance with this life, this death. -- [WB Yeats]

Questions :
(a) Enlist the rhyming word in the poem 
(b) What mood of the poet does the poem reflect ? 
(c) ...........waste of breath, Comment on the phrase in the light of the poem. 
(d) Give the poem a title.
(e) What lesson does this poem give ?
Answers : 
(a) fate-hate, above-love, cross-loss, poor-before, fight-delight, crowds-clouds, mind behind, breath-death, 
(b) The mood of the poet is pessimistic. He mourns and memorizes the death of his friend, an Irish airman, Robert Gregory. But he keeps himself balanced in life and death.
(c) The Irish Airman wastes his breath because his country is still under the British rule. To live as a slave is a waste of breath. 
(d) An Irish Airman forsees His Death Or A Waste of Breath
(e) This poem gives a number of lessons. Be action oriented even you forsee death, without wasting your breath is one of them.

Extract-2.

Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!
Bird thou never wert, 
That from heaven, or near it,
Pourest thy full heart 
In profuse strains of unpremediated art.
Higher still and higher
From the earth thou springest
Like a cloud of fire;
The blue deep thou wingest, 
And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.
In the golden lightning
Of the sunken sun, 
O'er which clouds are brightening,
Thou dost floatand run, 
Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.  -- P.B. Shelly 

Questions :
1. Enlist the rhyming words in the poem. 
2. Write the lines with simile in them. 
3. What mood of the poet does the poem reflect ?
 4. What metres have been used in this poem ?
5. Explain : Pourest thy full heart. 
Answers : 
1. Spirit-it, wert-heart-art, higher-fire, springest-wingest-singest, lightning brightening, sun-run-begun. 
2. (a) Like a cloud of fire;
(b) Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun. 
3. The poem reflects the mood of happiness and hopefulness of the poet. He says, "Hail to thee, blithe spirit !? 
4. The first four lines have used the trochaic trimeter and the fifth line has used the iambic hexameter. 
5. The blithe spirit sings most sweetly and it spreads everywhere.

Extract-3.

My heart is like a singing bird 
Whose nest is in a watered shoot; 
My heart is like an apple-tree 
Whose boughs are bent with thickest fruit; 
My heart is like a rainbow shell 
That paddles in a halcyon sea; 
My heart is gladder than all these
Because my love is come to me. 
Raise me a dais of silk and down; 
Hang it with vair and purple dyes; 
Carve it in doves and pomegranates, 
And peacocks with a hundred eyes, 
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
 In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life -
Is come, my love is come to me. -- [C.G. Rossette] 

Questions :
1. What is the rhyming scheme of the poem ? 
2. Explain : Because my love is come to me. 
3. Which feeling is expresed by which comparisons ? 
4. Why does the poet ask for a celebratory platform to be raised ?
5. How is this poem a pictorial one ? 
Answers : 
1. The rhyming scheme of the poem is irregular one. The last words of the lines are unrhymed. 
2. The poet is delighted because her love (divine or human) is coming to her. The Christian symbols in the poem reflect divine love. 
3. The feeling of love is expressed by comparing her heart to a singing bird, a fruit laden apple tree and a rainbow shell. 
4. The poet asks for a celebratory platform to be raised because her love, described as her birthday, has arrived. 
5. This poem is full of nature pictures a fruit laden apple tree, a rainbow shell, doves, pomegranates, peacocks, gold and silver grapes etc.

Extract-4.

Four seasons fill the measure of the year; 
There are four seasons in the mind of man; 
He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear 
Takes in all beauty with an easy span : 
He has his Summer, when luxuriously 
Spring's honey'd cud of youthful thought he loves 
To ruminate, and by such dreaming night 
Is nearest unto heaven : quiet coves 
His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings 
He furleth close; contented so to look 
On mists in idleness - to let fair things 
Pass by unheeded as a threshold brook.
He has his Winter too of pale misfeature, 
Or else he would forgo his mortal nature. [John Keats]

Question:
1. Which type of poem is it and how many lines does it contain ? 
2. What is the rhyme scheme and structure of this poem ? 
3. Which the most pathetic lines and why ? 
4. Which season is related to rumination and how ?
5. Write the line which has personification. 
Answers :
1. This poem is a sonnet and it has fourteen lines. 
2. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG and the structure is Shakespearean sonnet with three quatrains a couplet. 
3. The most pathetic lines are :
He has his winter too of pale misfeature, 
Or else he would forgo his mortal nature. 
The poet discusses death in these lines. 
4. Summer season is related to rumination because it is some what adult age to think over seriously. 
5. "He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear'. There is a personification in ‘lusty Spring.

Extract-5.

All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair
The bees are stirring - birds are on the wing
And Winter, slumbering in the open air, 
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring! 
And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing, 
Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.
Yet well I ken the banks where amaranths blow, 
Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow.
Bloom, O ye amaranths! bloom for whom ye may, 
For me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away! 
With lips unbrighten'd wreathless brow, I stroll : 
And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul ? 
Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve, 
And Hope without an object cannot live. -- [S.T. Coleridge] 

Questions :
1. Discuss about its rhyming scheme. 
2. Discuss about its type and structure. 
3. How can you say that it is a Romantic piece of poetry ?
4. Write the theme of this poem.
5. What contrast does this poem draw ? 
Answers : 
1. The rhyming scheme of this poem is A BA B B B, CCDDEE FF. It is neither on Shakespearean nor on Petrarchan sonnet. 
2. It is an Italian sonnet. It has two stanzas. The first is Sestet and the second is Octave. It has iambic pentameter. 
3. It focuses on nature and emotion. It has the language of common man. It highlights the feelings of an individual. These are the features of Romantic Poetry.
4. Labour is needed to perform a work. Work without hope doesn't yield success. And hope without an object is useless. 
5. This poem draws the contrast between the nature's business in work and the poet's idleness.

Extract-6.

Happy the man, whose wish and care 
A few paternal acres bound, 
Content to breathe his native air
In his own ground.
Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread, 
Whose flocks supply him with attire; 
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter, fire.
Blest, who can unconcernedly find 
Hours, days, and years, slide soft away 
In health of body, peace of mind;
Quiet by day.
Sound sleep by night; study and ease 
Together mixed, sweet recreation, 
And innocence, which most does please 
With meditation. -- [Alexander Pope] 

Questions :
1. Enlist the rhyming words of this poem. 
2. Discuss the structure and metre of this poem. 
3. This poem is an ode. What is an ode ? 
4. What is the central idea of this poem ?
5. How is the man self-reliant ? 
Answers :
1. Care-air, bound-ground, bread-shade, attire-fire, find-mind, away-day, ease-please,recreation-meditation. 
2. It has four quatrains. Its every stanza has first three lines of eight syllables each and the last line of four syllables. The metre is tetrameter.
3. An ode is a literary technique that is lyrical in nature but not very lengthy. It has uniform metrical feet with elevated theme. 
4. The central idea is the life of an anonymous man who is described as an ideal for happiness 
5. The man is self-reliant. He has herds, milk, bread, attire, trees etc. He doesn't depend on others for his needs.

Extract-7.

Avenge O Lord thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains could, 
Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old
When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones. 
Forget not : in thy book record their groans
Who were thy sheep and in their ancient fold 
Slain by the bloody Piedmontese that rolled
Mother with infant down the rocks. 
Their moans The vales redoubled to the hills, and they
To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow
O'er all the Italian fields where still doth sway 
The triple Tyrant : That from these may grow
A hundredfold, who having learnt thy way 
Early may fly the Babylonian woe.--  (John Milton) 

Questions :
1. What is the rhyming scheme and metre of this poem ? 
2. Mention the structure of this verse. 
3. Highlight the themes of this sonnet. 
4. Where were the protestant massacred ?
5. Explain : Forget not in thy book record their groans
Answers : 
1. The rhyming scheme is abbaabba, cdcdcd. The metre of this poem is iambic pentameter. 
2. This verse form is sonnet. It is an italian sonnet. It has an Octave (first eight lines) and a sestet (last six lines). The sistet is Sicilian sestet.
3. First, the largest theme is religion to enact justice. The next is the movement from the Old Testament (vengeance) to the New Testament (regeneration). The last is the struggle between good and evil, and freedom and oppression. 
4. The Protestant were massacred at Piedmont in Italy. 
5. The poet prays God to register the groans of the massacred Protestants in His records so that the perpetrators can be punished.

Extract-8.

How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stol’n on his wing my three and twentieth year!
My hasting days fly on with full career,
But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th. 
Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth,
That I to manhood am arriv'd so near, 
And inward ripeness doth much less appear,
That some more timely-happy spirits endu’th. 
Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow,
It shall be still in strictest measure ev'n
To that same lot, however mean, or high, 
Toward which time leads me, and the will of Heav’n;
All is, if I have grace to use it so, 
As ever in my great task-Master's eye. -- John Milton 

Questions :
1. Mention the rhyme scheme and meter of this poem. 
2. Discuss about the structure of this verse.
3. Comment on the themes of this poem. 
4. The poet has personified Time. What is personification.
5. Find the line which has “pun”. 
Answers : 
1. The rhyme scheme is a bbaabba, cdcd ee the conventional Petrarchan one. The meter is iambic pentameter. 
2. It is a Petrarchan or Italian sonnet. It has two stanzas Octave (first 8 lines) and Sestet (last 6 lines). Octave has two shorter movements.
Sestet has shift in theme or tone. 
3. The first is crisis of faith. Initially, he thinks he is wasting his talent but then submits to the will of God. The second is journey from doubt to self-discovery. He gains maturity. The third is that time will lead to God. 
4. Personification is the representation of an abstract quality in human form. 
5. “It shall be still in strictest measure ev’n.'
The word “measurue' has double meanings - a musical measure and a time of verse.

Extract-9.

SWEET Day! so cool, so calm, so bright,
The bridal of the earth and sky, 
The dew shall weep thy fall to-night;
For thou must die. 
Sweet rose! whose angry hue and brave
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye, 
Thy root is ever in the grave,
And thou must die. 
Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie, 
My music shows ye have yours closes,
And all must die. 
Only a sweet and virtuous soul,
Like season'd timber, never gives; 
But though the whole world turn to coal, 
Then chiefly lives. -- [George Herbert] 

Questions :
1. Comment on the rhyme scheme and meter of this poem 
2. Discuss about the structure of this poem. 
3. Mention the poetic devices used in this verse. 
4. It's a Metaphysical poetry. Write some features of a Metaphysical poetry. (1)
5. What are the themes of this poem ? 
Answers : 
1. The rhyme scheme is abab. The metre is iambic tetrameter. The last line in each quatrain is dimeter. 
2. It is a lyric poem. It has four quatrains. First three lines in each quatrain are in tetrameter and the last line is in dimeter. 
3. The poet personifies the day'. He has used Anaphora (repetition of words and pattern). He has used Apostrophe (address a person or thing). 
4. A Metaphysical poetry is more intellectual than emotional. It has several imagery. It is colloquial. It has unique metaphors. It highlights the transience of earthly beauty. There is depiction of nature and natural phenomena.

Extract-10.

Not marble, nor the gilded monuments 
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents 
Than unswept stone besmear'd with sluttish time. 
When wasteful war shall statues overturn, 
And broils root out the work of masonry, 
Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn 
The living record of your memory. 
“Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity 
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room 
Even in the eyes of all posterity 
That wears this world out to the ending doom. 
So, till the judgment that yourself arise, 
You live in this, and dwell in lover's eyes. [William Shakespeare]

Questions :
1. Write the line which has personification. 
2. Comment on the form and style of this verse. 
3. What is the message of the poet in this sonnet ? 
4. Explain : sluttish time.
5. Who is 'you' in this poem ? 
Answers :
1. “Than unswept stone besmear'd with sluttish time'. 'Time' has been personified. 
2. The poem is in sonnet form. It has three quatrains and a couplet. Its rhyme scheme is ab ab, cd cd, ef ef, gg. It uses iambic pentameter as meter. 
3. The message is--great and noble souls remain alive in the minds of the people. Rich monuments and statues fail to immortalise the rich and the painful. 
4. Time like a slut is not loyal to anyone. 
5. 'You' in this poem is the poet's dead, noble and great friend.

Extract-11.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds 
Admit impediments. Love is not love 
Which alters when it alteration finds, 
Or bends with the remover to remove : 
O, no! it is an ever fixed mark, 
That looks on tempests and is never shaken; 
It is the star to every wand'ring bark. 
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks 
Within his bending sickle's compass come; 
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, 
But bears it out even to the edge of doom :
If this be error and upon me proved, 
I never writ, nor no man ever loved, -- [William Shakespeare]

Questions :

1. Enlist the words where the end-rhyme is not full. 
2. Comment on the form and style of this poem. 
3. Discuss about the theme of this poem. 
4. Mention the poetic devices used in this verse
5. What challenge does the poet give to his readers ? 
Answers : 
1. Love-remove, cheeks-weeks, come-doom are the words where the end-rhyme is not full. 
2. It is in a sonnet form. It is in Shakespearean style. It has three quatrains and a couplet. It has the use of poetic devices.
3. The theme is the constancy of the true lovers. True love never changes or dies.
True love can't be limited by time. 
4. 
1. Personification 
(a) ......although his height be taken.' Star is personified here.
(b) “Within his bending sickle's...' Time is personified here. 
2. Metaphor : 
(a) ....it is an ever-fixed mark.
(b) 'It is the star......? 
3. Alliteration : Let me not to the marriage of ture minds. 
5. The poet challenges the reader that if he is proved wrong in his perception, he'll never write poetry and there won't be true love in the world.

Extract-12.

Whose woods these are I think, I know 
His house is in the village though; 
He will not see me stopping here 
To watch his woods fill up with snow. 
My little horse must think it queer 
To stop without a farm house near 
Between the woods and frozen lake 
The darkest evening of the year. 
He gives his harness bells a shake 
To ask if there is some mistake. 
The only other sound's the sweep, 
Of easy wind and downy flake. 
The woods are lovely, dark and deep 
But I have promises to keep, 
And miles to go before I sleep, 
And miles to go before I sleep. -- [Robert Frost] 

Questions : 
1. Where has the poet stopped ?
2. Comment about the structure of this poem. 
3. What is the message of this poem ? 
4. Explain : The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
5. What does 'sleep' in the last two lines symbolises ? 
Answers :
1. The poet has stopped by the woods whose owner has his house in the village. 
2. The poem has four quatrains. Its meter is iambic tetrameter. Its rhyme scheme is AABA, BBCB, CCDC, DDDD. 
3. The message of the poem is that duty is first, everything is next. Duty to God or duty to world should be first, pleasures are next. 
4. The world has a lot of attractions or distractions. People get trapped and forget duties.
5. “sleep' in the last two lines symbolises “death'.

Extract-13.

Love came to Flora asking for a flower
That would of flowers be undisputed queen,
The lily and the rose, long, long had been 
Rivals for that high honour. 
Bards of power Had sung their claims. 
“The rose can never tower
Like the pale lily with her Juno mien? 
‘But is the lily lov’lier ?? Thus between 
Flower-factions rang the strife in Psyche's bower. 
"Give me a flower delicious as the rose 
And stately as the lily in her pride' 
‘But of what colour ? - ‘Rose-red”. 
Love first chose, Then prayed, - ‘No, lily - white, - or, both provide. 
And Flora gave the lotus, ‘rose-red dyed. 
And “lily-white; the queenliest flower that blows. -- Toru Dutt 

Questions :
1. How does the poem open ? 
2. Comment on the structure of this poem. 
3. What does lotus symbolise here ? 
4. Who asks for a flower and to whom?
5. For what were rose and lily fighting ? 
Answers : 
1. The poem opens with the request of God of love, Aphrodite for a queenliest flower from the Goddess of flower, Flora. 
2. The poem is a Petrarchan or Italian sonnet. It has our Octave and a Sestet. Its rhyme scheme is abbaabba, cdcddc. 
3. Here lotus symbolises pride in Indian or Hindu culture. It is a fusion of Eastern and Western cultures. 
4. God of love asks for a flower to Flora, the goddess of flower. 
5. Rose and lily were fighting for a high honour.

Extract-14.

The World is too much with us; late or soon 
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers : 
Little we see in Nature that is ours; 
We have given our hearts a way, a sordid boon! 
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon : 
The winds that will be howling at all hours, 
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers : 
For this, for everthing we are out of tune.
It moves us not-Great God! I'd rather be 
A Pagan suckled in a cred outworn. 
So might I standing on this pleasant lea. 
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; 
Have sight of Proteus rising form the sea. 
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. [William Wordsworth] 

Questions :
1. Enlist the rhyming words of the poem. 
2. Comment on the form and style of this poem. 
3. Mention the poetic devices used in the poem. 
4. Write the message of the poem.
5. Explain : Little we see in Nature that is ours : 
Answers : 
1. Soon-boon-moon-tune Powers-ours—hours-flowers, be-ba, sea, outworn-forlorn horn. 
2. It is a petrarchan sonnet. It has an Octave and a sestet stanzas. 
3. It is written (mostly) in iambic pentameter. There is simile in (line 7- 'like sleeping flowers', Metaphor in line 5- This sea that bares her bosom to the moon, Oxymoron in line 4- sordid boon, Personification in ‘Sea’ as a 'woman and so on. 
4. We should live in the company of nature or live natural life. The world is too much with us. 
5. Nature is our genuine friend. Very less, we remain in the company of nature. Artificial world in dominating our daily life.

Extract-15.

I fell into grief, and began to complain; 
I looked for a friend, but I sought him in vain; 
Companions were shy, and acquaintance were cold; 
They gave me good counsel, but dreaded their gold. 
“Let them go,” I exclaimed : “I've a friend at my side, 
To lift me, and aid me, whatever betide. 
To trust to the world is to build on the sand : 
I'll trust but in heaven and my good Right Hand.”
My courage revived, in my fortune's despite, 
And my hand was as strong as my spirit was light; 
It raised me from sorrow, it saved me from pain; 
It fed me, and clad me, again and again. 
The friends who had left me came back ever one, 
And darkest advisers looked bright as the Sun;
I need them no more, as they all understand, - 
I thank thee, I trust thee, my good Right Hand! -- Charles Mackay 

Questions :
1. In which person has this poem been written ? 
2. Explain : ‘They gave me good counsel, but dreaded their gold.' 
3. What message can you draw from this poem ? 
4. Write the rhyme scheme of this poem.
5. Give a title to this poem. 
Answers :
1. This poem has been written in the first person“I fell into grief.....'. 
2. In hardships, friends and kinsmen, provide us lip service but not the actual assistance. 
3. You may face adversity in life. Never lose courage. Friends and relatives distrust you. Work harder and reestablish yourself. But then, never believe false friends. 
4. The rhyme scheme of this poem is aabb, ccdd, eeaa, ffdd. It is quite unusual.
5. My Good Right Hand can be the title of this poem.

Extract-16.

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past, 
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear times waste; 
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night, 
And weep afresh love's long-since-cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight. 
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er 
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before : -
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, 
All losses are restored, and sorrows end, -- William Shakespeare 

Questions :
1. What mood the poet is in ? 
2. Explain : I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought 
3. Comment on the structure of this verse form. 
4. Which of the lines is the best example of Alliteration ?
5. Interpret : Then can I drown an eye, unused to blow. 
Answers :
1. The poet is in sad mood. He remembers his dead friend. He is thoughtful.
2. The poet is pained over his inability to use his talent for the things he sought but failed. 
3. It is a Shakespearean sonnet. It has three quatrains and a concluding couplet. Its rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. It uses iambic pentameter.
4. “When to the sessions of sweet silent thought.' 
5. The poet can cry for the old woes though he is not used to do so.

Extract-17.

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee 
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so, 
For those, whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow, 
Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me. 
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, 
Much pleasure, then from thee much more, must flow, 
And soonest our best men with thee do go, 
Rest of their bones, and souls' delivery, 
Thou art slave to fate, chance kings, and desperate men, 
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, 
And poppy, or charms, can make us sleep as well, 
And better than thy stroke; Why swell'st thou then ? 
One short sleep past, we wake eternally, 
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die. --John Donne 

Questions :
1. What is the rhyme scheme of this poem 
2. Explain : ....... nor yet canst thou kill me.' 
3. Comment on the form and style of this poem.
4. What does the poet convey by ‘One short sleep past, we wake eternally. 
5. John Donne is a Metaphysical poet. It's a metaphysical sonnet. Write some features of Metaphysical poetry. 
Answers :
1. The rhyme scheme of this poem is A BBA ABBA, CD CD EF. 
2. Death can't kill the poet idealogical. It can kill only the physique, not the thoughts or idealogy. Thoughts of the poet will always remain alive in the minds of the readers. 
3. This poem is in sonnet form. It's a holy sonnet. It's in Petrarchan style with an Octave and a Sestat as stanzas. 
4. The poet conveys that death is in the control of men. And after reaching heaven, death has no control on them. 
5. It has intellectual treatment more than emotional. It has abrupt beginning. It presents metaphysical conceit.

Extract-18

The poetry of earth is never dead :
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run 
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead.
That is the Grasshopper's - he takes the lead
In summer luxury, - he has never done
With his delights, for when tired out with fun, 
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
He poetry of earth is ceasing never :
On a lone winter evening, when the frost 
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills 
The Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one in drowsiness half-lost, 
The Grasshopper's among some grassy hills, -- [John Keats] 

Questions :
1. Who keeps the poetry of earth alive in summer and in winter ? 
2. Comment on the structure of this poem ? 
3. What is the messase of the poet ? 
4. Find the examples of “Assonance' is this poem.
5. Why are the birds not chirping ? 
Answers :
1. Grasshopper keeps the poetry of earth alive in summer and cricket in winter. 
2. The poem is a Petrarchan sonnet. It has an Octave and a Sestet. Its rhyme scheme is a bba cddc, efg efg 
3. The poet coveys that pleasures and pains are the parts of our life but we should not stop living natural life. Grasshoppers and crickets do so. 4. The poet uses the sound of 'o' in words ‘on' 'love', 'frost', 'wrought”, “stove’ etc. 
5. The birds are not chirping because of the hot sun.

Extract-19.

Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day ? 
Thou art more lovely and more temperate : 
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, 
And Summer's lease hath all too short a date : 
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, 
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; 
And every fair from fair sometime declines, 
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd 
But thy eternal Summer shall not fade 
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander 'st in his shade, 
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st : 
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, 
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. -- [William Shakespeare] 

Questions :
1. Enlist the rhyming words of this poem. 
2. Explain : And every fair from fair sometime declines. 
3. Comment about the structure of this poem. 
4. How does the poet's friend remain always alive ?
5. What is the message of the poem? 
Answers : 
1. Day-May, temperate-date, shines-declines, dimm’d-untrimm'd, fade-shade, owost grow'st, see-thee. 
2. Everything beautiful will lose its lustre a day. Beauty ultimately fades. 
3. It's a Shakespearean sonnet. It has three quatrains and a couplet. Its rhyme scheme is abab, cdcd, efef, gg. It uses iambic pentameter. 
4. The poet has composed poem in the remembrance of his friend so he will remain always alive. 
5. The message of the poem is this that worldly things are transient and the persons mentioned in a composition and poets or authors are permanent.

Extract-20.

What weight of ancient witness can prevail, 
If private reason hold the public scale ? 
But, gracious God, how well dost Thou provide 
For erring judgments an unerring guide ! 
Thy throne is darkness in th' abyss of light, 
A blaze of glory that forbids the sight; 
O teach me to believe Thee thus concealed, 
And search no farther than Thyself revealed; 
But her alone for my director take 
Whom Thou hast promis'd never to forsake! 
My thoughtless youth was winged with vain desires, 
My manhood, long misled by wandering fires, 
Followed false lights, and when their glimpse was gone, 
My pride struck out new sparkles of her own. 
Such was I, such by nature still I am, 
Be Thine the glory and be mine the shame. -- [John Dryden]

Questions :
1. When can't ancient witness prevail ? 
2. What does the poet want God to teach him? 
3. How was the poet misled' ?
4. Explain : Such was I, such by nature still I am.
5. What does God provide for erring judgements ? 
Answers :
1. Ancient witness can't prevail when private reason holds the public scale. 
2. The poet wants God to teach him to believe Him thus concealed. 
3. The poet was misled by wandering fires. His belief in God was unstable. 
4. The poet was pious in his youthfulness and still he is so. He believes in God. 
5. God provides for erring judgements an unerring guide.

Extract-21.

When I consider how my light is spent,
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide. 
And that one Talent which is death to hide.
Lodg’d with me useless, though my Soul more bent 
To serve there with my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide, 
Doth God exact day-labour, light denied,
I fondly ask; But patience to prevent. 
That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best; his State Is Kingly. 
Thousands at his bidding speed
And poet o’er Land and Ocean without rest : 
They also serve who only stand and wait. [John Milton] 

Questions :
1. What is the rhyme scheme of this poem ? 
2. Why is the poet sad ? 
3. Comment on the structure of this poem ? 
4. Explain : They also serve who only stand and wait.
5. What question does the poet pose murmuring ? 
Answers :
1. The rhyme scheme is abba cddc, efg efg. 
2. The poet is sad because he has lost his eye sight even before reaching the middle years of his life. 
3. It's Petrarchan poem. It has an Octave and a Sestet. It has been written in iambic pentameter. 
4. The poet got maturity. He has understood that they also serve God who stand to receive His orders. 
5. The poet poses the question that how God can ask him to write poetry when He has snatched his eyesight.