Q.14. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: 4
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
(a) What is ‘the dust of snow? 1
(b) What has changed the poet’s mood? 1
(c) How do we know that there is a change in the poet’s mood? 1
(d) What is the rhyme scheme of the fi rst stanza? 1
Ans. (a) ‘The dust of snow’ refers to the snowfl akes that have fallen on the hemlock tree.
(b) A crow shaking down on him a dust of snow from the hemlock tree has changed the poet’s mood.
(c) We know that there is a change in the poet’s mood because he has got a change of heart which has saved some part of him which he had held in.
(d) The rhyme scheme of the fi rst stanza is : a, b, ab.
Or
But he’s locked in a concrete cell,
His strength behind bars,
Stalking the length of his cage,
Ignoring visitors.
(a) Who is ’he’? 1
(b) Why is ‘he’ locked? 1
(c) Explain : ‘Stalking the length of his cage’? 1
(d) Why is he ignoring visitors? 1
Ans. (a) See Q.14, Sample Paper II. [Page (xxii)
Q.15. Answer any two of the following questions in 30-40 words each on the basis of the lines given below: 6
(a) “They do not sweat and whine about their condition?
Who are ‘they’? What are the things that they don’t do? 3
(b) “Some say the world will end in fi re, Some say in ice.
” What do ‘fi re’ and ‘ice’ stand for? 3
(c) (There is a languid, emerald sea
where the sole inhabitant is me
a mermaid, drifting blissfully.)
What could Amanda do, if she were a mermaid? 3
Ans. (a) ‘They’ refers to the animals. They do not complain about their condition and they also do not lose their sleep and weep for their sins. They are satisfi ed creatures.
(b) For Robert Frost ‘fi re’ stands for hatred, lust, cruelty, fury and avarice and ‘ice’ stands for insensitivity, coldness, indifference and intolerance.
(c) If she were a mermaid, Amanda would live happily in the sea. She would drift along blissfully without having to follow instructions from anyone.
