CBSE solutions for इंग्लिश लिटरेचर रीडर कक्षा १२ chapter 6 - Curtain [Latest edition]

How do you feel when you part with a close friend?

Suppose you wake up in a new place tomorrow. What things or people will you miss?

Read the poem which is set in the period 1930-1946. Those were turbulent times in England, representing the confusion and violence in the west, leading to the Second World War. The theme of separation may be read against this background.

Placed in stanza 1, is a sensory image. It creates a visual picture of two clasped hands. Find four more sensory images in the same stanza.

Choose the most appropriate option.

1. Who are the two people being separated?
   • parent and child
   • friends
   • lovers
   • husband and wife
2. Are they
   • young
   • middle-aged
   • old
3. Is the separation
   • permanent as in death
   • imposed upon themselves
   • temporary

Complete the summary of the poem based on your understanding:

In the first stanza, two the young lovers who know that there is no future in the relationship are being _________. They may continue to live in the same town but they know their worlds have to be two _________ ones, physically and mentally. They are physically walking away from each other and reconciling to this fact _________ also.

The second stanza states very clearly that, 'there is no _________ now and 'distance
_________ and engulfs _________.

The third and the fourth stanzas deal with the emotions of the lovers who are still thinking of their _________. The speaker is trying to forget his/her _________ and get on _________. She/he feels _________ inside, but life _________ on. She/he feels so dead that she/he cannot _________ and her/his heart which has become _________ and _________, cannot break. She/he think of this separation as a ’ _________', a disaster known only to the two of them and wonder at the tragedy where both of them will have to live in two separate worlds from tomorrow. She/he knows that it is time to draw a _________ over their relationship, however _________ this act may be. 

In the last stanza, ‘goodbye’ is called a ‘quiet disaster’. With one murder, instead of death, are born two ghosts who will, like Hamlet, inhabit two worlds apart from henceforth. But all these stanza-specific images point to the global symbol of separation i.e., Curtain.

Now find two images from each stanza, which eventually focus on this global symbol.

Stanza 1 (i) __________ (ii) __________

Stanza 2 (i) __________ (ii) __________

Stanza 3 (i) __________ (ii) __________

Stanza 4 (i) __________ (ii) __________

Collocation is the co-occurrence possibilities of words. Cup and saucer, chair and table are acceptable collocations. But poets use marked collocations. Poets take liberties and use unusual collocations for effect. ‘Clinic heart’ (line 15) is an example of this. The poet uses it to describe the emotionless state of the heart.

In the table below are listed a few more instances of such collocations in the poem. Write down the effect of each in the space provided. Write the effect this has on the poem.

Read the extract and answer the questions:

1. Which words describe the ‘dark air’?
2. Explain ‘Already division piles’.
3. What effect does the repetition of the word ‘Already’ have on the poem?

Read the extract and answer the questions:

1. Quote the line which states that the two people who are separating are not within touching distance anymore.
2. What does the word ‘wave’ symbolise?
3. Which one word in the above extract describes the theme of the poem?

Read the extract and answer the questions:

1. Explain the comparison in the poet’s reference to the ‘two Hamlets’ in your own words.
2. Murder normally leads to death, but here, murder leads to the birth of two worlds. This is ironical. Explain the irony.
3. ‘Two worlds apart’. How does this expression focus on the title of the poem, ‘Curtain’.

‘Separation’ is always painful. Separation from a loved one when death snatches him/her away, from someone very dear (a parent, brother or sister), from the country/region you grew up in -every separation makes you a stronger person from within.

Write a story of a separation which led to an individual emerging as a character of strength. Add suitable quotes from the poem to highlight your message. [150 words]

In groups of four, discuss how we can overcome the grief of separation from a loved one. What are the qualities needed to bear an irreparable loss?