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प्रश्न
Read the following extract from H.W. Longfellow’s poem, ‘Haunted Houses' and answer the questions that follow:
| The stranger at my fireside cannot see The forms I see, nor hear the sounds I hear; He but perceives what is; while unto me All that has been is visible and clear. |
- What makes the poet-narrator different from the stranger at his fireside? [3]
- What, according to the poet, turns a house into a ‘haunted’ house? [3]
- Where is one likely to meet the ‘phantoms’ in a haunted house? [3]
- What are the poet-narrator’s views on owning property? [3]
- How do the poet’s views of ghosts differ from the traditional perception of ghosts? How would you describe the mood that the poem evokes? Give ONE reason for your answer. [4]
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उत्तर
- He can see and hear what others cannot see or hear. The stranger senses 'what is' (the present), while the narrator perceives everything that 'has been' (the past).
- Haunted houses are believed to be haunted by the spirits of individuals who lived and died there.
- In entrances, staircases, passageways, and hallways.
- The living cannot claim ownership of their homes or property, nor can prior owners or inhabitants who are now deceased make a claim from beyond the grave.
- Typically, ghosts are perceived as eerie, supernatural beings that manifest from the afterlife to interact with or haunt the living. Longfellow presents ghosts not as fearsome supernatural entities but as memories and past experiences that linger in the mind. The "ghosts" are metaphorical, representing the remnants of past lives and events that the poet can see and hear, even if they are invisible and silent to others.
This mood is caused by Longfellow's focus on the past as something clear and visible to him, unlike to the stranger by the fireside.
In conclusion, Longfellow redefines the concept of ghosts from spectral hauntings to a haunting by memories and the past, changing the way these elements interact with the present. The poem evokes a mood of quiet reflection, colored by the enduring presence of what has been.
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संबंधित प्रश्न
An old man with steel rimmed spectacles and very dusty clothes sat by the side of the road. There was a pontoon bridge across the river and carts, trucks, and men, women and children were crossing it. The mule-drawn carts staggered up the steep bank from the bridge with soldiers helping push against the spokes of the wheels. The trucks ground up and away heading out of it all and the peasants plodded along in the ankle deep dust. But the old man sat there without moving. He was too tired to go any farther.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Why were the soldiers “helping to push against the spokes of the wheels”?
Of the seven hundred villages dotting the map of India, in which the majority of India’s five hundred million live, flourish and die, Kritam was probably the tiniest, indicated on the district survey map by a microscopic dot, the map being meant more for the revenue official out to collect tax than for the guidance of the motorist, who in any case could not hope to reach it since it sprawled far from the highway at the end of a rough track furrowed up by the iron-hooped wheels of bullock carts. But its size did not prevent its giving itself the grandiose name Kritam, which meant in Tamil coronet or crown on the brow of the subcontinent. The village consisted of fewer than thirty houses, only one of them built from brick and cement and painted a brilliant yellow and blue all over with
gorgeous carvings of gods and gargoyles on its balustrade, it was known as the Big House. The other houses, distributed in four streets, were generally of bamboo thatch, straw, mud and other unspecified material. Muni’s was the last house in the fourth street, beyond which stretched the fields. In his prosperous days Muni had owned a flock of sheep and goats and sallied forth every morning driving the flock to the highway a couple of miles away.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Name the village in which Muni lived.
“So that is what you are doing out here? A marshal!” “My dear Miss Fairchild,” said ’ Easton, calmly, “I had to do something. Money has & way of taking wings unto itself, and
you know it takes money to keep step with our crowd in Washington. I saw this opening in the West, and—well, a marshalship isn’t quite as high a position as that of ambassador, but—” “The ambassador,” said the girl, warmly, “doesn’t call any more. He needn’t ever have done so. You ought to know that. And so now you are one of these dashing Western heroes, and you ride and shoot and go into all kinds of dangers. That’s different from the Washington life. You have been missed from the old crowd.” The girl’s eyes, fascinated, went back, widening a little, to rest upon the glittering handcuffs. “Don’t you worry about them, miss,” said the other man. “All marshals handcuff themselves to their prisoners to keep them from getting away. Mr. Easton knows his business.” “Will we see you again soon in Washington?” asked the girl. “Not soon, I think,” said Easton. “My butterfly days are over, I fear.”
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Why do marshals handcuff themselves to their prisoners?
At Denver there was an influx of passengers into the coaches on the eastbound B. & M. express. In one coach there sat a very pretty young woman dressed in elegant taste and surrounded by all the luxurious comforts of an experienced traveler. Among the newcomers were two young men, one of handsome presence with a bold, frank countenance and manner; the other a ruffled, glum-faced person, heavily built and roughly dressed. The two were handcuffed together.
As they passed down the aisle of the coach the only vacant seat offered was a reversed one facing the attractive young woman. Here the linked couple seated themselves. The young woman’s glance fell upon them with a distant, swift disinterest; then with a lovely smile brightening her countenance and a tender pink tingeing her rounded cheeks, she held out a little gray-gloved hand. When she spoke her voice, full, sweet, and deliberate, proclaimed that its owner was accustomed to speak and be heard.
“Well, Mr. Easton, if you will make me speak first, 1 suppose 1 must. Don’t vou ever recognize old friends when you meet them in the West?”
The younger man roused himself sharply at the sound of her voice, seemed to struggle with a slight embarrassment which he threw off instantly, and then clasped her fingers with his left hand.
He slightly raised his right hand, bound at the wrist by the shining “bracelet” to the left one of his companion.
Read the extract given below and answer the question that follow.
Why does the author call the two men as the ‘linked couple?’
What did the narrator do with the hatchet?
Why did Vijay Singh conclude that the ghost would not be a worthy opponent to him? Was he fair in his judgement?
Answer the following question. (Refer to that part of the text whose number is given against the question. This applies to the comprehension questions throughout the book.)
How did Patrick help him? (7)
Your partner and you may now be able to answer the question.
The speaker in this poem is a school-going child. Every day he happens to meet the hawker selling bangles, the gardener digging away at the garden, and the watchman walking the street all night.
Read the lines given below and answer the following question:
| “But my darling, if you love me,” thought Miss Meadows, “I don’t Mind how much it is. Love me as little as you like.” |
What had the “darling” informed Miss Meadows?
In the short story, The Story of an Hour, what according to the doctor did Mrs. Mallard die of?
