English Medium इयत्ता १० - CBSE Question Bank Solutions for English - Language and Literature

What does the girl yearn for? What does this poem tell you about Amanda?

Read the last stanza. Do you think Amanda is sulking and is moody?

Notice the use of the word ‘turn’ in the first line, “I think I could turn and live with animals…”. What is the poet turning from?

Mention three things that humans do and animals don’t.

Do humans kneel to other humans who lived thousands of years ago? Discuss this in groups.

What are the ‘tokens’ that the poet says he may have dropped long ago, and which the animals have kept for him? Discuss this in class .
(Hint Whitman belongs to the Romantic tradition that includes Rousseau and Wordsworth,which holds that civilisation has made humans false to their own true nature.
What could be the basic aspects of our nature as living beings that humans choose to ignore or deny?)

What does Sandburg think the fog is like?

How does the fog come?

What does ‘it’ in the third line refer to? 

Does the poet actually say that the fog is like a cat? Find three things that tell us that the fog is like a cat. say that the fog is like a cat? Find three things that tell us that the fog is like a cat.

Think about a storm. Try to visualise the force of the storm, hear the sound of the storm, feel the power of the storm and the sudden calm that happens afterwards. Write a poem about the storm comparing it with an animal.

Who are the characters in this poem? List them with their pet names.

Why did Custard cry for a nice safe cage? Why is the dragon called “cowardly dragon”?

“Belinda tickled him, she tickled him unmerciful…” Why?

The poet has employed many poetic devices in the poem. For example: “Clashed his tail like iron in a dungeon” — the poetic device here is a simile. Can you, with your partner, list some more such poetic devices used in the poem?

Read stanza three again to know how the poet describes the appearance of the dragon.

Can you find out the rhyme scheme of two or three stanzas of the poem?

Writers use words to give us a picture or image without actually saying what they mean. Can you trace some images used in the poem?

Do you find ‘The Tale of Custard the Dragon’ to be a serious or a light-hearted poem? Give reasons to support your answer.

This poem, in ballad form, tells a story. Have you come across any such modern song or lyric that tells a story? If you know one, tell it to the class. Collect such songs as a project.