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Question
Based on your reading of King Richard’s speech, answer the following questions in about 100 - 150 words each. You may add your own ideas if required to present and justify your point of view.
Death has been cited in many ways in this monologue. Identify the poetic devices used in those references.
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Solution
- bequeath deposed bodies – Metaphor
- small model of barren earth-Metaphor
- hollow crown – Metaphor
antics – Personification - Dust our paper – Metaphor
- scoffing his state grinning at his pomp – Personification
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Listening Activity
Some phrases have been left out in the poem below. First, read the poem. Then, fill in the missing words on listening to the reading or the recording of it in full. You may listen again, if required
To Autumn
O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stained
With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit
Beneath my ______, there thou may’st rest,
And tune thy jolly voice to my ______;
And all the daughters of the year shall dance!
Sing now the ______of fruits and flowers.
“The ______opens her beauties to
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Blossoms hang round the brows of morning and
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Till clust’ring Summer breaks forth into singing,
And ______strew flowers round her head.
The spirits of the air live on the smells
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The gardens, or sits singing in the trees.”
Thus sang the ______as he sat,
Then rose, girded himself, and o’er the bleak
Hills fled from our sight; but left his ______.
William Blake
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He sways his head from side to
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He always has an alibi, and one or two to spare
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Identify the following personalities and their fields of achievement.
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- Mention a remarkable achievement of any of these personalities.
- What quality do you admire the most in each of these achievers?
- What are the qualities that you may share with them?
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- ______.
- ______.
- ______.
- ______.
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Our nature it is that whatever we try We do with devotion deep and true.
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The historical background:
The poem is an extract from William Shakespeare’s play King Richard the Second. The play is based on true events that occurred towards the end of the 14th century.
Richard II was crowned the King of England in the year 1367. He continued to be the British Monarch until 1399, when he was deposed by his cousin, Henry of Bolingbroke, who crowned himself King Henry the Fourth in the same year. Shakespeare’s play is a dramatic rendition of the last two years of King Richard II’s life. In this brief span of time, he was ousted from his royal position and sent to prison, where he died in captivity.
The following extract is set in the Coast of Wales. King Richard and some of his followers awaited the arrival of the Welsh army [after facing defeat at the hands of his cousin, Bolingbroke], of about 10000 warriors. But to their shock and surprise, they received the message that the army was not coming to their rescue. His followers tried to boost their King’s courage against the news, only in vain. When Richard came face to face with the reality of his terrible fate, he spoke the following verse, famously known as the “Hollow Crown” speech in theatrical circles. In it, King Richard is reminded of the power of Death that overshadows everything else, including the power of rulers, and renders them as powerless as any commoner at a moment’s notice.
Explain the following line with reference to the context in about 5 to 8 line:
“Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke’s,
And nothing can we call our own but death;”
Explain the following line with reference to the context in about 5 to 8 line:
“How can you say to me, I am a king?”
Read the poem once again carefully and identify the figure of speech that has been used in each of the following line from the poem:
“How can you say to me, I am a king?”
Based on your reading of King Richard’s speech, answer the following questions in about 100 - 150 words each. You may add your own ideas if required to present and justify your point of view.
How are eternal truths and wisdom brought to the reader here?
