Question

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:

We meet them at the doorway, on the stair, Along the passages they come and go, Impalpable impressions on the air, A sense of something moving to and fro.

1. What is it that surprises us earlier in the context?
2. Where do we ‘meet’ them? Are they visible?
3. Explain the last two lines.
4. The poet says “We meet them at the doorway, on the stair” What does he mean by this? (Understanding and Analysis)
5. Where do they ‘throng’, as mentioned later in the context? (Understanding)

Answer 1

1. Earlier in the poem, the poet surprises us by saying that every house where people have lived and died is haunted. However, these spirits are not frightening. They are peaceful and move quietly without harming anyone.
2. The poet says that we can feel the presence of spirits at the doorway, on the stairs, and in the passages of a house. They are not visible or touchable like ordinary people, but we can still sense that they are around us.
3. We can feel their presence at the doorway, on the stairs, and in the passages of a house. They cannot be seen or touched like ordinary people, but we can sense that they are there.
4. The poet means that these spirits can be felt in the ordinary parts of a house where people walk every day. This shows that they are a natural part of the home and are not found only in scary or lonely places.
5. Later in the poem, the poet says that these quiet and harmless spirits fill the bright hall. They sit silently among the guests at the table, as still and quiet as the pictures hanging on the wall.