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Question
With your partner list out the happenings, the speaker is worried about.
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Solution
The speaker is worried if he was dumb in school, if they had closed the swimming pool, if he got beaten up, if there was poison in his cup, if he started to cry, if he got sick and died, if he flunked that test, if green hair grew on his chest, if nobody liked him, if a bolt of lightning struck him, if he did not grow taller, if his head started getting smaller, if the fish would not bite, if the wind tore up his kite, if they started a war, if his parents got divorced, if the bus was late, if his teeth did not grow in straight, if he tore his pants, if he never learnt to dance. Hence, everything seemed negative and depressing to him.
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Read the song once again.
I am dotted silver threads dropped from heaven
By the gods. Nature then takes me, to adorn
Her fields and valleys.
I am beautiful pearls, plucked from the
Crown of Ishtar by the daughter of Dawn
To embellish the gardens.
When I cry the hills laugh;
When I humble myself the flowers rejoice;
When I bow, all things are elated.
The field and the cloud are lovers
And between them I am a messenger of mercy.
I quench the thirst of the one;
I cure the ailment of the other.
The voice of thunder declares my arrival;
The rainbow announces my departure.
I am like earthly life which begins at
The feet of the mad elements and ends
Under the upraised wings of death.
I emerge from the heart of the sea and
Soar with the breeze. When I see a field in
Need, I descend and embrace the flowers and
The trees in a million little ways.
I touch gently at the windows with my
Soft fingers, and my announcement is a
Welcome song. All can hear, but only
The sensitive can understand.
I am the sigh of the sea;
The laughter of the field;
The tears of heaven.
So with love -
Sighs from the deep sea of affection; Laughter from the colourful
field of the spirit; Tears from the endless heaven of memories.
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Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) was a Lebanese-American artist, poet and writer. His
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