CBSE solutions for English Literature Reader Class 12 chapter 3 - At a Potato Digging [Latest edition]

Below are images of possible disasters that can completely change one’s life, unless one happens to be one of the lucky survivors. Discuss how.

1)

2)

3)

4)

1. ______
2. ______
3. ______
4. ______

The poem is about ______.

The rhyme scheme in the third section of the poem is ______.

In ‘Scoured the hand in ‘forty five’; ‘Forty five’ refers to the ______.

Complete the passage given below by using the words/phrases in the boxes.

Seamus Heaney’s poem “1 ______,” features two 2 ______ depictions of a potato harvest. In the first section of the poem, the speaker describes a 3 ______ potato harvest with “a mechanical digger”. The second section provides details about what a healthy potato harvest should look like. Heaney uses details and 4 ______ language to create realistic imagery of the potatos’ appearance. He uses a 5 ______ in line eighteen, “like 6 ______;” the poet’s diction suggests 7 ______ and 8 ______; the earth has “good smells” and “a clean birth” of the potatoes, using a birth 9 ______ to describe the harvest.

The third section of the poem offers a 10 ______ to the prior section. In this section, Heaney describes a time when the harvest was 11 ______; his poem conjures imagery of sickness and disease with phrases like “-12 ______” and “stinking potatoes-13 ______.” He carefully describes the famine’s effect on the population by flashing images of the aftermath in tight, controlled phrases. His 14 ______ tone reflects the speaker’s anger at the failure of the crop.

The final section of the poem is a 15 ______ of the scene in the first section. Here, the workers sit and have lunch after working at the potato harvest. Heaney uses their 16 ______ to contrast the previous section in which the people were starving from the famine. The workers “take their fill” on the “faithless ground;” the depiction of the ground as “faithless” 17 ______ the earth as not only being uncertain and unreliable, but also suggests a 18 ______ between the earth and the farmers, in which the earth has betrayed the farmers’ trust in the past.

Why does the poet compare the two potato harvests?

What view does the poem give of humanity’s relationship with the Earth?

Contrast the quality of the harvest being described here.

• by machine
• by hand
• during the famine

How is the image of death linked in parts 2 and 3?

Bring out the importance of the potato harvest to the Irish?

How can Mother Earth give, as well as take away from her children?

How does Heaney compare the past and present in the poem?

Explain the following line.

“Like crows attacking crow-black fields”.

Explain the following line.

“To fish a new load from the crumbled surf”.

Explain the following line.

“Turns work to ritual”.

Explain the following line.

“They lay scattered like inflated pebbles”.

Explain the following line.

“…wild higgledy skeletons scoured the land in ‘forty-five’.”

Write a report on the theme “The Impact of nature on the quality of human life”, in about 200 words. Support your answer with suitable references from the poem and your own ideas.

As a farmer, design a poster/pamphlet to convey the message that it is the responsibility of all to preserve and protect Mother Earth with suitable references from Heaney’s poem.

The Indian economy depends on agriculture and the harvest festival is popularly celebrated throughout the land. Based what you have seen or read about and together with your own ideas, write an article describing the harvest festival in your locality in about 150-200 words.

Our country is experiencing drought and water shortage due to low and inadequate rainfall. You are concerned about this. Address your class for two or three minutes about periodic conditions drought in the country, and what should be done to counter its impact. Use illustrative examples from the poem.

Listen to the poem. Speak on the commonality between “At a Potato Digging” and the poem “Patrolling Barnegat” by Walt Whitman.

WILD, wild the storm, and the sea high running;
Steady the roar of the gale, with incessant under-tone muttering;
Shouts of demoniac laughter fitfully piercing and pealing;
Waves, air, midnight, their savagest trinity lashing;
Out in the shadows there, milk-white combs careering;
On beachy slush and sand, spurts of snow fierce slanting-
Where, through the murk, the easterly death-wind breasting,
Through cutting swirl and spray, watchful and firm advancing
(That in the distance! is that a wreck? is the red signal flaring?),
Slush and sand of the beach, tireless till daylight wending,
Steadily, slowly, through hoarse roar never remitting,
Along the midnight edge, by those milk-white combs careering,
Agroup of dim, weird forms, struggling, the night confronting,
That savage trinity warily watching.

In groups of four, brainstorm the topic Nature’s Fury - Its Consequences and Alternatives. Make a powerpoint presentation of about 3-4 minutes expressing your group’s views to the class.