Hornbill- Chapter 3: Voice of the Rain (poem)

English

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Chapter 3: Voice of the Rain (poem)

Class: XI

Exercise 1

Question 1

1. There are two voices in the poem. Who do they belong to? Which lines indicate this?
   2. What does the phrase "strange to tell" mean?
   3. There is a parallel drawn between rain and music. Which words indicate this? Explain the similarity between the two.
   4. How is the cyclic movement of rain brought out in the poem? Compare it with what you have learnt in science.
   5. Why are the last two lines put within brackets?
   6. List the pair of opposites found in the poem.

Answer 1

1. The two voices in the poem are the voice of the rain and the voice of the poet. The poem begins in a conversational tone. The lines are "And who art thou? Said I …….." and ‘I am the poem of Earth’.
   2. The phrase ‘strange to tell’ means that it is an unusual and extraordinary answer given by the rain drops to the poet who asked who ‘it was’.
   3. ‘I am the poem of Earth’
   ‘For song, issuing from its birth place
   After fulfillment, wandering, reck’d or Unreck’d, duly with love returns. They both return to the place of their origin after fulfilling their tasks.
   4. The poet explains that the rain drops in the form of water vapour rise up from land and sea and then descend again on the earth and dry land in order to wash it down and hence comes back to its origin. This is the cyclic movement explained by the poet.
   5. The last two lines are put within brackets because they do not form the voice of the rain or the poet. They only contain a general observation made by the poet about the course of a song.
   6. (a) Day, night
   (b) Reck’d, unreck’d
   (c) Rise, descend

Question 2

Notice the following sentence patterns.
1. And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower.
2. I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain.
3. Eternal I rise
4. For song…duly with love returns
Rewrite the above sentences in prose.

Answer 2

1. I enquired the soft-falling rain about its identity.
   2. The voice of the rain introduced itself as the Poem of Earth.
   3. The voice of the rain explained its upward movement towards the sky as eternal.
   4. The poet says that, similar to the natural cycle of the rain, a song originates from the heart of the poet, travels to reach others and after fulfilling its purpose (whether acknowledged or not), it returns to the poet with all due love.