Practice Poetry

                 SECTION B
                      (Poetry)
Read the following extract and answer the questions ('Marks)

Jf you do not get lowered in your own eyes
While you raise yourself in those of others
If you do not give in to gossips and lies  Rather heed them not, saying, 'Who bothers?'  You may be the person I am looking for.

If you crave not for praise when you win
And look not for sympathy while you lose  If cheers let not your head toss or spin  And after a set-back you offer no excuse.
 You may be the person I am looking for.

 1) How does thepoet expect us to react to winning and losing? 1
 2) What efforts would you take to be a good citizen? 1
3) Name and explain the figures of speech in the following lines.
 "If you do not get lowered in your own eyes while youraise youself in those of others"1 4) Pick out the lines thatexpress the expected reaction torumours. 1

ANSWERS
1.Thepoet expects us not to crave for praise when we win ånd not to look for sympathy when we lose.

2) I would take care not to gossip or tell lies I would also take responsibility for my actions, this would help me to become a good citizen.

3) Antithesis : Opposite ideas of 'get lowered' and 'raise' are bought together in order to give significance to the theme of the poem.

4)If you do not give in to gossips and lies. Rather heed them not , saying 'Who bothers?'

B) Read the following extract and answer the questions given below: (4Marks)

  What makes a nation's pillars high  And its foundations strong?
 What makes it mighty to defy
 The foes that round it throng?
It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
 Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,   Not on abiding rock.
Is it the sword? Ask the red dust
Of empires passed away;
The blood has turned their stones to rust,  Their glory to decay.

 1) Why according to the poet, are wealthy kingdoms unstable ? 1

2) What aspects of life in India are you proud of? 1

 3) Note down the pairs of rhyming words from the extåract. 1

 4) What purpose does the use of questions serve in the extract? 1

 ANSWERS

'
1) Wealthy kingdoms are unstable becaüse their foundation are weak and;laid on material wealth and not on long-lasting values.

2)I am proud that India is united inspite of its diversity, that India is a secülar state and offers if citizens freedom of speech, freedom of religious beliefs  and freedom to choose one's way of life.

 3) 'high-defy,
 strong-throng,
grand-sand,
shoCk-rock:

 4) The questions are rhetoric, they do not require answer.The purpose of such a question, whose answer is obvious, is usually to make deeper impression upon the reader than a direct statement would.