William Blake

The Chimney Sweeper

1. What is a chimney sweeper?
   Ans: A chimney sweeper is a young boy who was sent up a chimney with a brush to Sweep away the soot that had – accumulated on the inner walls of the chimney.
2. Who is Tom Dacre? [NU. 2011]
   Ans: He is a fellow chimney sweeper of the speaker of the poem.
3. Why were the heads of the chimney sweepers Shaved?
   Ans: Their heads were shaved in order to avoid the risk of their hair catching fire.
4. Why is Tom’s hair compared to the wool of a lamb?
   Ans: Tom’s hair is compared to the wool of a lamb in order to signify the innocence of the little chimney sweepers.
5. What is the moral of the poem The Chimney Sweeper?
   Ans: The moral of the poem is that no harm comes to him who does not neglect his duty.
6. How does the chimney sweeper cry?
   Ans: The chimney sweeper cries ‘weep! weep!

London

1. “I wander thro’ each chartered street”—-What does the ‘chartered street’ mean?[NU. 2013]
   Ans: The word ‘chartered’ means free or privileged. So the ‘chartered’ street means the street which enjoys the freedom guaranteed to it by a royal charter.
2. What is meant by ‘the mind-forged manacles’?
   Ans: The mind-forged manacles refer to the fetters or chains imposed by the men of authority.
3. How many social evils are attacked in London?
   Ans: Three great evils of society are attacked in London.
4. Why is harlot a curse for a loveless marriage?
   Ans: A harlot ‘is a curse for a loveless marriage because an unhappy or loveless marriage causes the husband to seek physical pleasure elsewhere in the arms of a young prostitute.
5. What is meant by the ‘marriage hearse’?
   Ans: It means a marriage that is a living death because of the husband’s venereal disease contracted by his contact with a prostitute.
6. Which three classes are represented in the poem ‘London’?
   Ans: The chimney sweeper, the soldier, and the harlot are represented in “London’’.

John Keats

Ode on Melancholy

1. What is the source of the poem Ode on Melancholy? Or,
   “What inspired Keats to write the poem Ode on Melancholy?
   Ans: Keats was inspired to write the poem by Beaumont, Milton, and Burton. At the time Keats wrote this poem,.he was reading Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy?
2. What is the theme of the poem Ode on Melancholy?
   Ans: The theme of the poem Ode on Melancholy is the habitual alternation of joys and sorrows and that there is a pain in joy and joy in pain.
3. What is melancholy?
   Ans: Melancholy is a delicate feeling, not deadening grief caused by death or disaster.
4. “No, no I go not to Lethe” — Whom does Keats address here?
   Ans: Keats here addresses the person who seeks melancholy.
5. Who was Proserpine?
   Ans: Proserpine was an earthly goddess. Pluto, the king of the underworld, fell in love with her and abducted her while she was picking flowers on the plain around Etna in Sicily.
6. What is ‘rosary’?
   Ans: ‘Rosary’ is a string of beads by which the devout count their prayers.
7. Why does Keats compares the showers of April rain to a shroud?
   Ans: A shroud hides an object from our view. Similarly, the showers of April rain dim the bright and beautiful object of nature. So Keats compares the showers of April rain to a shroud.
8. What is a shroud?
   Ans: A shroud is a piece of cloth that a dead person’s body is wrapped in before it is buried. It also refers to a thing that covers, surrounds or hides something.
9. Where, according to Keats, is true melancholy found?
   Ans: According to Keats, true melancholy is found in everything that is beautiful and joyful such as a morning rose, the colors of the salt sand wave, the abundance of globbed peonies, the bright dark eyes of the beloved, etc.
10. What is the source of melancholy?
    Ans: Everything that is beautiful and joyful is the source of melancholy.
11. What is a peony?
    Ans: The peony is a garden plant with large round white, pink, or red flowers.
12. Whom does Melancholy dwell with?
    Ans: Melancholy dwells with Beauty.
13. What is meant by the line “She dwells with Beauty”? Or,
    How does Melancholy dwell with Beauty?
    Ans: Beauty is shot-lived. Melancholy dwells with Beauty in the sense that the transitory character of Beauty awakens the melancholy mood in the sensitive souls.
14. Why does Joy always keep his finger on his lips?
    Ans: Joy always keeps his finger on his lips to bid farewell to his worshippers.
15. What is shrine?
    Ans: Shrine is a place where people come to worship because it is connected with a holy person or event.
16. Where is Melancholy’s shrine to be found?
    Ans: Melancholy’s shrine is to be found in the very temple of Delight.
17. What is Melancholy’s relation to Delight?
    Ans: Melancholy and Delight are inseparable. In the temple of Delight, Melancholy hides her face under a veil.
18. Whatis atrophy?
    Ans: A trophy is an object given as a prize for winning a competition. It is a symbol of conquest.
19. What does melancholy conquer?
    Ans: Melancholy conquers the souls of the persons who have experienced the profoundest pleasure.

Ode to a Nightingale

1. What inspired Keats to write Ode to a Nightingale?
   Ans: Keats was inspired to write this Ode by the song of a nightingale that had built its nest close to the house of his friend, Charles Brown, in Hampstead.
2. What is the central idea of the poem Ode to a Nightingale?
   Ans: The central idea of the poem is an inspiration for a life of beauty away from the oppressive world.
3. What is the theme of the poem Ode to a Nightingale?
   Ans: The poem is in part a very triumphant song to Death and in part the voice of immortality.
4. What is Lethe?
   Ans: Lethe is the name of an underground river mentioned in Greek mythology, running through Hades, the home of the dead.
5. What is called the river of forgetfulness? Why?
   Ans: Lethe is called the river of forgetfulness because the water of the river, when drunk, was thought to make the dead forget their life on Earth.
6. What is Dryad?
   Ans: According to Greek mythology, the Dryads were the tree-nymphs, who were born on, and who died with, the trees which were their dwelling.
7. Why is the nightingale called ‘light-winged Dryad’?
   Ans: The nightingale is called a Dryad because it lives among trees and it is light-winged because it is capable of flying without much effort.
8. Who is Flora?
   Ans: Flora is the Roman goddess of flowers and spring.
9. What is Hippocrene?
   Ans: Hippocrene was a fountain sacred to the Muses on Mt. Helicon in Boeotia. The fountain was said to have been produced by the stamp of the hoof of the winged horse Pegasus.
10. What is the meaning of the word ‘fever’?
    Ans: The word ‘fever? means the feverish activity of life, restlessness.
11. What is palsy?
    Ans: Palsy is a disease (paralysis) of old age in which the whole body of the sufferer shakes constantly.
12. Who is Bacchus? [NU. 2011] Or,
    What do you know about Bacchus’ chariot?
    Ans: Bacchus, the god of wine, is usually represented riding in a chariot drawn by leopards or panthers.
13. Why is the eglantine called ‘Pastoral’?
    Ans: The eglantine is the sweet-brier. ‘It is called pastoral because it is sung of over and over again in pastoral poetry.
14. Why does the poet like to die?
    Ans: The poet likes to die in order to get rid of the suffering and sorrows of everyday life.
15. Why does death seem rich to the poet?
    Ans: The poet feels that death in the midst of the song of the nightingale would bring him the greatest happiness. So death seems rich to him.
16. What is requiem?
    Ans: Requiem is a song of mourning a service to pray for the soul of one recently dead.
17. Who is Ruth?
    Ans: Ruth is a Biblical character. She was married to a Jew in Moab. After the death of her first husband, she married Boaz and went gleaning among his fields away from her own home. She often felt sad and longed to return to her own home.
18. Why does the poet call fancy a ‘deceiving elf’?
    Ans: The poet calls fancy a ‘deceiving elf? because it can make us forget the hard realities of life for a short time only.
19. What particular word brings Keats back from the world of his imagination? [NU. 2013]
    Ans: “Forlorn”.
20. How does the poet want to fly with the Nightingale?
    Ans: The poet wants to fly with the nightingale on the invisible wings of poetry.
21. What is Provencal song?
    Ans: It is the song of the bards of Provence, a southern district of France, famous for wine and love of song and dance.
22. What is hemlock?
    Ans: Hemlock is a plant used in the ancient world to produce a Poisonous juice. (Socrates was compelled to drink hemlock by the Athenians and died.)