KSEEB 10th English I am the Land Poem Notes Questions and Answers
Before You Read:
Read the extract of a poem.
An absolute
Patience
Trees stand
Up to their knees in
Fog. The fog
Slowly flows
Uphill
White
Cobwebs, the grass.
(a) Who exhibits absolute patience? The speaker or the trees?
Answer:
Trees exhibit absolute patience.
(b) How do trees stand?
Answer:
Trees stand upto their knees.
(c) What happens to fog later on?
Answer:
The fog slowly flows.
(d) Why does the grass look like cobwebs?
Answer:
Because the fog spreads over the grass.
(e) Try to write a similar poem of four lines.
Answer:
The tree gives flowers and fruits, but do not wear and eat them. They are for others. It is real social service.
Understand the Poem
Question 1.
Who do you think is the speaker of the poem?
Answer:
The planet Earth or the Mother Earth is the speaker.
Question 2.
“I wait,” in line one suggests the feeling of
(a) annoyance
(b) patience
(c) disgust
(Choose the right mood of the speaker)
Answer:
(b) patience.
Question 3.
In line 2 “you” is repeated. Do you think it refers to the same person? Who do you think that is?
Answer:
No. It refers to us the human beings.
Question 4.
Bring out the contrast between the reader and the speaker as suggested in lines 4, 5 and 6.
Answer:
The speaker remains patient but the reader goes on shouting.
The speaker is bought and the speaker waits with muddy holes and stares with car lot eyes but the reader feels proud because of the Earth’s possession.
Question 5.
“muddy holes” refers to
(a) virtual holes in the land
(b) intention of the speaker
(c) commotion created by the reader
Answer:
(b) intention of the speaker.
Question 6.
What does the phrase “car lot eyes stare” suggest? Try to imagine and draw, if you can, the picture suggested.
Answer:
The poetess goes for an extraordinary tools of perception as if the earth were staring with the lights of the car parked on it.
Question 7.
The poem introduces some types of people and things. Some actions associated with them are given below. Classify them appropriately as suggested in the poem.
chokes shoots, waits, shouts, sings, rejoices, destroys, plants, dances, tramples grows, says he owns, faces the challenge, kills
Answer:
| The Land | A Common man/ a child | A war mongerer |
| chokes waits |
sings / dances says he owns, shouts, tramples, rejoices, grows plants. |
shoots destroys faces the challenge, kills. |
Question 8.
Pick out the line from the poem that expresses “self assertion’ of the speaker
Answer:
“you cannot put a fence
around the planet earth”
Read and Appreciate
Question 1.
“I wait,” is repeated five times in the poem. What quality of the speaker is highlighted with this repetition?
Answer:
Repetitions are always made to stress a point which is very important. It is used for emphasis. “I wait” stands the immense quality of patience.
Question 2.
The poem has figures of speech. One is given, “a chainlink necklace chokes me” is personification. Pick out one or two or more such figures of speech from the poem.
Answer:
“I am the land” – Metaphor Car lot eyes – Simile Plants life – Personification.
Question 3.
The poem is not full of rhyming words. On the other hand, it makes us imagine some pictures like soldiers shooting, children dancing. Pick out other images from the poem.
Answer:
Earth staring, plants life, chain link necklace, put a fence, I wait.
Question 4.
“You cannot put a fence around the planet earth”
Is this a tone of weakness or self-assertion? Discuss.
Answer:
It is nothing but self-assertion. Because the Earth strongly says that human beings cannot restrict her or arrest her. She cannot be chained. The word “cannot” suggests impossibility.
Question 5.
Which line or lines do you enjoy reciting most? Give reasons for your choice.
Answer:
‘You shout, I lie patient’ is the line we enjoy reciting most. The Earth is the symbol of patience and Man doesn’t know his limits. He goes on shouting but she keeps silent waiting.
Recite And Enjoy
I Draw Nourishment
– (P.T. Narasimhachar)
Translated by Naraslmha Murthy.K.
I draw nourishment from dirt and slush,
I display bright blossoms to the sky.
I feed through my trunk by roots at my feet,
My branches, see, are heavy with luscious fruit.
When the earth lies parched in summer’s sweltering heat
I glow green with tendrils, bursting with sap,
To the severe sun I oppose my foliage of hair Casting cool shade below.
If winter comes, I strip before the snow,
Bare I stand shedding all my leaves.
When the devil of storm sweeps in the monsoons,
I forgo not a single leaf.
I am not soiled nor am I unclean,
Nor do I live for myself.
I do not do anyone harm,
Nor do I seek anyone’s favour.
On whoever has needs I bestow whatever they need,
Giving, giving, giving to the very end I die.
Even dead, I shake not, I am fragrant wood,
It’s you, dead, that are a rotting stinking corpse.
Question 1.
Is the theme of this poem the same as that of “I am the land, I wait”? Who do you think the word T stands for in the poem “I Draw Nourishment” ?
Answer:
The theme of the poem is the same as that of 7 am the Land”, I wait. In this poem “I” stands for the Tree’.