KSEEB 10th English Off to Outer Space Tomorrow Morning Poem Notes Questions and Answers
Understand the Poem
Question 1.
Pick out two phrases from line I which suggest the final moments for the launch of the rocket.
Answer:
Start the count down and take a last look.
Question 2.
With what feelings is the speaker flying out of the earth?
(a) despair
(b) lack of confidence
(c) apprehension?
(d) doubt about his return to the earth?
(e) …………
Choose your response from the ones given above or give your own. Say which line or lines in the first stanza support your response.
Answer:
(d) doubt abouit his return to the earth ?
The speaker is flying out of the earth with doubt about his return to the earth. ‘You can cross out my name from the telephone book’
Question 3.
State the reason for the poet to say “calendars and clocks” are useless in space ( stanza 2 )
Answer:
Because there won’t be any difference of day and night in space.
Question 4.
The expression “winter under lock,” means, that in space,
(a) there is no change of seasons.
(b) seasons change frequently.
(c) weather is chilly always
(d) weather is very hot always
Answer:
(a) there is no change of seasons.
Question 5.
The speaker has the feeling that he is imprisoned. What might have been the reason for him to have such a feeling? (Read lines 9 to 12)
Answer:
The speaker would be writing no letters and posting no mail. Nobody visits him. So he feels that it is solitary confinement.
Question 6.
The speaker says, ‘Tea cups circling round me like the planets round the sun.” Why does it happen only in space and not on the earth?
Answer:
In space there is no gravitational pull.
Question 7.
Read stanza 5, and identify the indirect comparison (metaphor) in it.
Answer:
‘My upward shooting star’ is the indirect comparison.
Question 8.
The speaker in the line (19) says “But you needn’t think I’ll give a damn for you.” This is same as saying.
(a) I don’t think I will have time to think about you.
(b) I don’t think I will have no time to think about you.
Answer:
(a) I don’t think I will have time to think about you.
Read and Appreciate
Question 1.
The tone of the poem is one of
(a) mourning [ ]
(b) jubilation [ ]
(c) disappointment [ ]
(d) sadness [ ]
(e) humour [ ]
(f) anger [ ]
(g) protest [ ]
You may think more than one is appropriate. Mark (✓) if you think so, and mark (x) if you do not. Justify your choice in your group.
Answer:
(a) mourning [x]
(b) jubilation (✓]
(c) disappointment [x]
(d) sadness [✓]
(e) humour [✓]
(f) anger [x]
(g) protest [x]
We find the sense of jubilation and sadness. Some of the lines evoke humour.
Question 2.
Do you think that the repetition of the last line of every stanza is intentional? What might have been the purpose behind it? What does it suggest? Sing it aloud and try to find out the answer.
Answer:
The repetition of the last line of every stanza is not intentional. It serves the purpose of laying emphasis, it is also used for musical effect and also for stressing his point of conveying things.
Question 3.
The poem is not full of figures of speech. Yet the poem has two similes. Pick them.
Answer:
In solitary confinement, Tea cups circling round me like the planets round the Sun.
Question 4.
Pick some instances of daily routine mentioned in the poem. Do you think the speaker doesn’t want to do these things?
Answer:
‘Passing the helmet’ / Watching day and date / Spending day and night / Writing letters and posting mail / Friends visiting him’ — are the instances of daily routing. We don’t think the speaker doesn’t want to do these things. ‘As he goes into space, he cann’t do these things.
Question 5.
A group of rhyming words has been given to you. Write down the remaining ones. You may practise them with proper pronunciation with the help of your teacher.
Look, hook, book
Answer:
Clock, lock, knock: mail, hail, gaol,
begun, sun, one; afar, star, are hop, stop, top
Question 6.
The rhyme scheme in the poem is a a a b. Do you find any other rhyme scheme in the pattern of the poem? Look at the last line of all the stanzas, and find it out.
Answer:
We noticed ab, ab and ba, ba rhyme scheme.