KSEEB 10th English Quality of Mercy Poem Notes Questions and Answers
Before You Read
Question 1.
Imagine you have lent some money to your friend. She/He doesn’t return it when you are really in need of it. What would you do? I would….
a. forgive him/her.
b. punish him/her.
c. ignore him/her.
d. pity him/her.
e. sympathize with him/her.
f. (Any other………….)
Say one or two lines about your decision.
Answer:
I would show him mercy and give time to pay the money.
Question 2.
You have read the lesson There’s a Girl by the Tracks’. Hope you have enjoyed the story. Which quality of Baleshwar strikes you as great? Discuss with your friends. Here is an extract from the play “The Merchant of Venice”. Portia, one of the main characters in the play argues why mercy is the greatest virtue of all.
Answer:
The helping and courageous attitude of Baleshwar strikes us.
Understand The Poem
Question 1.
Mercy is compared to something in the first two lines of the poem. What is it? How is this comparison apt? Justify your answer.
Answer:
Mercy should drop like the gentle rain from heaven. It is very apt. Gentle rain cannot be created artificially. Mercy is already in man. It should come forth. It cannot be forced.
Question 2.
The speaker says that mercy is twice blessed. What does she mean by this?
Answer:
Mercy is reciprocal. It brings good things to both the person who shows mercy and who takes mercy. It is divine quality. The person who shows mercy is happy because of his act. The person who receives mercy is also benefitted because he is saved or helped.
Question 3.
‘Sceptre shows the force of temporal power’. In contrast, what or whose quality does mercy stand for?
Answer:
When the monarch has mercy, it is better than his crown. Mercy is above the sceptered sway.
Question 4.
Some traits or qualities are mentioned below. Classify them into two categories of temporal power and divine (Godly) attributes. (love, revenge, sympathy, tyranny, cruelty, miserliness, mercy, hatred, tit- for-tat attitude, compassion)
Answer:
| temporal | divine attributes |
| revenge, tyranny cruelty, miserliness, hatred, tit-for-tat attitude. | love, sympathy, mercy, compassion. |
Read and Appreciate
I. Work in pairs/groups and answer the following questions.
Question 1.
Read the first two lines. Explain the simile (comparison) briefly.
Answer:
Mercy is a divine quality. It is already in man given by God. It is in his heart. Whenever we want to show mercy, it should spring out from the heart like the gentle rain from heaven. Gentle rain cannot be forced. It rains naturally. So Mercy cannot be forced. The figure of speech employed here is ‘simile’.
Question 2.
How do you interpret the speaker’s interpretation of mercy as twice blessed?
Answer:
When we show mercy, we have the satisfaction that we have shown the divine trait. When the person receives mercy, he feels that he is helped, saved or rescued. It is in pardoning others that we are pardoned.
Question 3.
The speaker compares the power of the king with the power of mercy, saying that mercy is the mightiest of the mightiest. How does she justify this? (Read the last part of the text carefully)
Answer:
Mercy is enthroned in the heart of the Kings. The quality of mercy is an attribute to God himself. When the monarch or the King tempers mercy with justice he becomes the mightiest of the mightiest.
Question 4.
Can you think of any story wherein such virtues as mercy, compassion or sacrifice are highlighted? If so, narrate them in the class.
Answer:
We remember and can narrate the story of ‘Punyakotf cow.
Question 5.
This text has fourteen lines. But it is not a sonnet. Look at the ending of the lines and justify the above statement.
Answer:
Though the text has fourteen lines, it is not a sonnet. Because Shakespeare’s Sonnet form has an octave, quartrain and a couplet. This is taken from his play “The Merchant of Venice”. Shakespeare tells the quality of Mercy through Portia.