Summary & Question-answers of The Poem:5-The School Boy with the concerned video

Poem:5-The School Boy 

Summary ➤

The school boy is a poem which is based upon the perspective of a young school boy. The boy loves the summer mornings. He loves the singing of the birds in every tree. He listens to the blows and sounds of the clarion by the Hunter.

But he does not like to go to school during such a sweet and nice weather. He does not like to stay under the strict supervision of the teachers and the school system. The class sessions bring boredom to the child. The child cannot even spend the time in the garden where he could learn many interesting things with the nature.

The boy compares himself with a bird in a cage and a withered tree. A bird cannot sing sweet songs in a trapped cage, similarly, a child can never enjoy the happiness under the umbrella of fear and tension. If a growing bud is picked and swept off in the early of its life where no one cares about it, how can it grow into a mature plant.

Working with the poem (Page 84)

Question 1:

Find three or four words/phrases in stanza 1 that reflect the child’s happiness and joy.

Answer:

The words or phrases in stanza 1 that reflect the child’s happiness and joy are “love to rise in a summer morn”, “birds sing on every tree”, “distant huntsman winds his horn”, “the skylark sings with me” and “sweet company”.

Question 2:

In stanza 2, the mood changes. Which words/phrases reflect the changed mood?

Answer:

The words or phrases that reflect the changed mood are “it drives all joy away”, “a cruel eye outworn” and “in sighing and dismay”.

Question 3:

‘A cruel eye outworn’ (stanza 2) refers to

(i) the classroom which is shabby/noisy.

(ii) the lessons which are difficult/uninteresting.

(iii) the dull/uninspiring life at school with lots of work and no play.

Mark the answer that you consider right.

Answer:

(iii) the dull/uninspiring life at school with lots of work and no play.

Question 4:

‘Nor sit in learning’s bower

worn thro’ with the dreary shower’

Which of the following is a close paraphrase of the lines above?

(i) Nor can I sit in a roofless classroom when it is raining.

(ii) Nor can I learn anything at school though teachers go on lecturing and explaining.

(iii) Nor can I sit in the school garden for fear of getting wet in the rain.

Answer:

(ii) Nor can I learn anything at school though teachers go on lecturing and explaining