… ENGLISH WORKSHOP …
1. Imagine that your class has to be divided into groups or houses. Each house will have their own colour, symbol/emblem, motto, dress code, a common room with objects of their interest and suitable furniture. Think of sets of four names for the groups. Form groups and work out the (imaginary) details for each set. Some suggestions are : Neem – Colour, yellow; Symbol, the sun; Motto, ‘Health is wealth’;
Dress code, yellow waist belt; etc. Cane furniture, green and yellow curtains and herbariums in the common room.
Ans.
Banyan House:
Colour : Green
Symbol : Tree
Motto: One touch of nature makes the whole world kin
Dress Code: Green T-shirt and Brown Jeans.
Green chairs, mats, curtains, sofas, etc.
Ashoka House:
Colour : Green
Symbol : Umbrella
Motto: The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.
Dress Code: Green umbrella cap
Green coloured tyres in garden, street with Ashoka tree, pots, sofas, cupboard etc.
2. Read the lines of the following poem. Guess and fill in suitable words to make the lines rhyme –
Ans.
Golden Glow
Soon after dawn, rises the sun ;
It wakes and enlivens every one.
It scares away the long, dark night.
The shining stars go out of bright.
From tree to tree birds flit and fly,
Searching for food, with a sharp eye.
The buds that open now show their smile,
As flowers they dance with beauty and style.
The hill slope wears a grassy green dress,
The curved sparkling river, it’s gold bless.
The cock then crows to give a loud call,
Come on! wake up, folks! One and all.
I, then wake up, ‘Good Morning’ to say,
Let’s all look forward to a golden day.
… ENGLISH WORKSHOP …
Which of the objects, animals, etc. in the poem are at rest without any motion?
Ans.
The dog, doves, fruits, fish, thatch, trees, casements, kennel, cote, water etc. are the objects, animals in the poem at rest without any motion.
1. If you were asked to draw a detailed picture of the scene described in the poem, what object, animals, natural features etc. will you show in the picture? Make a list.
Ans.
Objects: Houses, kennel, nests.
Animals: Dogs, cats, mouse.
Natural features: Moon, trees, fruits, rivers, streams, mountains.
2. Write the rhyming words and the rhyme scheme of the poem. (See the ‘Language Study’ pages given at the end.)
Ans.
The rhyming words are:
(1) moon – shoon
(2) sees – trees
(3) catch – thatch
(4) log – dog
(5) peep – sleep
(6) by – eye
(7) gleam – stream
The rhyme scheme of the poem is aa, bb, cc, dd and so on.
3. Underline the word silver/silvery in the poem. In which lines does it occur? What pattern does it show?
Ans.
Slowly, silently, now the moon
Walks the night in her silver shoon;
This way, and that, she peers, and sees
Silver fruit upon silver trees;
One by one the casements catch
Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;
Couched in his kennel, like a log,
With paws of silver sleeps the dog;
From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep
Of doves in silver feathered sleep
A harvest mouse goes scampering by,
With silver claws, and silver eye;
And moveless fish in the water gleam,
By silver reeds in a silver stream.
The word silver/silvery appears in every alternate lines of the poem. It shows a pattern of repetition.
4. Can you think of a parallel scene of dawn or evening when everything is steeped in golden light?
Ans.
Yes, it can be seen when the sun just rising at dawn and the sun about to set at dusk.
5. The same landscape appears different at different times. What message can we draw from this?
Ans.
When the sun shines, it is golden and when the moon shines, it is silver. They both shines with different colours. The message we can draw is that the same thing can seem different at different times.
6. Read : ‘The Listeners’ and ‘Someone’ – poems by Walter de la Mare.
Ans.
The Listeners … by WALTER DE LA MARE
‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,
Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champed the grasses
Of the forest’s ferny floor:
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the Traveller’s head:
And he smote upon the door again a second time;
‘Is there anybody there?’ he said.
But no one descended to the Traveller;
No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,
Where he stood perplexed and still.
But only a host of phantom listeners
That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
To that voice from the world of men:
Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,
That goes down to the empty hall,
Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
By the lonely Traveller’s call.
And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
Their stillness answering his cry,
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
’Neath the starred and leafy sky;
For he suddenly smote on the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head:—
‘Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word,’ he said.
Never the least stir made the listeners,
Though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awake:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.