ICSE Treasure Trove Guide Book

Treasure Trove A Collection of ICSE Poems Workbook Answers Chapter 6 Notes – Daffodils – ICSE Class 10, 9 English

EnglishMathsPhysicsChemistryBiology

ICSE SolutionsSelina ICSE SolutionsML Aggarwal Solutions

About the Poem

The poem is a word picture of daffodils at Ullswater. In 1802 William and Dorothy Wordsworth’s visited Glencoyne Park. On 15th April 1802, they passed the strip of land at Glencoyne Bay, called Ullswater.

It is this visit that gave Wordsworth the inspiration to write this famous poem. The poem ‘Daffodils’, also known by the title ‘I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud’, is a lyrical poem written by William Wordsworth in 1804. William Wordsworth is a well-known romantic poet who believed in conveying simple and creative expressions through his poems. He once said, “Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility”

The poem was inspired by an event on 15 April 1802, in which Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy came across a “long belt” of daffodils. William Wordsworth wrote Daffodils on a stormy day in spring, while walking along with his sister Dorothy near Ullswater Lake, in England. He imagined that the daffodils were dancing and invoking him to join and enjoy the breezy nature of the fields.

Written some time between 1804 and 1807 (in 1804 by Wordsworth’s own account), it was first published in 1807 in Poems in Two Volumes, and a revised version was published in 1815. In a poll conducted in 1995 by the BBC Radio 4 Bookworm programme to determine the nation’s favourite poems, this poem came fifth. Often anthologised, the poem is commonly seen as a classic of English romantic poetry.

About the Poet

On April 7, 1770, William Wordsworth was born in Cocker mouth, Cumbria, England. Wordsworth’s mother died when he was eight—this experience shapes much of his later work. Wordsworth attended Hawkshead Grammar School, where his love of poetry was firmly established and, it is believed, he made his first attempts at verse. While he was at Hawkshead, Wordsworth’s father died leaving him and his four siblings orphans. After Hawkshead, Wordsworth studied at St. John’s College in Cambridge and before his final semester, he set out on a walking tour of Europe, an experience that influenced both his poetry and his political sensibilities. While touring Europe, Wordsworth came into contact with the French Revolution. This experience as well as a subsequent period living in France, brought about Wordsworth’s interest and sympathy for the life, troubles, and speech of the “common man.” In 1802, he returned to France with his sister on a four- week visit to meet Caroline. Later that year, he married Mary Hutchinson, a childhood friend, and they had five children together. In 1812, while living in Grasmere, two of their children—Catherine and John—died.

Equally important in the poetic life of Wordsworth was his 1795 meeting with the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It was with Coleridge that Wordsworth published the famous Lyrical Ballads in 1798. Wordsworth’s most famous work, The Prelude (1850), is considered by many to be the crowning achievement of English romanticism. The poem, revised numerous times, chronicles the spiritual life of the poet and marks the birth of a new genre of poetry. Although Wordsworth worked on The Prelude throughout his life, the poem was published posthumously. Wordsworth spent his final years settled at Rydal Mount in England, travelling and continuing his outdoor excursions. Devastated by the death of his daughter Dora in 1847, Wordsworth seemingly lost his will to compose poems. William Wordsworth died at Rydal Mount on April 23, 1850, leaving his wife Mary to publish The Prelude three months later.

Central Idea

The central idea of the poem is the expression of the comfort and cheering the author finds in the beauty of observing the daffodils. The poem expresses the idea of communion with nature and the tranquillity it brings in our lives. The poem is a tribute to the beautiful daffodils and the joy that is inherent in nature.

Word Meanings

1. Wander (Verb) – To walk slowly around or to a place, often without any particular sense of purpose or direction.
2. Float (Verb) – To move slowly on water or in the air.
3. Vale (Noun) – Valley
4. Fluttering (Noun) – A quick, light movement.
5. Toss (Verb) – To move one’s head this way or that.
6. Sprightly (Adjective) – Full of life and energy.
7. Outdo (Verb) – Surpass.
8. Glee (Noun) – A feeling of happiness.
9. Gay (Adjective) – Happy and full of fun.
10. Jocund (Adjective) – Cheerful
11. Gaze (Verb) – To look steadily at somebody /something for a long time.
12. Pensive (Adjective) – Thinking deeply about something, especially because you are sad or worried.
13. Bliss (Noun) – Extreme happiness.
14. Solitude (Noun) – The state of being alone, especially when you find this pleasant.

Critical Appreciation

This simple poem, one of the loveliest and most famous in the Wordsworth canon, revisits the familiar subjects of nature and memory, with a particularly (simple) spare, musical eloquence. The plot is extremely simple, depicting the poet’s wandering and his discovery of a field of daffodils by a lake, the memory of which pleases him and comforts . him when he is lonely, bored, or restless. The characterization of the sudden occurrence of a memory—the daffodils “flash upon the inward eye / Which is the bliss of solitude”— is psychologically acute, but the poem’s main brilliance lies in the reverse personification of its early stanzas. The speaker is metaphorically compared to a natural object, a cloud— “I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high…”, and the daffodils are continually personified as human beings, dancing and “tossing their heads” in “a crowd, a host.” This technique implies an inherent unity between man and nature, making it one of Wordsworth’s most basic and effective methods for instilling in the reader the feeling the poet so often describes himself as experiencing.

This poem, is well-loved because of its simple yet beautiful rhythms and rhymes, and its rather sentimental topic. The poem consists of four six-line stanzas, each of which follow an ababcc rhyme scheme and are written in iambic tetrameter, giving the poem a subtle back-and-forth motion that recalls the swaying, daffodils. The poem comprises four stanzas and each stanza has six lines. There is the use of alliteration and assonance. The poet has used simile in the title of the poem and in the second stanza. Daffodils are animated as dancing and further personified as ‘sprightly’. Metaphors like inward eye and the heart can be found in the poem. The language is simple in this poem. By comparing himself to a cloud in the first line of the poem, the speaker signifies his close identification with the nature that surrounds him. He also demonstrates this connection by personifying the daffodils several times, even calling them a “crowd” as if they are a group of people.

The poem goes through a gradual shift:from wandered lonely (line 1) to but be gay (line 15) and pleasures fill (line 23). This in actual reflects Wordsworth’s life. The feeling of loneliness was marked by the death of his brother John. Dorothy had been a great sister to Wordsworth and also Wordsworth got married in the same year 1802 (his second marriage). These life events were actually responsible for Wordsworth’s happiness in his life and thus correlates with the joyful Daffodils.

Daffodils analysis will be incomplete without illustrating the tone of the poem. This poem is typically Wordsworth an. It portrays Nature at its best and encompasses her grace to the pinnacle which every poet cannot reach. It projects Wordsworth’s extraordinary delight in understanding and exploring common place things. Emotions recollected in tranquility are the distinct factor which differentiates Wordsworth from other poets. The emotions associated with Wordsworth in this poem, Daffodils is not ephemeral but rather permanent and everlasting. The poet derives the same bliss from his thoughts about the daffodils as when he actually saw them.

They flashed upon the inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude:
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dance with the daffodils.

The first three stanzas deal with the description of the nature whereas last stanza is the recollection of the poet’s experiences. Another important romantic element is the spontaneous expression of personal emotion in simple and ordinary language: this was the revolution brought about by the Romantic Movement.

In his lonely condition, he could be compared to a cloud floating in the sky over hills and valley. All at once he saw a large number of golden daffodils growing under the trees on the bank of the lake. A light breeze was blowing and the daffodils moved gently and danced merrily in the breeze. The daffodils grew along the bank of the lake in a line that extended as far as the poet’s eyes could reach. They looked like a continuous line of stars shining in the Milky Way. The flowers were so many that the poet imagined he could have seen at least ten thousand of them at a glance.

They were tossing their heads in a merry dance. The waves in the lake were dancing too. But the daffodils excelled the dancing waves in happiness. It was quite natural for a poet to feel happy in such a delightful company. The beautiful sight filled him with a great joy, and he kept gazing at the flowers for a long time. At that time he did not, however, realize how valuable this scene would prove to him in the years to come. Later, whenever the poet lay on his couch in a sad or thoughtful mood the daffodils would flash in his imagination. He acknowledges that one of the greatest blessings that solitude can offer is that old memories can be easily and vividly revived. The memory of the daffodils would immediately fill his heart with pleasure and he would begin to dance along with the flowers.And then the poet’s mind starts dancing along with the daffodils as the sheer memory of them is enough to feel his heart with ecstasy. The poem, in this way is not only a description of natural beauty but also a celebration of the fact that nature is always a source of inspiration for people.

The idea of remembering the beauty of nature even when not in its presence appears in several of Wordsworth’s later poems, including “Tintern Abbey,” “Ode; Intimations of Immortality,” and “The Solitary Reaper.” Even though the speaker is unable to appreciate the memory he is creating as he stands in the field, he later realizes the worth that it takes on in sad and lonely moments.

The title is apt as the whole poem is about the daffodils and how they have become a source of perennial joy to him.

The poem depicts a clear shift from the real world full of tensions to the utopian world of nature where peace and happiness prevail. The very opening line , ‘ I wandered lonely as a cloud,’ shows the poet’s sense of loneliness. There is then a sudden shift to the beautiful world of nature where the beautiful flowers capture his attention, and he is transported to another world of bliss.

The form of the poet is a lyric. It gives expression to a single feeling of joy in nature. It is short and musical and appeals more to the heart than the intellect. The poet uses various literary devices. Personification is used when he compares himself to a ‘cloud’ and the daffodils to a ‘crowd’. He uses similes when he compares his idle wanderings to a cloud floating over hills and valleys. He then compares the dancing daffodils to the twinkling stars in the sky.

As for structure the poem is divided into four stanzas- each having six lines with the rhyme scheme of ababcc in iambic tetrameter.

Alliteration can be seen in the line,’ I gazed and gazed.’
Inversion is evident : ‘For oft, when on my couch I lie’.
The ‘inward eye’ refers metaphorically to the poet’s memory.
The poem has a light and delicate sound that reminds us of a dance. It is the dance of the speaker’s heart, described at the end of the poem. The stanzas are like mini-poems that share the same form and subject matter.

One of the big ideas of Romanticism is the notion that the spiritual vision – the imagination – can hold greater truths than those given by our senses. We can never fully express what goes on in our imagination, but the notion of an “inner eye” captures the sense of reality that it gives us. Wordsworth is all about that “inner eye.”

For More Resources

Treasure Trove A Collection of ICSE Poems Workbook Answers Chapter 4 Notes – After Blenheim – ICSE Class 10, 9 English

EnglishMathsPhysicsChemistryBiology

ICSE SolutionsSelina ICSE SolutionsML Aggarwal Solutions

About the Poem

“After Blenheim” is an anti- war poem written by English Romantic poet laureate Robert Southey in 1796. It was written in the form of a ballad. “After Blenheim” is also known as “The Battle of Blenheim.” Blenheim is the English name for the German village of Blindheim, situated on the left bank of the Danube River in the state of Bavaria in southern Germany.

It centers on the most famous battle in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701­1714). In November 1700, the grandson of King Louis XIV of France acceded to the throne of Spain as Philip V. Austria and other European nations saw this development as an unfair manoeuvre by Louis to increase his power and influence. Consequently, war broke out in 1701 between Austria and France.

Robert Southey’s ballad offers a particular perspective on one of the most famous battles of the eighteenth century. In 1704, in the War of the Spanish Succession, a coalition of forces, including the English, defeated the French and Bavarian armies at Blenheim.

Southey does not describe the battle directly but, through the conversation between an old farmer and his grandchildren, it gradually emerges that the setting is a former battleground. Peterkin has found something Targe and round’, which his grandfather explains is a skull, one of many to be found in the earth nearby.

Old Kaspar describes the battle and the loss of life. He offers an explanation to the children about why the battle was fought? In spite of the graphic description of bodies ‘rotting in the sun’ and little Wilhelmine’s belief that it was a ‘wicked thing’, the line that Southey frequently repeats has Old Kaspar saying that the battle was ‘a famous victory’. Inevitably, we are encouraged to think about the purpose and validity of war. Many years later, Southey altered his pacifist, questioning view of the war.

About the Poet

Robert Southey was an independent-minded young man who was expelled from Westminster School for opposing flogging. He developed radical religious and political ideas and, at one stage, considered emigrating to America with his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge to set up a utopian commune.

The idea was abandoned, and Southey began writing plays and poems and, in particular, developed the ballad form in poems such as ‘After Blenheim’ and ‘The Inchcape Rock’.

He was “a prolific writer of verse and histories and an accomplished biographer, who wrote The Life of Nelson. If he was not as original and successful in his poetry as contemporaries such as Wordsworth, his prose is highly skilful. Byron called it ‘perfect’, although he felt that Southey had compromised his beliefs for money and fame.

In the early period of his life Southey was a radical republican influenced by the great Thomas Paine and by the early optimistic years of the French Revolution. In 1794, even before he had written After Blenheim, Southey had written a ‘dramatic poem’ in three acts called Wat Tyler. As its name gives away, this was a play about the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. At the start of the play Wat Tyler and his friend Hob Carter are found in Tyler’s blacksmith’s shop in Deptford indignantly discussing the new ‘poll’ tax being imposed by the Crown to pay for its wars in France.

Southey gradually lost his radical opinions and became much more of an establishment figure. Fie was appointed Poet Laureate in 1813.

Central Idea

The poem conveys the futility of war. Thousands of lives are lost of innocent people and of soldiers. But what is achieved except destruction and death. No one knows why these wars are fought , they just believe whatever they are told. Terrible consequences are part of war is what everyone believes. The poem gives an idea of the real value to men of such famous victories as that of Blenheim which is just senseless and useless destruction and loss of human life.

Word Meanings

1. Sported – played
2. Green – grass fields
3. Rivulet – small stream.
4. Rout – defeated, made to flee.
5. Ploughshare – the main cutting blade of a plough, behind the coulter.
6. Slain – killed
7. Wonder-waiting – awestruck, surprised, expectant.
8. Quoth – said
9. Yon – (archaic) there, nearby.
10. Dwelling – house
11. To fly – fled
12. Rest his head – to take shelter
13. Childing mother – pregnant woman
14. Wasted – destroyed, razed to the ground.

Paraphrase

Old Kaspar has finished his work and is sitting in the sun in front of the cottage, watching his little granddaughter at play. Peterkin, his grandson, has been rolling a hard round object he found near the stream. He brings it to the old man, who explains “Tis some poor fellow’s skull,” he says.He admits that he often finds them while ploughing in the garden. The children anticipate a story—”And little Wilhelmine looks up/with wonder ­waiting eyes”. Kaspar explains to the children the story of the battle, that the Duke of Marlborough routed the French, although he admits he never understood the reason for the war himself.

Kaspar then mentions that his father had a cottage by the rivulet—”My father lived at Blenheim then”—where Peterkin found the skull. The soldiers burnt he houses down and killed the villagers with swords. His father and mother had fled, with their child. Kaspar recounts how thousands were killed in the war and among the dead were pregnant women and even children But then this was the collateral of war and it was a great victory says Kaspar.

Thousands of corpses lay rotting in the fields, but he shrugs it off, as part of the cost of war. . Wilhelmine says it was a wicked thing, but he contradicts her, saying that ‘no, it was a great victory. Peterkin questions him asking what good resulted from the war . Kaspar answers that he did not know but everyone said that it was a great victory.

Summary

One evening in fields around the Bavarian town of Blenheim in southern Germany, an elderly farmer named Kaspar sits in front of his cottage watching his grandchildren, Wilhelmine and Peterkin, at play. Peterkin is rolling an object he found near a stream. He takes it to Kaspar and asks what it is. The old man, who has found many such objects while plowing the fields, replies that it is the skull of a soldier who died in the Battle of Blenheim. Their curiosity aroused, the children ask him about the battle and why it was fought. The English routed the French, he says, in what later generations would call a great and famous victory. However, Kaspar is at a loss to explain the cause of the battle. He does know that thousands died in it—not only soldiers but also townspeople, including children. In fact, the fields were littered with corpses. But such terrible consequences are part of war, he says. They do not negate the glory of the victory. Wilhelmine then comments that the battle was “a wicked thing,” but Kaspar tells her she is wrong. “It was a famous victory,” he says. Peterkin asks what good came of the fighting. Kaspar says he does not know, but adds, ” ’twas a famous victory. He told them that a great battle had been fought there, and many of the leaders had won great renown. But he could not tell why it was fought or what good came of it. He only knew that it was a “great victory.” That was the moral of so many of the wars that devastated Europe for centuries. The kings fought for more power and glory; and the peasants fled from burning homes, and the soldiers fell on the fields. The poem gives an idea of the real value to men of such famous victories as that of Blenheim.

Critical Appreciation

After Blenheim’ is a poem about an old man who is sitting in front of his cottage, watching his Grandson playing on the grass. Incidentally, this cottage was situated very near where the Battle of Blenheim was fought between the English and the French many years ago. When the boy was playing on the grass, he found a skull slightly buried in the ground; he took the skull to his grandfather and asked him what it was. The old man said that it must have been a skull from the famous Battle of Blenheim, which was fought there many years ago. The boy asked his Grandfather to tell him about the battle. The poet starts by saying that the Battle was a ‘Great Victory’, and he repeats this idea throughout the entire poem, at the end of nearly every stanza. This poem is separated into 11 equal verses. Rhyme is used to speed up the poem.

After Blenheim is a poem that illustrates the pointlessness of war. Written 94 years after the Battle of Blenheim at the war ground, it is the aftermath of war. It tells the story of an old man and his grandchildren. Old Kasper is sitting outside his cottage when his grandson Peterkin finds a skull. Old Kasper begins to tell the Peterkin and his sister about the Battle of Blenheim that once took place there. In each verse Old Kasper explains a violent scene of bloodshed and death:

“With fire and sword the country round…
And newborn baby died:”

The war caused devastation and hundreds of killings. Old Kasper has a casual attitude towards this claiming that ‘things like that must be’. His gruesome descriptions, followed by his casual sayings create an effect of irony. It is ironic that it was a great war but no one knows why. Old Kasper is a farmer and finds a lot of skulls when he ploughs his fields. This again shows rebirth.

The first indication that something is not right is the introduction of the skull. The poet talks of the child finding something ‘large and smooth and round’ which immediately makes the reader think of a football or similar toy. When it is revealed that the child has found a skull, this makes us feel very uneasy and we know that this is not a poem about pleasant English summer evenings. The thought of the child, so innocent, playing with something so gruesome as a skull and not realising what it was is very shocking. The language changes again in stanza eight when the poet says, ‘And new bom baby died’ this immediately jerks you into another emotion and situation within the poem. For example when the poet says words like, ‘fled’, ‘died’, ‘bodies’ and ‘shocking’ and so on, it is especially effective when he says, ‘newborn baby died’ because the death of someone so very young and completely innocent is very shocking.

He is also using this imagery to describe the soldiers in war who die fighting for the survival of kingdoms. Is this what human life has come to as a result of war? Worth nothing. The poets feelings about war is that they are catastrophically phenomenal, and leave hundreds of people without their homes, and without each other, completely destroyed. Wars affect everyone on a large scale. In ‘After Blenheim’, the poet repeats that the Battle of Blenheim was a huge and great victory for the English. He is saying that he believes that wars always end for one side in a great victory, usually achieved for a good cause but for the other side they are a total failure and the costs are huge.

In several stanzas, Southey uses alliteration to promote rhythm and euphony. Stanza five is an example.

Various themes are woven into the poem. The poet talks about the inhumanity to man. War represents the worst form of human behavior: “man’s inhumanity to man”. The skull Peterkin finds, as well as those that Kaspar regularly unearths while plowing, are mute testimony to the truth of this observation. The poem implies that the perpetrators of war cannot or will not suppress wayward ambitions that provoke a violent response. The children—as yet uncorrupted by adult thinking—readily perceive war for what it is.

After finding the skull, Peterkin immediately asks what it is. Kaspar tells him that it is part of the remains of a soldier who died at Blenheim. Wilhelmine then asks Kaspar to describe the war and explain its causes. Kaspar can describe what the war was like at Blenheim, but he cannot explain why the belligerents went to war. Nor does he seem curious about the causes. All that matters to him is that Austria and England won a glorious victory.

Old Kaspar unquestioningly accepts the loss of innocent women and children in the Battle of Blenheim as one of the prices of the glorious victory. His complacent attitude is not unlike that of modem politicians who dismiss the deaths of innocent civilians in arenas of war by referring to them with the impersonal phrase “collateral damage.”

Southey uses a skull, as it is the most unique part of the human body. This makes you recognise that the skull was once part of a human body that was ruthlessly killed, and again emphasises the pointlessness of war.

The poet uses repetition, as at the end each verse he repeats the ironic saying:
“But ‘it was a famous victory.”

Old Kasper continuously repeats this sentence as this is all he knows about the war and for him the deaths are a natural consequence of a war.. Although it is constantly mentioned that it was a great victory this is not what the poem is saying. Southey is using ‘ this phrase to emphasise the exact opposite, that it wasn’t a great victory.

For More Resources

Treasure Trove A Collection of ICSE Short Stories Workbook Answers Chapter 10 All Summer in a Day – ICSE Class 10, 9 English

EnglishMathsPhysicsChemistryBiology

ICSE SolutionsSelina ICSE SolutionsML Aggarwal Solutions

Comprehension Passages

Passage 1

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.

“Do the scientists really know? Will it happen today, will it ?”
“Look, look; see for yourself !”The children pressed to each other like so many  roses, so many weeds, intermixed, peering out for a look at the hidden sun. It rained. It had been raining for seven years; thousands upon thousands of days compounded and filled from one end to the other with rain, with the drum and gush of water, with the sweet crystal fall of showers and the concussion of storms so heavy they were tidal waves come over the islands. A thousand forests had been crushed under the rain and grown up a thousand times to be crushed again. And this was the way life was forever on the planet Venus, and this was the schoolroom of the children of the rocket men and women who had come to a raining world to set up civilization and live out their lives.

Question 1.
Which is the place under discussion?
Answer:
The place under discussion is the planet Venus and the weather there.

Question 2.
What is the weather like on Venus? How long has it been like this?
Answer:
The weather is dark and depressing as there is no sun for the past seven years. It had been raining for seven years; thousands upon thousands of days compounded and filled from one end to the other with rain.

Question 3.
What is supposed to happen on this particular day?
Answer:
The scientists had predicted that on that particular day the sun would shine for a short while.

Question 4.
Describe the rain and its effect on life on Venus.
Answer:
The sun remains hidden for seven years on Venus and it rains continuously for those seven years, thousands upon thousands of days compounded and filled from one end to the other with rain, with the drum and gush of water, with the sweet crystal fall of showers and the concussion of storms so heavy they were tidal waves come over the islands. A thousand forests had been crushed under the rain and grown up a thousand times to be crushed again.

Question 5.
Why had the rocket men and women come to Venus?
Answer:
The rocket men and women had come to the raining world of Venus to set up a civilization and live out their lives.

Passage 2

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.

Margot stood apart from these children who could never remember a time when there wasn’t rain and rain and rain. They were all nine years old, and if there had been a day, seven years ago, when the sun came out for an hour and showed its face to the stunned world, they could not recall. Sometimes, at night, she heard them stir, in remembrance, and she knew they were dreaming and remembering an old or a yellow crayon or a coin large enough to buy the world with. She knew they thought they remembered a warmness, like a blushing in the face, in the body, in the arms and legs and trembling hands. But then they always awoke to the tatting drum, the endless shaking down of clear bead necklaces upon the roof, the walk, the gardens, the forests, and their dreams were gone. All day yesterday they had read in class about the sun. About how like a lemon it was, and how hot. And they had written small stories or essays or poems about it:

I think the snn is a flower,
That blooms for just one hour.

Question 1.
Why are the other children unable to remember the sun?
Answer:
The other children were unable to remember the sun because in case there had been a day seven years ago when the sun had shone for a short while, they would not be able to recall as they would have been only two years old.

Question 2.
What memory disturbed the children at night sometimes?
Answer:
The vague memory of the sun troubled them and they mistook it for an old yellow crayon or a coin large enough to buy the world with.

Question 3.
What were the things the children were familiar with in their world?
Answer:
The children were familiar with the tatting drum, the endless shaking down of clear bead necklaces upon the roof, the walk, the gardens, and the forests.

Question 4.
What did the children read in class all day long?
Answer:
All day they had read in class about the sun. About how it resembled a lemon, and how hot was the sun. The children had also written small stories or essays or poems about the sun.

Question 5.
What had Margot written about the sun in her poem?
Answer:
She had written that the sun was like a flower that bloomed only for an hour.

Passage 3

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.

Margot stood alone. She was a very frail girl who looked as if she had been lost in the rain for years and the rain had washed out the blue from her eyes and the red from her mouth and the yellow from her hair. She was an old photograph dusted from an album, whitened away, and if she spoke at all her voice would be a ghost. Now she stood, separate, staring at the rain and the loud wet world beyond the huge glass. “What’re you looking at ?” said William. Margot said nothing. “Speak when you’re spoken to.” He gave her a shove. But she did not move; rather she let herself be moved only by him and nothing else. They edged away from her, they would not look at her. She felt them go away. And this was because she would play no games with them in the echoing tunnels of the underground city. If they tagged her and ran, she stood blinking after them and did not follow. When the class sang songs about happiness and life and games her lips barely moved. Only when they sang about the sun and the summer did her lips move as she watched the drenched windows.

Question 1.
What did Margot look like?
Answer:
Margot was a thin and delicate girl who looked as if she had been lost in the rain for years and the rain had washed out the blue from her eyes and the red from her mouth and the yellow from her hair. She was an old photograph dusted from an album, whitened away.

Question 2.
Why was Margot sad?
Answer:
Margot was sad because she did not like the rain and she remembered the warmth and brightness of the sun on Earth where it could be seen every day.

Question 3.
What was the reaction of the children towards Margot?
Answer:
The children found Margot strange and bullied her. They edged away from her, they would not look at her.

Question 4.
Why did they behave in this manner towards Margot?
Answer:
The children behaved in this manner towards Margot because she would not play games with them in the echoing tunnels of the underground city. If they tagged her and ran, she stood blinking after them and did not follow. When the class sang songs about happiness and life and games her lips barely moved.

Question 5.
When did Margot react ?
Answer:
Margot reacted only when they sang about the sun and the summer. Then her lips moved as she watched the drenched windows. Even the mention of the sun made her happy and react in some manner.

Passage 4

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.

So after that, dimly, dimly, she sensed it, she was different and they knew her difference and kept away. There was talk that her father and mother were taking her back to Earth next year; it seemed vital to her that they do so, though it would mean the loss of thousands of dollars to her family. And so, the children hated her for all these reasons of big and little consequence. They hated her pale snow face, her waiting silence, her thinness, and her possible future. “Get away 1” The boy gave her another push. “What’re you waiting for?”Then, for the first time, she turned and looked at him. And what she was waiting for was in her eyes. “Well, don’t wait around here !” cried the boy savagely. “You won’t see nothing!” Her lips moved. “Nothing 1” he cried. “It was all a joke, wasn’t it?” He turned to the other children. “Nothing’s happening today. Is it ?”

Question 1.
What makes Margot different from the other children? Why?
Answer:
Margot had memories of the sun and the glorious effect and warmth of the sun. But the children had no recollections and remembered only the colourless and depressing rain on Venus. This was the main difference.

Question 2.
What was the rumour? What did Margot think?
Answer:
There was a rumour that Margot’s parents were taking her back to Earth next year. It seemed important to Margot that they do so because she hated Venus and could not survive without the Sun on Venus. The decision to take Margot back to Earth would mean loss of thousands of dollars to her family.

Question 3.
Why did the children hate her?
Answer:
The children sensed that Margot was different from them. She hated the continuous rain while they were used to it. She spoke only about the sun and they had no memory of it. They hated her pale snow face, her waiting silence, her thinness, and her possible future of going back to the Earth.

Question 4.
What is the ‘it’ referred to by William?
Answer:
The ‘it’ referred to by William is the Sun which the scientists had predicted would shine for a short while that day.

Question 5.
What was Margot waiting for? Why did William say it was a joke?
Answer:
Margot was waiting to see the sun predicted to shine that day for a short while. William did not want her to have the joy of seeing the sun .

Passage 5

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow.

They stood in the doorway of the underground for a moment until it was raining hard. Then they closed the door and heard the gigantic sound of the rain falling in tons and avalanches, everywhere and forever.

“Will it be seven more years?” “Yes. Seven.” Then one of them gave a little cry. “Margot!” “What?” “She’s still in the closet where we locked her.” “Margot.”

They stood as if someone had driven them, like so many stakes, into the floor. They looked at each other and then looked away. They glanced out at the world that was raining now and raining and raining steadily. They could not meet each other’s glances. Their faces were solemn and pale. They looked at their hands and feet, their faces down. “Margot.” One of the girls said, “Well.. .?” No one moved. “Go on,” whispered the girl. They walked slowly down the hall in the sound of the cold rain. They turned through the doorway to the room in the sound of the storm and thunder, lightning on their faces, blue and terrible. They walked over to the closet door slowly and stood by it. Behind the closed door was only silence. They unlocked the door, even more slowly, and let Margot out.

Question 1.
When would the Sun shine again? Why had the children locked Margot in the closet?
Answer:
The sun would shine after seven years. The children knew Margot loved the sun and had waited to see it. But they hated her and so did not want her to see the sun and locked her in the closet.

Question 2.
Why were the children avoiding looking at each other?
Answer:
The children glanced out at the world that was raining now and raining and raining steadily. They could not meet each other’s glances. Their faces were solemn and pale. They looked at their hands and feet, their faces down because they were guilty of hurting Margot by not letting her see the Sun. Now it would shine on Venus only after seven years. They had been cruel to Margot.

Question 3.
Why does the author describe their faces as blue and terrible?
Answer:
The author describes their faces as blue and terrible to accentuate their criminal and mean minds which are the result of living on Venus, away from the positive energy of the Sun.

Question 4.
What impression does one get of the life of people away from the Sun ?
Answer:
The power of the sun over the children living on Venus is notable. They are pale and colourless, not just physically but also emotionally. The lack of the sun has not only washed away the colour on their skin but also their compassion and empathy for other people. They do not gain this until they’ve spent time under the sun’s rays. The sun is life giving for the landscape as well as the inhabitants of Venus.

Assignment

Question 1.
How does Ray Bradbury develop the mood in “All Summer in a Day”?
Answer:
Bradbury uses lyrical language to convey a mood of longing and loss in this story of a Venus where the sun only emerges once every seven years. This mood is reinforced by the personality of the main character, Margot, a sensitive, melancholy little girl whose soul’s sadness seems reflected in the ever present rain. The sun in this story becomes the metaphor for all our longings and desires.

Bradbury doesn’t just say it rained all the time, but describes the rain: “the sweet crystal fall of showers and the concussion of storms so heavy … A thousand forests had been crushed.” Likewise, Bradbury lingers over descriptions of the sun. It is like “gold” or a “lemon crayon,” “flaming bronze” and a “warm iron.”

Bradbury repeatedly uses similes and poetic language to describe this sun and this world. Rather than hurtle us forward from event to event in this stoiy, Bradbury encourages us, through his description, to stop and to experience being drenched in what it is like to be on this imaginary Venus. Only two things happen in terms of plot: the sun comes out and Margot, who longs so deeply to see it, is locked away in a closet by the other children. The rest is the longing mood Bradbury evokes.

Question 2.
What is the theme of all summer in a day by Ray Bradbury?
Answer:
The theme for “All Summer in a Day” is bullying and jealousy. Kids, and people alike, can be so mean when they are confronted with someone different than their current understanding or when they are jealous. Margot had known what the sun looked, and felt like when she lived on Earth; but, the children of Venus who get to see the sun for two hours once every seven years could not relate to her experience. The children wouldn’t have locked Margot in the closet at that very special moment when the sun comes out if it had not have been for William. William is the antagonist who suggests that they lock her up because,the biggest crime of all was that she had come here only five years ago from Earth, and she remembered the sun and the way the sun was and the sky was when she was four in Ohio. And they, they had been on Venus all their lives, and they had been only two years old when last the sun came out and had long since forgotten the color and heat of it and the way it really was. But Margot remembered.”

Here we see that motive behind the rage and jealousy that the children felt for Margot. Whether it is one situation or another, Bradbury brings out a true principle of the human condition with this story; and that is the effects that jealousy can have when acted upon.

Question 3.
What are examples of simile, metaphor, and personification in “All Summer in a Day”?
Answer:
Ray Bradbury’s short story “All Summer in a Day” has many different types of figures  of speech. Similes compare two unlike things using the words “like” or “as.” Metaphors compare two unlike things using words like “is” or “was.” Finally, personification occurs when an animal or inanimate object is given human traits or qualities. These figures of speech not only help to communicate what the author wants to portray in the story, but also helps readers to connect with something they may have already understood, which then creates more meaning for them in the story. For example, the following is a passage that demonstrates the use of simile and metaphor:

‘All day yesterday they had read in class about the sun. About how like a lemon it was, and how hot.          And they had written small stories or essays or poems about it:
I think the sun is a flower,
That blooms for just one hour.’
The first figure of speech is a simile because it compares the sun to a lemon using the word “like.” Then, a metaphor is used when the sun is compared to a flower using the word “is.”
The next passage has examples of two similes:
‘But Margot remembered.
“It’s like a penny,” she said once, eyes closed.
“No it’s not!” the children cried.
“It’s like a fire,” she said, “in the stove.”
Both figures of speech in this passage are similes because the sun is compared to a penny and then to fire using the word “like.” The next example demonstrates how personification is used in the story:

‘They stood looking at the door and saw it tremble from her beating and throwing herself against it.’

In animate objects do not have the ability to tremble like people do; therefore, this is an example of personification. The door “trembles” because it receives the impact of Margot’s protest and anxiety about being trapped. It also seems as though Bradbury uses personification when Margot is locked in the closet to describe how her emotions powerfully transfer through the door as she pounds on it.

Question 4.
What is the central conflict of the story “All Summer in a Day”?
Answer:
The central conflict of the story is that Margot does not fit in with the other children.

The basic situation is that it has been raining on Venus for seven years. The children, who are nine years old, do not remember ever seeing the sun. The sun is scheduled to come out, so the kids are very excited. Margot is excited too, but she is a child who just doesn’t fit in.

Margot is from Earth, and the other children are from Venus. In addition to that, Margot is delicate and sensitive and just doesn’t associate with the other kids.

They turned on themselves, like a feverish wheel, all tumbling spokes. Margot stood * alone. She was a veiy frail girl who looked as if she had been lost in the rain for years and the rain had washed out the blue from her eyes and the red from her mouth and the yellow from her hair.

The other kids tease Margot and don’t understand her. They are envious of her, and like many kids they turn that envy to cruelty. When the class is preparing for the sun to come out, the children tease Margot for the poem she wrote. She remembers the sun, and that really eats at them.

When the teacher leaves the room just as the sun is about to come out, the conflict comes to a head.
“Get away !” The boy gave her another push. “What’re you waiting for?”

Then, for the first time, she turned and looked at him. And what she was waiting for was in her eyes.

The boy tells Margot it was all a joke, and suggests they lock her in the closet. He is using her desperation and expectation against her, even though all of the children want the same thing. They are all ramped up, and need a target for their energy and aggression. Margot is an easy target.

Question 5.
What is the climax of Ray Bradbury’s “All Summer in a Day?”
Answer:
The climax of Bradbury’s short story is when the sun comes out for the first time in seven years. The kids have locked Margot in a closet and to their astonishment, the sun comes out. They bolt outside to the sun, frolicking and playing in the illumination. They play until it begins to rain and then they have to come back inside. It becomes evident to them, in a dawning- like realization, that they left Margot in the closet.

This moment of the sun appearing is the climax because it is the point in which the action is the greatest. In the conflict between Margot and the group of students, it is at this point where the tension between both is the highest in an almost contradictory moment of unity and symmetry. It is Bradbury’s genius to construct the situation so that Margot was actually right. Rather than praise her for her correct world view, the kids flock towards her absolute sense of accuracy and her vision, something that she is not able to appreciate because of being marginalized. The height of the plot, the moment where the action is most intense, is in this moment of unity, one in which there is validation but not for the person who advocated it. In this, there is a climax and a sense of diminishing action appears at the end when the children come to the silent realization that they have to release Margot out of the closet.

Question 6.
What is the setting of “All Summer in a Day”?
Answer:
The story is set in Venus sometime in the future on a day when the rain stops briefly.

A group of children are living on Venus. It rains every day for seven years. The children have not seen the sun in all that time. The children are nine years old, and have not seen the sun since it came out seven years before for an hour.

And this was the way life was forever on the planet Venus, and this was the schoolroom of the children of the rocket men and women who had come to a raining world to set up civilization and live out their lives.

A girl named Margot came from Earth, and remembers the sun. The other children are angry because she has seen it and they haven’t. On the one day the sun comes out they decide to lock her in a closet, and she misses the few minutes of sun.

The story demonstrates that children are children, no matter the setting. The children are cruel to Margot because she is different, and because they are jealous. Due to their actions, she misses seeing the sun. Only then do the children regret what they have done.

Question 7.
What does “I think the sun is a flower” mean in Ray Bradbury’s short story “All Summer in a Day”?           Answer:
In Ray Bradbury’s short story “All Summer in a Day,” the metaphor “ think the sun is a flower” was written in a poem about the sun by the protagonist Margo. In her poem, Margo aimed to describe the glow of the sun as a blooming flower. Though she doesn’t specify what kind of flower, the reader might visualize a round golden daisy or poppy. The image of the flower helps capture the round, yellow image of the sun.

In addition, Margo’s metaphor parallels with the other children’s experience in seeing the sun for the first time. As they look outside as the sun comes out, they see the “great jungle that covered Venus” transform. Suddenly, because of the sunshine, the jungle looks alive, flowing, and full of color, similar to a flower, as we see in the narrator’s following description:

It was a nest of octopi, clustering up great arms of fleshlike weed, wavering, flowering in this brief spring.

Hence, as we can see, Margo’s metaphor serves the purpose of likening the sun to a flower to capture the sun’s color, shape, and glowing warmth. Margo’s description of the sun parallels with the effect the sun has on nature found on Venus.

Question 8.
Why was Margot unhappy on Venus in “All Summer in a Day”?
Answer:
Margot is unhappy on Venus because she came from Earth and misses the sun. The story takes place on Venus, a planet where it rains almost all of the time. In fact, the sun has not come out in seven years. Margot, however, came from Earth five years before the story starts. That means that unlike the other children in her class, she remembers what the sun looks like. She misses it terribly.

[She] sensed it, she was different and they knew her difference and kept away. There was talk that her father and mother were taking her back to Earth next year; it seemed vital to her that they do so, though it would mean the loss of thousands of dollars to her family.

Margot does not get along with the other children. She doesn’t play their games, and they are jealous of her for having recently been to Earth and for having the chance to go back. For this reason, the children bully Margot and she isolates herself. She doesn’t seem to make any friends.

On the day the sun is supposed to finally come out, the children decide to play a cruel trick on Margot. They tell her the scientists were wrong, and then lock her in a closet so that-when it does come out, she won’t see it. She is horrified.

They surged about her, caught her up and bore her, protesting, and then pleading, and then ciying, back into a tunnel, a room, a closet, where they slammed and locked the door. They stood looking at the door and saw it tremble from her beating and throwing herself against it.

Although the children are cruel bullies, the trick they played was terrible. Margot is very sensitive and this will likely have a great effect on her. They know this, and seem just as horrified when they realize what they have done. After the sun leaves, they go to take her out again knowing that she will never be the same.

Project

Question 1.
What makes Margot different from the other children? Why does this cause the other children dislike Margot?
Answer:
Margot is different from the other children because of her looks, her personality, and her experiences. Margot is “frail,” and she is fair-haired and white-skinned, so much so that she looks colorless, like a washed-out photograph. Margot is quiet and withdrawn—she doesn’t have the boisterous personality that many of the other children have. Her voice is soft, and often she doesn’t speak at all. She keeps her distance from the other children rather than joining in their antics. In fact, she is a very sensitive girl who seems to have some deep-seated emotional issues. When she screamed when the water touched her in the showers, that confirmed to the others how odd she was. Because she can remember living on Earth where the sun shone often, she finds the constant rain on Venus oppressive, and she seems to be depressed. That’s why her parents plan to send her back to Earth soon. She doesn’t fit in on Venus.                                                        ‘

Despite all those differences, the one thing that seems to set the children against Margot more than any other is that she has experiences they don’t share. All the other children have a homogeneous background: They have been raised on Venus and know nothing of life outside the underground complex they live in. That Margot remembers seeing the Sun and that she knows about life on Earth first-hand makes the children jealous of her, even though Margot doesn’t act like a know-it-all. Beyond that, the children know that she will have a chance to go back to Earth soon, a chance that evades the others. Her past experiences and her future plans set her apart from the others.

Why the other children dislike Margot is a strong theme in the story. Bradbury creates a scenario that allows modern Earth-bound readers to examine their prejudices. Margot represents the “other,” and human beings instinctively despise those outside their own tribe. Perhaps her rich and varied experiences caused them to wish they could escape their underground home, so they became jealous. The fact that she wouldn’t join their games might feel like an insult to them, so they lashed back to give her pain. But part of their dislike stems from a simple lust for power: Margot is weak and alone; they are strong and have numbers on their side. Such a condition spurs bullying, and that’s what happens in the story.

Although the story is overtly about children on a different planet in the future, it makes all readers, children and adults, think about how they treat others and whether they allow prejudices to mar their behavior.

Question 2.
What is the central conflict of the story “All Summer in a Day”?
Answer:
The central conflict of the story is that Margot does not fit in with the other children.

The basic situation is that it has been raining on Venus for seven years. The children, who are nine years old, do not remember ever seeing the sun. The sun is scheduled to come out, so the kids are very excited. Margot is excited too, but she is a child who just doesn’t fit in.     –

Margot is from Earth, and the other children are from Venus. In addition to that, Margot is delicate and sensitive and just doesn’t associate with the other kids.

‘They turned on themselves, like a feverish wheel, all tumbling spokes. Margot stood alone. She was a very frail girl who looked as if she had been lost in the rain for years and the rain had washed out the blue from her eyes and the red from her mouth and the yellow from her hair.’

The other kids tease Margot and don’t understand her. They are envious of her, and like many kids they turn that envy to cruelty. When the class is preparing for the sun to come out, the children tease Margot for the poem she wrote. She remembers the sun, and that really eats at them.

When the teacher leaves the room just as the sun is about to come out, the conflict comes to a head.

“Get away !” The boy gave her another push. “What’re you waiting for?”

Then, for the first time, she turned and looked at him. And what she was waiting for was in her eyes.

The boy tells Margot it was all a joke, and suggests they lock her in the closet. He is using her desperation and expectation against her, even though all of the children want the same thing. They are all ramped up, and need a target for their energy and aggression. Margot is an easy target.

Question 3.
What are examples of simile, metaphor, and personification in “All Summer in a Day”?
Answer:
Ray Bradbury’s short story “All Summer in a Day” has many different types of figures of speech. Similes compare two unlike things using the words “like” or “as.” Metaphors compare two unlike things using words like “is” or “was.” Personification occurs when an animal or inanimate object is given human traits or qualities. These figures of speech not only help to communicate what the author wants to portray in the story, but also help us to connect with something that we may have already understand, which then creates more meaning in the story. For example, the following is a passage that demonstrates the use of simile and metaphor:
All day yesterday they had read in class about the sun. About how like a lemon it was, and how hot.
And they had written small stories or essays or poems about it:

I think the sun is a flower,
That blooms for just one hour.
The first figure of speech is a simile because it compares the sun to a lemon using the word “like.” Then, a metaphor is used when the sun is compared to a flower using the word “is.”
The next passage has examples of two similes:
But Margot remembered.
“It’s like a penny,” she said once, eyes closed.,
“No it’s not!” the children cried.
“It’s like a fire,” she said, “in the stove.”
Both figures of speech in this passage are similes because the sun is compared to a penny and then to fire using the word “like.” The next example demonstrates how personification is used in the story:                                                                                     .

They stood looking at the door and saw it tremble from her beating and throwing herself against it.

In animate objects do not have the ability to tremble like people do; therefore, this is an example of personification. The door “trembles” because it receives the impact of Margot’s protest and anxiety about being trapped. It also seems as though Bradbury uses personification when Margot is locked in the closet to describe how her emotions powerfully transfer through the door as she pounds on it.

Question 4.
Why was Margot unhappy on Venus in “All Summer in a Day”?
Answer:
Margot is unhappy on Venus because she came from Earth and misses the sun.

The story takes place on Venus, a planet where it rains almost all of the time. In fact, the sun has not come out in seven years. Margot, however, came from Earth five years before the story starts. That means that unlike the other children in her class, she remembers what the sun looks like. She misses it terribly.

She sensed it, she was different and they knew her difference and kept away. ‘There was talk that her father and mother were taking her back to Earth next year; it seemed vital to her that they do so, though it would mean the loss of thousands of dollars to her family.’

Margot does not get along with the other children. She doesn’t play their games, and they are jealous of her for having recently been to Earth and for having the chance to go back. For this reason, the children bully Margot and she isolates herself. She doesn’t seem to make any friends.

On the day the sun is supposed to finally come out, the children decide to play a cruel trick on Margot. They tell her the scientists were wrong, and then lock her in a closet so that when it does come out, she won’t see it. She is horrified.

‘They surged about her, caught her up and bore her, protesting, and then pleading, and then crying, back into a tunnel, a room, a closet, where they slammed and locked the door. They stood looking at the door and saw it tremble from her beating and throwing * herself against it.’

The children are cruel bullies, the trick they played was terrible. Margot is very sensitive and this will likely have a great effect on her. They know this, and seem just as horrified when they realize what they have done. After the sun leaves, they go to take her out again knowing that she will never be the same.

Question 5.
What is the theme of all summer in a day by Ray Bradbury?
Answer:
The theme for “All Summer in a Day” is bullying and jealousy. Kids, and people alike, can be so mean when they are confronted with so pie one different than their current understanding or when they are jealous. Margot had known what the sun looked and felt like when she lived on Earth; but, the children of Venus who get to see the sun for two hours once every seven years could not relate to her experience. The children wouldn’t have locked Margot in the closet at that very special moment when the sun came out if it had not been for William. William is the antagonist who suggests that they lock her up because,. .the biggest crime of all was that she had come here only five years ago from Earth, and she remembered the sun and the way the sun was and the sky was when she was four in Ohio. And they, they had been on Venus all their lives, and they had been only two years old when last the sun came out and had long since forgotten the color and heat of it and the way it really was. But Margot remembered.”

Here we see the motive behind the rage and jealousy that the children felt for Margot. Whether it is one situation or another, Bradbury brings out a true principle of the human condition with this story; and that is the effect that jealousy can have when acted upon.

Question 6.
What is the climax of Ray Bradbury’s “All Summer in a Day?”
Answer:
The climax of Bradbury’s short story is when the sun comes out for the first time in seven years. The kids have locked Margot in a closet and to their astonishment, the sun comes out. They bolt outside to the sun, frolicking and playing in the illumination. They play until it begins to rain and then they have to come back inside. It becomes evident to them, in a dawning- like realization, that they had left Margot in the closet.

This moment of the sun appearing is the climax because it is the point in which the action is the greatest. In the conflict between Margot and the group of students, it is at this point where the tension between both is the highest in an almost contradictory moment of unity and symmetry. It is Bradbury’s genius to construct the situation so that Margot was actually right. Rather than praise her for her correct world view, the kids flock towards her absolute sense of accuracy and her vision, something that she is not able to appreciate because of being marginalized. The height of the plot, the moment where the action is most intense, is in this moment of unity, one in which there is validation but not for the person who advocated it. In this, there is a climax and a sense of diminishing action appears at the end when the children come to the silent realization that they have to release Margot out of the closet.

Question 7.
What is the setting of “All Summer in a Day”?
Answer:
The story is set in Venus sometime in the future on a day when the rain stops briefly.

A group of children are living on Venus. It rains every day for seven years. The children have not seen the sun in all that time. The children are nine years old, and have not seen the sun since it came out seven years before for an hour.

And this was the way of life forever on the planet Venus, and this was the schoolroom of the children of the rocket men and women who had come to a raining world to set up civilization and live out their lives.

A girl named Margot came from Earth, and remembers the sun. The other children are angry because she has seen it and they haven’t. On the one day the sun comes out they decide to lock her in a closet, and she misses the few minutes of sun.

The story demonstrates that children are children, no matter the setting. The children are cruel to Margot because she is different, and because they are jealous. Due to their actions, she misses seeing the sun. Only then do the children regret what they have done

For More Resources