Study Material of On the grasshopper and the cricket (Summary, Extra Question and answers and Word Meanings) Honeydew
Summary of Poem
This is fine sonnet and symbolic poem in which the grasshopper is a symbol of hot summer and the cricket is of very cold winter.
Every poet has been attracted towards the beauty of nature and so has Keats been. He finds nature beautiful in all seasons not excluding the hot summer and cold winter.
He says that the earth is always singing. When the birds stop singing in the hot summer finding cool place, we find the grasshopper singing and flying from hedge. He sings tirelessly and when tired, rests beneath some weed.
When the birds are silent in very cold the earth never stops and expresses its pleasure through different beings like the cricket. It sings the beautiful songs from the stones. It seems to be increasing in warmth every moment and half-asleep human being feels it to be a grasshopper’s song coming from grassy hills.
Terms and Meanings from the poem
• Faint – ill-defined
• Hedge – fence or boundary
• Wrought – brought about
• Shrills – comes through loud and clear
1. What is the meanings of the line: ‘The poetry of earth is never dead’?
► The poet wanted to say that poetry of nature is never going to end. No matter what the season is, whether it is the sweltering summer or the harsh cold winter, the music and the poetry of the nature is never dead.
2. What is main theme of the poem?
► The main theme of poem is that poetry and music in nature do not perish.
3. Where do birds take rest in hot summer day?
► The birds took rest under shady trees to secure themselves from the scorching heat of the sun.
4. Where do grasshopper take rest when he tired?
► When grasshopper became tired, he rests ease beneath some pleasant weeds.
5. In which season cricket sing?
► The cricket sung in winter. When it is very cold and quiet, the winter silence is broken by a shrill sound.
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