On the Grasshopper and Cricket Poem Important Questions Class 8 Honeydew English
Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1. ‘The poetry of earth’ is not made of words. What is it made of, as suggested in the poem?
Answer
‘The poetry of earth’ is not made of words but it is made of the songs of a grasshopper and the cricket, thus it is made by the music sung by these insects.
Question 2. Where do grasshoppers take rest when he tired?
Answer
When grasshopper became tired, he rests ease beneath some pleasant weeds.
Question 3. What is the meaning of the line: ‘The poetry of earth is never dead’?
Answer
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.
Question 4. ‘The poetry of earth continues round the year through a cycle of two seasons”. Mention each with its representative voice.
Answer
The grasshopper’s takes the lead in summer. He is never done with his delight. On a long winter evening when the forest is silent, the cricket sing with its shrill voice from the stone.
Question 5. In which season cricket sing?
Answer
The cricket sing in winter. When it is very cold and quiet, the winter silence is broken by a shrill sound.
Question 6. What is main theme of the poem?
Answer
The main theme of poem is that poetry and music in nature do not perish.
Question 7. Where do birds take rest in hot summer day?
Answer
The birds took rest under shady trees to secure themselves from the scorching heat of the sun.
Context Based Questions
Stanza 1
The poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead,
That is the grasshopper’s
he takes the lead In summer luxury
he has never done With his delights, for when tired out with fun
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
Explanation
Like every poet Keats has been attracted towards the beauty of nature. 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 it gets tired, it rests beneath some weed.
Questions
(i) What is an ongoing process in nature?
(ii) Where do birds go when heat of the sun rise?
(iii) How has the continuity of music maintained?
(iv) Name the figure of speech in the above stanza.
(v) Describe the beauty of the poem.
Answer
(i) Poetry, rhythm in nature is an unending process giving life to surroundings.
(ii) As the heat of the Sun rise, the birds hide in branches to find a cool place for themselves.
(iii) During the extreme heat when birds stop singing, voice of grasshopper delights with its music.
(iv) Metaphor – Poetry of earth.
(v) The poem is a 14 line Petrarchan sonnet with a rhyming scheme of abba – abba – cdecde.
Stanza 2
The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
On a lone winter evening when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stone there shrills
The cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one in drowsiness half lost;
The grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.
Explanation
When the birds are silent in very cold, the earth never stops and expresses its pleasure through different being 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.
Questions
(i) What is ‘ceasing never’?
(ii) Who takes up the job of providing rhythm during winters?
(iii) From where do the cricket sing?
(iv) What is the impact of cricket and grasshopper music?
Answer
(i) The poetry of earth is never ceasing.
(ii) Cricket takes up the job by providing rhythm in extreme cold weather.
(iii) The crickets hide under the stone and sing in its shrill voice.
(iv) Crickets and grasshoppers make sounds that soothes the listener even its extreme weathers. The listeners are recovered from their drowsy sleep to listen to the endless fountain of relief with music of the nature.