A Slumber did My Spirit Seal Important Questions Class 9 Beehive English
Short Answer Type Questions
Question 1. How does the poet react to his loved one’s death?
Answer
At first the poet is shocked by the death of his beloved and he feels bitter grief. But after some realisation, he feels a great peace. He is content that the passing of time will no longer affect her. She has become part of nature and is free from human travails.
Question 2. Who does not feel any human fears? Why?
Answer
The poet does not feel any fears and his soul feels at peace, as though asleep and existing in a deep calm where he has nothing to fear. His love for Lucy was so strong that he did not want her to grow old and suffer the problems of old age as human beings do. She would not now be marked by the passing of time or the ravages of nature as other mortals are. For him, she has attained the status of a supernatural being.
Question 3. What does the poet mean by ‘spirit’ and in what state was it?
Answer
In the poem the word ‘spirit’ refers to the mind of the poet. He was in a slumber. That is, a deep sleep or a state of unawareness as if unconscious to the realities of life. It is as if he was drugged or under some spell.
Question 4. What changes did the slumber bring in the poet’s feelings?
Answer
The poet was shocked and saddened by his beloved’s death. But the slumber brought peace to his mind. He realised that his beloved had become part of Nature and would always remain around him.
Question 5. How does the poet come out of his ‘slumber’?
Answer
The poet comes out of ‘slumber’ as the realisation dawns of him that with her death Lucy is no longer a human being and as vulnerable to death as others. She has become an immortal being and he sees her as a supernatural goddess. This brings him out of his unconsciousness or ‘slumber’.
Question 6. How does the poet imagine “her” to be after death?
Answer
The poet imagines her to be at peace after death. She is in a deep sleep, no longer affected by worldly affairs or by the passage of time. She is now part of nature. 'No motion has she now, no force She neither hears nor sees.'
Question 7. What is the relation of Lucy with rocks, stones, and trees?
Answer
Lucy, after her death, has part of nature as she has mingled with the soil. As such she is a part of the other things on the earth like rocks, stones or trees. She has now become a part of nature.
Question 8. What does the poet mean by “earth’s diurnal course”? How has “she” become a part of earth’s diurnal course?
Answer
The phrase “earth’s diurnal course” refers to the daily rotation of the earth on its axis that causes day and night. According to the poet Lucy has become an inseparable part of the earth after her death. As she has mingled with the earth, she naturally participates in its daily course just like the stones, the rocks, and the trees.
Question 9. What caused the slumber of the poet?
Answer
The poet was passionately in love with the girl. Her death shocked and saddened him. He felt bitter grief. His deep emotion overwhelmed his mind. Such was the intensity of his sorrow that it overpowered his consciousness.
Question 10. Explain the line: “The touch of earthly years”. Who would not feel the touch of earthly years?
Answer
The expression “The touch of earthly years,” refers to the ravages of old age faced by human beings – the depletion of energy, diseases, senility and death which a person has to suffer as one grows old during life on this earth. The poet’s beloved Lucy will not face the problems of old age as she is no more alive.
Question 11. The poet does not refer to the death of Lucy. How does he reveal that she is no more
Answer
The poet does not refer to Lucy as being dead directly. However, he makes it obvious that she is no longer alive by stating that she has become completely still, motionless, inactive and inert. Moreover, she has lost her senses of hearing and seeing.
Long Answer Type Questions
Question 1. How did Lucy’s death affect the poet? What does it reveal about his attitude towards her
Answer
The poet remarks that he had become unaware of the realities of life when he was under the spell of Lucy’s love. He felt as if he was under some spell and this seemed to have clouded his sense of reasoning. He felt Lucy was not subject to the consequences of time and the aging process. He did not realise she would one day be conquered by death. For him, she had attained the status of a supernatural being – a goddess or a deity beyond worldly suffering.
Such was the poet’s intensity of love for the girl that he was blind to the hard fact of life that everybody who is born has to ultimately die. Death, however, leaves her unable to perform any physical activity. As he comes to terms of her death, the poet feels that in her death his beloved Lucy has become a part of nature. She is now under the surface of the earth and revolving along with it on its path. He tells us that like other stones, rocks and trees she also revolves with the earth now.
Question 2. How does the poet reveal that Lucy is dead without using the words ‘death’ or ‘dead’? What according to him, has happened to Lucy after her death?
Answer
Though the poet does not use the words ‘death’ or ‘dead’ for Lucy, yet he is able to convey very clearly that Lucy is no longer alive. He writes that Lucy has lost all force and strength; she has become absolutely inert and motionless. Her body has lost all activity. The young girl is also deprived of her senses like that of hearing or seeing. He says that her body has integrated itself with the earth. She has become as inseparable from the earth as stones, rocks, or trees. Like them, she rolls with the earth as it rotates on its axis. The idea that she still exists as a part of the earth soothes the mind of the poet who does not shed tears or cry over her death.
Question 3. Give a brief summary of the poem ‘A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal’ in your own words.
Answer
In the poem A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal the poet says that grief over the death of his beloved has left him numb and that human fears no longer affect him. But he realises the reality of life after her death and through this realisation he has now attained peace. He is content as the passing of time will no longer affect her. She is in her grave, covered with soil and has thus become the part of nature and of the earth. She is rolling with the earth as it turns from day to night and vice versa.
Question 4. What is the central theme of the poem?
Answer
The poem deals with the loss of a loved one through death and the sorrow that follows. The death of Lucy left the poet in great pain. However, Wordsworth conveys the idea that death may separate our loved ones from us but they always remain around us in the form of nature. Wordsworth immortalizes Lucy by stating that she lives on in Nature after her physical death. Therefore, the death of a loved one should not leave us grief-stricken.