Percy Bysshe Shelley
I.) Comprehension :
A.) Answer the following in a sentence or two each:
1.) Who is the “I” in the poem?
Answer: I in the poem is the cloud.
2.) What does the cloud do when leaves are laid in their dreams?
Answer: Cloud provides light shade when leaves are laid in their dreams.
3.) How is the cloud related to Earth, Water and Sky?
Answer: The poet says that the cloud is the daughter of the Earth and water.
4.) What happens after the rain?
Answer: After the rain the pavilion of heaven becomes bare and the winds and build up the blue dome of air.
B.) Answer the following in about one hundred words each:
1.) The Cloud is personified throughout the poem. Explain.
Answer: In the poem, the cloud is personified and the speaking quality of human is given to it. In the poem the cloud is telling that it brings the rain from sea and lakes, it provides share and makes the sweet buds blossom. It wields the flail of the lashing hail and whiten the green plains. The cloud dissolve in rain and laugh in the form of thunder. Like human the cloud says that it is the daughter of the earth and water and nursling of the sky. When the sky gets clean then the cloud again appear like a child from the womb of mother.
2.) The poem “The Cloud” is rich in imagery. Explain.
Answer: The process of forming cloud to dissolving in the sky there are many stages and those stages are well imagined by poet by personifying cloud. The similes help to imagine the visuals and creative use of metaphors help to understand the poem better. Most of the scenarios are from the nature hence it is easy to visualize. Like the flowers waiting for the rain and the cloud is providing light shade for the leaves sleeping at noon are the lines which makes the environment in mind. Imagining that the dews are waking up the sweet buds is makes feel the early morning time. The poet imagine the thunder in the sky is laughter of the cloud and poet also imagine that the cloud is the daughter of the earth and water and the nursling of the sky.
II.) Appreciation Questions:
1.) The first stanza tells us about the cloud’s activity. What does the cloud bring with it?
Answer: TheCloud bring rain with it.
2.) The cloud is said to have wings and it shakes its wings. What happens when the wings of the clouds are shaken?
Answer: When the wings of the clouds shakes then the drops of dew fall down and it wakes up buds and bloom them.
3.) In the third stanza, Shelley talks about the earth as a planet. The “flail” is an instrument which is used to separate grain from the husk. How does the poet compare hail striking the earth and flail hitting the wheat?
Answer: Poet says like flail lash and grains fall down and the husk get separated likewise the cloud also use the flail and the hailstone also fall down from the cloud.
4.) The cloud says “I change but I cannot die’, though the sky appears clear after rain.” Explain.
Answer: Cloud say that it can not die because the cloud keep transforming one from to another like cloud forms from the vapor and when it gets cold up in the sky it transform in rain and rain water goes into streams and sea and again that water turn into vapor hence the cloud says that “I change but I cannot die”.
5.) In the last stanza, after the rain, the convex gleams of sun makes the sky look like a blue dome of air. The poet calls the blue clouds “Cenotaph.” Give reasons.
Answer: The cloud floating in the sky in the form of condensed water vapour it rains and vanish in the sky then the sky becomes clear, poet call it blue dome of air which the poet imagine a cenotaph built in the memory of the cloud but the cloud laughs and says that it can change but cannot die.
III.) Annotate:
1.) “I wield the flail of the lashing hail, And whiten the green plains under.”
Answer: In the poem the poet imagine that the cloud uses the flail of the lashing hail to spread hailstones on the green plains down like humans use flail to separate grain and husk.
2.) “I am the daughter of Earth and Water, And nursling of the Sky.”
Answer: In this line poet explain the relation between the earth and water and says that the cloud is made from the water vapour on the earth hence the cloud is daughter of the earth and water and raised and cared by the sky.
3.) “I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores. I change, but I cannot die.”
Answer: In this line the poet says that the cloud can transform from one form to another. The initial stage of the cloud is vapour and vapour can pass through the pores of the ocean and shore hence, the cloud is saying that it can change but it cannot die.
Dear Student, I appreciate your efforts and hard work that you all had put in. Thank you for being concerned with us and I wish you for your continued success.
0 Comments