A Day Exercise
Class 12 English Poem Section, Chapter 1: A Day Exercise, Question Answer Solution note (Poem by Emily Dickinson).
Understanding The Text
Answer the following questions:
a. How does the poet describe the morning sun in the first stanza?
Answer➡ In the first stanza, the poet describes the morning sun presenting the stripe of ribbons in the sky, the deep violet colour like amethyst in the steeples of the churches and the quick natural process as squirrels' run which makes everyone aware of the morning.
b. What does the line ‘The news like squirrels ran’ mean?
Answer➡ The meaning of the line 'The news like squirrels ran' is that the pace of spread of the news of sunrise was so quick, as is the squirrels speed. Squirrels are faster-running creatures. The light of the sun spreads rapidly. That is why, the poet used the metaphor of 'The news like squirrels ran' to indicate that the news of sunrise was faster like the speed of squirrels.
c. What do you understand by the line “The hills untied their bonnets”?
Answer➡ Before the sun rises, the hills are sunk in the bonnet of darkness. After the sun rises all the hills look beautiful in fine green colour. The hills throw away their bonnets when they are touched by the first rays of the sunlight. The hills are personified in this line as they untie their bonnets like women.
d. Is the speaker watching the morning sun? Why? Why not?
Answer➡ In reality, the speaker is not watching the morning sun because all the visions that she had created are not possible to occur in same time. The rising and setting of sun is not possible to occur simultaneously.
e. How does the sunset?
Answer➡ The speaker doesn’t know how the sunsets. It sets quite mysteriously and confuses the speaker much. He/she has less confidence in describing the sunset. According to him/her, the sun's rays seem purple and yellow during sunset time. When the sun sets, it takes away all the happiness and joy of daytime and it will change into sadness and darkness.
Reference to the Context
a. What, according to the speaker, is a day?
Answer➡
According to the speaker, a day is a perfect blend of various changes in nature. For him/her, a day consists of all the things within it that appear from wonderful sunrise to mysterious sunset. The duration of the daytime from sunrise to sunset presents various literal and symbolic meanings regarding tremendous changes in nature and different stages of life from birth till death.
b. What purpose does the hyphen in the first line serve in the poem?
Answer➡
The hyphen (-) in the first line serves break or silence. In this poem, the poet has used the hyphen to create a more pronounced pause in reading. The speaker thinks what and how to tell about sunrise and to give more emphasis in the description of sunrise, he/she uses hyphen to pause at the end of the first line.
c. What makes this poem lyrical and sonorous? Discuss.
Answer➡
The poem "A Day" by Emily Dickenson is both lysical and sonorous poem. A lyrical poem is a poem in which the poet either expresses his feelings or emotions. The poet also presents a character in the first person to express his emotion. Here, the first person pronoun T' is used in lyrical poem. In this short poem, poetess is expressing her personal experience of observing sunrise. Sonorous means capable of giving out a deep, resonant sound, and rich in language. There are several things that make a poem musical and melodious. Sound devices like alliteration, assonance, rhyme and rhythm make a poem musical.
d. Who are the target audience of the speaker? Why?
Answer➡
Here, the speaker of the poem is an innocent child who describes a day along with two beautiful aspects (sunrise and sunset) of this natural world through his/her perspective. He/She may be telling all these natural processes of sunrise and sunset of a day to all his/her friends. Here, we find the description of children in the poem by him/her. This poem seems quite close to the children on one level. But on the next level, the literal and symbolic meanings which the readers get from this poem are so deep and useful for all the human beings on this planet. Thus, the target audience of the speaker is both children and adults.
e. The poem seems to describe a day for children. How would the adult people respond to this poem? Discuss this poem with your parents/guardians and write the answer based on their responses.
Answer➡
The poem seems to describe a day for children. But, this poem is also suitable for adult people. This poem is a literal description of the dawn, as well as the events that occur between sunrise and sundown. For children, the direct meaning of the poem is applicable but for adults, the metaphysical meaning of this poem makes more sense. To be more precise, the poem speaks about the passage from life to death in a metaphysical sense. There is enthusiasm at the beginning of life, a squirrel racing like a life and a strange conclusion to a life in this poem.
Reference beyond the text
a. Observe your surroundings of one fine morning and write a poem based on your own experience.
Answer➡
My Surroundings
I look at my surroundings,
The paintings and pictures,
Some are good some are bad,
Some are happy and some are sad,
They are doing sports or dancing,
Others are kissing or singing,
I wish I could be one of those happy people again,
Singing and dancing every day,
But I find myself depressed and deceived,
I long to have a perfect life.
b. Write a personal essay on A Day in the School.
Answer➡
A Day in the School
School days are so important and precious days in everyone's life. These days are quite difficult to forget. Most people who have experience of school life are directly connected to their school days' memories. School days are quite joyous and entertaining. These days are mostly remembered because these precious days remind us of our teachers, friends, studies, joys and fun.
For all the students, a day in school is quite valuable. A single day of any student represents his/her overall activities in the school. A single day of a student determines his/her daily classes, fun with friends, submission of class and home tasks, physical activities, manners, joy etc.
School days make everyone realise the life of hard work as well as fun. Among many remarkable days, I always remember a funny day in my school when I got deceived by my senior students.
I still remember that Tuesday at my school. That was my first day in my new school after passing SEE. I arrived at school a bit late. I didn't know anyone there. Feeling nervous, I started my way ahead to find the principal's office. I didn't find a board of principal's office in front of many doors.
After some time, I met some boys who seemed quite friendly to me. They helped me show the principal's office. They directed me towards the next building just behind the school's building. I thanked them and immediately moved toward there. I entered a two-storey building and moved upstairs. When I reached the hall on the second floor, I found a lot of girls there. They started laughing at me when I attracted their attention and asked about the principal's office. I related to them about the boys. All the girls laughed again and informed me about the girls' hostel. I felt so ashamed to know about the fact. I rushed from there immediately after that.
I always burst into laughter when I remember that funny incident in my life. That was "A day in my school", when I was fooled by the senior students.
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