Making Life Worth While - Poem by George Eliot | 8th English : Unit 3
1. Comprehension questions.
1. What should we learn from every soul?
Answer: We should learn the good from every soul.
2. What qualities will help us brave the thickening ills of life?
Answer: A little grace, a kind thought, an unfelt aspiration, a bit of courage and a gleam of faith are the qualities that help us to brave the thickening ills of life.
3. Why should we make this life worthwhile?
Answer: We should make this life worthwhile to have a glimpse of the brighter skies.
4. What does the poet assure if we make our life worthwhile?
Answer: Heaven is sure to be our property that may be inherited by us, if we make our life worthwhile.
2. Fill in the blanks:
1. We should have a aspiration in life.
2. A bit of courage is need for the darkening sky.
3. One must have a glimpse of brighter skies to make the life worthwhile.
3. Figure of speech.
Repetition:
Repetition is a literary device that repeats the same words of phrases a few times to make an idea clearer and more memorable. It is used to emphasize a feeling or idea, create rhythm, and bring attention to an idea.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep,
and miles to go before I sleep.
Pick out any two lines of repetition from the poem.
Answer: ‘One’ is repeated in the poem like in the lines “one aspiration yet unfelt”; “one bit of courage”.
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS
I. Poem Comprehension
1.
Some little grace; one kindly thought;
One aspiration yet unfelt;
One bit of courage
For the darkening sky;
(a) What qualities are mentioned here?
Answer: Some Grace, a kind thought, hope and courage.
(b) What do you mean by the word ‘grace’?
Answer: ‘Grace’ means elegance or charm.
2.
One gleam of faith
To brave the thickening ills of life;
(a) How can we brave the thickening ills of life?
Answer: We can brave them by a gleam of faith.
(b) Why does the poet say thickening ills of life?
Answer: The evils and obstacles in life are increasing.
II. Poetic Devices.
1. “Get there some good”.
(a) What is the poetic device used here?
Answer: Alliteration is used here. The words get - good are alliterated.
2. “And heaven a surer heritage”
Pick out the alliterated words.
Answer: heaven - heritage are alliterated.
3.
One aspiration yet unfelt;
One bit of courage
What is the literary device used here?
Answer: Repetition. The word ‘one’ is repeated in these two lines.
III. Short Questions and Answers.
1. What does every soul touch?
Answer: Every soul touches our heart.
2. How do we look at the brighter skies?
Answer: We look at one glimpse at the brighter skies.
3. What do you mean by ‘heritage’?
Answer: Heritage means ‘inheritance’. The property inherited from our ancestors.
III. Paragraph Question with Answer.
1. How can we make our life Worthwhile?
Answer: We should learn the good from every soul that touches our heart. Some little grace, a kind thought, a hope or an ambition of achieving a desire or wish and a bit of courage is needed to step into the darkening world. We need faith that shines brightly to face the evils and obstacles of life. A quick look at the brighter side of our life will make our life valuable. Only then, heaven would surely be our inherited property.