Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
.......... but soon
put that thought away and
looked out at young
trees sprinting, the merry children spilling
out of their homes, ...
(a) Which thought did the poet put away?
(b) What do the sprinting trees' signify?
(c) What are 'the merry children spilling out of their homes', symbolic of?
Surely, Shakespeare is wicked, the map a bad example,
With ships and sun and love tempting them to steal –
For lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes
From fog to endless night ? On their slag heap, these children
Wear skins peeped through by bones and spectacles of steel
With mended glass, like bottle bits on stones.
(a) Why is Shakespeare described as wicked?
(b) Explain: 'from fog to endless night'.
(c) What does the reference to 'slag heap' mean?
Do you think the poet; Pablo Neruda advocates total inactivity and death? Why / Why not?Â
Why was the crofter so talkative and friendly with the peddler?Â
The crofter allowed the peddler to stay for the night in his cottage. He welcomed the peddler with a smiling face. E was an old man without wife or child. Therefore, he became happy to get someone to talk to in his loneliness. He served him supper and gave him tobacco. He played ‘‘majolis’’ the game of cards to entertain him also. He got friendlier with the peddler by showing him the money kept in the pouch.