Gujarat Board GSEB Class 11 English Textbook Solutions Hornbill Poetry Poem 3 The Voice of the Rain Textbook Exercise Important Questions and Answers, Notes Pdf.
Gujarat Board Textbook Solutions Class 11 English Hornbill Poem 3 The Voice of the Rain
GSEB Class 11 English The Voice of the Rain Text Book Questions and Answers
Think it Out
Answer the following questions:
Question 1.
There are two voices in the poem. Who do they belong to? Which lines indicate this?
Answer:
The poem begins in a conversational tone. The two voices in the poem are the voice of the poet and the voice of the rain. The lines that indicate the voice of the poet and the rain are, “And who art thou? Said I to the soft-falling shower,” and the lines that indicate the voice of the rain are, “I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain”.
Question 2.
What does the phrase ‘strange to tell’ mean? ,
Answer:
The phrase ‘strange to tell’ means that it is quite strange for the poet to believe and express in words that the soft-falling rain replied to his question. At the beginning of the poem, the poet inquires the rain about its identity, to which the rain replies that it is the ‘Poem of Earth’.
Question 3.
There is a parallel drawn between rain and music. Which words indicate this? Explain the similarity between the two.
Answer:
The lines, “I am the Poem of Earth”, said by the voice of the rain, reflects a connection between rain and poetry. This connection becomes more conspicuous in the final two lines, “(For song, issuing from its birth-place, after fulfilment, wandering Reck’d or Unreck’d, duly with love returns)”.
In these lines, the poet draws similarities between rain and music observing that the life¬cycle of rain and song are alike. The song issues from the heart of the poet and travels to reach others. It wanders and, whether heard and enjoyed or not, eventually returns to its creator with all due love. Similarly, rain originates from the earth, and after fulfiling its role of spreading beauty and purity, returns to its origin. Both are perpetual in nature. Moreover, the sound of the soft-falling rain is in itself a kind of music.
Question 4.
How is the cyclic movement of rain brought out in the poem? Compare it with what you have learnt in science.
Answer:
In the poem, the water rises from the ‘land and the bottomless sea’ to reach the sky. There, it transforms itself into vague formation of clouds, different in their structure than the water from which they originate. After wandering, these clouds descend to the earth in the forn of rain to provide relief to the drought-ridden areas and infuse life into the unborn and latent seeds. The rain renders the earth with beauty and purity.
In science, we learn the cyclical process of rain in terms like evaporation, condensation, precipitation, flowing rivers, groundwater and ocean water etc., while in the poem the same process becomes interesting and unusual. The rain speaks itself to describe its course. The poem puts forward how rain never loses its core essence even after changing into various forms.
Question 5.
Why are the last two lines put within brackets?
Answer:
The last two lines of the. poem have been put within brackets as they do not form the part of the conversation between the poet and the rain. The lines in the bracket indicate the reflections, observations and thoughts of the poet. He makes observations about the life-course of a song and draws similarities between the life-cycle of a song and rain.
Question 6.
List the pair of opposites found in the poem?
Answer:
- Day, night
- Reck’d unchecked
- Rise, descend
Notice the following sentence patterns :
Question 1.
And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower.
Answer:
I enquired the soft-falling rain about its identity.
Question 2.
I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain.
Answer:
The voice of the rain introduced itself as the Poem of Earth.
Question 3.
Eternal I rise
Answer:
The voice of the rain explained its upward movement towards the sky as eternal.
Question 4.
For song ……… duly with love returns. Rewrite the above sentences in prose.
Answer:
The poet says that, similar to the natural cycle of the rain, a song originates from the heart of the poet, travels to reach others and after fulfilling its purpose (whether acknowledged or not), it returns to the poet with all due love.
Question 5.
Look for some more poems on the rain and see how this one is different from them.
Answer:
- ‘The Rainy Day’ by Rabindranath Tagore.
- ‘Song for the Rainy Season’ by Elizabeth Bishop
- ‘An Autumn Rain-Scene’ by Thomas Hardy
GSEB Class 11 English The Voice of the Rain Additional Important Questions and Answers
Answer the following questions in three to four sentences each :
Question 1.
The poem begins in a conversational tone. Who are the two participants? What is the advantage of this method?
Answer:
The two participants are the poet and the rain. The poet makes the rain relate its own story. This direct presentation makes the narration more authentic, interesting and captivating.
Question 2.
‘Behind the apparent simplicity, the poem hides a deep meaning.’ What exactly does the poem convey to the reader?
Answer:
The poem is not merely a description of life-cycle of rain. It has deeper meaning. Rain is a poem or thing of beauty of Earth and so is song or music. The comparison between rain and music and their function: making the Earth pure and beautiful conveys the eternal role of natural phenomena and art in real life.
Question 3.
How does the rain justify its claim: ‘I am the Poem of Barth’?
Answer:
The rain narrates the journey of its life – from birth to return to origin in mythical terms. The facts are scientific but the phrases that convey them are metaphoric and literary. The whole journey has a beauty and charm associated with a poem.
Question 4.
How is the cyclic movement of rain brought out in the poem ‘The Voice of the Rain’? What points of similarity do you notice between rain and music?
Answer:
The rain calls itself the poem of earth. It is everlasting and perpetual. It is something that cannot be touched. It originates- from the land and the deep sea. Then it rises upward to heaven where it changes its form into a cloud, yet remains the same in quality.
From the sky it pours down on earth to wash the dry tiny particles and dust layers of the earth. The rain helps the unborn seeds to sprout. These seeds lay hidden and unborn under the layers of earth. Rain gives back life to its origin making it pure and beautiful. Rain and music are both beautiful and life-giving. They are eternal sources of joy and go on perpetually. They inspire even dormant objects and persons with life and activity.
Figures of Speech
Select the correct figures of speech from the options given below:
Question 1.
And who art thou? said I to the soft falling shower’
A. Alliteration
B. Antithesis
C. Litotes
D. Repetition
Answer:
A. Alliteration
Question 2.
‘I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain’
A. Metaphor
B. Personification
C. Litotes
D. Both ‘A’ and ‘B’
Answer:
D. Both ‘A’ and ‘B’
Question 3.
‘Upward to heaven, whence, vaguely formed, altogether changed, and yet the same*
A. Repetition
B. Metaphor
C. Alliteration
D. Antithesis
Answer:
D. Antithesis
Question 4.
‘I descend to lave the droughts, atomies, dust-layers of the globe’
A. Metaphor
B. Alliteration
C. Synecdoche
D. Metonymy
Answer:
B. Alliteration
Question 5.
And make pure and beautify it’
A. Alliteration
B. Personification
C. Litotes
D. Both ‘A’ and ‘B’
Answer:
B. Personification
Question 6.
Reck’d or unchecked, duly with love returns
A. Repetition
B. Metaphor
C. Alliteration
D. Antithesis
Answer:
D. Antithesis
Reading Comprehension (Textual)
Read the following verses (stanzas) and answer the questions given below them:
Question 1.
And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower. Which, strange to tell, gave me an answer, as here translated :
I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain. Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless sea.
Questions:
1. Who is addressed in this stanza?
2. What was the reply received?
Answer:
1. The soft-falling shower of rain is addressed in this stanza.
2. The voice of the rain replied that it was the Poem of Earth.
Question 2.
Upward to heaven, whence, vaguely formed, altogether changed, and yet the same, I descend to lave the droughts, atomies, dust-layers of the globe, And all that in them without me were seeds only, latent, unborn;
Questions:
1. What does the poet mean by ‘vaguely formed?
2. Who descends? Why?
Answer:
1. As the vapour rises from the sea to form a cloud, it is ‘vaguely formed i.e. completely shapeless or without any specific form.
2. The rain descends from the sky to bathe the droughts, small atoms and dust-layers of the globe.
Question 3.
And forever, by day and night, I give back life to my own origin, And make pure and beautify it; (For song, issuing from its birth-place, after fulfilment, wandering Reck’d or unchecked, duly with love returns.)
Questions:
1. Explain ‘I give back life to my own origin’.
2. What change does the rain bring to the earth?
Answer:
1. When it rains, the earth gets new life. Every living being gets new life. The rain is originally water from the earth, so when it falls, it comes back to its own origin bringing life back.
2. When it rains, the entire earth gets a new life. She becomes pure and beautiful with the coming of the rain.
The Voice of the Rain Summary in English
The Voice of the Rain Introduction:
Walt Whitman is called the bard of Democracy. He is America’s most influential poet. He was born on May 31, 1819, and his death took place on March 26, 1872. He was a poet and a journalist; He aimed to transcend his poetry to the highest level. He loved America and its Democracy. His famous publications are ‘Beat, Beat, Drums’ and ‘Vigil strange’, ‘I kept on the field one night’.
He linked transcendentalist poets to the more realistic style of poetry. His Magnus opus was ‘Leaves of Grass’ consisting of 12 sections. His poetry always contained all range of human emotions. ‘Leaves of Grass’ is a groundbreaking new style of poetry.
The Voice of the Rain Summary:
‘The Voice of the Rain’ is a poem that celebrates rain and its natural cycle for the benefit of earth and the life it supports. The poem begins with the poet asking for the identity of the soft-falling rain shower. Much to the surprise of the poet, the rain replies to his question. And, the poet translates this ‘voice’ of the rain for his readers.
The rain identifies itself as the ‘Poem of Earth’. It says that it rises from the land and the deep sea, in the form of the intangible water vapours, and goes up to the immeasurable sky. It then takes the form of clouds with various shapes. Although it changes in its form and shape, its core existence remains the same.
It descends or falls on the surface of the earth to eliminate droughts, wash away the tiny particles and settle down the dust layers. It reinvigorates the drylands and gives life to the seeds that, otherwise, would have remained dormant and unborn. Thus, the raindrops rise in the form of vapours only to come back to its origin in the form of rain. During this cycle, it purifies and beautifies (by nourishing the unborn seeds) the planet.
The last two lines of the poem are the poet’s reflection upon the answer given by the rain. The poet observes that the life of rain is similar to that of a song. A song originates from the heart of the poet, travels to reach others and after fulfilling its purpose (whether acknowledged or not), it returns to the poet with all due love. Similarly, the rain rises from the land and oceans, wanders, fulfils its purpose of nourishing life and purifying the planet, and then returns to its birthplace.