Gujarat Board GSEB Class 9 English Textbook Solutions Beehive Poem 5 A Legend of the Northland Textbook Exercise Important Questions and Answers, Notes Pdf.
Gujarat Board Textbook Solutions Class 9 English Beehive Poem 5 A Legend of the Northland
GSEB Class 9 English A Legend of the Northland Text Book Questions and Answers
Thinking about the Poem
I.
Question 1.
Which country or countries do you think ‘The Northland’ refers to?
Answer:
‘The Northland’ could refer to any extremely cold country in the Earth’s north polar region, such as Greenland, the northern regions of Russia, Canada, Norway, etc.
Question 2.
What did Saint Peter ask the old lady for? What was the lady’s reaction?
Answer:
Saint Peter asked the old lady for one of her baked cakes to satisfy his hunger. The lady tried to bake a small cake for the Saint.
Question 3.
How did the Saint punish the old lady?
Answer:
Saint Peter punished the old lady by transforming her into a woodpecker that built ‘as birds do’ and gathered scanty food by boring in the ‘hard, dry wood’, all day long.
Question 4.
How does the woodpecker get her food?
Answer:
The woodpecker gets her food by boring holes into trees.
Question 5.
Do you think that the old lady would have been so ungenerous if she had known who Saint Peter really was? What would she have done then?
Answer:
No, the old lady would not have been so ungenerous if she had known who Saint Peter really was. Instead, she would have tried to please him with her cakes for the fulfilment of her greedy desires.
Question 6.
Is this is a true story? Which part of this poem, do you feel, is the most important?
Answer:
No, this is not a true story; it is a legend. I feel that the point in the story where the old lady is changed into a woodpecker is the most important. This is because the punishment meted out to the lady teaches us the value of generosity and charity.
Question 7.
What is a legend? Why is this poem called a legend?
Answer:
A ‘legend’ is a popular story from the past about people and events which is believed by many but one cannot prove whether it is true or not. It usually contains a message or a moral and is narrated to children. The poet himself says that he doesn’t believe this tale to l be true. This poem is called a ‘legend’ because it preaches generosity towards fellow beings,
Question 8.
Write the story of ‘A Legend of the Northland’ in about 10 sentences.
Answer:
Once Saint Peter stopped by an old lady’s cottage because he was feeling hungry and weak after the day’s fasting. The lady was baking cakes on the hearth. Since he was weak with fasting, he asked her for a cake from her store of cakes. The selfish lady tried to bake? small cakes but each time they seemed too bigs for her to give away.
Finally, she baked one that? was as thin as a wafer. Unable to part with it too, she put it on a shelf and did not give any ! cake to the Saint. Saint Peter was very angry with her behaviour and said she was too selfish to live as a human and have food, shelter and a fire to keep her warm.
He punished her by changing her into a woodpecker that would have to build a nest to live in, bore for food in the trunks of trees. Her clothes were burned and she was left with her scarlet cap on her head as she flew out through the chimney. Even today she is still seen by all the country schoolboys in the woods. She lives in the trees and bores for food.
II.
Question 1.
Let’s look at the words at the end of the second and fourth lines, viz., ‘snows’ and ‘clothes’, ‘true’ and ‘you’, ‘below’ and ‘know.’ We find that ‘snows’ rhymes with I ‘clothes’, ‘true’ rhymes with ‘you’ and ‘below’ rhymes with ‘know’.
Find more such rhyming words.
Answer:
The rhyming words are :
‘Few’ and ‘through’
‘Earth’ and ‘hearth’
‘Done’ and ‘one’
‘Lay’ and ‘away’
‘One’ and ‘done’
‘Flat’ and ‘that’
‘Myself’ and ‘shelf’
Question 2.
Go to the local library or talk to older persons in your locality and find legends in your own language. Tell the class these legends.
Answer:
Echo was a nymph who talked too much. She was very fond of having the last word. One day she spoke rudely to the great Juno, who said that for this offence Echo should never use her voice again unless to repeat what she had just heard, but since she was so very fond of last words, she might repeat the last words of others. This was almost as bad as if Juno had changed her into a parrot.
Echo was very much ashamed and hid herself in the forest. Narcissus, a young man who had hair as yellow as gold and eyes as blue as the sky, – a very rare thing in Greece, where most people were very dark,-used to hunt in the forest where Echo was hiding. As she was peeping out shyly from some cave or from behind a great tree, Echo often saw Narcissus, and she admired him very much.
One day Narcissus became separated from his friends, and hearing something rustle among the leaves, he called out, “Who’s here ?” “Here,” answered Echo. “Here I am. Come!” said Narcissus. “I am come,” said Echo; and, as she spoke, she came out from among the trees. When Narcissus saw a stranger, instead of one of his friends as he had expected, he looked surprised and walked quickly away.
After this, Echo never came out and allowed herself to be seen again, and in time she faded away till she became only a voice. This voice was heard for many, many years in forests and among mountains, particularly in caves. In their solitary walks, hunters often heard it. Sometimes it mocked the barking of their dogs; sometimes it repeated their own last words. It always had a weird and mournful sound and seemed to make lonely places more lonely still.
GSEB Class 9 English A Legend of the Northland Additional Important Questions and Answers
Reading Comprehension
Read the following stanzas and answer the questions given below them:
Question 1.
Away, away in the Northland,
Where the hours of the day are few,
And the nights are so long in winter
That they cannot sleep them through;
Where they harness the swift reindeer
To the sledges, when it snows;
And the children look like bear’s cubs
In their funny, furry clothes :
They tell them a curious story-
I don’t believe ’tis true;
And yet you may learn a lesson
If I tell the tale to you.
Questions:
(1) How long are the nights in winter in the Northland?
(2) Why do children look like bear’s cubs?
(3) Why is the poet eager to tell the s imaginary tale?
Answer:
(1) The nights in winter in the Northland are so long that even if one completes his sleeping hours of night there, the night does not get over.
(2) In severe cold of winter, in polar regions, especially children cover up themselves from top to toes with furry woollen clothes, so they look like hairy cubs of bear.
(3) The poet is eager to tell an imaginary tale to arouse curiosity among them and consequently, they may learn a lesson from it.
Question 2.
Once, when the good Saint Peter
Lived in the world below,
And walked about it, preaching,
Just as he did, you know,
He came to the door of a cottage,
In travelling round the earth,
Where a little woman was making cakes,
And baking them on the hearth;
And being faint with fasting,
For the day was almost done,
He asked her, from her store of cakes,
To give him a single one.
Questions :
(1) What did Saint Peter do?
(2 ) What did Saint Peter see in a cottage?
(3) Give the meaning of ‘the day was almost done.
Answer:
(1) As was the practice in those days, Saints went from place to place preaching religion, Saint Peter was also doing the same going from one place to another on foot.
(2) Standing at the door of a cottage, Saint Peter saw a little woman making cakes by baking them on the hearth.
(3) The meaning of ‘the day was almost done’ means ‘the day had been over’ or ‘it was the time after sunset’.
Question 3.
So she made a very little cake,
But as it baking lay,
She looked at it and thought
it seemed Too large to give away.
Therefore she kneaded another,
And still a smaller one;
But it looked, when she turned it over,
As large as the first had done.
Then she took a tiny scrap of dough,
And rolled and rolled it flat;
And baked it thin as a wafer-
But she couldn’t part with that.
Questions :
(1) Why did the lady not give the already prepared cake to Saint Peter?
(2) The second time, to the lady, the cake looked (Complete the sentence.)
(3) Identify and explain the Figure of Speech in the line :
‘And baked it thin as a Wafer’.
Answer:
(1) The lady did not give the already prepared cake to Saint Peter because she thought that it was too large to give away.
(2) The second time, to the lady, the cake looked as large as the first she had prepared.
(3) Simile. There is comparison between the thinness of the cake that she prepared and the thinness of wafer. The word ‘as’ shows comparison.
Question 4.
For she said, “My cakes that seem too small
When I eat of them myself
Are yet too large to give away.”
So she put them on the shelf.
Then good Saint Peter grew angry,
For he was hungry and faint;
And surely such a woman
Was enough to provoke a saint.
And he said, You are far too selfish
To dwell in a human form,
To have both food and shelter,
And fire to keep you warm.
Questions :
(1) What did the lady think about the cakes she had prepared?
(2) Why did Saint Peter grow angry?
(3) How was the lady not eligible to live as a human being?
Answer:
(1) The lady was too selfish. She thought that the cakes that she had prepared were too small for her to eat but too large/big to give them away.
(2) Saint Peter was almost fainting with hunger. He demanded to eat something from a lady who was baking cakes. Every time she went on preparing thinner and thinner cakes not enough to satisfy the hunger of Saint Peter. And these also she put on the shelf without giving away. This selfish behaviour of hers made Saint Peter angry.
(3) The lady was far too selfish and without a drop of kindness even to feed a hungry man. As a human being, she had all basic facilities of life, i.e., food, shelter and fire; but she really did not deserve to live as a human being.
Question 5.
Now, you shall build as the birds do,
And shall get your scanty food
By boring, and boring, and boring,
All-day in the hard, dry wood.
Then up she went through the chimney,
Never speaking a word,
And out of the top flew a woodpecker,
For she was changed to a bird.
She had a scarlet cap on her head,
And that was left the same;
But all the rest of her clothes were burned
Black as a coal in the flame.
And every country schoolboy
Has seen her in the wood,
Where she lives in the trees till this very day,
Boring and boring for food.
Questions :
(1) What curse did Saint Peter give to the ! selfish woman?
(2) Why does a woodpecker have a scarlet cap on her head, according to this legend?
(3) How does a woodpecker get her food?
Answer:
(1) Saint Peter cursed the selfish woman to turn into a bird which will get her scanty food boring and boring into dry wood all the day.
(2) According to the legend, when Saint Peter cursed the little woman to turn into a bird, she was wearing a scarlet cap. Barring the scarlet cap, when she turned into a bird, all clothes on her body burned away and turned black. Hence the woodpecker has a scarlet cap even today.
(3) A woodpecker gets her food by boring into dry wood all day.
Figures of Speech
Choose the most appropriate Figures of Speech in the following lines :
Question 1.
‘Away, away in the Northland’.
A. Repetition
B. Assonance
C. Apostrophe
D. Both ‘A’ and ‘B’
Answer:
D. Both ‘A’ and ‘B’
Question 2.
‘And the children look like bear’s cubs.
A. Alliteration
B. Simile
C. Metaphor
D. Both ‘A’ and ‘B’
Answer:
D. Both ‘A’ and ‘B’
Question 3.
‘In their furry, furry clothes’.
A. Repetition
B. Consonance
C. Metaphor
D. Both ‘A’ and ‘B’
Answer:
D. Both ‘A’ and ‘B’
Question 4.
‘Just as you did, you know.
A. Metaphor
B. Simile
C. Alliteration
D. Apostrophe
Answer:
B. Simile
Question 5.
‘In travelling around the earth’.
A. Onomatopoeia
B. Metaphor
C. Exaggeration
D. Anastrophe
Answer:
C. Exaggeration
Question 6.
‘And being faint with fasting’.
A. Repetition
B. Alliteration
C. Metaphor
D. Onomatopoeia
Answer:
B. Alliteration
Question 7.
‘And rolled and rolled it flat’.
A. Repetition
B. Consonance
C. Metaphor
D. Both ‘A’ and ‘B’
Answer:
D. Both ‘A’ and ‘B’
Question 8.
‘By boring, and boring, and boring’.
A. Repetition
B. Consonance
C. Metaphor
D. Both ‘A’ and ‘B’
Answer:
D. Both ‘A’ and ‘B’
Question 9.
‘Black as a coal in the flame’.
A. Metaphor
B. Simile
C. Alliteration
D. Transferred Epithet
Answer:
B. Simile
Question 10.
‘Never speaking a word.
A. Onomatopoeia
B. Metaphor
C. Litotes
D. Both ‘A’ and ‘B’
Answer:
C. Litotes
Questions – Answers
Answer the following questions in three to four sentences each:
Question 1.
Why does the poet say that the hours of the day are few?
Answer:
In the poem, the poet uses a name Northland. In the area of Northland, the nights are longer and the days are shorter. As a result, there are very few hours in a day.
Question 2.
Who came knocking at the door of the old woman? Why was he there?
Answer:
In the Northland, an old lady lived in a cottage. She was baking cakes when St. Peter came knocking at her door. He had become weak with fasting and travelling. He was hungry and looking for food.
Question 3.
Is this a true story? Which part of the poem do you think is really important?
Answer:
This is a legend. It is not a true story. Even the poet feels that it is not true. The most important part of the poem is the point when we realize that the old woman is very greedy. She could not part with her cakes for a hungry man.
Question 4.
Is this poem correct in being known as a legend? Explain.
Answer:
A legend is a semi-true story which has been passed on from person to person through ages. This legend has an important meaning or symbolism for the culture in which it originates. A legend includes an element of truth or is based on historic facts but with mythical qualities. The Saint in turn curses the old woman. This poem can also be regarded as a folktale which again is a story told from one generation to another.
Answer the following questions in four to five sentences each :
Question 1.
What are the poetic devices in the ballad A Legend of the Northland?
Answer:
The major literary devices, also called poetic devices, in ‘A Legend of the Northland’ by Phoebe Cary are a resonance which means repetition of vowel sounds, This appears in line 1: “Away, away… Another striking literary element pertains to the structure of the quatrain stanzas (four lines per stanza) that have no end punctuation.
Each line rolls to the other through enjambment. It works very well in most spots, although there are one or two places where the enjambment is clumsy, such as “Where a little woman was making cakes / And baking them on the hearth/And being faint from fasting…”. There is both an explicit speaker (“tell me a curious story”) and an explicit addressee (“yet you might learn”).
The rhyme scheme of the poem is alternate unrhymed lines with rhymed ones in an abebdefe, etc. pattern. The! major literary technique is sensory imagery that includes vision, taste and sound as Saint Peter (the technique of Biblical allusion) approaches the cottage and witnesses the baking of the cakes, then turns the woman into a woodpecker that can be heard tapping on a tree.
Question 2.
What is a dramatic narrative? Is our poem a form of dramatic narrative?
Answer:
Poems with dramatic narrative are a form of poetry that has a plot and tells a story, s Poems in this genre can vary in length from short to long and they can tell a complex story. Many! times these poems use the voices of characters and narrator and usually, the story is written in metred verse. This poem is a dramatic narrative told from inside a frame in which the speaker introduces the story to the addressee.
In the far cold Northland, a good Saint was wandering on the road. He nearly fainted as he was so hungry with fasting. The Saint came to a cottage and within he saw a little woman baking cakes, As he was starving, he asked a small cake for
himself. The old lady baked the smallest cake for him but refused to even part with it.
As a result, the Saint got angry with the old lady l and cursed her. His curse transformed the old woman into a woodpecker. Today, everybody can see her in the forest where she lives in trees etching trees for her food. This poem has a beginning and an end. The beginning is a simple narrative tone which ends in a dramatic form.
A Legend of the Northland Summary in English
A Legend of the Northland Introduction:
Phoebe Cary (September 4, 1824 -July 31, 1871) was an American poet and the younger sister of poet Alice Cary (1820- 1871). The sisters copublished poems in 1849, and then each went on to publish volumes of her own. After their deaths in 1871, joint anthologies of the sisters’ unpublished poems were also compiled.
A Legend of the Northland Summary:
The poem is a legend about an old lady who angered Saint Peter because of her greed. The story goes on like this. In Northland lived a lady who was very selfish and greedy. Saint Peter while preaching the world reached her door one day. She was making cakes and baking them on a hearth. St. Peter was fainting with hunger.
He asked the lady to give him a piece of cake, The cake that she was baking then appeared to be too big so she did not give him a piece from that and baked another small one.
That also appeared to be big so she did not give him that also. Now she took an extremely little scrap of dough and rolled it. She had it as thin as a wafer but was unable to part with that also. This angered St. Peter a lot. He said that she was not to live in human form and enjoy food and warmth. He cursed her and transformed her into a woodpecker who has to bore in hard and dry wood to get its scanty food. She can be seen in the trees all day boring and boring for food.