CLASS 9th ICSE English Worksheet

THE PATRIOT

➢ STANZA 1:

It was roses, and roses all the way

With myrtle mixed in my path like mad:
The house-roofs seemed to heave and sway,
The church-spires flamed, such flags they had,
A year ago on this very day.
QUESTIONS:

1. Explain with reference to context.

2. By which flower was the patriot welcomed?
3. When was the patriot welcomed?
4. “The house-tops seemed to heave and sway”. Explain.
5. Who is the speaker here? Where is he and din what condition?
6. What happened a year ago? How was he welcomed?
7. What brought about the change in his life?
8. What significance does the line ‘A year ago on this very day’ hold in context
of the poem?
9. Which figure of speech is prominent in ‘With myrtle mixed in my path like
mad’? what does myrtle symbolize here?
➢ STANZA 2:

The air broke into a mist with bells,

The old walls rocked with the crowd and cries.
Had I said, “Good folk, mere noise repels —
But give me your sun from yonder skies!”
They had answered, “And afterward, what else?”
QUESTIONS:

1. Explain with reference to context.

2. What did the patriot want form the “Good folks”?
3. Explain “And afterward, what else”?
4. Who are they in the following line? what light does the line throw on them?
They had answered, “And afterward, what else?”
5. What kind of reception had the speaker received then? How can you say so?
6. Who is reminded of his past? Why?
7. What happened a year ago?
8. What bells are being referred to here? Why were they rung?
9. What tells you that the speaker was swayed by the enthusiasm of his
admirers? What proves him wrong?
10. Why is the patriot punished? What makes him sad?
11. What shows the reader that the poet is remembering some past event?
➢ STANZA 3:

Alack, it was I who leaped at the sun

To give it my loving friends to keep!
Nought man could do, have I left undone:
And you see my harvest, what I reap
This very day, now a year is run.
QUESTIONS:

1. Explain with reference to context.

2. Comment on the tone of the Patriot in this stanza.
3. What does the word ‘harvest’ connote here?
4. In what mood is the speaker now? Where is he at present?
5. What tells you that the patriot was overambitious? What was the result?
6. Where is ‘I’ in the above extract? What does leaping at the sun signify?
7. Why did the speaker leap at the sun? which words tell you that the speaker is
being regretful?
8. Explain what harvest the speaker is referring to.
9. The speaker uses the phrase ‘loving friends’. Do you really consider them
loving? Why?
10. State whether the speaker feels sad about the past. Give reasons to support
your answer.
11. Explain the following lines. Which figure of speech is used?

‘it was I who leaped at the sun

To give it my loving friends to keep!’
➢ STANZA 4:
There’s nobody on the house-tops now—
Just a palsied few at the window set
For the best of the sight is, all allow,
At the shambles’ gate— or, better yet
By the scaffold’s very foot, I trow.

QUESTIONS:

1. Explain with reference to context.

2. What is ‘shamble’?
3. What is ‘scaffold’?
4. Why does Browning say that the palsied watched the execution?
5. What has made most of the people leave the town?
6. Who is being led to the gallows? What has he done?
7. Why do the people try to be at the Shambles’ Gate or near the scaffold?
What do you mean by the Shambles’ Gate?
8. Explain the line: ‘Just a palsied few at the windows set’.
9. The poet here brings out a sharp contrast between the past and the present of
the patriot. How?
10. Compare the scene on the house-tops a year ago and now as mentioned in
the extract above?
11. The speaker says that ‘there’s nobody on the house-tops now’. What
according to you has changed the situation?
12. What difference is seen in people’s attitude towards the patriot earlier and
now?
13. What is referred to as the ‘best of the sight’? Why?
14. Where is the speaker being taken? Why? State whether this action is
justified.
➢ STANZA 5:

I go in the rain, and, more than needs,

A rope cuts my wrists behind;
And I think, by the feel, of my forehead bleeds
For they fling, whoever has a mind,
Stones at me for my year’s misdeeds.

QUESTIONS:

1. Explain with reference to context?

2. Which line is a contrast to the welcome he had received?
3. What does the rain imagery signify?
4. Who is the speaker here? Where is he at the present?
5. What tells you that he is being treated very harshly?
6. Why have some people hurled stones at him?
7. How had the same people treated him a year ago?
8. What do you think of the mentality of the crowd?
9. Where is ‘I’ going in the rain? What does the rain symbolize in the context?
10. Give the meaning and significance of:
A rope cuts both my wrists behind;
11. Whose forehead bleeds? How? How was he treated earlier?
12. How does this extract reflect upon the theme of fickleness of the public?
13. Which line is a contrast to the welcome he had received?
14. Explain the difference between welcome scene and departure scene from the
poem “The Patriot” by Robert Browning.
15. How is the past and the present contrasted in the poem in context of the
patriot?
➢ STANZA 6:

Thus I entered, and thus I go!

In triumphs, people have dropped down dead.
“Paid by the world, what dost thou owe
Me?”—God might question; now instead,
’Tis God shall repay: I am safer so.

QUESTIONS:

1. Explain with reference to context?

2. Give an example of Antithesis from the poem ‘The Patriot: An Old Story.’
3. How did the leader come and go?
4. What type of poetic piece ‘The Patriot: An Old Story’ is?
5. Can one see the faith of humans in God in the poem?
6. Explain: ‘Thus I entered and thus I go!’
7. What would have happened if the patriot had died in excess of joy at his
tumultuous welcome after his grand victory?
8. What thoughts make him feel safer?
9. ‘I am safer so’. What irony is involved here?
10. Is the patriot’s optimism unrealistic? What do you think about it?
11. Where do you think the speaker enters? Where does he go after that?
12. Explain:
In triumphs, people have dropped down dead.
13. The speaker says: ‘I am safer so.’
14. How does the above extract reflect Browning’s optimistic philosophy of
life?
15. What do the final lines of the stanza signify?
16. Is the Patriot really guilty of misdeed?
17. How does the poem depict the sudden rise and fall of glory of men?
18. What is the message of the poem?