Delhi Public School, Megacity, Kolkata

English Literature
Chapter 2: Paper Boats
Class V Session (2021-22)

Assignment 1:

A. Answer the following questions:

1) Who is the speaker of the poem Paper Boats? What does he desire?
2) What does the poet mean by “blooms of dawn’?
3) What kind of person do you think the speaker is?
Answer Key
1) The poet who imagines himself to be a child, is the speaker of the poem. He desires to
make paper boats and float them down the stream.
2) By “blooms of dawn” the poet means the flowers that open early in the morning. In
this case it is the shiuli flowers which bloom in the poet’s garden.
3) I think that the speaker is a friendly person. Although the speaker knows not where
the paper boats will go, he feels that whoever will find them is his unknown friend.
This shows that for a child floating the paper boats is friendly. For the unknown
friend he also fills his boats with flowers from his garden, which he would have
himself presented to the friend if he (had) met him in person.

B.Complete the following:

1) Day by day I ……………………………….

2) I load my little boats with…………………………

Answer Key:
1) Day by day I float my paper boats one by one down the running stream.
2) I load my little boats with shiuli flowers from our garden.

A) Make sentences with the following words and phrases:

a) running stream b) in big black letters c) safely
Assignment 2:

A)Write the antonyms of the following words:

1) hope-
2) strange-

B) Write the synonyms of the following words:

1) playmate-
2) blooms of dawn-

C) Answer the following questions:

1) Where does the poet float his paper boats?

2) What does the poet see when he looks up at the sky?
3) What does the poet think about the clouds?
4) What does the poet dream of?

Answer Key:
1) The poet floats his paper boats down the running Stream
2) The poet sees white bulging clouds sailing (floating) in the sky.
3) The poet thinks that his play-mate in the sky is sending those clouds to compete with
his boats.
4) The poet dreams that his boats are floating under the midnight stars. Angels are
sailing in his boats which are filled with baskets of dreams.
.
D) Answer with reference to context:

“The fairies of sleep are sailing in them, and the lading is their
baskets full of dreams.”

1) From which poem has the above line been taken?

2) Who is the poet of the poem Paper Boats?
3) In what are the fairies of sleep sailing?
4) Do you think the poet really sees the fairies? Quote the line that gives the answer.

Answer Key:
1) The above lines have been taken from the poem “Paper Boats”.
2) The poem has been written by Rabindranath Tagore.
3) The fairies of sleep are sailing in the paper boats made by the poet.
4) No. The poet dreams about the fairies. “The fairies of sleep are sailing in them, and the
lading is their basket full of dreams ” This line shows that it is his fantasy not real