NCERT Solutions for Class 11

English (Hornbill)
Chapter 8 – Father To Son

1. Does the poem talk of an exclusively personal experience or is it fairly

universal?
Ans: The poem is about a singularly personal event. However, we can also term it
pretty general because this type of disagreement occurs frequently in many
households. It's also known as the generation gap, which occurs when parents are
overprotective of their children and want to keep them from making mistakes, while
children perceive their ideals to be oppressive.

2. How is the father’s helplessness brought out in the poem?

Ans: The emotional turmoil that the parent goes through emphasizes his
helplessness. He is aware of the issue and wants to fix it, but he is unable to do so.
He bemoans the fact that his son has turned into a stranger to him. He regrets the
lack of a deep emotional tie and proper communication with his estranged son, and
he wishes to begin anew and repair their relationship.

3. Identify the phrases and lines that indicate the distance between father and
son.
Ans: A phrase/line that indicates the distance between the father and the son are:

1 ‘I don't comprehend this youngster.

2. 'I don't know anything about him.

3. ‘We converse as though we are strangers.'

4. ‘In the air, there is no trace of comprehension.'

5. ‘We are surrounded by silence.'

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6. He says something that I don't comprehend.
7. Each of us extended an empty hand.

4. Does the poem have a consistent rhyme scheme?

Ans: No, there isn't a regular rhyme scheme in the poem. The rhyme system ab ba
ba is used in the first two stanzas, however, the third and fourth stanzas differ
slightly. The abc aba scheme is used in the third stanza, while the abbcb scheme is
used in the fourth.

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 NCERT Solutions for Class 11
English (Hornbill)
Chapter 6 – Childhood

1. Identify the stanzas that talk of each of the following: Individuality,

rationalism, hypocrisy.
Ans: Third stanza: Individuality

First stanza: Rationalism

Second stanza: hypocrisy

2. What according to the poem is involved in the process of growing up?

Ans: Growing up, according to the poem, entails the development of mental maturity
as well as the loss of innocence and simplicity. When a person has become logical,
sensible, and capable of constructing his own thoughts, he is said to have matured.
A mature person can tell the difference between reality and fiction. A mature person
is aware of other people's activities, just as the poet is aware of the gap between the
two. The grownups' preaching and practice. The grownups' duplicity and false
standards become apparent to him. A mature person also expresses his ideas and
opinions.

3. What is the poet’s feeling towards childhood?

Ans: Childhood, according to the poet, is a time of purity and simplicity, a time
when one trusts others without questioning their motives. He doesn't appear to be
sad or distressed at the death of his mother. In his formative years He just appears to
be perplexed by the situation. The end of childhood and the beginning of adulthood.
When he asks the questions, he expresses his perplexity. 'When did my childhood
end?' and 'Where did my childhood go?'

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4. Which do you think are the most poetic lines? Why?
Ans: ‘It went to some forgotten location, That's hidden in an infant's face; That's all
I know,' the poem's final verse appears to be the most poetic. These sentences nicely
capture the process of maturation and the passing of a stage of life. These phrases
imply that an infant's innocent face conceals a great deal beneath its smiles. He takes
comfort in the notion that the values of childhood aren't lost forever, but that they
may be hidden someplace in the child's mind.

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 NCERT Solutions for Class 11
English - Hornbill
Chapter 4 – Voice Of The Rain

1. There are two voices in the poem. Who do they belong to? Which lines
indicate this?

Ans: The poet's voice and the voice of the rain are the two voices in the poem. The
poem opens with a casual tone. The lines are “And who art thou? Said I ……..” and
„I am the poem of Earth‟.

2. What does the phrase “strange to tell” mean?

Ans: The phrase "strange to tell" refers to the rain drops' unexpected and remarkable
response to the poet's question about who "it was."

3. There is a parallel drawn between rain and music. Which words indicate
this? Explain the similarity between the two.

Ans: The following words/phrases suggest a connection between rain and music:
‘Poem of Earth,' ‘eternal I rise impalpable out of land and the unfathomable sea,' and
so on. ‘For singing returns duly with affection’.
Both come from a source, rise, find fulfillment, travel around whether or not they
are cared for, and eventually return to the point of origin with love.

4. How is the cyclic movement of rain brought out in the poem? Compare it
with what you have learned in science.

Ans: Rainwater rises untouched from the land and deep-sea, gathers in the sky,
changes shape, and finally descends to earth to wash the dry, microscopic dust

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particles and everything buried beneath them. Then it returns to its original location.
According to science textbooks, due to the extreme heat, water vapors from rivers
and the ocean rise to the sky. They take the shape of clouds and, after condensing,
fall like rain. Rivers carry the water back to the seas and oceans.

5. Why are the last two lines put within brackets?

Ans: A statement about music and its cycle appears in the last two lines. These are
not the same as the first nine lines. The poet's voice is heard in the first two lines,
while rain speaks in lines three through nine. The song cycle is enclosed in brackets
to indicate that the speakers differ but the substance is similar.

6. List the pair of opposites found in the poem.

Ans: The pairs that are found the opposite in the poem are:

Rise- Descend; Day-Night; Reck’d-Unreck’d

7. Notice the following sentence patterns.

1. And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower.

2. I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain.

3. Eternal I rise.

4. For song…duly with love returns Rewrite the above sentences in prose.

Ans: 1. I enquired about its identification from the mild rain.

2. The rain's voice presented itself as the Earth's Poem.

3. The rain's speech described its upward march to the sky as endless.
4. The poet claims that, like the natural cycle of rain, a song begins in the poet's
heart, travels to reach others, and then returns to the poet with all due affection after
serving its mission (whether acknowledged or not).

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8. Look for some more poems on the rain and see how this one is different from
them.

Ans: In a similar vein, Langston Hughes' poem "April Rain Song" explores the
impact of rain on life. Rain is described as "silver liquid drops" on the roof, playing
a sleep melody. While Hughes' poem celebrates rain and shows his love for it,
Whitman's poem depicts a conversation between the poet and the rain, in which the
rain articulates its life cycle, beginning and ending with the poet.

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 NCERT Solutions for Class 11
English
Chapter 03- The Laburnum Top

1. What laburnum is called in your language.

Ans: In my language, which is Hindi, the laburnum is called Amaltaas. It is a
tree characterised by medium height, drooping branches, bright yellow flowers
and poisonous seeds.

2. Which local bird is like the goldfinch.

Ans: The local i.e., Indian bird with a likeness to goldfinch is a parakeet named
'Indian Lutino Ringneck'.

Think It Out
1. What do you notice about the beginning and the ending of the poem?
Ans: As the poem begins, I notice that the poet had described the laburnum tree
on an afternoon of September bathed in yellow light. Only a few leaves of the
tree had turned golden and all the seeds had fallen. The tree was portrayed as
calm and silent. At the end of the poem, I notice that when the goldfinch left to
the unknown after making its final whistle-chirping sounds the tree remained
empty and still.

2. To what is the bird’s movement compared? What is the basis for the
comparison?
Ans: The bird’s movement in the poem was compared to that of a lizard.
Lizards when moving on the wall make watchful movements towards their prey
and suddenly attach it. According to the poet, the bird’s movements were

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vigilant and unexpected as it arrived at the laburnum tree just like a lizard.

3. Why is the image of the engine evoked by the poet?

Ans: The little goldfinch ensures that sustainment is provided to its family so
the future generation remains alive. Thus, the bird’s behaviour of bringing food
to its family has evoked the image of an engine in the poet’s mind which
similarly provides energy to a machine to keep it running.

4. What do you like most about the poem?

Ans: I like the simple yet beautiful description of the relationship between the
tree and bird given in the poem. I like the way the poet has described a very
mundane routine of a bird and how it was pouring life in the silent and still
laburnum tree.

5. What does the phrase “her barred face identity mask” mean?
Ans: The phrase “her barred face identity mask” has referred to the appearance
of the goldfinch bird. The bird’s body is yellow while its face has stripes.
Though the bird can hide its body in the yellow flowers of the laburnum tree, its
striped face can only identify its presence on the tree.

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 NCERT Solutions for Class 11
English - Hornbill
Chapter 1- A Photograph (Poem)

1. Infer the meaning of the following words from the context:

● Padding
● Transient
Now look up the dictionary to see if your inference is right.
Ans: Paddling refers to the act of moving in shallow water with bare feet. For
example: Jane went with her friends to the sea and enjoyed paddling in the
water, when the waves washed over the beach.
Transient means something that is short term or temporary. For example: Sad
days are a transient period of life. Good days do follow by.

2. What does the word “cardboard” denote in the poem? Why has this
word been used?
Ans: ‘Cardboard’ in the poem refers to the small photograph that the poet
comes across. It held the memory of her mother and her cousins' beach
holiday when they were kids.
This word has been used because with time material things lose their
significance. The photograph was one very fond memory of the poet’s mother
who is now dead. For the mother, the photograph was a memory but for the
poet it is her mother's laughter when she recollected her memories of the day.
It emphasises the transient nature of humans and how gradually with time
everything is left behind and their actual significance almost lost.

3. What has the camera captured?

Ans: The camera captured a very fond memory. The photograph was taken
on a beach holiday where the author's mother and her cousins Betty and Dolly
had fun and they were dressed up weirdly for it. The poet’s mother was the
big girl, twelve years or so in the picture and had a sweet smile through her
hair, smiling at their uncle, who held the camera. She stood in the middle
holding the arms of the cousins, paddling in the seawater.
The photograph brought an instant smile on the mother's face, when she was
alive, as she reminisced of those days.

4. What has not changed over the years? Does this suggest something to
you?

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Ans: The photograph was taken around twenty-thirty years ago when the
author came across it. Even after so many years, the sea remained the same. It
is still visited by many mortals everyday whose terribly transient feet are
washed away by the waves, signifying the power nature and time holds. It
shows us how helpless we are in front of time and nature, which is eternal.
Even the once fond memories remain a mere piece of cardboard after a few
years.

5. The poet's mother laughed at the snapshot. What did this laugh
indicate?
Ans: After coming across the photograph, the author went to her mother to
ask further about it. The mere piece of cardboard brought a wide smile across
the mother’s face as she reminisced about the fond beach holiday she had
with her cousins, Betty, and Dolly when she was a mere twelve-year-old
child. The nostalgic memory made her laugh as she commented on the way
they dressed back in those days.

6. What is the meaning of the line “Both wry with the laboured ease of
loss”?
Ans: Both the author and her mother had fond memories which brought pain
with them. The mother laughed when she looked at the photograph of the
beach holiday with her cousins but felt a pang of pain remembering that her
childhood was gone, and those days could not come back again.
For the author, the memory of her mother’s laughter when she was presented
with the photograph came back again around twelve years after her mother
died. She nursed the pain that the loss brought with it but was happy to
remember the day she laughed so fondly.

7. What does “this circumstance” refer to?

Ans: ‘This circumstance’ refers to the helpless state that the author is
presently in. She lost her mother twelve years ago and coming across the
photograph again, her mother once showed her, bringing back fond memories
along with pang of pain. She could not meet her again. Only the memory of
her laughter remained in her heart. She was trying to nurse the pain away
from the loss and the void that could not be filled. It also shows how helpless
we, as mortals, are in front of time and nature, and we can do nothing other
than submitting to its power.

8. The three stanzas depict three different phrases? What are they?

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Ans: The first stanza of the poem talks about the childhood of the poet'
mother when she went on a beach holiday with her cousins. It was a happy
memory which the mother held close to her heart.
The second stanza talks about the mother being old and gradually entering old
age. The poet is now a young girl and was narrated this happy memory by her
mother on being presented with the photograph.
In the third stanza, the poet has progressed deeper into life and aged. Her
mother is now dead and she fondly remembers her smile and memory when
she once again comes across the picture.

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