Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Class 9 English Song of a Dream by Sarojini Naidu

Song of a Dream

Sarojini Naidu

 Read the following lines from the poem ' 'Song of the Dream' and answer the questions that follow :

ONCE in the dream of a night I stood

Lone in the light of a magical wood,

Soul-deep in visions that poppy-like sprang;

And spirits of Truth were the birds that sang,

And spirits of Love were the stars that glowed,

And spirits of Peace were the streams that flowed

In that magical wood in the land of sleep.

1. Where did the poet stand lonely in the dream of a night?

Answer :

The poet stood in the light of a magical wood

2. What are the spirits of Peace compared to?

Answer:

The spirits of Truth are compared to birds that sang in the magical wood.

3.What are the spirits of love compared to?

Answer:

The spirits of Love are compared to stars that glowed in the magical wood.

4. What are the spirits of peace compared to?

Answer :

The spirit of Peace are compared to the streams that flowed through the magical wood.

5. "And spirits of Truth were the birds that sang" - What is the figure of speech used here.

Answer :

Metaphor

6.  "And spirits of Love were the stars that glowed," - What is the figure of speech used here.

Answer :

Metaphor

7. "And spirits of Peace were the streams that flowed," - What is the figure of speech used here.

Answer :

Metaphor

8. "Soul-deep in visions that poppy-like sprang;" - What is the figure of speech used here.

Answer :

Simile

9. Pick out an instance for simile from the poem.

Answer :

Soul-deep in visions that poppy-like sprang;

10. Pick out an instance of alliteration from the given lines.

Answer :

Lone in the light

11. Pick out an instance for auditory image.

Answer :

Birds that sang

12. Pick out the instances for visual images.

Answer

The stars that glowed.

The streams that flowed.

13. What is the rhyme scheme used here?

Answer :

aabbccd

14. Find out the rhyme words from the stanza?

Answer:

Stood - Wood

Sprang - Sang

Glowed - flowed

15. What does the poet compare the soulful visions to? Comment.

Answer:

The poet compares soulful visions to poppy flowers that bloom. They intoxicate like poppies. It is an example of a simile.

16. Where did the spirit of peace flow?

Answer :

Through the magical wood, the land of sleep

17. What is the magical wood referred to here?

Answer :

It's an imaginary place without any evils. The place is filled with truth, peace and love.

18. Who is the 'I' referred to here?

Answer :
The poet / Sarojini Naidu

19. How did the birds appeare to the poet?

Answer :

 The birds appeared to the poet as the spirit of truth.

20. Was there anyone with the poet? Pick out the lines that  support your answer.

Answer :

No. The poet was alone in that magical wood.

The lines "ONCE in the dream of a night I stood / Lone in the light of a magical wood show that she was alone in the wood.

21. Where does the poet find the magical wood?

Answer :

In her dream of a night 

Read the following lines from the poem ' 'Song of the Dream' and answer the questions that follow :

Lone in the light of that magical grove,

I felt the stars of the spirits of Love

Gather and gleam round my delicate youth,

 And I heard the song of the spirits of Truth;

 To quench my longing I bent me low

By the streams of the spirits of Peace that flow

In that magical wood in the land of sleep.

22. What do the spirits of love do?

Answer:

The spirits of Love gather and gleam round the poet’s delicate youth.

23. How does the poet quench her longing?

Answer:

The poet quenches her longing by bending low by the stream of the spirits of Peace.

24. What messages does the poem convey?

Answer :

The poem conveys the message that there should be a world with spirits of Truth and Love and Peace all the time.

25. Prepare a note of appreciation about the poem  ' Song of a Dream '

The Magical Wood

‘Song of a Dream’ is a beautiful philosophical poem written by Sarojini Naidu, the Nightingale of India . In this poem, the poet dreams of a land filled with the love, the peace and the truth. The poet says that in her dream of a night, she stood alone in a magical wood.  In that land of sleep, she saw many birds singing. She compared them as the spirits of truth. Then she saw there the glowing stars which she referred as the spirits of love. And  a beautiful stream was also flowing through that magical Wood. She calls it as the spirits of peace.

The poem can be considered as the poet’s deep desire to escape the sufferings she had to endure in a world of injustice. The poem can be read in the light of India’s freedom struggle. The three qualities (truth, love and peace) that the poet mentions were being violated in British period. The poem thus calls forth the people of India to live a harmonious life abandoning castism, superstitions and many other social evils that existed then and that exist even now.

The poet uses many poetic devices to make her poem more attractive. She maintains a perfect rhythm and a rhyming scheme (‘aabbccd’, stood-wood, sprang-sang, glowed-flowed) throughout the poem . The phrases ‘gather and gleam’, ‘lone in the light’ gives alliterative effect of repeated consonant sounds. The expression 'visions that poppy like sprang' gives an instance for simile. And the phrases like ‘Spirits of Truth were the birds, 'Spirits of Love were the stars' and 'Spirits of Peace were the streams’ are examples for metaphor. The poetic device of personification can be seen in the line ‘stars gathering around my delicate youth’. The poem brings the auditory image, ‘birds that sang’ as well as visual image ‘stars that glowed and the streams of peace flowed through the land’. The poet brings in strong sensual imagery throughout the poem.

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