HSC Theme of The Following
Poem Question No 11
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
THE TRAFFIC POLICE
Amidst killer speeds I stand
Facing the traffic, stretching my hand.
I am seen on kids books and as cartoons everywhere
Educating people and asking them to beware
Of the erratic traffic and the signboards
Seen on almost all the roads.
So that you’re safe I see each one of you
But my sweat, my plight on the road sees who?
Be it sunny or rainy,
For your safety I must be
Vigil and agile, on the middle
Standing erect, as fit as a fiddle.
Oh! My ear hurts! Oh! My head aches!
Oh! Look at the weather.. .such unpredictable days!
But I cannot swerve; I must be on duty.
I care for your safety.
Be it noisy or dusty; Be it sunny or rainy;
I must be n duty. I care for your safety;
Theme : A traffic police is a familiar figure. He stands in the middle of speedy vehicles. He regulates the traffic with his stretching hand. His main task is to ensure the safety of people travelling in the vehicles. He endures bad weather and remains on duty because he cares for the safety of travellers.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
BLOW BLOW THOU WINTER WIND
William Shakespeare
Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho, the holly!
This life is most jolly.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remembered not.
Heigh ft-ho! sing, heigh-fto! unto the green holly..
Theme: The ingratitude of human being is ruder and crueler than the winter wind. When the beneficiary forgets the benefits, it seems bitterer than the biting sky. In fact, the breach of trust and the betrayal of friends and relatives are more hostile and unfriendly than the forces of nature.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
THE SCHOOLBOY
William Blake
I love to rise in a summer morn,
When the birds sing on every tree;
The distant huntsman winds his horn,
And the skylark sings with me:
O what sweet company!
But to go to school in a summer morn, –
o it drives all joy away!
Under a cruel eye outworn,
The little ones spend the day
In sighing and dismay.
Ah then at times I drooping sit,
And spend many an anxious hour;
Nor in my book can I take delight,
Nor sit in learning’s bower,
Worn through with the dreary shower.
How can the bird that is born for joy
Sit in a cage and sing?
How can a child, when fears annoy,
But droop his tender wing,
And forget his youthful spring!
O father and mother if buds are nipped.
And blossoms blown away;
And if the tender plants are stripped
Of their joy in the springing day,
By sorrow and care’s dismay, –
How shall the summer arise in joy,
Or the summer fruits appear?
Or how shall we—gather what griefs destroy,
Or bless the mellowing year,
When the blasts of winter appear?
Theme: A schoolboy learns better from nature and things around. It is because this learning comes in a delightful way. The control of the parents is like imprisonment to a schoolboy. The care of parents restricts normal the activities of a boy and bars his smooth and normal development.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
OUT OUT
The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And nothing happened day was all but done.
Call it a day, I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour
That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
His sister stood beside him in her apron
To tell them ‘Supper.’ At the word, the saw,
As if to prove saws knew rhat supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy’s hand, or seemed to leap—
He must have given the hand. However it was,
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!
Since he was old enough to know, big boy
Doing a man’s work, though a child at heart—
He saw all spoiled. ‘Don’t let him cut my hand off—
But the hand was gone already.
The doctor put him in the dark of ethr.
No one believed. They listened at his heart.
Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it.
Theme: Life is very fragile. The immature and cruel death of a young boy depicts the nothingness of life and its brevity. It also shows the atrocities of the modern mechanical society. The society forced a young boy and his sister to become victims of its atrocities. Most importantly, it did not show any sympathy to the boy.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
I HAVE SEEN BENGAL S FACE
Translation of Jibanananda Das’s “Banglar Mukh Ami Dekhiyachhi” by Fakrul Alam
Because I have seen Bengal’s face I will seek no more:
The world has not anything more beautiful to show me.
Waking up in darkness, gazing at the fig-tree, I behold
Dawn’s swallows roosting under huge umbrella-like leaves. I look around me
And discover a leafy dome-Jam, Kanihal, Bat, Hijol and Aswatha trees-
All in a hush, shadowing clumps of cactus and zedoary bushes.
When long, long ago, Chand came in hts honeycombed boat
To a blue Hijal, Bat and Tamal shade near the Champa, he too sighted
Bengal’s incomparable beauty. One day, alas. In the Ganguri,
On a raft, as the waning moon sank on the rivers sandbanks,
Behula too saw countless aswaths bats besides golden rice fields
And heard the thrushs soft song. One day, arriving in Amara,
Where gods held court, when she danced like a desolate wagtail,
Bengal’s rivers, fields, flowers, wailed like strings of bells on her feet.
Theme: The theme of the poem is the timeless and everlasting natural beauty of Bangladesh and the speaker’s patriotic zeal aroused at that. Poet Jibanananda Das is in love with the beauty of his motherland. He feels that his thirst for beauty has been so quenched that he doesn’t need to see the beauty of the world any more. He sees how generous nature has been to his motherland.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
DREAM
- H. Lawrence
All people dream, but not equally.
Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mind,
Wake in the morning to find that it was vanity.
But the dreamers of the day are dangerous people,
For they dream their dreams with open eyes,
And make them come true.
Theme: Dreaming is common to all, but it varies from person to person. Dreams in sleep are false and lead to nothing. But dreaming consciously is like taking determination for something. So, people who dream in fully conscious state are very strong and determined. These people realize their dreams.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
DREAMS
Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
Theme: Dreams are very important in men’s life. Nothing can be achieved if there is no dream in life. One must dream if one wants to achieve goals. A life without dreams has no purpose. It becomes absolutely monotonous. So, one must not stop dreaming because dreams bring comfort and hope.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE
W.B. Yeats
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles aliade;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee
And live alone in the bee loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings:
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings
Theme : The theme of the poem is the poet’s intention to go beyond the sorrows and chaos of daily life. He imagines a world of absolute peace. Its name is Innisfree. It is an island with all allurements of life. Sweet birds sing and the bees hum. The murmuring of the stream will keep the poet awake. On the other hand city life is full of grey troubles. Hence, he intends to make a flight to the lake Isle of lnnisfree. It will provide him with absolute happiness.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
FROM SEPTEMBER 1, 1939
- H. Auden
I sit on one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire.
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives:
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night. –
Theme: The poet sits in concern amid the wave of fear regarding the outbreak of the Second World War that is gripping the world. The victims of World War II have lost all the hopes and aspirations of future development in this decade of dishonesty. There is death all around, which commenced the September night.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
THE CHARGES OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE
Lord Alfred Tennyson
Half a league. half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns! he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
Was there a man dismayd?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Someone had blunderd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley’d and thunder’d;
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
Theme: The main theme of the poem is the heroic feat and sacrifice of a light brigade of six hundred soldiers. The heroic and undaunted spirit of the soldiers made them ready to sacrifice themselves. There was no escape left for them and they did not retreat to save their lives to uphold the honor of their great country.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY
1
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
2
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
3
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
Theme The theme of the poem is an unnamed woman’s exceptional beauty, internal as well as external. The speaker expresses his feeling when he saw the striking beauty and grace of the extraordinary beautiful woman. The poet describes her as so innocent and pure and heavenly. She is simple yet perfect. Her mind is at peace and does not have troubles in her life.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
I DIED FOR BEAUTY
Emily Dickinson
I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.
He questioned softly why I failed?
For beauty, I replied.
Arid I for truth – the two are one:
We brethren are,’ he said.
And so, as kinsmen met a-night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.
Theme: High ideals of life are of little use once we are dead. To a living person, it does not matter what they died for, the mere fact that they have died is all that is what is important. A person who has died will be remembered for a short while, but eventually all is forgotten. (58 words)
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
LEISURE
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to, stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, ‘in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
- And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
Them: A life without leisure is a great loss. We need to find time to stop and relax by putting aside work and worries. If we manage our time well, we will have leisure which will benefit us. Finding time to appropriate nature will help us to relax. It helps us to lead better life. (54 words)
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
ODE ON SOUTUDE
— Alexander Pope
Happy the man, whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air,
In his own ground.
Whose heards with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire,
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.
Blest! who can uncpncern’dly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away,
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day,
Sound sleep by night; study and ease
Together mixd; sweet recreation,
And innocence, which most does please,
With meditation.
Thus let me live; unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me dye:
Steal from the world and not a stone
Tell where I lye.
Theme: To be in a state of solitude means to withdraw from the world and take up a life of seclusion. Life of isolation is still a happy and quiet life. To maintain this peace, one must remain out of the world. Besides, one must remain isolated so that others cannot disturb them with the world’s problems.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
ON HIS HAVING ARRIVED AT THE AGE TWENTY THREE
John Milton
How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stol’n on his wing my three-and-twentieth year!
My hasting days fly on with full career,
But my late spring no bud or blossom shew’th.
Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth
That I to manhood am arrived so near:
And inward ripeness doth much less appear,
That some more timely-happy spirits endu’th.
Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow,
It shall be still in strictest measure even
To that same lot, however mean or high,
Toward which Time leads me, and the will of
Heaven;
All is, if I have grace to use it so.
As ever in my great Task-Master’s eye.
Theme: One should assess oneself in terms of one’s personal maturity. One may be more mature than one appears. Maturity can be interpreted in terms of achievement and accomplishment, as well as in personal growth and understanding. We must remember the idea of divine guidance. All that one is and all that one might become, will be a fulfillment of God’s will.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
THE SANDS OF DEE
Charles Kingsley
“0 Mary, go and call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home
Across the sands of Dee”;
The western wind was wild and dank with foam,
And all alone went she.
The western tide crept up along the sand,
And o’er and o’er the sand,
And round and round the sand,
As far as eye could see.
The rolling mist came down and hid the land:
And never home came she.
‘Oh! is it weed, or fish, or floating hair–
A tress of golden hair,
A drowned maiden’s hair
Above the nets at sea?
Was never salmon yet that shone so fair
Among the stakes on Dee.”
They rowed her in across the rolling foam,
The cruel crawling foam,
The cruel hungry foam,
To her grave beside the sea:
But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle home
Across the sands of Dee.
Theme: Forces of nature may be very cruel at times. Sometimes it becomes the cause of such tragic incidents that are hard to forget. The tragic death of the young girl called Mary was never forgotten by the locality. The boatmen still hear her voice across the sands of Dee.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD
William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high ocr vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
Theme : The central theme of this poem is the beauty of nature and the love of human being for the natural beauty. The poet William Wordsworth is famous as a poet of nature. He is a devoted lover of .the natural beauty. He feels the expression of Creator in all objects of nature. So he worships the power and beauty of nature through his poetry. Here the poet expresses his feeling of happiness and. delight at the sight of a host of daffodil flowers in an attractive atmosphere of nature.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
SHE DWELT AMONG THE UNTRODDEN WAYS
William Wordsworth
She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
A Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love:
A violet by a mossy stone
Half hidden from the eye!
Fair as a star, when only one
Is shining in the sky.
She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and oh,
The difference to me!
Theme: There are a number of instances in which the noble and virtuous receive little or no attention during their journey through life. They are blazing stars who soar through the heavens unnoticed or seldom seen. And at one point, they burn out and die.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
TO DAFFODILS
—Robert Herrick
Fair Daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon;
As yet the early-rising sun
Has not attain’d his noon.
Stay, stay,
Until the hasting day
Has run
But to the even-song;
And, having pray’d together, we
Will go with you along.
We have short time to stay, as you,
We have as short a spring:
As quick a growth to meet decay,
As you, or anything.
We die
As your hours do, and dry
Away,
Like to the summers rain;
Or as the pearls of mornings dew,
Ne’er to be found again.
Theme: We have a short span of life on this earth. Sometimes life ends sooner than we wish.
So, we don’t have much time to accomplish our goals or fulfil life long dreams. Once life is gone, we can’t bring it back. So, it is better to live life to its fullest and try to make a difference while we can.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
HOME THEY BROUGHT HER WARRIOR DEAD
Alfred Lord Tennyson
home they brought her warrior dead:
She nor swoon’d nor utter’d cry:
AU her maidens, watching, said,
She must weep or she will die.”
Then they praised him, soft and low,
Call’d him worthy to be loved,
Truest friend and noblest foe;
Yet she neither spoke nor moved.
Stole a. maiden from her place,
Lightly to the warrior stepped,
Took the face-cloth from the face;
Yet she neither moved nor wept.
Rose a nurse of ninety years,
Set his child upon her knee—
Like summer tempest came her tears—
Sweet my child, I live for thee.”
Theme: Grief must be expressed, or it will do terrible damage. Tears must be shed to provide closure so that life can go on without the person we lost. There must be a realization that we must continue to live normally for a better cause.
21, Write down the theme of the following poem.
OZYMANDIAS
Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: ‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed
Arid on the pedestal these words appear:’
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Theme: The central theme of this poem is the futility of power and the non utility of wealth on this earth. Life is full of sound and fury but it has no significance. The broken statue of Ozymandia symbolizes the futility of autocratic power and pride of material wealth on this earth. The poet ha presented the theme quite successfully in his poem.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
THE SOUTUDE OF ALEXANDER SELKiRK
William Cowper
I AM monarch of all I survey;
My right there is none to dispute:
From the centre all round to the sea
I am lord of the fowl and the brute.
0 Solitude! where are the charms
That sages have seen in thy face?
Better dwell in the midst of alarms,
Than reign in this horrible place.
I am out of humanity’s reach,
I must finish my journey alone,
Never hear the sweet music of speech:
I start at the sound of my own.
The beasts that roam over the plain
My form with indifference see:
They are so unacquainted with man
Their tameness is shocking to me.
Society, Friendship, and Love
Divinely bestow’d upon man,
0, had I the wings of a dove -‘“
How soon would I taste you again!
My sorrows I then might assuage
In the ways of religion and truth,:
Might learn from the wisdom of age,
And be cheer’d by the sallies of youth.
Ye winds that have made me your sport,
Convey to this desolate shore
Some cordial endearing report
Of a land I shall visit no more:
My friends, do they now and then send
A wish or a thought after me?
O tell me I yet have a friend,
Though a friend I am never to see.
How fleet is a glance of the mind!
Compared with the speed of its flight.
The tempest itself lags behind,
And the swift-winged arrows of light.
When I think of my own native land
In a moment I seem to be there:
But alas! recollection at hand
Soon hurries me back to despair.
But the sea-fowl is gone to her nest,
The beast is laid down in his lair;
Even here is a season of rest,
And I to my cabin repair.
There’s mercy in every place,
And mercy, encouraging thought!
Gives even affliction a grace
And reconciles man to his lot.
Theme: God has made human being a fantastic creature. They get attached and then part, sooner or later. Initially there is pain in separation and solitude, but it dissolves gradually. The mundaneness of existence engulfs everything. They have to accept what is allotted for them.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer
BY JOHN KEATS
Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold.
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told,
That deep-brow’ Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific — and all his men
Look’d at each other with a wild surmise –
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
Theme: The reading of a piece of great literature allows us to travel in “the realms of gold”. Best poetry allows us to enter new worlds of thrilling voyages and explorations of the unknown world. Excellent poems give us adventures through imagination that seem very much realistic.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
TIME, YOU OLD GIPSY MAN
Ralph Hodgson
TIME, you old gipsy man,
Will you not stay,
Put up your caravan
Just for one day?
3
All things I’ll give you
Will you be my guest,
BeXXs cot your ennet
Of silver the best.
Goldsmiths shall teat you
A great golden ring,
Peacocks shall bow to you
Little boys sing,
Oh, and sweetgirls will
Festoon you with may.
Time, you old gipsy,
Why hasten away?
Last week in Babylon.
Last night in Rome,
Morning, and in the crush
Under Paul’s dome;
Under Paul’s dial
You tighten your rein—
Only a moment,
And off once again;
Off to some city
Now blind in the womb,
Off to another
Ere that’s in the tomb.
Time, you old gipsy man,
Will you not stay,
Put up your caravan
Just for one day?
Theme: Time is like a gypsy man. Its caravan moves on and on. It does not yield to anyone’s request. Nobody can stop its ever-busy frigate even for a second. We know how precious time is for us. If we don’t use it properly, it will run away and never come back.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE
William. Shakespeare
Under the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me,
And turn his merry note
Unto the sweet bird’s throat,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.
Who doth ambition shun,
And loves to live U the sun,
Seeking the food he eats,
And pleas’d with what he’ gets,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
Here shall he see
No enemy
But winter and rough weather.
Theme: The forest presents a peaceful simple life which is free of worldly tension. Those who are not driven by ambition and have simple desires , can share his life under the Greenwood tree. It is human nature to have ambition, and those who are under the greenwood tree will be free of all enemies except weather and winter.
- Write down the theme of the following poem.
STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING
Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;,,,
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask If there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Theme : The theme of the poem is the conflict inherent in every human mind. A part of the mind longs for eternal life. It desires to live in the world for ever, while the other part wants to depart from this world to have eternal rest. That part of mind believes that it’s death that can only give a man relief. Man is always on its continuous journey towards death, the ultimate destination of life. But before the final departure one has to perform certain duties for the betterment of mankind.
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