NCERT Solutions Class 8 English (Honeydew)
The NCERT Solutions in English Language for Class 8 English (Poetry) (Honeysuckle) Poem – 7 On the Grasshopper and Cricket has been provided here to help the students in solving the questions from this exercise.
NCERT Solutions for Class 8 English (Honeydew – Poem)
- Poem – 1 : The Ant and the Cricket
- Poem – 2 : Geography Lesson
- Poem – 3 : Macavity: The Mystery Cat
- Poem – 4 : The Last Bargain
- Poem – 5 : The School Boy
- Poem – 6 : When I Set Out for Lyonnesse
Poem – 7 (On the Grasshopper and Cricket)
The poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead,
That is the grasshopper’s — he takes the lead
In summer luxury — he has never done
With his delights, for when tired out with fun
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
On a lone winter evening when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stone there shrills
The cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one in drowsiness half lost;
The grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.
– JOHN KEATS
Working with the Poem
1. Discuss with your partner the following definition of a poem.
A poem is made of words arranged in a beautiful order. These words, when read aloud with feeling, have a music and meaning of their own.
Answer – In a poem the words of the poet’s thinking are arranged in such a manner that they appeal a melodious tone though they’re not grammatically correct.
2. ‘The poetry of earth’ is not made of words. What is it made of, as suggested in the poem?
Answer – “The poetry of earth’ is made of the songs of its creatures like grasshopper and cricket.
3. Find in the poem lines that match the following.
(i) The grasshopper’s happiness never comes to an end.
Answer – In summer luxury — he has never done
(ii) The cricket’s song has a warmth that never decreases.
Answer – The cricket’s song, in warmth increasing ever
4. Which word in stanza 2 is opposite in meaning to ‘the frost’?
Answer – In stanza 2, the word that is opposite in meaning to ‘the frost’ is ‘warmth’.
5. The poetry of earth continues round the year through a cycle of two seasons. Mention each with its representative voice.
Answer – The season of summer – the grasshopper
The season of winter – the cricket
