KSEEB Solution Class 8 English Second Language – The Axe In The Wood
Board | KSEEB |
Class | Eight (8) |
Subject | English |
Language | 2nd Language |
Chapter | 8 |
Chapter Name | The Axe In The Wood |
The Axe In The Wood Class 8 English Karnataka Board Kannada
POETRY
THE AXE IN THE WOOD
ILA Your teacher will recite a poem for you. Listen to your teacher carefully and answer the questions given below.
1.) Who does ‘I’ refer to in this poem?
Answer: ‘I’ refers to the shady tree in this poem.
2.) How is the speaker a source of joy to children?
Answer: The speaker provides branches under which the children play joyfully.
3.) Name any two creatures that find comfort from the speaker.
Answer: Worms and herds
4.) What do you think will happen to the speaker in the end?
Answer: Selfish people will cut it down.
C1.) Answer the following questions and share your responses with your partner :
1.) What words in stanzas 1 and 2 mean
[a] 100 years- Century [b] scene – Sight
2.) Make a list of all the words that are used in the poem to describe the ‘axe.’
Answer: Quick, sharp, glittering and bright
3.) Read the following words :
trunk, axe, wood, timber, tree.
Which word does not fit into the list above?Strike it out.
C2) Answer the following questions picking up the most appropriate ones from those given in brackets :
1.) What did the man strike the tree with?
[knife, axe, sickle, saw]
2.) Who were watching the sight of the man cutting the tree?
[women, people, woodcutters, children]
3.) What did the tree look like?
[small, strong, weak, dry]
Read and Write :
C3) Read and discuss your responses with your partner. Then write.
1.) Who do you think ‘I’ refers to in this poem?
Answer: ‘I’ refers to the poet.
2.) Why do you think the poet stopped?
Answer: The poet stopped to watch a man cutting down the tree.
3.) Which line tells us that the tree is aged?
Answer: Of a tree grown strong through many centuries.
4.) Does the poem mean that cutting a tree is a huge loss for human beings? Which line supports your answer?
Answer: But I saw death cut down a thousand men
5.) Do you think the poet wrote this poem while the tree was being cut? Support your answer picking up the relevant line/lines from the poem.
Answer: Yes, the poet wrote this poem while the tree was being cut.
I stopped to watch a man strike at the trunk,
6.) Do you think the poet has made his intention clear to the reader at the end? Which lines support your answer?
Answer: Yes, I think the poet has made his intention clear to the reader at the end
Had more good in it than a growing tree.
7.) What message does the poem give us?
Answer: The poet wants us to preserve the trees. He wants us not to cut the trees for they gave us many things unconditionally. We should preserve the three for our future generations.
8.) What do you learn about the trees from this poem?
Answer: We learn that tree as priceless treasures of the nature. We should preserve them safely.
9.) ‘But I saw death cut down a thousand men.’ Explain. What does the poet mean by ‘Lovely legacy of wood.’ ?
Answer: Even after the cut is cut down, its timber is useful. It takes many years for a tree to grow and become strong and even after its death, it is useful for the people.
10.) A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines. Usually a sonnet has a rhyme scheme. Is this poem a sonnet? Check whether this poem has a rhyme scheme or not.
Answer: Yes, this poem is a sonnet. This poem has doesn’t have any specific rhyme scheme.
Read the second stanza carefully.
Do you find any expressions of irony in it?
And I remember how I liked the sight
Of poise and rhythm as the bright axe swung.
Answer: The poet doesn’t want the trees to be cut yet he liked the rhythm of the axe while cutting the tree.
C4) Death lays his icy hands on kings.
The tree raised his hands to pray.
The above lines are instances of personification where human qualities are attributed to inanimate objects like ‘death’ and ‘tree’. What is personified in the last stanza?
Answer: The tree is personified in the last stanza. Usually people live their legacy after their death, but tree is given the quality of passing on its legacy of timber behind.
Dear Student, I appreciate your efforts and hard work that you all had put in. Thank you for being concerned with us and I wish you for your continued success.