Model Qestion set with Answer For WB SSC English. 

1) " Invention, nature's child, fled step-dame Study's blows"- Comment on the line.

Ans:- Poetic invention is the child of Nature while study is taken to be the step-mother of the poetic invention. As a child runs away from the command of his step mother poetic invention tries to escape from the authority of painstaking study. What Sidney wants to mean through this brilliant analogy in "Loving in Truth" is that the poetic impulse is a spontaneous  urge which comes from within not from without. This very idea evokes Wordsworth's concept of poetry - "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of power feelings". 

2) " To thy high requiem become a sod"- Explain with reference to the context.

Ans:- John Keats imagines that he would die a painless death while listening to the nightingale's song. The nightingale would continue  to sing when he would be lying in his grave but the poet being dead would not be able to listen to the nightingale's sweet song which would serve as requiem, a funeral song sung for the peace of the departed soul.

3) What do the wild swans at Coole symbolize for the poet?  

Ans:- The wild swans at Coole stand for the life force their hearts do not grow old. They symbolize the everlasting spirit of youth. They symbolize tge immortality of natural objects. In another sense they also symbolize the undying tie between time and timelessness.  According  to Unterecker,  departure of birds naturally should remind the poet of his own death and thought of immortality.

4) "Like a poet hidden/ In the light of thought"- Explain.

Ans:- Shelley in " To a Skylark" compares the skylark singing sweetly in the sky to a poet who is completely absorbed in his lofty idealism,  singing prophetic songs to inspire people to high ideals. The skylark resembles an unknown poet living in the realm of his majestic idealism, creating a stir in the sleeping conscience of mankind. 

5) "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife"- What is the significance of this sentence? 

Ans:- The above line is the opening sentence of Jane Austen's novel, Pride and Prejudice. The first half of this sentence suggests that some great 'universal' truth is the subject of the novel. There is an ironic deflation in the second half when this truth is found to be concerned with a common social problem- marriage. The sentence itself means that people assume that a well-to-do young man should be on the look- out for a suitable wife. It conceals beneath it an ironic thought that in reality things may be the other way round. 

6) Why does Wordsworth call nature the nurse, the guide,  the Guardian of heart and the soul of moral being? 

Ans: Wordsworth looked upon Nature as his teacher. He turned to Nature for solace and peace of mind whenever he felt begged down by the "fever and fret" of an unintelligible world. In "Tintern Abbey", he speaks about Nature's chastening and therapeutic influence on the life of man. 

7) What does the phrase the "forests of the night" symbolise?  

Ans: The phrase "forests of the night" suggests and symbolises oppression, ignorance and superstition. The tiger is a creature of revolt and wrath.  It burns in the forests of oppression and cruelties.  It is ferocious spirit symbolising the wrath of God.  

8) Bring out the significance of the title 'Vertue'. 

Ans: Herbert's 'Vertue' is a simple and well-known poem which ends with a moral.  Everything in the world must end but a virtuous soul is immortal. The sweet day, the sweet rose and the sweet spring- all will come to a close but a sweet and virtuous soul will never perish. Thus the title of the poem speaks of the theme and hence is very much apt and just. 

9) What is "the seven sleepers" den referred to in 'The Good Morrow"?  Bring out the relevence of the reference.

Ans. This legend is found in Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". In 250 AD seven noble Christian Youths fled from the persecution of Decius, the Persian Emperor. When they hid themselves in a cave, the emperor ordered them to be walled in there. They slept there for 200 years. Donne in "The Good Morrow" compares this state of insensitivity of the seven sleepers when they were in deep slumber with his own state when he had not met his becloved. Before this meeting, his life was dull and insipid. When the sleepers woke up they found real joy and mirth. After meeting his beloved the poet was full of joy, happiness and ecstasy.

10) Who is the Lotus-eater and why is he so called? 

Ans:-  Thomas Wilson is the lotus-eater in Maugham's story The Lotus Eater. The Greek veterans in Homer's Odyssey eat the lotus fruit on the lotusisland. The fruit has an enchanting effect making them oblivious of the past and mesmerising them into a blissful indolence. Drawing on this analogy, Maugham calls his hero Thomas Wilson a lotus-eater. Wilson is enchanted by the beauty of Capri, and abandons his life in the city to live in indolence and pleasure of beauty.

11) How does Arsat bear his tragedy? 

Ans. Arsat plays the losing game of life nobly and heroically. The world has become dark for him. But he would not accept defeat. He would wreck vengeance on those men who murdered his brother. The dignity of manhood which he displays even in midst of the great stress and trial of life elevates him to the position of a tragic hero.