Mock Test Set 1

1) The poem centres round the theme of - 

A) glamour and beauty of Lucy 

B) loveliness of Lucy and her place 

C) growth, perfection and death of Lucy

D) Lucy's serene mind

2) what does the final exclamation "The difference to me" imply? 

A) a minor inconvenience 

B) a dramatic irony 

C) profound personal loss 

D) a joyful discovery

3) The star refers to

A)  Mars

B)  Venus the evening star

C)  the sun 

D) the moon

4) What is symbolised by 'the eye' in the line "half hidden from the eye"?  

A) Lucy's blindness

B) The world's attention

C) A divine vision

D) An animal

5) What literary device is found in "fair as a star"?

A) Simile 

B) Metaphor 

C) Irony

D) Symbolism 

6) The "springs of Dove" most likely refer to- 

A) a mythological place 

B) the source of a river 

C) a village festival 

D) a dove's nest

7) The phrase "none to praise" contains which figure of speech? 

A) Hyperbole

B) Irony

C) Repetition 

D) Litotes

8) The expression "very few to love" suggests: 

A) Lucy was shy and unfriendly 

B) Lucy was disliked

C) Lucy was loved buy a small circle including the speaker

D) Lucy chose to remain single 

9) The poem has a- 

A)  ballad structure

B) Sprung rhythm

C) a cyclical structure

D) flat structure

10) The interjection Oh! Suggests the sense of- 

A) joy 

B) sorrow and loss

C) disgust 

D) depression

11) The violet was grown by a 

A) mossy stone 

B) small hill

C) mountain

D) hilly region

12) What is the most important contrast established in the poem?

A) wealth versus poverty

B)  fame versus obscurity

C)  night versus day

D)  love versus hate 

13) Wordsworth's  reference to nature in the poem mainly serves to :

A) contrast the beauty of the city and the countryside 

B) show the nature is indifferent to human struggle

C) reflect the inner emotional world of the speaker 

D) criticise the changing seasons

14) The phrase "she lived unknown and few could know"conveys : 

A) the anonymity of lucy's life 

B) Lucy's secret talents 

C)  The Fame of lucy's family

D)  the secrecy of Lucy's emotions 

15) The phrase "ceased to be" is an example of- 

A) Synecdoche 

B) Euphemism

C) Simile

D) Metaphor

16) Here ceased to be means 

A) ceased to die 

B) ceased to exist 

C) ceased to remain 

D) ceased to walk

17) The violet was 

A) hidden

B) half hidden 

C) short lived 

D) half secluded

18) The poem's rhyme scheme is 

A) AABB 

B) ABAB 

C) ABCD

D) ABBA

19)  Which romantic ideal is most evident in this poem? 

A) Emphasis on industrial progress

B) Celebration of aristocracy

C) Reverence for the simple, solitary life

D) Use of  urban imagery

20) The final stanza implies that Lucy's death : 

A) caused widespread mourning 

B) Did not effect anyone at all

C) Made no difference to society, but was devastating to the speaker 

D) was widely reported

Ans key: 

1) C 2) C 3) C 4) B 5) A 6) B 7) D 8) C 9) C 10) B 11) A 12) B 13) C 14) A 15) B 16) B 17) B 18) B 19) C 20) C 

 Mock Test Set 1 

1) In the poem, 'lea' refers to

a) A body of water 

b) A religious site 

c) A meadow 

d) A valley

2) What does the word "boon" in a sordid boon" mean?

(a) Curse 

 b) Burden

 c) Blessing

 d) Trap

3)  What is the meaning of the phrase "lay waste our powers"?

(a) Destroy our creativity and spiritual insight

b)  Preserve our talents

c) Use our strength effectively

(d) Channel energy positively

4)  The word "creed" in a creed outworn" refers to:

(a) law

(b) faith or belief system

(c) war

(d) poetic device

5)  The word “forlorn" suggests:

(a) proud

(b) angry

(c) joyful

(d) lonely or hopeless

6) Proteus is a symbol of : 

a) Fire 

b) Change and prophecy 

c) Violence 

d) Death 

7) The poem belongs to which literary movement? 

a) Neoclassicism 

b) Romanticism 

c) Realism 

d) Modernism

8) "Sleeping flowers" is an example of: 

a) Hyperbole 

b) Metaphor 

c) Simile 

d) Personification

9) What socio-economic change does the poem implicitly criticise? 

a) Colonial expansion 

b) Industrial Revolution and its effects 

c) Feudalism 

d) Postmodern art 

10) "The winds that will be howling at all hours" is an example of: 

a) Simile 

b) Alliteration

c) irony

d) Onomatopoeia and Personification 

11) In what period was this poem written? 

a) Victorian 

b) Renaissance 

c) Romantic

d) Modern

12) The phrase "we are out of tune"  implies :

a) musical discord

b)  poor communication 

c) a metaphor for spiritual disconnection from nature

d)   Misunderstanding of literature 

13) "Late and soon" refers to : 

a) Morning and night 

b) Past and future

c) Life and death 

d) Time and memory 

14) What poetic device is used in "Proteus rising from the sea"? 

a) Metaphor 

b) Alliteration 

c) Mythological allusion 

d) Pun 

15) The mood created by the line "It moves us not" is one of : 

a) Peace and satisfaction 

b) Celebration 

c) Despair and alienation 

d) Nostalgia 

16) The main conflict in the poem can be summarised as: 

a) Paganism vs Christianity 

b) Emotion vs intellect 

c) Materialism vs nature/spirituality 

d) Modernity vs antiquity 

17) " We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!" uses which device? 

a) Oxymoron 

b) Enjambment 

c) Synecdoche

d) Allusion 

18) "Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn" shows the speaker's : 

a) Wish for hope through imagination 

b) Belief in Pagan rituals 

c) Desire to return to London 

d) Joy in material success 

19) Triton's horn is Symbolic of : 

a) Industrial noise 

b) Mythical knowledge 

c) Nature's lost voice 

d) War signals 

20) " The sea that bares her bosom to the moon " uses : 

a) Metaphor and personification

b) Simile and irony 

c) Hyperbole 

d) Onomatopoeia 

Answer key : 

1) c  2) c  3)  a  4)  b  5) d   6) b  7)  b  8)  d   9)  b  10) d   11)  c  12)  c  13) b  14) c 15)  c  16)  c  17) a   18) a  19) c  20) a

Mcq mock test set 1 from the poem "Slumber Did My Spirit Seal" for SLST.

1)  What is the tone of the first stanza?

a) joyful

b) sarcastic

c) Dreamlike and peaceful 

d) Aggressive

2) What transition occurs between the first and second stanza?

a)  From illusion to reality

b) From sleep to waking

c) From joy to anger

d) From day to night

3) What does the second stanza emphasise?

a) Her spiritual awakening

b) Her sensory enhancement

c) Her physical death and merging with nature

d) Her journey to heaven

4) What natural elements is the girl associated with in the second

stanza?

a) Rivers and oceans

b) Stars and moon

c) Rocks, stones, and trees  

d) Sun and clouds

 5) "She seemed a thing that could not feel" is an example of:

a) Irony

b) Alliteration

c) Symbolism

d) Paradox

6) Which poetic device is used in "Rolled round in earth's diurnal

course"?

a) Alliteration

b) Imagery

c) Onomatopoeia

d) Enjambment

7) What figure of speech is used in "A slumber did my spirit seal"?

a) Personification

b) Metaphor

c) Hyperbole

d) Simile

8) In which year was the poem first published?

a) 1807

b)  1815

c)  1800

d) 1820

9) What is the form of the poem?

a) Sonnet

b) Ode

c) Lyric

d) Ballad

10) How many stanzas does the poem contain?

a) One

B) Three

C) Two

d) Four

11) What is the rhyme scheme of the poem?

a) AABB CCDD

b) ABAB CDCD

c) ABBA CDDC

d) ABCDEFGH

12) What is the meter of the poem?

a) Trochaic tetrameter

b) Iambic meter

c) Dactylic hexameter

d) Anapestic meter

13) What change does the poem portray in the speaker's perception?

a) From fear to hope

b) From doubt to belief

c) From fantasy to realism

 d) From peace to violence

14) Which line best represents the reality of death in the poem?

a) "I had no human fears"

b) "She seemed a thing that could not feel"

c) "No motion has she now, no force"

d) "With rocks, and stones, and trees"

15) What kind of lyric is the poem?

a) Pastoral lyric

b) Elegiac lyric

c) Patriotic lyric

d) Celebratory lyric

16) The tone in the second stanza can be best described as:

a) Reflective and mournful

b)  Humorous and light

c)  Angry and violent

d) Boastful and proud

17) What does "motion" signify in the second stanza? 

 a) Movement of time

 b) Movement or life force

 c) Timelessness and death

 d) Change of mood 

18) How does the time portrayed in the poem? 

a) As generous

b) As a destroyer 

c) As a healer 

d) as irrelevant 

19) The tone of acceptance in the second stanza aligns with which philosophical concepts? 

a) Idealism 

b) Stoicism

c) Nihilism

d) Hedonism

20) The use of "earth's diurnal course" is an example of :  

a) Hyperbole

b) Scientific reference

c) Personification 

d) Symbolic Imagery 

Answer Key: 

1) c 2) a 3) c 4) c 5) a 6) d 7) b 8) c 9) c 10) c 11) b 12) b 13) c 14) c 15) b 16) a 17) b 18) b 19) b 20) d

 Mock Test Set 1 Arms and the Man.

1) Sergius is acclaimed as the hero of the hour, the idol of the regiment by - 

A) Catherine  

B) Raina

 C) Sergius 

D) Louka 

2) The title Arms and the Man is the English translation of the Latin phrase- 

A) Arm Virum Cano 

B) Arma Virumque Cano 

C) Army Virum Cano 

D) Ami cano virumgue

3) "If pity is akin to love, gratitude is akin to the other thing "- is said by 

A) Raina 

B) Bluntschli 

C) Catherine

 D) Mrs. Petcoff

4) The term ice pudding means- 

A) a soft food like ice

B) a soft food made of ice 

C) delicious and soft food from ice 

D) fast food made from ice 

5) "This hand is more accustomed to the sword than to the pen" is said by- 

A) Bluntschli 

B) Sergius 

C) Carventes

 D) Hugo

6) "There as only one thing I want to make me thoroughly comfortable"-here the 'only one thing' refers to

A) the house of Petkoff  

B) the library  

C) the old Coat of Mr Petkoff 

D) the old vase

7) The phrase 'a devil of a fight' means 

A) a devilish  fight  

B) a terrible fight

C) a fight which a demon can puts up 

D)  diabolical fight 

8) Bluntschli did not close his eyes for-

A) 48 hours 

B) 44 hours 

C) 42 hours 

D) 41 hours 

9) Nikola served the Petkoff family for- 

A) 11 years 

B) 10 Years 

C) 9 years 

D) 5 years

10) The very first thing Raina's father asked for was 

A) his old gloves 

B) his old coat 

C) his old friend 

D) his old shirt

11) Here the term 'brown study' means

A) studies brown in colour 

B) studies of brown 

C) day-dream 

D) study having brown cover

12) The phrase 'division of labour' means 

A) distribution of work  

B) division of Duty  

C) division of doing  

D) division of working 

13) "This is a better weapon than the revolver"- What is referred by 'this'? 

A) The Chocolate 

B) The cloak 

C) The coat 

D) The music

14) The last postal delivery that reached Bluntschli was

A) 4 weeks ago 

B) 3 weeks ago 

C) 5 weeks ago 

D)  2 months ago 

15) Here 'the cool impartial man' refers to 

A) Bluntschli 

B) Mr. Petkoff 

C) Sergius 

D) Louka 

16) The term 'predicament' means 

A) predicate 

B) predication  

C) unpleasant or dangerous situation  

D) plight

17) " Our romance is shattered. Life is a farce"- Who said this? What is the meaning of 'farce'? 

A)Sergious,  a mockery! an absurdity   

B) Bluntshli,far away and 

C) Louka, force 

D) Nicola, music

18)' you see the young lady's concern captain Bluntschli' - The lady's concern is 

A) whether Bluntschli is  married or not 

B) whether Bluntschli will marry her 

C) whether Sergius marry Louka 

19) "My hero! My king! " was said by Raina to 

A) her father  

B) the portrait of Sergius 

C) Sergius  

D) Bluntschli 

20) Levas is 

A) Russian coin 

B) Serbian coin 

C) Bulgarian silver coin 

D) South Asian coin

Answer key

1) A 2) B 3) B 4) C 5) B 6) C 7) B 8) A 9) B 10) B 11) C 12) A 13) B 14) B 15) A 16) C 17) A 18) A 19) C  20) C

 Virtue 

George Herbert ( 1593-1633) 

About the poet and the poem : 

●  Herbert was a poet, orator and Anglican priest of the church of England. 

● He was a devotional lyricist , often hailed as the ' saint of the metaphysical school'. 

● He composed poems in English, Latin and Greek.

● Herbert was born on 3rd April 1593 at Montgomary , wales.

● Henry Vaughan called him " a most glorious saint and seer".

● The poem published in 1633 in the collection of poem "The Temple : Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations"  with a preface from Nicholas Ferrar.

● Herbert sent his poetry to his friend Nicholas Ferrar shortly before his death. 

● Ferrar published those poems in the mentioned collection of Herbert.

● The "Virtue" by Herbert is a simple didactic poem with a moral. 

● Herbert uses ABAB CBCB DBDB rhyme scheme in the poem .

● He wrote it in Iambic Tetrameter but the last line of each stanza is in Iambic Dimeter.

● It is a Carpedium poem . 

● It has 4 stanzas and 16 lines. 

Summary : 

Virtue" is a metaphysical poem by George Herbert, exploring the contrast between earthly beauty, which is temporary, and inner virtue, which is eternal. The poem consists of four stanzas, each reflecting on different beautiful aspects of nature and life.

The poet describes a beautiful, sweet day that eventually must end in night. Despite its charm, it is transient.

 He praises the lovely rose, vibrant and fresh in the morning but destined to wither by evening.

A spring, full of life and musical sounds, also will fade as time passes.

In contrast, a virtuous soul will never die. While all external beauties perish, inner goodness and moral purity are immortal and remain beyond death.

The short poem " Virtue" is a celebration of the innate spiritual quality that outweighes all the ephemeral objects of the worl.

Word notes: 

Bridall- union, marriage,   Skie- sky,   weep- lament , Fall - end , hue- colour, Angrie- reddish, Brave - defiant , Rash- thoughtless , Gazer- onlooker, Root- origin , Grave- death , Compacted- assorted, Onely- only, soul- element of virtue, turn to coal - perishes, chiefly - alone ,lives- remains eternal

 Important Literary Terms for students of  WBCSSC, NET, SET

Anti-sentimental comedy

This type of comedy basically comes as a kind of protest against the sentimental drama. It discarded the sentimental elements like overdose of pathos, note of seriousness and moral purpose. Instead, such comedies try to produce hearty or often hilarious laughter. Ex. - Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer.

Absurd Drama

Absurd drama is a new invention in the mid 20th century in the field of theatre. This kind of drama is based upon the belief that the human condition is essentially and ineradicably absurd, and that this condition can be adequately represented only in this kind of play. Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Malone Dies, The Unnamable are examples of Absurd drama.

Ambiguity

Ambiguity in literature can be called the language of paradox. It is the assertion of the union of opposites. True poem, like Keats" "Ode on a Grecian Urn", is an amalgamation of varied experiences, widely different from and even opposite to each other. Here ambiguity or paradox synthesizes and reconciles these experiences. Keats in this odc expresses a life which is above life, but it is at the same time a kind of death.

Autobiographical Essay

When in the essay the author will speak out his vital experiences of life, either external or emotional, it will become autobiographical. That means, in such essay the personal or subjective elements must be much more strongly present. Ex: Dream Children: A Reverie by Charles Lamb.

Personal Essay

In this kind of essay the author brings out his personality in much more bolder details than in the formal essays or any other kind. The author assumes a tone of intimacy with the readers, deals with everyday matters in a relaxed, self-revelatory fashion. It is also called familiar essay. By nature it is subjective to a great extent.

 The Rape of the Lock

Alexander Pope

Selected Questions and Answers for WBSSC English ( H/ PG) aspirants from 'The Rape of the Lock'.

1) Write a note on the fairy machinery in Pope's "The Rape of the Lock'.

Ans:-  

The four elements of the earth, the air, earth, water and fire are inhabited by the four types of spirits, the sylphs, gnomes, nymphs and salamanders. In Pope's "The Rape of the Lock', while the sylphs are presented as the guards of young ladies, the gnomes are the wicked one. The salamanders are associated with fiery women while the nymphs are shown dwelling in water.

2) ' Know then, unnumbered spirits round thee fly,  The Light Militia of the lower sky '-  What is referred to as the 'Light Militia of the lower sky' ? Why is it so called ?

Ans:-  'The Light Militia of the lower sky' refers to the order of supernatural brings-sylphs, quomes, nymphs and salamanders. These spirits act as guardians of human beings. They keep watch on men and are imagined as ranged in military formulations during their surveillance.

3) What does the title of the poem allude to? Bring out the significance of the title.

Ans:-  The title of Pope's "The Rape of the Lock" alludes to a real incident where a young gallant Lord Petre cut off a  strand of a young lady Arabella Fermor's hair. Thus the title of the poem which refers to the outraging of Arabella is highly appropriate and mocking. The poet seems to say that it is a trivial issue which was blown out of proportions in aristocratic circles.

 One Day I Wrote Her Name

Edmund Spencer

Selected Questions and Answers for WBSSC English ( H/ PG) aspirants from 'One Day I Wrote Her Name'.

1) To what sonnet sequence does the poem belong?

Ans:- Spenser's sonnet 'One Day I Wrote Her Name' belongs to the famous sonnet sequence 'Amoretti'. Based on the conventional Elizabethan sonnet form, the series relates Spenser's love affair with Elizabeth Boyle.

2)  What is the chief argument in Spencer's Sonnet ?

Ans:- Spenser's chief argument is that as his pactury ives it will give life to things he has created. Above all poetry will immortalize his beloved and his love as he celebrates and records them in his verse.

3) Where do you find this Sonnet ? What is its serial number ? And what is the rhyme scheme used here?

Ans:- This sonnet occurs in Spenser's immortal sonnet sequence 'Amoretti' which means love or amor. In the serial of 'Amoretti', 'One Day' stands in 75th position. The rhyme scheme used here is a peculiar one. It is ab ab bcbc in octave and cdcd ee in the sestet.

Selected Questions and Answers for WBSSC English ( H/ PG) aspirants from Loving in Truth.

1)What is the central theme of the poem? Is the poem a love poem?

Ans:-  The central theme of Sidney's poem Loving in Truth' is love with the poet expressing his desire of writing poetry so as to wi pity and grace. To write such a poem, he initially looks to copy others, but later realizes that all the inspiration he needs is in his heart and he is able to express a lovers intimate feelings and emotion.

2) What type of a poem is Sidney's poem? What is a Petrarchan sonnet?

Ans:- Sidney's poem 'Loving in Truth' is cast in the mould of a typical Petrarchan sonnet of 14 lines and is divisible into the octave and the sestet. While the octave presents the efforts of the poet at writing poetry, the sestet narrates his failure and subsequent revelation.

4) What  is implication of the Muse's advice to Sidney ?

Ans. The Muse's advice to Sidney to look into his heart for words
indicates the triumph of the inspiratorial theory of poetry. Poetry is born out of inspiration. It is not a product imitiation. Its spontaneous and natural source is the human heart, the receptacle of all emotions, feelings and thoughts.

5) Why did Sidney turn to other poets ?
Ans. Sidney found himself stifled to express his pain in verse. He
wanted expressions and words that did not come to him spontaneously. So he turned to the words of other poets so that he might borrow their words to express himself.

6) Whose 'feet' is referred to as strangers by the poet?

Ans:- In Sidney's poem Loving in Truth, the poet using a pun on the word feet explains that both others poems and the metrical feet of their poems are nothing but strangers to him and are inefective to quell his creative urge.

7) "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 poctry -"Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings." The personification of "Invention"," Nature" and "Study" is worth mentioning.

8) What is the main objective of the poem? What is the moral of the
poem?

Ans:-   In Sidney's poem  'Loving
in Truth', all of a sudden there is a revelation. He need not seek works of other to be inspired-his inspiration lay inside him, in his heart. He would only have to look into his heart and write.Thus the main objective of the poem to bring out the importance of the spontaneity of the heart to be the source of all great inspiration in the world- is successful.

 West Bengal Central School Service Commission English Syllabus ( Hons/ PG) 

POETRY:- 

1) Loving in Truth : Philip Sidney

2) Oneday I Wrote Her Name :  Edmund Spencer

3) Shall I Compare Thee :  William Shakespeare 

4) The Good Morrow : John Donne

5) Virtue : George Herbert

6) The Rape of the Lock ( Cantos I&II)  : Alexander Pope

7) The Tyger, The Lamb : William Blake

8) Tintern Abbey : William Wordsworth 

9) Christabel,  Kubla Khan : S.T. Coleridge

10) Ode to a Nightingale,  Ode to Autumn : John Keats 

11) Ulysses : Alfred Tennyson 

12) My Last Duchess : Robert Browning 

13) The Wild Swans at Coole : W.B. Yeats

14) Strange Meeting : Wilfred Owen 

15) Hollow Men : T.S. Eliot 

DRAMA

1) Macbeth : William Shakespeare 

2) She Stoops to Conquer : Goldsmith 

3) Arms and the Man : G.B. Shaw

4) Riders to the Sea : J.M. Synge 

NOVEL

1) Pride and Prejudice : Jane Austen 

2) David Copperfield : Charles Dickens

SHORT STORY

1) The Lagoon : Joseph Conrad 

2) Araby : James Joyce 

3) The Lotus Eater : Somerset Maugham

4) The Fly : Katherine Mansfield

ESSAY 

1) Dream Children: A Reverie, The Superannuated Man : Charles Lamb

2) Freedom : G.B. Shaw

3) Francis Bacon : Of Studies

Grammar and Usage

1) Common Errors

2) Subject Verb Agreement,  Tenses, Active and Passive Voice,  Articles, Prepositions, Adverbs, Adjectives

3) Sentence Forms:  Simple, Compound, Complex, Joining and Spliting of Sentences

4) Narration: Direct and Indirect

5) Composition

6) A single paragraph of about 50-60 words to be written on a given topic.

7) Literary devices 

8) Rhetoric and Prosody

This is the Old Syllabus for WBCSSC English.  New Syllabus will be published after Commission's announcement. 

 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.