Class 10 English Chapter 1 Extract Based Question Answers - First Flight

Q1: Read the stanza and answer the questions that follow:

The trees inside are moving out into the forest,
the forest that was empty all these days where no bird could sit no insect hide
no sun bury its feet in shadow
the forest that was empty all these nights
will be full of trees by morning.

(i) Name of poem and poet.
(ii) From where do the trees move out into the forest?
(iii) Why has the forest been empty all these days?
(iv) How do you think will the forest be full of trees again?
Ans:
(i) These lines have been taken from the poem ‘The Trees’ composed by ‘Adrienne Rich’.
(ii) The trees move out into the forest from the human houses.
(iii) The forest has been empty all these days because trees have been cut and transported to the cities.
(iv) The forest would be again full of trees when men would understand his responsibility towards the nature.

Q2: Read the stanza and answer the questions that follow:

All night the roots work
to disengage themselves from the cracks
in the veranda floor.
The leaves strain towards the glass
small twigs stiff with exertion
long-cramped boughs shuffling under the roof
like newly discharged patients
half-dazed, moving
to the clinic doors.

(i) What are the roots trying to do?
(ii) Why are the small twigs stiff?
(iii) What does the poet mean by ‘the clinic doors”?
(iv) Name the poem and poet.
Ans:
(i) The roots are trying to break the veranda floor.
(ii) The small twigs are stiff as they were straining to break the glass.
(iii) The poetess means that the trees are sick because they are being suffocated and choked in cramped spaces of the veranda.
They need to be cured and become healthy again and for them the clinic is the open spaces of the forest.
(iv) The poem “Trees” composed by ‘Adrienne Rich’.

Q3: Read the stanza and answer the questions that follow:

I sit inside, doors open to the veranda
writing long letters
in which I scarcely mention the departure of the forest from the house.
The night is fresh, the whole moon shines
in a sky still open
the smell of leaves and lichen
still reaches like a voice into the rooms.

(i) Where is the speaker?
(ii) Why does the poet not mention the departure of the forest?
(iii) How do the leaves and lichen talk to each other?
(iv) Name the poem and poet.
Ans:
(i) The speaker (poetess) is sitting inside her house
(ii) The poetess doesn’t mention the departure of the forest because she is embarrassed.
(iii) The leaves and lichen talk to each other through the smell.
(iv) The poem “Trees” composed by Adrienne Rich.

Q4: Read the stanza and answer the questions that follow:

My head is full of whispers
which tomorrow will be silent.
Listen. The glass is breaking.
The trees are stumbling forward
into the night. Winds rush to meet them.
The moon is broken like a mirror,
its pieces flash now in the crown
of the tallest oak.

(i) What are ‘whispers’ that the poetess can hear?
(ii) What does the poet ask us to listen to?
(iii) Which poetic device has been used?
(iv) Name the poem and poet.
Ans:
(i) The whispers that the poetess can hear are the sounds made by the outgoing trees.
(ii) The poetess asks us to listen to the sounds of the breaking glass.
(iii) The poetic device is ‘Personification’. The trees are personified.
(iv) The poem “Trees” written by ‘Adrienne Rich’