Poem: Poems by Blake NCERT Solutions | Class 12 English Kaleidoscope - Humanities/Arts PDF Download

Understand the Text

Q1: How are these two matched poems related to each other in content? How is the human being disappointed in the song of Innocence and how he/she is depicted in the song of experience? Do we find both aspects working in an average human being?
Ans: The two matched poems are connected because, in both the poems, the figures of Peace, Pity, mercy, and love are presented by Blake. The four virtues are related as aspects of the form of God. In both poems, speaker-related human beings with abstract qualities like love and peace, resembling God's substantial virtue. In the first half, the speaker depicts the human having innate characteristics with many virtues. Similarly, In the second poem, the poet portrays humans as a figure of moral value by examining the situation where these qualities are required as moral values come with moral commitments to society and some virtues. As the human is master of their virtues, then we can find both the aspects working in an average human being.

Q2: How would you explain the lines
“For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And peace, the human dress?”
Ans: To a human being, the poem's above lines represent the four virtues: peace, pity, love, and mercy. The poet portrays the importance of all these virtues in human life. He describes virtues as the essence of life. Mercy is a face with sympathy, peace, and love that exists in man's existence, first as a form, then as clothing, and last as heavenly form. All of these then resemble substantial virtues of God. These different virtues affect human lifestyles. Humans need to carry virtue as a part of their personality as it does not matter what will strive for virtue for anyone. By this, it would be a heaven on the earth, and the world will be full of colours.

Q3: How does Mercy, pity, peace and love get distorted into the human brain?
Ans: The virtues like pity, peace, mercy, and love get distorted in the human brain if they are broken and manipulated that humans have accomplished in today's time for their own needs and satisfaction. In recent times, humans have divided these virtues based on religion, creed, caste, and colour and are employed as a cruel ploy to enforce humanity. Suppose these virtues are suppressed or have no value, and the religious creed keeps on spreading, then under an attractive guise. In that case, it engenders deception, and ultimately evil powers come to act and arise at a great height in the human mind and take over the good, then it leads to destruction and death. The virtues then get distorted and evaporate eventually on the division of the society based on religious creed or caste.

Q4: Blake’s poetry expresses one aspect of his multidimensional view of the human experience of mankind once whole and happy, now fallen into discord and training from which it must be rescued. Explain with reference to these two points?
Ans: The two poems have an equivalent meaning of explaining moral values and straightforward guides that help the citizenry live peacefully. In the early decades, compassion for others was the motto of humanity that led to better living to understanding. The surrounding breathes the air of happiness. But in today's era, personal gain and selfish nature have completely changed the picture. There is no virtues or moral value left in humans as their selfishness has overcome the feeling of love and compassion. A new generation made personal gain and selfish motives as their slogans. Today's generation must be rescued by explaining the impacts of evils before falling into its trap. All of the virtues described in the poem, such as love, mercy, peace, and pity, should be instilled in the hearts of the next generation so that they comprehend and treat everyone with love, causing everyone to appreciate the importance of doing good actions. Kindness has the potential to make everything better.

Language Work

Q1: Certain words in the poem have been capitalised. Can you think of the reason for this?
Ans: Some of the words are capitalized in the poem to draw the reader's attention to their importance in the aspects and context of the poem. Capitalization given to words like To Mercy, Peace, Pity, and love refers to the virtues necessary to bring into the reader's attention as they should be present in the life of man as an important part. Capitalization of the words is used to derive the concentration of the readers to the idea to convey the readers about the meaning of virtues and what they denote or specify with the effectiveness of capitalization.

Q2: Count the syllable in the line of ‘The Divine Image’ Do you see a pattern? The first line has eight and the second line has six syllables. Two syllables make a foot in poetry. Here, the first syllable of each foot is unstressed and the second syllable is stressed.
Ans: Yes, In the lines of 'The Divine Image,' we can see a pattern. The first and second line contains eight and six syllables respectively. Here, the first syllable of each foot is unstressed as it is more central and prominent and stronger than the other. Hence, It is denoted as the head of the syllable. On the other hand, the second syllable in the foot is stressed. This second syllable in the foot is called a weak syllable.