Extract Based Questions: No Men Are Foreign - Class 9 PDF Download

Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.

Q1: Remember, no men are strange, no countries foreign
Beneath all uniforms, a single body breathes
Like ours: the land our brothers walk upon
Is earth like this, in which we all shall lie.

(a) Who does the poet address in the poem? Name the poetic device used in line 1.
Ans: The poet is addressing the readers in the poem. The poetic device used here is Apostrophe.

(b) What does the word “uniform” mean?
Ans: The word “uniform” refers to the distinctive clothing worn by members of the same organization or body or by children attending certain schools.

(c) What breathes beneath all uniforms?
Ans: A single body breathes beneath all uniforms. This means beneath superficial differences, there is a similarity.

(d) What is the irony in uniform?
Ans: Uniform implies a dress, costume or identification code that is similar to a group or organisation. But because every nation has a different uniform, the world remains divided rather than united.

Q2: Remember, no men are strange, no countries foreign
Beneath all uniforms, a single body breathes
Like ours: the land our brothers walk upon
Is earth like this, in which we all shall lie.

(a) Why does the poet feel ‘no men are foreign’?
Ans: The poet feels that no human beings are strange or different as beneath a different exterior all human beings breathe just like any other person.

(b) Who are referred to as brothers?
Ans: All human beings are brothers, irrespective of their superficial differences.

(c) What two things are common to all people as referred to in lines three and four of the extract?
Ans: This is because all walk on the same land and will be buried in the same earth after death.

(d) ‘In which we shall all lie.’ When will this happen?
Ans: We shall lie under the soil, in our grave, after our death.

Q3: They, too, aware of sun and air and water,
Are fed by peaceful harvests, by war’s long winter starv’d.
Their hands are ours, and in their lines we read
A labour not different from our own.

(a) Whom does ‘they’ refer to?
Ans: They refers to those people who hail from countries different from ours.

(b) What is the significance of the word “too”?
Ans: The word too is significant because it emphasizes that “they” or people who are said to be our enemies are just like us in their need of sun, air and water.

(c) What does the poet mean by ‘peaceful harvests’?
Ans: Peaceful harvests are the crops grown in abundance during times of peace.

(d) What is the message of the poem?
Ans: The message of the poem is that no men are strangers in this world because all people on earth are connected through their common humanity. We share a number of similarities even with our supposed enemies.

Q4: They, too, aware of sun and air and water,
Are fed by peaceful harvests, by war’s long winter starv ’d.
Their hands are ours, and in their lines we read
A labour not different from our own.

(a) What are the common elements in the universe that are shared by all?
Ans: All of us share the common elements of sun, air and water.

(b) What happens to people during wartime?
Ans: Wars lead to deprivation causing famines, starvation and deaths.

(c) Explain “Their hands are ours.” What can we see in ‘their’ hands?
Ans: Our hands, and the hands of our so-called enemies are similar. Our hands show the same signs of hard work and struggle.

(d) “In their lines we read.” What do we read in their lines?
Ans: In the lines on their face and body we can read that though they belong to another land, they have worked hard throughout their lives, just like us.

Q5: Remember they have eyes like ours that wake
Or sleep, and strength that can be won
By love. In every land is common life
That all can recognise and understand.

(a) How does the author show that men from other countries have the same basic requirements as his own countrymen?
Ans: Men from other countries have the same requirements as his own countrymen by saying that they enjoy the same sunlight, breathe the same air and drink the same water.

(b) In what respect are their eyes compared to ours?
Ans: Their eyes are compared to us in that they too wake and sleep, just as we do.

(c) Whose strength is referred to in the extract?
Ans: The poet is referring to the strength of people who are from another country.

(d) Explain how strength can be won by love?
Ans: Their strength can be won by love because everybody responds to love and appreciates the feeling of brotherhood.

Q6: Remember they have eyes like ours that wake
Or sleep, and strength that can be won
By love. In every land is common life
That all can recognise and understand.
(a) Name three basic requirements the author feels that men from other countries have which are the same as his own countrymen.
Ans: The author feels that men from other countries enjoy the same sunlight, breathe the same air and drink the same water. Not only this, they also work hard to earn a living.

(b) What is it that can be recognised and understood?
Ans: It can be recognised and understood that life is common everywhere.

(c) Explain: In every land is common life That all can recognise and understand.
Ans: People living in another land are just like us. They too understand the concept and feeling of universal brotherhood.

(d) What is the poet’s message in this stanza?
Ans: Every population of every nation in this world recognizes the similarity in the life of people and that physical strength that can be won by love.

Q7: Let us remember, whenever we are told
To hate our brothers, it is ourselves
That we shall dispossess, betray, condemn.
Remember, we who take arms against each other

(a) Who are our brothers?
Ans: People from countries other than ours are our brothers.

(b) Why do we hate our brothers?
Ans: We are told by some selfish people to hate the others.

(c) The poet implies that one picks up arms for three reasons. What are they?
Ans: We pick up arms to take away what someone owns, to cheat or betray our brothers, or to condemn them.

(d) What happens when we hate our brothers?
Ans: When we hate our brothers, in effect we rob, cheat and condemn our own selves.

Q8: Let us remember, whenever we are told
To hate our brothers, it is ourselves
That we shall dispossess, betray, condemn.
Remember, we who take arms against each other
(a) Who is the narrator of the poem? To whom is the poem addressed?
Ans:The poem appears to have an omniscient narrator and is addressed to all of mankind.

(b) Who tells us to hate our brothers?
Ans: Our leaders tell us to hate our brothers who belong to another country or a different religious, social or political group.

(c) Why do they tell us to hate our brothers?
Ans: They tell us to hate our brothers for their own personal gains.

(d) Should we believe those who tell us to hate our brothers? Why/why not?
Ans: We should not become puppets in the hands of those who incite us to hatred. If we fight our brothers, we condemn ourselves too.

Q9: It is the human earth that we defile.
Our hells of fire and dust outrage the innocence
Of air that is everywhere our own,
Remember, no men are foreign, and no countries strange.

(a) How do we defile earth?
Ans: We defile the human earth by dividing our earth into countries and by developing enmity against another group of people.

(b) What you mean by the innocence of the air?
Ans: Air is essentially clean and pure so is it innocent.

(c) How does air become defiled?
Ans: We fight wars and carry on other such activities that raise dust and emit smoke. As a result, the air gets defiled.

(d) State briefly the theme of the poem.
Ans: The theme of the poem is one of universal brotherhood, internationalism and the renunciation of war.

Q10: It is the human earth that we defile.
Our hells of fire and dust outrage the innocence
Of air that is everywhere our own,
Remember, no men are foreign, and no countries strange.

(a) What do you understand by ‘human earth?’
Ans: Human earth refers to the earth on which human beings live and that is full of human feelings and human values of love and brotherhood.

(b) Explain: hells of fire and dust?
Ans: The hells of fire and dust are the fire and dust caused by wars between countries.

(c) How is the innocence of air outraged?
Ans: Fire and dust caused by wars make the air impure.

(d) How does the poet bring out the idea that men are not strangers to one another?
Ans: The poet specifies that just like us they wake and sleep and respond to love. Even if we look different on the exterior we all can recognise and understand the universal language of love and brotherhood.