Important Question Answers: Poem - A legend of Northland

Short Answer Type Questions

Q1. Why does the poet say that the hours of the day are few ?

Ans: In Northland the nights are long and the days are short, so there are very few hours of daylight.

Q2. Who came knocking at the door of the old woman? Why was he there ?

Ans: Saint Peter knocked at the old woman's door. He was weak from fasting and travelling, and he was looking for food.

Q3. Is this a true story? Which part of the poem do you think is really important ?

Ans: This is a legend, not strictly factual. The most important part is the woman's refusal to share her food; her greed and lack of compassion lead to the saint's curse, which gives the poem its moral centre.

Q4. Is this poem correct in being known as a legend? Explain.

Ans: A legend is a traditional tale that contains some truth mixed with imaginative or symbolic elements. This poem fits that form because it uses a simple, memorable event - the saint's visit and the woman's punishment - to teach a moral lesson, and it adds a supernatural element when the woman is turned into a bird.

Long Answer Type Questions

Q1. What are the poetic devices in the ballad 'A Legend of the Northland'?

Ans: The ballad uses several poetic devices . It opens with assonance in phrases such as "Away, away," which repeats vowel sounds. The poem is arranged in quatrain stanzas (four-line stanzas) and often uses enjambment, so a sentence continues from one line to the next without end punctuation, producing a smooth narrative flow. There is a clear narrator and direct address, which gives the poem a conversational tone. The rhyme pattern alternates across lines, and the poet uses sensory imagery to show the cold of Northland and the smell and sight of baking cakes. Finally, the poem uses a moral or symbolic twist when the woman is transformed into a woodpecker, which explains the bird's behaviour in a memorable way.

Q2. What is a dramatic narrative? Is our poem a form of dramatic narrative ?

Ans: A dramatic narrative is a poem that tells a story through a sequence of events and includes characters, actions, and sometimes dialogue. It usually has a clear beginning, middle, and end, and presents a situation that leads to a meaningful conclusion or moral lesson.A Legend of the Northland is a dramatic narrative because it tells the story of Saint Peter and a greedy old woman. The poem begins by describing the cold land of the North and introduces the characters. When Saint Peter, tired and hungry, asks the woman for a cake, she keeps making smaller cakes but refuses to share any. This creates conflict in the story. In the end, Saint Peter punishes her by turning her into a woodpecker who must peck at hard wood to find food. The poem includes action, dialogue, and a moral lesson about greed and generosity. Therefore, the poem is rightly called a dramatic narrative.

Value Based Questions

Q1. Why did the woman bake a little cake ?

Ans: The woman baked a very small cake because she was stingy and did not want to give away her food. She kept making the cake thinner and smaller until it was only a scrap, yet she still refused to part with it. Her unwillingness to share, even with a hungry traveller, shows her greed. As a result, the saint punished her by transforming her into a woodpecker that must peck at trees to find food.

Q2. Greed is a quality which God does not like. Discuss it in the context of the poem.

Ans: The poem presents greed as a serious moral fault. The old woman's refusal to give even a tiny portion of food to a needy man shows how selfishness harms others and degrades the person who is greedy. The saint's curse demonstrates that selfish behaviour has consequences. The moral is clear: generosity and compassion are valued, while greed leads to punishment and loss. This lesson encourages readers to share what they have and to help those in need.