Worksheet: Poem - The Last Bargain | English Class 8 PDF Download

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)

Q1: What is the speaker doing in the poem?
(a) Selling goods
(b) Walking on a road
(c) Gardening
(d) Playing with a child

Q2: Why does the speaker reject the king's offer?
(a) The king has no power
(b) The speaker dislikes the king
(c) The king's power is worthless
(d) The speaker prefers money

Q3: What does the old man offer to hire the speaker with?
(a) Power
(b) Gold coins
(c) A smile
(d) Shells

Q4: Why does the speaker reject the old man's offer?
(a) Money cannot buy happiness
(b) The speaker dislikes gold coins
(c) The old man is not sincere
(d) The speaker prefers power

Q5: Who offers to hire the speaker with a smile?
(a) King
(b) Old man
(c) Fair lady
(d) Child

Fill in the Blanks

Q1: In the evening, the garden fences were full of _________.

Q2: The fair lady's smile faded away, and she melted into _________.

Q3: The child offers to hire the speaker with _________.

Q4: The speaker ultimately accepts the agreement of the _________.

Q5: The bargain with the child makes the speaker a _________ man.

Answer the following Questions

Q1: Why speaker deny the king proposal?

Q2: What did the old man want? Was he successful in his bargain?

Q3: Explain, “I hire you with nothing”?

Q4: Who is the speaker in the poem?

Q5: “The king, sword in hand” suggests
(i) wealth
(ii) power
(iii) more power than wealth
Mark the appropriate item in the context of stanza 1.

Q6: The old man offered the speaker a lot of money. Why did he turn down the offer?

Q7: Find the poem, lines that match the following. Read both one after another.
(i) I have nothing to give you except goodwill and cheer.
(ii) Her happiness was no more than sorrow in disguise.
(iii) the king’s might was not worth much.

Q8: How did the speaker feel after talking to the child on the beach?

Q9: Read the extract and answer the questions that follow:
In the heat of the mid-day the houses stood with shut doors.
I wandered along the crooked lane.
An old man came out with his nag of gold.
He pondered and said, “I will hire you with my money.”
He weighed his coins one by one, but I turned away.
Paraphrase: During mid-day, an old man came with gold coins and said that he would hire with money but the speaker rejects all his money because money will soon be spent and money cannot buy us everlasting happiness.
(i) Where was the man heading to?
(ii) Who came to him and what did he offer?
(iii) Why did he ‘turned away’?
(iv) Explain – ‘weighed his coins one by one’?

Q10: Read the extract and answer the questions that follow:
It was evening. The garden hedge was all a flower.
The fair maid came out sand said, “I will hire you with a smile.”
Her smile paled and melted into tears, and she went back alone into the dark
Paraphrase: In the evening, the garden fences were full of flowers. A fair lady came out from garden and said that he would hire him with a smile but her smile faded away and she melted into tears and returned into the dark leaving the speaker alone.
(i) Where did the poet go in the evening?
(ii) Who said ‘I will hire you’?
(iii) What did she offer to pay?
(iv) Why had her ‘smile pale’?

You can access the solutions to this worksheet here.