Previous Year Questions: Fog | English Class 10 PDF Download

Ans: In both Dust of Snow by Robert Frost and Fog by Carl Sandburg, Nature acts as a transformative force that subtly influences human emotions and perspectives. In Dust of Snow, a crow’s simple act of shaking snow from a hemlock tree uplifts the speaker’s mood, shifting it from despair to hope. This interaction highlights Nature’s ability to offer unexpected moments of solace and renewal. Similarly, in Fog, Sandburg personifies fog as a cat, moving silently and mysteriously, enveloping the city in a quiet, contemplative atmosphere. The fog’s gentle presence suggests Nature’s power to create stillness and introspection, transforming the urban environment. Both poems portray Nature as a quiet yet profound force that impacts human experience through subtle, everyday occurrences, emphasizing its role as a catalyst for emotional and psychological change.
Explanation: In Dust of Snow, Nature is depicted through the crow, snow, and hemlock tree, which together create a moment of serendipity that alters the speaker’s outlook. The poem underscores Nature’s understated yet significant role in emotional healing. In Fog, Nature is embodied by the fog, described with animal-like qualities, suggesting its autonomy and quiet authority. The fog’s movement over the city and harbor symbolizes Nature’s ability to envelop and calm human spaces, encouraging reflection. Both poems use concise imagery to show Nature’s subtle interventions, contrasting its simplicity with its profound effects on human consciousness.

Ans: The metaphor in “The Fog comes on little cat feet” compares fog to a cat, emphasizing its silent, graceful, and elusive movement. This vivid imagery captures the fog’s quiet arrival and departure, highlighting its transient and mysterious nature.
Explanation: By likening fog to a cat, Sandburg conveys its stealthy and delicate approach, as cats move with precision and silence. The metaphor suggests the fog’s ability to envelop spaces unnoticed, creating an atmosphere of stillness and intrigue. It also reflects the fleeting quality of natural phenomena, as the fog, like a cat, lingers briefly before moving on, leaving a lasting impression of Nature’s subtle power.

Ans: The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Explanation: This paragraph, constituting the entire poem, uses concise and vivid imagery to personify fog as a cat. The phrases “little cat feet” and “silent haunches” evoke a sense of quiet, deliberate movement and presence. The fog’s brief “sitting” over the harbor and city suggests a moment of calm observation before it departs, emphasizing its transient and elusive nature. Sandburg’s minimalistic style enhances the poem’s impact, allowing readers to visualize and feel the fog’s gentle, mysterious influence on the landscape.