English Literature - ...

About the poem

Read to understand

A. Answer these questions with reference to the context.

‘“But you sit so still and straight,

Ever staring, ever smiling, at the door.”’

1. Who does ‘you’ refer to?

 

2. Who says these lines?

 

3. What is the speaker’s mood at this time? Why?

 

B. Answer these questions.

1. What sounds does the child hear in the night?

 

2. Does the child think the sounds are from an animal or a human? Why do you say so?

 

3. What explanation does the father give for the sounds?

 

4. Was the child satisfied with the explanations? How do you know?

 

5. Which lines tell us that the child was a little afraid of the dark?

 

Discuss and write

1. Does the poem make you feel sad, nervous, or a little scared? Why?

 

2. Do you think the father answered the child’s questions truthfully? Give a reason for your answer.

 

3. In stanza 4, the child says, ‘Tell me what you’re waiting for,’ but the father does not respond. How do you think the child must have felt?

 

Read to appreciate

While reading the poem ‘Night Voices’, you must have noticed a pattern of the rhyming words that runs through the four stanzas of the poem. What do you think is the rhyme scheme?

A. Fill in the blanks to identify some of the style elements used by the poet.

a) There are __________ lines in each stanza.

b) The _________ and the _______ line in each stanza end with the same word.

c) The _______and the _________ line in each stanza end with rhyming words.

 

B. Arrange the words in these lines in the correct order to get a stanza written in the same style as used in ‘Night Voices’. The last word in each line is underlined.

I / knocking. / I / Father, / heard / some / father, / think

on / the / that’s / porch?/ Who / is / walking / it

I / see./ none / can / that / There’s

dark / and / For / it’s / dreary./ quite

sure / But / I’m / someone / porch./ the / on / there’s