Question

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are
              so placid and self-contain’d
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with
                  the mania of owning things.
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that
                  lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.
So they show their relations to me and I accept them,
They bring me tokens of myself, they evince
                   them plainly in their possession
I wonder where they get those tokens,
Did I pass that way huge times ago and negligently drop them?

(A1) Complete the following sentences with the help of the poem.
(a) The poet wishes he could.............................
(b) Animals do not complain about............................
(c) Animals do not merely discuss.............................
(d) Animals are not crazy about .............................

(A2) The qualities of animals that highlighted by the poet in the poem are

.............................................................................................................

............................................................................................................

..........................................................................................................

(A3) Name and explain the figures of speech.
“I stand and look at them long and long.’’

Answer 1

(A1) (a) The poet wishes he could live with animals.
(b) Animals do not complain about their condition. 
(c) Animals do not merely discuss duty to God. 
(d) Animals are not crazy about the owning things.

(A2)
(i) Animals are calm and self-contained. 
(ii) They are happy with the resources they have, and not crazy for owning things. 
(iii) They do not criticize what they already have like humans. 
(iv) They don’t idle away their time discussing their duties to
God like a human.

(A3)
Repetition – word ‘long’ is repeated to give more poetic effect.