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Question
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below :
We, heroes and poor devils;
the feeble, the braggarts; the unfinished,
and capable of everything impossible
as long as it's not seen or heard
Don Juans, women and men, who come and go
with the fleeting passage of a runner
or of a shy hotel for travellers.
And we with our small vanities,
our controlled hunger for climbing
and getting as far as everybody else has gotten
because it seems that is the way of the world.
(1) Who are heroes and what are they capable of? (1)
(2) According to you, what difficulties do the middle-class people face? (1)
(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line :
... Women and men, who come and go. (1)
(4) Pick out the line from the extract, which shows the overambitious nature of the middle-class people. (1)
Solution
(1) Ans. We are the heroes and we are capable of everything impossible.
(2) Ans. According to me, the problems that middle-class people face are they feel insecure & they try to imitate the rich. They yearn to be like them. They dream of a luxurious life like high-class people. Other than this, the major issues that they face are the tag of being middle class, attention deficit (ignorance), can't afford to get what they dream, stress & tension, socializing, catching up with technology, health & medical related problem, quality education & monetary problem.
(3) Ans. (3) The figure of speech is -
• Antithesis - Opposite words 'women & men' and 'come & go' are used in the sentence.
• Alliteration - Sound 'w' is repeated in the sentence.
• Repetition - Word 'and' is repeated in the sentence.
(4) Ans. and capable of everything impossible
and getting as far as everybody else has gotten
APPEARS IN
RELATED QUESTIONS
A1. Saving Motherland
I can save my motherland by putting an end to ……..
Republic Day! We grow aware
That nothing can be wrought by prayer
-Prop of the credulous-until
It is supported everywhere
By an all-powerful people's will !
We have been witness in the past to sights impossible to bear:
Famine and drought and dread and doom
Continue still to spread the gloom
Of humans turned to skeletons, to shrivelled bags of naked bones
Who have not even strength to vent their suffering through sobs and groans……
MAY EVERY Indian's heart become
An unafraid announcing drum
Echoing and re-echoing a new hope and a new desire
To burn up rubbish-heaps of hate,
Once and for all. Time cannot wait!
Burn up all selfish aims and ends in a great nation's cleansing fire!
Let India's millions chant in chorus:
A mighty future stands before us-
Down with all ruthless tyranny, down with all exploitation which
Renders the poor the poorer-and renders the bloated rich, more rich !
A 2. How does the poet express the condition of people during famines and droughts? (2)
Match:
Match the line with the figure of speech:
| 'A' | ‘B’ |
| (i) Drought and dread and doom | (a) Personification |
| (ii) Time cannot wait | (b) Alliteration |
| (c) Metaphor |
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Perhaps the Earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.
Now I’ll count upto twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.
(i) What does the Earth teach us? (1)
(ii) What does the poet mean to achieve by counting upto twelve? (1)
(iii) What is the significance of ‘keeping quiet’? (1)
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below :
If you accept counsel without getting sore
And re-assess yourself in the light thereof
If you pledge not to be obstinate any more
And meet others without any frown or scoff.
You may be the person I am looking for.
If you have the will to live and courage to die
You are a beacon-light for people far and wide
If you ignore the j eers and, thus, expose the lie
' That virtue and success do not go side by side.'
You are the person I am looking for.
(1) What advice does the poet give us about the interaction with others? (1)
(2) According to you, how should you behave with your parents? (1)
(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line : If you have the will to live and courage to die' (1)
(4) Pick out the words from the extract which indicate negative traits. (1)
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below
What makes a nation's pillars high
And its foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?
It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.
(1) Why are the wealthy kingdoms unstable'? (1)
(2) Do you feel wars are the only solution to the problems between nations'? Explain. (1)
(3) Give the rhyming scheme used in the extract. (1)
(4) Pick out the words/expressions related to the mighty kingdom. (1)
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
And then they came to its massive trunk
Fifty men with axes chopped and chopped
The great tree revealed its rings of two hundred years
We watched in terror and fascination this slaughter
As a raw mythology revealed to us its age
Soon afterwards we left Baroda for Bombay
Where there are no trees except the one
Which grows and seethes in one's dreams, its aerial roots Looking for ground to strike.
(1) What did the rings of the trunk of the tree reveal about its age? (1)
(2) According to you, how do trees help the mankind? (1)
(3) Give an example of 'Repetition' from the extract. (1)
(4) The poem has picturesque expressions. They make the poem lively. Pick out such expressions from, the extract. (1)
Read the following extract a.nd answer the questions given below:
And we with our small vanities,
our controlled hunger for climbing
and getting as far as everybody else has gotten
because it seems that is the way of the world:
an endless track of champions
and in a corner we, forgotten
maybe because of everybody else,
since they seemed too much like us
until they were robbed of their laurels,
their medals, their titles, their names.
(1) What is the way of the world?
(2) Do you think the middle-class people are satisfied with
their lives? Explain.
(3) Name and explain the figure· of speech in the following lines: ''Since they seemed so much like us.''
(4) Pick out the expressions from the extract showing the failure of man.
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor's sake
Stand fast and suffer long.
Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly ...
They build a nation's pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.
(1) What do you think is the underlying message of the extract?
(2) Which qualities of great men would you like to imbibe in you?
(3) Give the rhyming pairs of words of the first stanza.
(4) Pick out the expressions from the extract which show the hard work of brave men.
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
Old women do not fly on magic wands
nor make obscure prophecies
from ominous forests.
They just sit on vacant park benches
in the quiet evenings,
call doves by their names
and charm them with grains of maize.
Or, trembling like waves
they stand in endless queues in
government hospitals.
(1) What do old women do in the quiet evenings?
(2) Do you feel old women should be looked after by their
families? Justify your answer.
(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following
line: 'Or, trembling like waves.'
(4) Pick out two pictorial images from the extract.
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
How do you know
Peace is a woman?
I know, for
I met her yesterday
on my winding way
to the world's fare.
She had such a wonderful face.
just like a golden flower faded
before her prime.
(1) How does the poet describe the face of peace?
(2) Do you feel mother can be a symbol of peace? Explain it in your own words.
(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following
line: 'Peace is a woman.'
(4) How does the Poet come to know that peace is a woman?
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
I ran into a stranger as he passed by
"Oh, excuse me please'' was my reply.
He said, ''Please excuse me too; wasn't even watching ·for you.''
We were very polite, this stranger and I.
We went on our way and we said good-bye.
But at home, a different story is told,
How we treat our loved ones, young and old.
Later that day, cooking the evening meal,
My daughter stood beside me very still.
When I turned, I nearly knocked her down.
''Move out of the way," I said with a frown.
She walked away, her little heartbroken.
I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken.
(1) How does the poetess greet the stranger?
(2) Describe an incident when your mother was harsh at you.
(3) Write down the rhyme scheme of the first stanza.
(4) Pick out the line from the extract which shows the mother's anger.
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
The banyan tree was three times as tall as our house
Its trunk had a circumference of fifty feet
Its scraggly aerial roots fell to the ground
From thirty feet or more so first they cut the branches
Sawing them off for seven days and the heap was huge
Insects and birds began to leave the tree
And then they came to its massive trunk
Fifty men with axes chopped and chopped
The great tree revealed its rings of two hundred years
We watched in terror and fascination this slaughter
(1) How does the poet describe the banyan tree?
(2) According to you, how are trees important to maintain ecological balance?
(3) Pick out an example of repetition from the extract.
(4) Pick out the words in the extract which are related to the killing.
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
Old women once
were continents.
They had deep woods in them,
lakes, mountains, volcanoes even,
even raging gulfs.
When the earth was in heat
they melted, shrank,
leaving only their maps.
You can fold them
and keep them handy:
who knows, they might help you find
your way home.
Question
(1) What does the geographical imagery used in this extract suggest?
(2) Who do you think should take care of your grandparents? Why?
(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following lines: Old women once were continents.
(4) Find out the expressions that show how old women are still capable of caring for others, despite their old age?
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
The banyan tree was three times as tall as our house
Its trunk had a circumference of fifty feet
Its scraggly aerial roots fell to the ground
From thirty feet or me>re so first they cut the branches
Sawing them off for seven days and the heap was huge
Insects and birds began to leave the tree
And then they came to its massive trunk
Fifty men with axes chopped and chopped
The great tree revealed its rings of two hundred years
Questions:
(1) What revealed the age of the banyan tree?
(2) How would you save the natural habitat of wildlife?
(3) Find from this extract an example of 'Repetition'.
(4) Pick out any two lines from the extract showing the pictorial quality of human action.
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below: (4)
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
While I lay awake in bed,
God's still small voice came to me and said,
"While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use,
But the children you love, you seem to abuse.
Look on the kitchen floor,
You'll find some flowers there by the door.
Those are the flowers she brought for you.
She picked them herself, pink, yellow and blue.
She stood quietly not to spoil the surprise,
And you never saw the tears in her eyes."
(1) What did the mother think as she lay sleepless in the bed?
(2) According to you, why shouldn't we hurt the feelings
of others?
(3) Pick out any two pairs of rhyming words from this
extract.
(4) What kind of poem is this? What is its purpose?
Read the given extract and then do all activities that follow:
If you do not get lowered in your own eyes
While you raise yourself in those of others
If you do not give into gossips and lies
Rather heed them not,- saying, ‘Who bothers?’
You may be the person I am looking for.
If you crave not for praise when you win
And look not for sympathy while you lose
If cheers let not your head toss or spin
And after a set-back you offer no excuse.
You may be the person I am looking for.
If you accept counsel without getting sore
And reassess yourself in the light thereof
If you pledge not to be obstinate any more
And meet others without any frown or scoff.
You may be the person I am looking for.
A1. Enlist (2)
Enlist any four things that inspire you to live inspire of failures:
(i) ____________________
(ii) ___________________
(iii) ___________________
(iv) ___________________
A2. Poetic Device? (2)
Figure of speech :
Pick out an example of Refrain from the extract and write down its criteria to identify it.
A3. Personal Response (2)
Express your views in about 50 words, the need to look for an ideal person.
A4. Poetic creativity? (2)
If you do not get lowered in your own eyes.
While you raise yourself in those of others.
If you do not give in to gossips and lies
--------------------------------------------------------------------
You may be the person I am looking for.
Compose a line of your own to rhyme with the second line in the given stanza.
Read the following extract and then do all the activities that follow:
We used to watch the valley play hide and seek.
Shadowed by the mountain's immeasurable peak.
Considered the largest thing known to man.
Now skyscrappers are the most extravagant and titanic part of the plan.
We used to sit next to the stream. The wind caressing our crown Watching the magnificent untamed beasts
roam far, far from town. Now they are just characters of folktales, memories we pass down.
An adjective to describe someone, no more a noun
This could be our reality
If we continue to live in impracticality
No more vast, endless oceans _______
Only littered swamps, the colour of a witch's potions.
No more soaring birds overhrad _______
Only planes, so loud they rock your bed.
No more woods
No more natural goods.
We have little time
To change our self centered, one track minds
Before we are stuck with a great heap of jumble
Left only with an artifical concrete jungle.
A1. Complete ______
Complete the following sentences choosing correct alternatives:
(1) The poet used to watch the valley play hide and seek, because _______
(i) he had integration with the nature and landscape
(ii) he had no park to enjoy playthings
(iii) he had no friends
(2) According to the poet, only littered swamps could be reality, because _______
(i) vast, endless oceans are getting polluted due to our neglect of flora and fauna.
(ii) water from oceans will become magical potions.
(iii) Oceans are changing into swamps for fishing purposes.
A2. Poetic device
Figure of speech
Name and explain the figure of speech used in the following line: ‘We used to watch the valley play hide and seek’.
A3. Personal response:
Suggest some remedies on how we can enrich our nature.
A4. Poetic creativity
Compose the following four lines as a free verse using the words life, oxygen, trees, nature with the help of
clue given in each line so it would covey message :
No _________
No __________
No __________
No __________
Read the extract and do the activities that follow: (4)
| Tom | : | (down L.). I believe the place is haunted |
| George | : | Nonsense. No one believes in haunted houses nowadays. There's someting gueer about the place, I'II admit, but can't be haunted. (Scream off R.) |
| Ginger | : | Listen! What was that ? (Scream repeated. This time much louder.) |
| Alfie | : | I want to go home ! |
| Tom | : | It sounds as though someone's being murdered. (Grappling with the door). I'm going to force this door. |
| Ginger | : | (Crossing L.) It's going to be a tough job, Tom |
| Alfie | : | (more lustily). I want to go home |
| George | : | (up C.) Shut up Alfie, you'II rose the house. Listen! There's someone coming _____ and it's someone in white |
| Ginger | : | It's a ghost |
| Alfie | : | (rushing to the door L.) I'm going home! |
| George | : | (coming down L.) Let me give you a hand with this door. |
| Tom | : | Buck up! |
| Ginger | : | Put your shoulder against it. (Enter the Ghost R. In the dim light his figure has a distinctly uncanny appearance). |
| Ghost | : | What on earth's the meaning of this commotion? (IIe switches on the light and is seen to be a dentist, wearing a white surgical coat. The “grinning mouths'' are seen to be models made of plaster of Paris. The boys stare about them in amazement) |
| Dentist | : | (sternly). Who are you, and what are you doing in my house? |
| Tom | : | I say – I'm awfully sorry – but we thought you were a ghost. |
| Dentist | : | (bewildered). A ghost! Why on earth should you think I was a ghost? |
| George | : | (crossing C.) I'm awfully sorry, sir. You see, we were out carol-singing, and____ |
| Dentist | : | Oh, so it was you who who were making that horrible din outside? |
| George | : | Yes – that was Ginger's idea ____ |
B1. Complete _____
Complete the following sentences:
(i) The boys considered the dentist as a ghost , because ________
(ii) Listening to the repeated scream, Tom thought that ________
(iii) The grinning mouths were models made of ________
(iv) The idea of carol-singing was given by _______
B2. Convert dialogue into a story:
Convert the above dialoguc into a story in about 50 words.
Read the following poem and write an appreciation of it with the help of the given points in a paragraph format:
|
The Pulley When God at first made Man, So strength first made a way; For if I should (said He) Yet let him keep the rest, |
- The title of the poem (1)
- The poet (1)
- Central idea/theme (2)
- Rhyme scheme (1)
- Figure of speech (1)
- Special features (2)
- Favourite line/lines (1)
- Why I like/don’t like the poem (1)
But must I confess how I liked him,
How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough
And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless,
Into the burning bowels of this earth ?
(a) Who does ‘him’ refer to ?
(b) What dilemma did the poet face ?
(c) Pick out and explain the figure of speech used in line 2.
(d) Explain : ‘burning bowels of this earth’.
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
I celebrate the virtues and vices
of suburban middle-class people
who overwhelm the refrigerator
and position colourful umbrellas
near the garden that longs for a pool:
for my middle-class brother
this principle of supreme luxury:
what are you and what am I, and we go on deciding
the real truth in this world.
(1) Give a list of the objects of luxury as given in the extract.
(2) What is your idea about a Luxurious life?
(3) Give an example of a 'paradox' from the extract.
(4) This poem does not follow any fix-verse pattern (rhyme scheme). What type of poem is it?
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
We used to walk down the snow sprinkled trail,
Maybe catch a glimpse of a bobcat, playing eye tricks with its tail
Now there is only one type of bobcat we see
The one that is for free, clearing the pavements of all debris
We used to walk through a footpath in a forest of pine
The smell intoxicating our lungs and mind
Now the only smell to be found comes from plastic trees
Swaying on my rear-view mirror, labelled pine breeze
Questions:
(1) What does the poet miss?
(2) What, according to you, are the causes of the degradation of our ecosystem?
(3) 'We used to walk down the snow sprinkled trail.'
Name and to explain the figure of speech from the above line.
(4) What kind of feelings are aroused after reading the extract?
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
Now there is only one type of bobcat we see
The one that is for free, clearing the pavements of all debris
We used to walk through a footpath in a forest of pine
The smell intoxicating our lungs and mind
Now the only smell to be found comes from plastic trees
Swaying on my rear-view mirror, labelled pine breeze
We used to watch the valley play hide and seek
Questions:
(1) What signs of urbanisation are mentioned in the first six lines of the extract?
(2) Do you think skyscrapers are necessary? Why do you think so?
(3) Pick out the example of personification from the extract.
(4) Pick out the lines from the extract expressing the fond memory of the poet about the pines.
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below :
If you accept counsel without getting sore
And re-assess yourself in the light thereof
If you pledge not to be obstinate any more
And meet others without any frown or scoff.
You may be the person I am looking for.
If you have the will to live and courage to die
You are a beacon-light for people far and wide
If you ignore the jeers and, thus, expose the lie
"That virtue and success do not go side by side."
You are the person I am looking for.
(1) What does the poet advise us about interacting with others?
(2) What good qualities do you expect in your friend?
(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line:
"If you have the will to live and the courage to die."
(4) Pick out the words from the extract which denote negative traits.
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below :
All the rest of her children, she said,
are on the nuclear
blacklist of the dead,
all the rest, unless
the whole world understands -
that peace is a woman.
A thousand candles then lit
in her starry eyes, and I saw angels bearing a moonlit message.
(1) What appeal does the mother make to the world?
(2) What according to you, are the evils of war?
(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line:
'A thousand candles then lit.'
(4) Pick out the lines that suggest the hope for world peace.
Read the extract and do all the activities that follow:
We used to think seven generations ahead
Now we have become selfish
Only thinking about me, myself and I
Only thinking in the present, not learning from the past.
We used to stroll barefoot through the overgrown grass,
Its morning dew tickling our feet
Now we step outside onto the rugged concrete
No more natural than the over-processed food we eat
We used to walk down the snow sprinkled trail,
Maybe catch a glimpse of a bobcat, playing eye tricks with its tail
Now there is only one type of bobcat we see
The one that is fur-free, clearing the pavement of all debris
We used to walk through a footpath in a forest of pine
The smell intoxicating our lungs and mind
Now the only smell to be found comes from plastic trees.
Swaying on my rearview mirror, labelled pine breeze
we used to watch the valley play hide and seek
A1. Web :
Complete the web with the things man used to do in the past:
A2. Poetic Devices :
'We used to walk down the snow sprinkled trail'
Name the figure of speech in the above line and find out another example of the same from the extract.
A3. Personal Response :
Write in brief your views about past and present lifestyle.
A4. Poetic Creativity :
'Now we step outside onto the rugged concrete No more natural than the over-processed food.'
Read the above lines and compose at least two lines of your own. based on the same theme.
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below :
If you do not get lowered in your own eyes
While you raise yourself in those of others
If you do not give in to gossips and lies
Rather heed them not, saying, 'Who bothers'?
You may be the person I am looking for.
If you crave not for praise when you win
And look not for sympathy while you lose
If cheers let not your head toss or spin
And after a set -back you offer no excuse.
You may be the person I am looking for.
(1) What care should you take while raising yourself in the eyes of others?
(2) What good qualities of your parents impress you the most?
(3) Pick out the example of antithesis from the first stanza of the above extract.
(4) Pick out the lines from the extract which advise you how to react at your success and defeat.
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
The banyan tree was three times as tall as our house
Its trunk had a circumference of fifty feet
Its scraggly aerial roots fell to the ground
From thirty feet or more so first they cut the branches
Sawing them off for seven days and the heap was huge
Insects and birds began to leave the tree
And then they came to its massive trunk
Fifty men with axes chopped and chopped
The great tree revealed its rings of two hundred years
We watched in terror and fascination this slaughter
As a raw mythology revealed to us its age
(1) What were the feelings of the family members at the felling of the banyan tree?
(2) Why, according to you, did insects and birds begin to leave the banyan tree?
(3) Find out an example of 'Repetition' from the extract.
(4) Pick out the line from the extract expressing the feelings of the people who watched the merciless cutting of the banyan
tree.
Read the following extract and answer the questions given below:
I asked her why
She was so sad?
She told me her baby
was killed in Auschwitz.
her daughter in Hiroshima
and her sons in Vietnam,
Ireland, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon,
Bosnia. Rwanda, Kosovo, and Chechnya.
(1) Why was the woman in the extract sad?
(2) What do you think. are the dire consequences ofa war?
(3) Name and explain the figure of speech in the following lines :
'I asked her why
she was so sad ?'
(4) What purpose docs the dialogue form serve in the extract?
And as the light came on,
Fowler had his first authentic thrill of the day.
For halfway across the room,
a small automatic pistol in his hand, stood a man.
Ausable blinked a few times.
(a) Who was standing in the room with a pistol in his hand?
i. Ausable
ii. Fowler
iii. Max
iv. A waiter
(b) Ausable blinked because he:
i. was getting adjusted to the light.
ii. got afraid of the man with a pistol.
iii. was thrilled to have reached his room.
iv. started thinking of how to get rid of the man.
(c) Fowler was thrilled because what he saw looked like a ……………..
(d) Which word in the extract means the same as ‘genuine/real’?
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition.
(a) The poet who has written these lines is ____________
i. Robert Frost
ii. Carolyn Wells
iii. Walt Whitman
iv. Ogden Nash
(b) Who are ‘they’ referred to here?
i. Animals
ii. Tigers
iii. Ananda’s friend's
iv. Wanda’s dresses
(c) The poet looks at them long and long because he __________
(d) Which word in the extract means ‘complain’?
Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow:
(There is a languid, emerald sea,
where the sole inhabitant is me-
a mermaid drifting blissfully.)
Questions :
(a) Who does 'me' stand for?
(b) How does 'me' feel?
(c) Who is 'me' compared to?
(d) Which word in the extract means the opposite of 'sorrowfully'?
Based on the careful reading of the passage given below, answer any four out of five questions that follow:
|
1. When you see me sitting quietly, 2. When my bones are stiff and aching, 3. I’m the same person I was back then, - Maya Angelou |
- What does the poet think she looks like, when sitting quietly?
- Does the poet invite pity? Quote a line to support your argument.
- What has changed in the poet over the course of years?
- Pick out a word from the second stanza which means ‘faltering’.
- Why does the poet consider herself lucky?
Read the poem ‘Digging’ by Seamus Heaney, given below.
|
Between my finger and my thumb The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft Digging by Seamus Heaney |
Based on your understanding of the poem, answer the given questions.
- What is the significance of the comparison of the pen to a gun in the second line of the poem? 1
- It highlights the violence and aggression associated with writing.
- It emphasizes the power of the written word to bring about change.
- It suggests that the act of writing can be just as dangerous as using a weapon.
- It demonstrates the speaker's admiration for their father's skill with both a pen and a spade.
- Which of the following statements best describes the speaker's attitude towards his father's work in the poem? 1
- The speaker admires his father's hard work and dedication to his task.
- The speaker is critical of his father's choice of profession and feels it is beneath him.
- The speaker is indifferent to his father's work and does not place much value on it.
- The speaker is resentful of his father for making them participate in the work.
- Complete the sentence appropriately. 1
The poet’s use of a metaphor in the line "The coarse boot nestled on the lug, ...” compares ______. - What can be inferred about the setting of the poem based on the description of the sound of the spade sinking into the ground? 1
- The setting is rural and quiet.
- The setting is urban and noisy.
- The setting is industrial, yet serene.
- The setting is suburban and bustling.
- What is the effect of the repetition of the word "digging" throughout the poem? 1
