KSEEB Solutions for Class 10 English Poem Chapter 8 Mending Wall

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Karnataka State Syllabus Class 10 English Poem Chapter 8 Mending Wall

Mending Wall Questions and Answers, Summary, Notes

Pre – Reading Activity:

Question 1.
Why do people build walls around their property? Are they really required ? Discuss in pairs
Answer:
Walls around property are not really needed. When people trust one another, there need be any barriers at all. Similarly, when everybody has sufficient to eat and drink, and there are not many differences in the amount of wealth that people possess, there need not be any barriers between people. However, differences in incomes and property owned do exist in the world, and hence people think their property should be fenced or walled to keep away poor people or animals from coming into their fields and walking away with their produce.

Besides, mischievous minds of some people tempt them to unnecessarily destroy what is others, so that they appear superior to them. This also necessitates walls around property. Distrust, suspicion, jealousy and miserliness prompt people to build walls around their property. Further, the very presence of walls makes people aware of the need for privacy of the owner, and makes them respect him. The presence of walls also enables people to be confident and have good relations with their neighbours.

II. Comprehension Questions

A. Answer briefly the following questions.

Question 1.
‘Something’ in line 1 refers to:
a. natural causes
b. supernatural causes
c. man-made causes
Answer:
(b) supernatural causes

Question 2.
How does nature disturb the stones on the wall?
Answer:
Wind, snow and rain disturb the stones and make them fall.

Question 3.
How do hunters disturb the stones on the wall?
Answer:
In order to force the rabbit out of its hiding place, the hunters disturb the stones.

Question 4.
Who does “they” in line 7 refer to?
Answer:
The hunters.

Question 5.
Who are the two characters in the poem?. (Note: the speaker is not the poet)
Answer:
The speaker and his neighbour.

Question 6.
When does the mending of the wall take place?
Answer:
At spring, the mending of the wall takes place.

Question 7.
When the poet says, “we have to use a spell to make them balance”
a. he really means that they had to use a magic spell to make the stones stand one above the other
b. he is just saying it humorously
c. he regrets that he did not know the magic
Answer:
(b) he is just saying it humorously.

Question 8.
“I let my neighbour know…” (line 12) What did the speaker let the neighbour know?
Answer:
The speaker lets his neighbour know that they should together repair the wall.

Question 9.
a) What is referred to as just another outdoor game?
Answer:
The keeping of stones one upon the other.

b) Why does the speaker call it a game?
Answer:
He sees no purpose in maintaining that wall and hence considers it a game. •

Question 10.
What argument does the speaker give to convince his neighbour that they do not need the wall?
Answer:
The speaker says that they do not need the wall because their fields are of two different kinds. The neighbour’s field has pine trees whereas the speaker has an apple orchard. The speaker feels his apple trees will never get across and eat the cones under his pines, and vice versa.

Question 11.
What is the neighbour’s stock reply?
Answer:
“Good fences make good neighbours”.

Question 12.
By building a wall between neighbours, what are we ‘walling in’ and what are we ‘walling out’?
Answer:
When we ‘wall in’ something, we are declaring that the property is solely ours and nobody else has the right to tread upon it. We ‘wall out’ or keep out everyone else from our property.

Question 13.
The speaker says, “I rather / he said it for himself
a) What does “it” refer to here?
Answer:
“It” refers to whatever is bringing down the wall every time they repair it.

b) What does the speaker mean by this statement?
Answer:
The speaker doesn’t want to say who is destroying the wall every time they rebuild it. He wants the neighbour to understand that walls are not being liked and hence they are being destroyed every time.

Question 14.
How does the neighbour carrying a stone in each hand appear to the poet?
Answer:
The neighbour looks like a savage from the old stone age to the speaker.

Question 15.
Darkness in line 41 refers to
a. darkness In the woods under the shade of a tree.
b. mental darkness, ignorance
c. his ‘blindness’ to see the light in the speaker’s arguments.
Answer:
(b) mental darkness, ignorance.

Question 16.
Frost says that his poem is a metaphor, saying one thing and meaning another. The wall in the poem is a metaphor. What do you think is the metaphorical meaning of a wall?
Answer:
The metaphorical meaning of the wall is the emotional barrier that people. erect between themselves and others.

Question 17.
Why do you think the speaker presents the wall? What does he want?
Answer:
The speaker does not relish the idea of a wall between neighbours who have nothing to fear from the other person. Besides, he finds that every spring-time, the wall is destroyed and they have to rebuild it. He finds this exercise futile because there are no cows too to keep away.

B. Close Study:

Read the following extract carefully. Discuss in pairs and then write the answers to the questions given below them.

Question 1.
“He moves in darkness as it seems to me, Not of woods only and the shade of trees.”
a) Who does ‘he’ in the first line refer to?
Answer:
The neighbour.

b) What does ‘darkness’ mean here?
Answer:
Ignorance.

c) Why does the speaker say that ‘he’ moves in darkness?
Answer:
The neighbour just repeats a sentence his father had told him and doesn’t give any other explanation for the futile exercise of maintaining the wall.

Question 2.
“Stay where you are until our backs are turned”
a) Who are these words said to?
Answer:
The boulders that make up the wall.

b) Who does “our” refer to?
Answer:
The speaker and his neighbour.

c) What is the tone of the speaker?
Answer:
humour.

III. Paragraph Writing:

Discuss in pairs the answers to the following question. Individually note down the points and then develop the points into one paragraph answer.

Question 1.
If you were given a chance to live with one of these characters in the poem, who would you like to live with? Why?
Answer:

1. The speaker; he is very logical and reasonable.
2. He has a good sense of humour.
3. He does not follow anything blindly but questions everything.
4. He wants to be in perfect harmony with everyone, doesn’t want barriers between human beings.

Paragraph: The speaker is more logical and reasonable and he has a good sense of humour. When the stones on barrier fall down due to rain and wind, he feels that the neighbour looks like a savage from the old stone era when he silently carries the stones and places them on the wall. For speaker’s repeated queries, the neighbour replied ‘good fences make good neighbours”. The speaker wants to be in perfect harmony with all human beings and doesn’t want any barriers at all. That is the reason he says that even nature doesn’t want barriers and keeps destroying them every time they repair the wall.

IV. Activities:

Question 1.
The two characters, the speaker and the neighbour have two totally opposing views on having a wall between their fields. Given below are a few statements, opinions and attitudes. Say who does each apply to. The first two are done for you.

1. something there is that doesn’t love a wall.
2. good fences make good neighbours.
3. very conservative
4. logical and reasonable
5. light-hearted, humorous
6. playing safe
7. respects tradition
8. even God and nature seem to be against a wall between men A
9. apple orchard
10. living beyond the hills
11. an old stone savage
12. cosmopolitan in outlook

Answers:

1. Speaker
2. neighbour
3. neighbour
4. The speaker
5. The speaker
6. the neighbour
7. the neighbour
8. The speaker
9. The speaker
10. the neighbour
11. the neighbour
12. The speaker.

Question 2.
Group Discussion
Man has built many walls (barriers) that separate man from man. There are social, cultural, religious, regional, political and other barriers all around us.
a) Specify any five of such man-made barriers.
Answer:

1. Religious structures into which only people belonging to that particular religion are let in.
2. Interaction between people of various social strata is not possible at all times.
3. People belonging to a particular party do not entertain people of other parties.
4. Transgenders are not allowed to mingle or work with men and women in many fields.
5. People of one region are not accepted easily by people of other regions.

b) Are these barriers necessary for a good and happy co-existence?
Answer:
No.

c) Why are they bad?
Answer:
They hinder free interaction among people, and consequently, the quality of life of those people suffers.

d) What can you do to break these barriers?
Answer:
Spread awareness about the danger of these barriers and coax people to remove them.

e) Imagine your life without any barriers. What kind of life would it be?
Answer:
A life full of variety and rich interaction with all kinds of people.

Points to Remember:

1. Every year the speaker has to mend the wall on his property because many stones will have fallen both on his side and his neighbour’s side of the wall.
2. He thinks it is the frost and the winds that make the stones fall. He also thinks that nature itself doesn’t want walls between human beings.
3. Hunters too topple down stones in order to force rabbits out of hiding.
4. At spring-time, the speaker informs his neighbour, and on a particular day, both of them pick up the fallen stones and keep them back on the wall. Some are rounded and will not sit on the wall. The speaker feels he has to use magical spells to make the stones settle on the wall.
5. The speaker asks why they should have a wall when there is no danger from his field to his neighbour’s or vice versa.
6. The neighbour just says that ‘good fences make good neighbours’. He says that his father used to maintain a wall, and so he too does.
7. The speaker is not satisfied and thinks that

Mending Wall by Robert Frost About the Author:

Robert Frost (1874-1963) was born in San Francisco. Fie is highly regarded for his realistic depiction of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employs settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes. He became one of the country’s best-loved poets. Despite the surface cheerfulness and descriptive accuracy of his poems, he often presents a dark, sober vision of life, and there is a decidedly thoughtful quality to his work. A popular and often-quoted poet, Frost was honoured frequently during his lifetime, receiving four Pulitzer prizes for poetry.

Mending Wall Poem Summary in English

Here the speaker talks about how he is required to mend the stone wall every year and how he finds it a boring, meaningless exercise, but is forced to do it because his neighbour thinks it is necessary.

Every year at springtime, the speaker notices that some stones from his wall on the field have fallen down due to the effect of snow, wind and rain. Sometimes the gaps in between the stones are quite big, and there are gaps created by hunters too who come after rabbits hiding in between the stones. One bright day the speaker decides to replace all the stones that have fallen down from the wall and informs his neighbour to join him in this task.

Both come near the wall, and picking up the stones falling on their respective sides, they place them on the wall. Some stones are nearly balls and will not remain on the wall. The speaker says humorously that he is forced to cast a spell on that stones to make them stay in their places. As the speaker and the neighbour are engaged in this work, the speaker feels it is like an outdoor game, good to pass the time, but not very meaningful. He wonders why they go on maintaining the wall when there is no threat to either from the other.

He points out that there are no cows either to keep out from their fields by building walls. He also thinks that the neighbour looks like a savage from the old stone age, seriously picking up the stones and keeping them in place without wondering, about why he is doing it. But his neighbour has only one answer to all his remarks. He says that good fences make good neighbours, and that was what his father too believed in. What the neighbour says makes sense because human beings, being insecure and jealous, can confidently interact with one another only when there are clear-cut boundaries in between them.

Mending Wall Poem Summary in Kannada