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Karnataka State Syllabus Class 10 English Poem Chapter 4 The Song of India
The Song of India Questions and Answers, Summary, Notes
Understand the poem:
Question 1.
Identify the two speakers in the poem. What does one of the speakers want to sing about?
Answer:
The two speakers are the poet and Mother India. One of the speakers, the poet, wants to sing in praise of Mother India.
Question 2.
What are the epics? Why does the poet call the temples as ‘epics in stone’?
OR
How are the Indian temples, ‘epics in stone’?
Answer:
Epics are long poems or stories about heroic deeds. In India, most of the ancient temples are built by stones and carving many historical or mythological stories on the walls or.an the pillars. So the poet called the temples are ‘Epics in stone”.
Question 3.
Who does the poet mean by ‘of your children that died to call their own’?
Answer:
The poet refers to the freedom struggle when he talks about the children who died to call India their own as it was under British rule.
Question 4.
What, according to the poet, is the contribution of the seers and prophets?
Answer:
The seers and the prophets guide the man who is alone on his pilgrimage. In other words, they offer spiritual guidance.
Question 5.
Why is the poet ‘querulous’? What does he want to do?
Answer:
‘Querulous’ means ‘complaining’. The poet is peeved that he cannot sing a song of the glory of his Motherland since the Mother objects to each subject of praise considered by the poet. So the poet throws the ball in the court of the Mother and asks her whether there is any theme at all that would lend itself to a song in praise of the Motherland.
Question 6.
How is the poet answered? Describe the vision.
Answer:
The poet is answered positively and the Mother offers him a glimpse of the glory that the future promises to be. The Mother rises with the blue sky draping her, the milk-white foam of the ocean circling her and the waves acting as her throne. In this splendour, the Mother offers the vision of the future to the poet.
Question 7.
What do the night, the sun god and the clear dawn represent?
Answer:
On the forehead of the Mother, the poet glimpses the future and he is invigorated to glimpse a clear dawn. With the sunrays in the dawn, the night is replaced by hope and optimism representing a bright future for the country. The poet compares the sun-beam to the Hand that saves suggesting that despite all the problems that India has faced, Mother India will always be there to protect and to offer succor. However, unless all of us rise to the occasion, we cannot envision a bright future for our Motherland.
Read and appreciate:
Question 1.
What is the picture of India that you get in stanza 1 of the poem?
Answer:
In the first stanza, the poet describes the unique features of India. Himalayan Snow-capped mountains and peaks, the three oceans viz., The Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and The Indian ocean which surrounded our mother India (land region).
Question 2.
How does the poet describe the Mother’s anger? Name the figure of speech used in stanza 2.
Answer:
Angry Mother’s words strike the poet’s pass like a gong. Here the figure of speech is Simile.
Question 3.
Explain the lines ‘A song bathed in the stainless blueAJnvapouring in the void’.
Answer:
In the and the poet sang the song which is very remarkable and pure, it was bathed in the firm melodious voice that does not disappear into nothingness.
Question 4.
Write in brief the vision of the future of India.
OR
What does ‘the Motherland writing the Book of Morrow’ signify?
Answer:
‘The Book of the Morrow’ refers to the future of India. Despite all the squalor, dirt, problems, and poverty, the Mother is still hopeful of a bright future. She is protective of her children and knows that the morning is going to be bright without the nightmare.
Quote from Memory:
‘What song shall I sing of you, my Mother?’
I asked.
‘Shall I sing
Of the Himalayas with their snow-born peaks,
Of the three seas that wash your palm?
Shall I sing
Of your clear dawn with its pure gold-streaks?’
Said the Mother imperturbable, calm:
‘Sing of the beggar and the leper
That swarm my streets.
Sing of the filth and the dirt
That foul my sylvan retreats.’
‘What song shall I sing of you, my Mother?’
I asked.
‘Shall I sing
Of your rock-cut temples, epics in stone,
Of your children that died to call you their own,
Their very own?
Of the seers and prophets that hewed the straight path
For the man that pilgrims alone?’
Said the Mother in indignant words
That beat into my ears like gong,
That flew about me, a pitiful thing,
Like great white birds:
‘Sing of the millions that toil.
Sing of the wrinkled face
Indexing ignorance.
Sing of the helpless child
Born in a bleak, dark home.’
Nervous, I yet would ask,
Deeming it my task:
What song shall I sing of you, my Mother?
What song?
Shall I sing of the dam and the lake?
Of steel mills, the ship-building yard?
Of the men that work hard
To technologise, to put you on the page
Of the Atomic Age?’
Said the Mother: ‘Of these, you may sing.
But sing also of the strikes, early and late,
Of iron men that come in their wake,
Of class-war and its correlate.’
Querulous, I said:
‘Is there no song that I can sing of you,
Heart-whole, unalloyed?
A song bathed in the stainless blue
Unvapouring in the void?’
At that the Mother rose, draped in blue sky.
Milk-white oceans heaved round her. Their waves
Were the entrancing and enthroning light
On which she sat and wrote the Book of the Morrow.
Her forehead opened like earth’s destiny
Yielding the sun-god, cancelling all sorrow.
It was clear dawn. Like a nightmare fled the night
And the sun-beam was as the Hand that saves.
The Song of India Additional Questions and Answers
Answer the following questions in a word or a sentence each:
Question 1.
Which snow-peaked mountains are being referred to in the poem ‘The Song of India’?
Answer:
The Himalayas.
Question 2.
What has put the Mother on the page of the Atomic Age?
Answer:
Technology has put the Mother on the page of the Atomic Age.
Question 3.
Name the book that the Mother writes.
Answer:
The Book of the Morrow.
Answer the following questions in 2-3 sentences each:
Question 1.
Why did the children have to die to call the Mother their own?
Answer:
The children had to sacrifice their lives in the freedom struggle against the British who had colonized India. It is ironic that the children had to claim their mother as their own. This means we had to claim our own land after being under the British Rule.
Question 2.
Why has the speaker grown querulous?
Answer:
After he fails in three attempts at singing the praise of the Mother,’ the poet grows querulous. He questions the Mother whether he could sing any song at all her praise.
Question 3.
How does the poet praise India being developed in industry and technology?
Answer:
The poet is ready to sing praises of industrially and technologically developed India as he has witnessed dams, lakes, steel mills, and shipbuilding yards. He is, confident that the hard-working men of India can put India on the glorious page of the atomic age.
Question 4.
“Sing of the millions that toil, sing of the wrinkled face indexing ignorance What does Mother India want to convey to the poet through these lines?
Answer:
Mother India wants to convey to the poet the bitter truth that while poets sing the glory of India, the reality remains that there are millions who are the victims of hardship and ignorance. Even after years of toil, even after the youth is lost and the face is wrinkled, many remain illiterate and ignorant. So Mother India wants the poets known for their sensibility to sing the praises of these unsung children of India.
Question 5.
What does the poet V.K. Gokak want to sing about his Motherland?
Answer:
The poet wants to sing in praise of mother India. He wants to sing a song of praise of the snow-peaked Himalayas that protect the country, the three seas that make India a peninsula, and the sunrise that heralds new dawn replacing the dark night.
Answer the following questions in 5-6 sentences each:
Question 1.
How does the poem present the ills or problems affecting our country?
Answer:
The poem juxtaposes the strengths and weaknesses of the country. If the strengths are mentioned by the poet as the possible themes for his song of praise of the motherland, the ills are voiced by the Mother herself as the spokes in the wheel of progress. The two voices make it very clear to the poet that India as a country has enough reasons to be both proud and ashamed of. India has natural resources, manpower, patriotism, magnificent temples and technological prowess; yet India also has beggars and lepers, filth and dirt, ignorance and helplessness, revolts and strikes. Thus for everything that is beautiful, there is something that is ugly; for everything that is healthy, there is something that is unwholesome. The poet employs the technique of contrasts to highlight this ambivalence of India.
Question 2.
What glorious picture of our country does the poem ‘The Song of India’ present?
Answer:
Our country is God’s miraculous work because the physical features of the country are such that there is natural protection. On three sides there is the sea and in the north, there is the mountain range of the Himalayas. These features are not merely for protection. They are things of beauty and they also contribute towards the economic growth of the nation. The man-made buildings like the stone-cut temples match the natural beauty and talk about the craftsmanship of the citizens of yesteryears. The Indians who fought for their freedom had exhibited their spirit of patriotism too. It is not that the Indians are known for their glory of the past alone. Modern India to has witnessed technological advancement. Thus India has had its due share of glory.
Read the following extracts and answer the questions given below them:
Question 1.
Sing of the beggar and the leper That swarm my streets.
a) Whose streets are being referred to?
b) What does the word‘swarm’ indicate?
c) What, does the poet want to sing about?
Answer:
a) India’s.
b) It indicates the large numbers of beggars and lepers that are found on the streets of India.
c) The poet wants to sing of the Himalayas, the seas and the dawn.
Question 2.
Her forehead opened like earth’s destiny
Yielding the sun-god, canceling all sorrow.
a) Whose forehead is being referred to here?
b) Name and explain the figure of speech employed here.
c) What is the tone of the extract?
Answer:
a) The Mother’s.
b) Simile. The forehead is said to open like the earth’s destiny. The poet suggests that the destiny of the earth, that is of India, is revealed on the forehead of the Mother.
c) The tone is positive. It is of hope as there are references being made to the canceling of all sorrow.
Multiple Choice Questions
Question 1.
The poet uses all of the following techniques except
A) Dialogue
B) Contrast
C) Refrain
D) Exaggeration
Answer:
D) Exaggeration
Question 2.
All of the following except one are the three seas that wash the palm of the Mother. Which one is that?
A) Arabian Sea
B) Pacific Ocean
C) Bay of Bengal
D) Indian Ocean
Answer:
B) Pacific Ocean
Question 3.
The poem does not end with a note of
A) sarcasm
B) pessimism
C) optimism
D) fanaticism
Answer:
D) fanaticism
Question 4.
The poet wanted to sing
A) the glory of the Mother
B) the disgrace of the Mother
C) neither the glory nor the disgrace of the Mother
D) both the glory and the disgrace of the Mother.
Answer:
A) the glory of the Mother
The Song of India Summary in English
‘The Song of India’ by Vinayak Krishna Gokak is a fine example of the ambivalence that is present in India. On the one hand, if India has many a reason to be proud of, on the other there are equal number of reasons to make India blush in shame. The poet is successful at capturing the contradiction that India is The poem is written by V.K. Gokak in the form of a dialogue between Mother India and the poet. The poet presents a glorious picture of the past of India and also paints India’s natural beauty.
As Indians, we can rightly be proud of our country’s natural beauty, its rich cultural heritage, its ancient wisdom, its glorious freedom struggle and its industrial progress. At the same time we should not ignore the numerous ills such as poverty, disease, environmental degradation, ignorance, illiteracy, unemployment, caste, and class conflicts, and a hundred forms of exploitation affecting our motherland. We should try to eradicate the ills as far as possible.
‘ The poem begins with references to the natural beauty of India. The poet wonders whether he can sing a song of praise of the snow-peaked Himalayas that protect India, the three seas that make India a peninsula and other beauties of nature. But he is told by Mother India that pitted against the natural beauty there are beggars and lepers in large numbers and filth and dirt that spoil the greenery.
The poet then moves on to the architectural splendour of the stone-cut temples, patriots who died fighting for their motherland and the wise seers and prophets. But even here disappointment awaits him because Mother India reminds him of the poor who toil, the old who have remained illiterate and the child born into poverty. The poet who is confused asks the Mother what he can sing of. He then thinks that he can sing of the technological advancement symbolized by dams, steel mills and ship-building yards and the people who are behind this Atomic Age of India. But the Mother retorts that even as he sings of this advancement, he should have a song for the strikes that mar progress and class-war that has turned men into iron men.
The poet now turns complaining and demands to know from the Mother whether there is no song of praise and pure joy that he can sing! At this despondent question, the Mother rises with the blue sky draping her, the milk-white foam of the ocean circling her and the wayes acting as her throne. In this splendour, the Mother offers the vision of the future to the poet. On her forehead, the poet glimpses the future and he is invigorated to glimpse a clear dawn. With the sunrays in the dawn, the night is replaced by hope and optimism. The poet compares the sun-beam to the Hand that saves suggesting that despite all the problems that India has faced, Mother India will always be there to protect and to offer succour.
Thus the poem ends with a note of optimism. Mother India has to write the book of our destiny, canceling all our sorrow. Tomorrow should be a clear dawn. Our nightmare should flee in the night. We should be the architects of our bright future is the final message of the poem.
The concluding part is also considered to have spiritual strains. The vision the poet has of the Mother is spiritual indeed. It is almost the picture of a Goddess. Gokak might be suggesting that the spiritual superiority of India will always keep it in the pioneering position despite all the problems.
The Song of India Summary in Kannada
Glossary:
- wash your palm: here, sweep along the coastline
- swarm: here, crowd
- Sylvan retreats: a place of seclusion in deep woods
- a pitiful thing: here, it refers to the poet himself
- indexing: indicating
- Ajit on the page: to get recognition
- iron me: harsh men
- in their wake: who come right behind them
- class war: conflict between the privileged and the underprivileged
- querulous: complaining
- heart-whole: complete
- unvapouring in the void: that which does not disappear into nothingness
- heaved: moved with power.