Important Question and Answers
Q. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Remember they have eyes like ours that wake
Or sleep, and strength that can be won
By love. In every land is common life
That all can recognise and understand.
- From which poem has this stanza been taken?
- What do ‘they’ have in common?
- Who is the writer?
- What does ‘common’ mean?
Answer
- No Men Are Foreign
- Eyes, sleep and strength
- James Kirkup
- Usual
Q. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Let us remember, whenever we are told
To hate our brothers, it is ourselves
That we shall dispossess, betray, condemn.
Remember, we who take arms against each other….
- Who have been called ‘our brothers’?
- Who instigates the commoners to hate their brothers?
- Who is the poet?
- What does ‘condemn’ mean?
Answer
- All men of the world.
- Selfish people who have vested interests spread violence and instigate hatred among their brothers.
- James Kirkup
- Express complete disapproval
Q. How do the people hate their brothers? Are they right?
Ans. People hate their brothers in different ways and the common of them is by taking arms against them. As they take them to be wrong and consider themselves to be right. It is always wrong they should live in peace and tranquility.
Q. We hate our brothers and begin to harm them as well as ourselves. How?
Ans. It is a common tendency of people that they hate their brothers but whenever we do any wrong to our brothers, we begin to define our spirit and soul. By doing so, we also harm ourselves. We betray and criticise ourselves. The major harm that we do to ourselves is that our character is lost.
Q. How does the Earth unite us?
Ans. The Earth unites us in many beautiful ways. We eat and drink the things that grow on the Earth. It is Earth we walk and play on and after our lives come to an end, we all lie hidden inside it according to our destiny.
Q. What does the poet mean by the words ‘harvests’ and ‘war’?
Ans. The poet has used these two terms for their symbolic meanings. ‘Harvest’ is a symbol of peace the farmer does cropping work to feed himself. The term ‘war’ has been used to display the severity of destruction and starvation.
Q. Is ‘No men are foreign’ an anti-war poem? Cite instances from the poem to support your answer.
Ans. Yes, ‘No men are foreign’ by James Kirkup is an antiwar poem. The first and foremost evidence is the theme of the poem. This theme is to help the people realise that wars are fought only when people count the differences between the people of two countries and try to overpower one another for various vested reasons. The word ‘foreign’ here means different. Difference breeds hatred and hatred results into war. But they don’t realise that the differences are only external in terms of language, dress, color, creed, race and religion. All are human beings and there is a universal brotherhood that weaves all of us into one thread of humanity.
We may be in different lands with different culture, thoughts and belief systems but we all are human beings walking on the same earth, ‘aware of sun and air and water’ ‘fed by peaceful harvests’, starved by `war’s long winter’ ‘have eyes like ours’ and live lives which everyone understands. When we
realise that all are same, the question of superiority which is the prime reason for war, doesn’t arise. The stanza that supports the answer is:
Let us remember, whenever we are told
To hate our brothers, it is ourselves
That we shall dispossess, betray, condemn.
Remember, we who take arms against each other
This clearly shows that this is an anti-war poem.
Q. Hatred, jealousy and misdeeds are the dangerous pollutants of our own Earth. Discuss.
Ans. The world is a global village, a union, a singular entity. It may be possible that the people on the Earth may belong to different nations, castes, creeds, they may speak different languages and vernaculars, they may be follower of different religions but still they are equal. Each one whosoever lives on the Earth is our brother so we should follow the path of fraternity. If we are in the close vicinity of one another, we can enjoy peace and share the joys, nature has showered upon us. But if we do not follow this path and start a war against our own brothers, we are polluting our own beautiful Earth. Our hatred, jealousy and misdeeds have no limit and they are a serious threat to humanity. So, it is our responsibility that we m