Q.1.

Read the following verse paragraph and answer the questions that follow:

“All houses wherein men have lived and died Are haunted houses. Through the open doors
The harmless phantoms on their errands glide, With feet that make no sound upon the
floors. We meet them at the door-way, on the stair, Along the passages they come and go,
Impalpable impressions on the air, A sense of something moving to and fro.

i) How every house is a haunted house?

ii) What do the phantoms do inside every house?

iii) Where do we meet the phantoms inside the house? What is the significance of
the word “meet” in the fifth line of the given excerpt?

iv) How does a living being feel when the phantoms move inside the house?

v) How do the phantoms walk inside the house?

Ans.

i) Every house is a haunted house in the sense that the ghosts return to the houses
they once lived. The conventional belief of uninhabited houses being only
haunted by ghosts is overruled by the poem. Instead ghosts are presented as a
part of the normal world who behaves like living humans and stays with us
silently.

ii) After death, the phantoms return to their houses and silently wander everywhere. For
example, they can be found at the door-way, on the staircase and along the passages
where they roam about silently. The harmless ghosts however continue with their daily
work without disturbing the living ones.
 iii)The phantoms are found at the door-way, on the staircase and along the passages
where they freely roam about without being noticed by those living inside the house.

It is rather unusual to meet the ghost physically since the they are unsubstantial being.
The poet might have used the word meet to suggest that the speaker in his poem sa ghost
himself who can see the phantoms and hear their voice too.

iv) Though people living inside their houses cannot see the ghosts around, but they feel
unease whenever the ghosts are on move.

vi) The phantoms walk noiselessly inside the houses. Their feet however make no
sound on the floor and Their feet howevement remains inaudible to the living
world.

2. There are more guests at table than the hosts Invited; the illuminated hall Is
thronged with quiet, inoffensive ghosts, As silent as the pictures on the wall. The
stranger at my fireside cannot see The forms I see, nor hear the sounds I hear; He
but perceives what is; while unto me All that has been is visible and clear.

i) How there are more guests at table than the iv) hosts?

ii) How does the speaker describe the ghosts?

iii) Explain the figure of speech in the fourth verse- line of the given excerpt.

iv) How is it possible that the stranger cannot see the ghosts while the
speaker can see and hear gue them?

V) What does the stranger see?

Ans.
i) Since ghosts silently populates the houses where they once lived, the
speaker imagines that there are more guests at the table than invited by
the hosts.

ii) The ghosts are well mannered and harmless beings. They silently wander
everywhere inside the house and continue with their daily work without
disturbing the living ones. Moreover, the ghosts are unsubstantial beings,
invisible to human eyes. They float in the air around and we feel unease
whenever they are on move.
iii) The figure of speech employed in the fourth verse line of the given
excerpt is simile. A simile is a figure of speech which makes an indirect
comparison between two distinctly opposite things. Here wall hanging
pictures are compared to the ghosts since both are silent and
incommunicable.
iv) Stranger being a living human cannot see the ghosts around him while
he sits by the fireside. On the contrary, the speaker can see the
impalpable form of ghosts as he himself is a spirit and well used to with
the transcendental world. Hence, he can hear the voice of the ghosts
which remains inaudible to the ears of his guest.
v) The stranger being a living human can only see the tangible things around.
He can neither hear the voice of the ghosts nor can see them floating
around in the air.
3.
Our little lives are kept in equipoise By opposite attractions and desires;
The struggle of the instinct that enjoys, And the more noble instinct that
aspires. These perturbations, this perpetual jar Of earthly wants and
aspirations high, Come from the influence of an unseen star An
undiscovered planet in our sky.

i) How is human life kept in equipoise?

ii) What opposite attractions and desires does the poet mean?

iii) Wherefrom does the “perturbations” in human life come from?

iv) How does unseen star and undiscovered planet influence us?
 Ans.

i) Human world is balanced by the forces of opposites. For example,

the longing for materialism is balanced with the desire for spiritual
attainment.

ii) Human world is balanced by the forces of opposites. On one hand

there is a tremendous desire for materialistic pleasure while on
the other hand we oftentimes long forhigher goals like spiritual
attainment. The poet however speaks about these two opposite
extremes of human desire which establishes a perfectly balanced
life.

Iii) The poet imagines that human fear and anxieties are actually the influence of some
unseen stars in some remote planet. We cannot deny the power of such unseen force
which controls us in a major way.

Iv) We are deeply influenced by the force of some unseen stars in some remote planet. Our
fears and anxieties are generated within us due to the influence of unseen stars in some
undiscovered planet. Such influence however is hard to ignore.