NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Literature Chapter 12 Song of the Rain

NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Literature Chapter 12 Song of the Rain are part of NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English. Here we have given NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Literature Chapter 12 Song of the Rain.

NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Literature Chapter 12 Song of the Rain

TEXTUAL EXERCISES
(Page 88)

Question 1.
(a) Given below are five lines from a poem but they are not in the right order. Get into groups of four. Read the lines and put them in the right order. Read the version that you develop to the whole class.
The voice of thunder declares my arrival
I emerge from the heart of the Sea
I descend and embrace the flowers.
I am dotted silver threads dropped from heaven
The rainbow announces my departure

(b) What is ‘F in these lines?
(c) Imagining yourself as the subject of this poem, write five lines about yourself in less than five minutes.
You may like to

• define yourself
• state what you do
• explain why people like/dislike you
• mention any other characteristic about yourself

Answers
(a) Mainly at class level. The right order is as follows:

1. I emerge from the heart of the sea.
2. The voice of thunder declares my arrival.
3. I am dotted silver threads dropped from heaven.
4. I descend and embrace the flowers.
5. The rainbow announces my departure.

To be read as it is before the class as a group.

(b) ‘I ’ in these lines is ‘the rain’.
(c) I am Rajan, a class IX student, coming of a middle-class family. I am a student and take care of my rights and duties. All like me due to the qualities of head and heart as I take care of all alike as they are. I am respectful to all and dh my work with devotion. I never like to waste my time in useless activities.

Question 2.
Now listen to a poem about the rain. As you listen number the stanzas given in the boxes.
Answer
Students can on their own mark the stanzas starting from 1 to 9 in the parallel lines given after each stanza.

Question 3.
Read the song once again.
Answer
Please read the song yourself.

Question 4.
Ore the basis of your understanding of the poem, answer the following questions by ticking the correct choice.
(a) The rain calls itself the ‘dotted silver threads’ as _____.

1. the shimmering drops fall one after the other
2. it ties heaven and earth
3. it dots the earth with shimmering water
4. it decorates the fields

(b) The tone and mood of the rain in the poem reflect its _____.

1. love for the earth
2. desire to take revenge
3. merriment as it destroys
4. desire to look beautiful

Answer
(a) 2
(b) 1

Question 5.
Answer the following questions
(a) Why is the rain divine ?
(b) In this universe, rain performs many functions. What are those ? (V. Imp)

(c) “When I cry the hills laugh ;
When I humble myself the flowers rejoice ;
When I bow, all things are elated.”
Cry, humble and bow indicate different intensity with which the rain falls. Explain the three in context.

(d) How do you think the rain quenches the thirst of the fields and cures clouds’ ailment ? (V. Imp.)
(e) Think about million little ways in which the rain embraces the trees. Mention a few of them.
(f) “… All can hear, but only
The sensitive can understand’
What does the poet want to convey ?
(g)

1. Notice the imagery built around ‘sigh of the sea’, ‘laughter of the field’ and ‘tears of heaven’. Explain the three expressions in context of rain.
2. How would you express rain as
   • an agent of floods ?
   • a source of water for dams ?

(h) “I am like earthly life…”
Why does the poet call rain as earthly life ?
(i) Explain the ending of the song. (V. Imp.)
Answer
(a) The rain is divine because it comes from heaven and is the product of Heaven and Nature. Nature is another form of divinity.
(b) It decorates gardens and valleys. It embraces the flowers and trees when it descends from heaven (sky). It quenches the thirst of the fields. It ‘cures’ the clouds as they feel overloaded with water. It gives a joy to flowers and other objects of nature like hills, trees etc.
(c) ‘Cry’, means when it rains heavily (in torrents).
‘Humble’ means when it rains modest and light.
‘Bow’ means very light rain.

(d) The rain quenches the thirst of the fields when they go dry. Then they need water to sustain the growth of things in them. The rain cures the clouds because they get overloaded with water. This situation is like their having a ‘disease’ as they can’t sustain the water any more in them. They are too weak to carry rain water in them. When it rains they get floating, light and fresh.

(e) The rain embraces the trees in million ways. If we take up the literary sense of the word ‘embrace’ we may see that the rain embraces, hugs and envelops the trees profusely. It gives new energy and new life to them. Then it charges the trees’ many parts with a new life, viz trees’ roots get strong due to energy, leaves glisten, trees live with joy etc.

If the metaphorical meaning of ‘embrace’ is taken, then the rain assumes a wider role for them. It becomes a life source for them. It reaches even the cavities or chinks into the walls of the castles, roofs, old trees where dust and soil get collected. Then due to rain, new trees grow from the seeds embedded in them. In fact, their parts from the roots to the seeds get embraced by the rain.

So the rain embraces the trees in the sense that it hugs them and gives them love or affection. Due to that they live as human beings and remain cheerful. Some trees get uprooted, some begin to glisten, some get washed away, some die and some stick in the flow of water.

(f) The poet wants to convey the idea that all hear the pattering sound of the rain when it falls. But only a few with a sensitive and understanding mind can understand the value and utility of the rain. It is life-giving and refreshing.
(g)
(i)

• The rain rises from the sea in the sense that evaporation takes place from the sea. Clouds get formed. The rain in the form of vapours goes above as clouds and due to precipitation, the vapours change into water and it rains. This process is like ‘the sigh’ since the rain gets separated from its mother, the sea. It sighs at its birth and separation.
• The fields are dry due to the absence or non-availability of water. The crops sustained by them tend to wither or die. But when it rains, these very fields start refreshing themselves. This ‘refreshing’ or ‘rejuvenation’ is their ‘laughter’.
• ‘Tears of heaven’ means when it rains, the sky, ie, heaven, seems to be weeping and raindrops become its big tears. When it rains, the sky seems to be weeping and shedding tears.

(ii)

• Rain as an agent of floods becomes so when it rains non-stop for days together. In that situation, rain water gets so much that the earth becomes disabled to sustain it. It then floods everything causing lots of miseries to all. It, in fact, becomes a scene of rain all round. –
• Rain becomes a source of water for dams in the sense that rain water is properly channelised in dams. The dams retain it due to their frontiers. Then, according to needs and requirements, dam water is used differently. It is used for making electricity or for irrigation or for supplying drinking (water) to the people.

(h) The poet calls rain as earthly life because it follows the cycle of life and death in its birth and death. The rain takes its birth because of various elements available on the earth. It also dies when it has served its purpose. Or the elements can’t produce it as in deserts. It is like the living beings living on the earth. They are born, live and then die when they can’t sustain themselves any more in relation to these elements.

(i) The ending of the song is like bidding farewell to all. The rain recollects its various aspects or forms. Then it bids farewell to all ‘with love’. It is a ‘sigh’, ‘laughter’, ‘tears’ yet, it is so but with love. It disappears or fades away bidding ‘love’ to all.

Question 6.
‘Ode to Autumn’ is a beautiful poem written by the famous poet John Keats. Listen to an excerpt from the poem and pick phrases which personify autumn.
Answer
These phrases are as follows :
bosom friend of the maturing sun ; riper of fruits, etc ;
farmer ; sitting on the granary floor ; winnower ;
harvester ; reaper ; gleaner

Question 7.
Rain in the hills and rain in the desert present entirely different scenario. In the hills it revitalises the greenery and freshens the vegetation; it waters the parched land and relieves the thirsty and panting souls in the desert.
This has been a year of scanty rains. Imagine how the rain would be welcomed when it pours in the hills and in the desert after a long dry spell. Choose one of the places and describe
(а) What are you likely to see ?
(b) What would happen to the rain water ?
(c) What would be the scene before and after the rain ?

Answer
1. How hills welcome the rain when it comes after a long dry spell
When it doesn’t rain in the rainy season the hills wear a very dreary and depressing look. They present dry or stony colour. The weather among them should be comforting and rejuvenating. But it is simply unpleasant and scorching then. But when it rains over these after a long dry spell, everything welcomes it with an open heart and joy. First of all, when it rains, there comes out a pleasant aromatic smell. It soothes the heart and the senses. The rain water is just ‘drunk’ by the dry soil.

The moment it rains, the soil absorbs it and soon the hills change their dry and depressing colour. Very soon the hills present a green and refreshing colour that pleases the eyes. The dry and uninteresting scene gets replaced by all-round greenery, beauty and freshness.

2. How the desert shall welcome the rain when it comes after a long dry spell
Rain is the life breath of the vegetation whether it is hills or the deserts. Deserts don’t usually get rain. Without that they are deserts. A desert looks brown and dry because the greenery due to the crops and water, is just absent.

But when it rains in the desert, the water is, at once, soaked underground. But it has given life to the undergrowth which requires a little water. Then the undergrowth wears a green colour. It looks fresh and living like the trees.

The scene before and after the rain would not be much different. Before it rains, it is dry, depressing and hot with the sun pouring fire all round. But after the rain, it becomes pleasant. The earth starts changing its brown colour to greenish with vegetation coming up in the fields. Heat gets less pinching and the desert trees wear a pleasant greenish look. All things thus welcome the rain because it is a life- giver to them.

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