NCERT Solutions Class 12, English, Kaliedoscope, Poerty, Chapter- 3, Poems by Blake
Understanding the Poem
1. How are these two matched poems related to each other in content? How is the human being depicted in the Song of Innocence and how is he/she depicted in the Song of Experience? Do we find both aspects working in an average human being?
Solution:
The two matched poems are related to each other because the two poems convey the figure of four virtues that is mercy, pity, peace, and love. The speaker in both the poem depicts human being like a figure of moral value having a moral commitment to society with a bunch of virtues. We can find both the aspect working in an average human being as a human is depicted as master of virtues.
2. How would you explain the lines
For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity a human face,
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress.
Solution:
The above line personifies virtues like mercy, pity, love, and peace to human beings themselves. Through the above lines, the poet tries to convey the idea of how important are the virtues in human life that will make human life meaningful on the earth. A heart with mercy, a face with pity, divine love, and if peace were human dress the world will be colorful, and life on the earth will be more convenient to humans.
3. How do Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love get distorted in the human brain?
Solution:
The virtues such as Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love get distorted in the human brain when there are divisions among human being based on caste, creed, or color. Then there will be no value for virtues and all the evil powers come to act in human minds when there are divisions in society and all the virtues will be distorted in the human brain.
4. Blake’s poetry expresses one aspect of his multi-dimensional view of human experience—of mankind once whole and happy, now fallen into discord and tyranny, from which it must be rescued. Explain with reference to these two poems.
Solution:
The two poems explain the values which help living beings to lead peaceful life. Compassion to others was the motto of mankind in the early decades and mankind was whole and happy during those periods but today the situation has changes completely selfishness has ruined love and compassion in mankind and no values and virtues are present in humans today. Selfish motive and personal gain is the slogan of the new generation which must be rescued as mentioned in the poem by implanting virtues such as mercy, pity, peace, and love in the hearts of the young generation.
Language Work
1. Certain words in the poem have been capitalised. Can you think of reasons for this?
Solution:
In Blakes's poem, some of the words are capitalized because of their importance in the context. In the poem, capitalization is given more to words that refer to virtues which one should have in their life because of its due importance and the effectiveness of capitalization of words to convey an idea with great importance capitalization of words are used.
2. Count the syllables in the lines of ‘The Divine Image’. Do you see a pattern?
The first line has eight and the second line has six syllables. Two syllables make a foot in poetry. Here the first syllable of each foot is unstressed and the second syllable is stressed.
Solution:
Yes, we can see a pattern in the lines of ‘The Divine Image’. The first line has eight, and the second line has six syllables. The first syllable of each foot is unstressed. The second syllable is stressed because in each foot, one of the syllables is more prominent or more substantial than the other syllable(s), and it is called the strong syllable, termed the head syllable. The other syllables in the foot are the weak syllables.
