English - Poetry Chapter 3: Now the leaves are falling fast Long Answer Questions

.Long Answer Questions

Q1 Falling of leaves suggests the process of death and human waste on a large scale. Explain with reference to the poem.

Answer: Falling of leaves suggests the process of death and human waste on a large scale. It means human life is just like a leaf which falls from a tree. Firstly, human life just starts as a baby and slowly it grows. After some time a human life suffers from a lot of diseases. Just like weather a human life also changes. When the weather changes the leaves fall down. In the same way, human life also decreases and decays.

Q2 The poet is critical of the negative tendencies of human society. What are these tendencies ? Give details.

Answer: The poet W.H. Auden wants to say that human life is totally dependent on human society. Without a human society, it can’t grow properly and also can’t do anything well. The poet is critical of the negative tendencies of human society. There are different kinds of caste or creed. The poet says that all human life is the same and belongs to the same society but the people create different kinds of caste and divide themselves. The poet says that it is not good.

Q3 Who are the ‘Strolls’ in the real world?

Answer: In this poem “The Leaves Are Falling Fast” is written by the poet W. H. Auden. According to his knowledge, those people are the ‘trolls’ in the real world who divide human life in different caste or creeds. The people who did crime anywhere and give troubles to others always think wrong things. They don’t think about others and their problems. They hurt those people who are gentle. Such types of people are the ‘trolls’ in the real world.

Q4 Though the poet refers to ‘death’ several times, yet the poem is not a pessimistic one. Justify yourAnswer:

Answer The poet W. H. Auden refers to death several times in his poem, yet the poem is not a pessimistic one. In this poem, the poet tells that a tree becomes leafless in autumn. It looks like an old person who suffers from the illness. It seems that the poet has narrated the reality of life. Everything is bound to come to an end. But the circle of life and death will continue. Yet the poet is not a pessimistic one. In this poem, he tells that a tree becomes leafless in this season. It seems like an old person who suffers from an illness and can’t live for a long such as the tree also seemed that it would soon dry. As different types of seasons people also suffer from different kinds of disease.

Q5 Write in short the summary of the poem, “Now the Leaves are Falling Fast”

Answer: “Now the Leaves are Falling Fast” is a simple but revealing poem by W.H. Auden. He is a 20th Century poet who tries to expose the frustration which is naturally present in human life. In this poem, the poet tries to show the crisis that has overtaken modem life. The poet describes the slow dismantling of our aspirations, our loneliness and our frustration against a very suitable background of autumn. Our rising aspirations are falling apart like leaves in autumn. Even the flowers growing under big trees are not able to survive. Death lays its icy hand on all. The poet coins highly suggestive expression to refer to death such as “whispering neighbours” and “pluck us from the real delight”. These two expressions suggest that human life is no better than death. In fact, it is life in death. The poet describes the situation of helplessness with the help of trolls who are mining for food without any success. The shocked silence of the nightingale completes the image of death. However, a sense of optimism is betrayed in the closing lines of the poem :

“Cold, impossible, ahead

Lists the mountains Lovely head

Whose white waterfall could bless

Travellers in their last distress.”

Thus the present poem is a fine lyric written by an accomplished poet like W.H. Auden. He has the most beautifully depicted mortality. Mortality and continuity are the two wheels on which life runs.