A DAV PUBLIC SCHOOL SECTOR 14 GURUGRAM

CLASS XII LITERATURE ASSIGNMENT Thing of Beauty

Read the extract and answer the questions that follow:

A thing of beauty is a joy forever

Its loveliness increases, it will never

Pass into nothingness, but will keep

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing

a) How does beauty give us eternal joy?

b) How does its loveliness increase?

c) Why can it not pass into nothingness?

d) What are the treasures that beauty stores for us?

e) How is beauty akin to ‘blissful sleep’?

OR

Whose loveliness will keep on increasing?

f) Identify the phrase that ‘it’ is immortal.

g) What is a ‘bower’?

h) Why do we need sweet dreams, health and quiet breathing in our lives?

CBSE 2016

Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing

A flowery band to bind us to the earth,

Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth

Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,

Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways

Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,

Some shape of beauty moves away the pall

From our dark spirits.

a) Explain ‘flowery band’.

b) What makes human life miserable?

c) Why are we despondent?

d) What removes the pall from our dark spirits? CBSE 2014

Answer the following briefly:

1. How is a thing of beauty joy forever?

2. How does the poet view life on earth?

3. What would happen to man in the absence of beauty?

4. What makes human beings love life in spite of troubles and sufferings? CBSE 2014

5. Why, according to the poet, is man inflicted with agony and pain?

6. What is the message of the poem, ‘A Thing of Beauty’? CBSE 2013/14

7. Explain ‘grandeur of the dooms’. CBSE 2013/14

8. What image does the poet use to describe the beautiful bounty of the earth? CBSE 2013

9. How does beauty leave an indelible imprint on our mind?