New horizon scholars school

Kavesar, Ghodbunder Road, Thane (W)-400615

CBSE Affiliation No: 1130470
Grade: X: English Literature and Language (184)
Topic: Animals Answer Key

Extract Based Questions

Question 1.
(a) The poet wants to turn into an animal.
(b) The poet is attracted to the calmness and poise of the animals.
(c) The word is „Placid‟.
(d) The successive use of the word „long‟ makes the line significant; the first
„long‟, denotes „period/Time‟ whereas the other, „a desire‟.

Question 2.
(a) Humans lie awake in the dark weeping for their sins.
(b) They sweat and whine about their condition.
(c) The word is „Sins.‟
(d) The word is „whine‟

Question 3.
(a) The habit of owning things by humans has been called a mania.
(b) Since animals do not have the desire to own anything, therefore they are never
dissatisfied.
(c) It means mad or unbalanced.
(d) The word is „Kind‟.

Question 4.
(a) „Another‟ refers to other animals here.
(b) The poet is referring to the ancestors of human beings who lived thousands of
years ago.
(c) Kneel is symbolic to praying in the above line.
(d) The word is „Whole‟.

Question 5.
(a) „They‟ refers to the animals.
(b) The poet here means that the animals remind him of true values of the human
nature such as kindness and innocence.
(c) The word is „Evince‟.
(d) The poet finds that animals, like human beings do not trouble others unless they
are compelled; they are equally kind and innocent.

Question 6.
(a) The poet wonders whether the animals get all their virtues from humans.
(b) The poet believes that animals got their values from humans while they lost
them a long time ago and have forgotten about them.
(c) The word is „Negligent‟.
(d) The word is „Huge‟.

Short Answer Type Questions

Question 1. Why does the poet like animals?
Answer: The poet likes animals for their self-contained and quiet nature. The fact
that animals are not like human beings and satisfied with their lives appeals to the
poet a lot.
Question 2. Explain the satisfaction that animals have and humans don‟t.
Answer: Animals do not have the desire to possess worldly things. Whereas, the
more humans own, the more their desire to own grows, leaving them dissatisfied
forever. The absence of this greed in animals keeps them satisfied and its presence
keeps humans dissatisfied.
Question 3. Why do animals not weep for their sins?
Answer: Animals do not weep for their sins because they do not need to do so.
They are innocent creatures that commit no sins. It is humans, who weep yet
commit sins.
Question 4. What makes the poet sick?
Answer: The fact, that humans commit all kinds of sins and still discuss their duty
to God, makes the poet sick. This shows the hypocrisy of humans, who on one
hand do wrong and on the other pray to God.
Question 5. Differentiate between humans and animals in terms of desire.
Answer: Animals are very different from humans as they have no desire to own
things. They are happy without an unending greed while humans become maniacs
in their greed for possessing valuables.
Question 6. What does the poet mean by, “Not one is respectable or unhappy over
the whole earth”?
Answer: The poet means that animals do not pray to God or to ancestors and all of
them are equal, hence no one is more respectable than the other. The good values
of animals and the lack of social conventions make them happy.
 Long Answer Type Questions
Question 1. Why do you think the poet has called the desire to own things, a
mania? Is the poet right in doing so? Write your own views.
Answer: The poet uses words such as „demented‟ and „mania‟ for never ending
desire of human beings to own things. These words show that poet is comparing
this desire to madness. The poet stands right in doing so as this desire makes us so
greedy and traps us in a vicious circle of aspiring more and more. Animals that are
free from any possession are also free from sins, worries and complaints. In order
to gain more wealth, all the important values such as morality and kindness are left
behind.
Question 2. What according to you should be the virtues that humans should
possess?
Answer: Human beings should be gentle not only to their own kind but also to
everyone and everything. Virtues such as kindness bring along other important
values like innocence and honesty that together make the world a better place to
live. The lack of such values results in a corrupt society where people commit sins
and weep over them in dark. This situation makes them dissatisfied and unhappy in
life. Human beings probably had these virtues in them but along with civilisation
processes, they have left them behind and adopted greed and cunningness.
Question 3. It is not complaining but accepting a situation, the key to happiness in
life. Elaborate in context of the poem Animals‟.
Answer: The poet Walt Whitman in his poem „Animals‟ compares animals to
human beings and differentiates between them on the basis of their characteristics.
Animals have been ranked much higher than humans in poet‟s perception. Since
animals do not complain about their situation, they are considered to be much
happier than humans. Animals live in natural surroundings, they accept their
natural lives. Humans, on the other hand, have never accepted nature, i.e., they
complain about it and try to change it, leading to an unhappy life.
Question 4. The poet in the poem Animals‟ laments the loss of certain values on
the part of human beings, whereas animals seem to have retained them and are
self-contented. Analyse the cause of degeneration of values in today‟s hard times.
Answer: In the modern civilised world, human beings have achieved a lot of
material values but lost the real virtues. The more developed and modern human
beings became, the more they lost the essence of their characters. Animals,
whereas, never adapted to any material goods and always remained natural. This
natural aspect of animals has helped them maintain their values. Humans, in order
to possess more and more have forgotten kindness and innocence.