A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
OBJECTIVES
NEW WORDS
KEY POINTS
videoSUMMARYThis poem is about the death of a loved one and poet’s feeling about his beloved when he thinks about her death. Poem also describes his imagination about his beloved after death. This poem is a kind of elegy. In this poem, the poet seems to be immortalizing her death by saying that she had no human fears. Now earthly years were no longer a matter of concern for her because they cannot make her older now.
In the second stanza he is describing her dead body. She is not able to perform any of the physical movement or activity now. In the last two lines the poet describes that she is now under the surface of the earth revolving along with it on its path. He tells us that like other stones, rocks and trees, she also revolves with the earth now. |
PRESENTATIONSHORT QUESTIONSQ. What happened to the poet’s beloved?
A. The poet’s beloved was dead. She was not alive now. The poet remembers her beloved through this poem. Q. How does she become an inseparable part of nature? A. She becomes an integral part of nature. She is rolled round in earth’s course with rocks, stones and trees. Q. How will time not affect the poet’s beloved? A. The poet’s beloved is dead and a dead thing becomes immortal. It is a universally accepted fact that immortality is not affected by time or the physical world. She cannot hear or see. She has gone beyond the physical world. ANSWERS OF THE TEXT BOOKQ. “A Slumber did my spirit seal”, says the poet. That is, a deep sleep ‘closed off’ his soul (or mind). How does the poet react to his loved one’s death? Does he feel bitter grief? Or does he feel a great peace?
A. Poet was shocked and surprised at the death of his loved one. He felt bitter grief. Death does not make anyone feel good. It is always associated with misery and pain. Q. The passing of time will no longer affect her, says the poet. Which lines of the poem say this? A. She seemed a thing that could not feel/the touch of earthly year’s say this. Q. How does the poet imagine her to be, after death? Does he think of her as a person living in a very happy state (a ‘heaven’)? Or does he see her now as a part of nature? In which lines of the poem do you find your answer? A. Poet imagines her to be an inseparable part of nature. No, he does not think so because ‘heaven’ is not a dead thing. It is shown in the line ‘Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course/with rocks and stones and trees’. |