| 1.3 The Basketful of Moonlight
– Sunil Sharma |
Reading for understanding and Poetic Devices:
Q. 1. Read the extract and do the activities:
Complete the following sentences with the help of the poem:
|
Extract-1
| O moon,
give me moonlight, basketful or two baskets full with seeds of moonlight. From the city to my village, on the sides of the path I want to sow many, small, small moons of light. The whole village goes to the city daily to work. It becomes dark on its way back as my village is quite far. The route is tough and full of snakes and scorpions. Neither bus nor cart plies. When my father returns home I am asleep. |
A2. Complex Factual Activities:
(1) What does the poet wish to get from the moon and why?
Ans: The poet wishes to get basketful or two baskets of moon-light from the moon so that he can sow the seeds of moonlight to light the dark path from the city to his village.
(2). Why is the road from the city to the village dangerous?
Ans: The road from the city to the village 1 dangerous because it is dark, tough and full or snakes and scorpions.
(3). Choose from the options, appropriate message in the poem:
(a) Bring light to the villages.
(b) Help his father to reach home early.
(c) Listen fairy tales from his futher
(d) Remoue darkness and bring light along the darker paths.
Ans: (a) Bring light to the villages.
(4) Read the extract and say what is implied meaning in the following line:
Give me moonlight, basketful or two baskets full, with seeds of moonlight.’
Ans: The intense desire of child to light the dark route from city to his village is implied in the line. It shows the child’s anxiety and desire to light the dark path to his village with a lot of moonlight, forever. He imagines that the moonlight will relieve his people from the painful sufferings caused by dark route to his village.
(5) Pick out and write the lines from the poem that prove the following:
(a) Father reaches home late, after dark.
Ans: When my father returns home, I am asleep.
b) The path from city to village is having many difficulties.
Ans: The route is tough and full of snakes and scorpions.
A3. Activities based on Poetic Device
(1). Pick out the examples of alliteration and repetition:
Ans:
- Alliteration :
O moon, BIve me moonlich
basketful or two baskets full
2) Repetition :
T want to sow many, small
small moons of light,’
(2) Write rhyming words for the following from the extract:
- Pack
- deeds
Ans:
- Pack- back
- deeds– seeds.
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Q.2. Read the extract and do the activities:
A1. Simple Factual Activity:
Complete the following sentences with the help of the poem:
(1) The child wants a basketful of moonlight on loan.
(2) The child wants to light the dark route so that his father returns early.
Extract-2
| And he goes back early in the morning
while I am sleeping. O moon give me a basketful of moonlight on loan. I want to light the dark route so that my father returns early. I too want to hear fairy tales and stories from him. O moon give me a basketful of moonlight. I want to sow seeds of moon on the sides of the path. |
A2. Complex Factual Activities:
1. What does deliberate repetition of lines:
O moon, give me moonlight, basketful of
moonlight” signify?
Ans: The repetition of lines emphasises the intense desire of the child to light the dark route from city to his village with a lot of moonlight. The lines tell us that the child is repeatedly requesting the moon to give him basketful of moonlight because he is in a state of agitation and anxiety. The lines show the child’s intensity and eagerness to free his villagers from their sufferings of dark paths.
(2) Tell what is implied in the following lines:
Ans: I want to light the dark route so that my father
returns early.
OR
Complete the web:
| The poet wants to light the
dark route because- |
|
(3) Pick out and write the lines from the poem that prove the following:
(a) Eager to hear fairy tales from his father.
Ans. I too want to hear fairy tales and stories from him.
(b) Remove darkness and bring light among the darker paths.
Ans. I want to light the dark route so that my father returns early.
A3. Activities based on Poetic Devices:
(1) Pick out the examples of alliteration and repetition
Ans:
(1) Alliteration:
(1) O moon, give me a basketful of moonlight on loan.
(2) I want to sow seeds of m0on on the sides of the path.
2) Repetition:
No repetition in these stanzas.
(2) Give your own rhyming words for the following:
(i) dark
(ii) sow
Ans:
- dark– Park
- sow– bow