c. Answer with reference to the context.
1. Here rest your wings when they are weary:
Here lodge as in a sanctuary!
Come to us often, fear no wrong:
Sit near us on the bough!
a. What does the speaker ask the butterfly to do when it gets tired?
b. How does he reassure the butterfly that it will not be harmed?
c. Where does he want the butterfly to sit?
2. We'll talk of sunshine and of song,
And summer days, when we were young;
Sweet childish days, that were as long
As twenty days are now.
a. What will the speaker talk about with the butterfly?
b. Which words in the lines show that the speaker wants to talk about
his childhood days with the butterfly?
c. Which phrase shows that his childhood days were happier than his
present days?
Answers
Answer:
Summary:
Stanza 1- The poet notices that a beautiful butterfly is sitting motionless on a yellow flower. The color yellow symbolizes freshness, happiness, positivity, energy, and enlightenment, all of the traits that a butterfly possess. The word self-poised means that the butterfly is very calm, composed and self-assured on that yellow flower. The poet gives the butterfly the human ability to be little {personification}. The butterfly is so stationary that the poet does not know whether it is sleeping or feeding on the nectar of the yellow flower. The poet then repeats the word "motionless" which reveals that he is in awe of the creatures ability to stay still. He makes a comparison between the butterfly and a frozen sea, saying that even a frozen sea is not as still as the butterfly. The poet wonders at what joy the butterfly will get if the breeze finds it among the trees and calls it to once again join him, just as if they were paying a game of hide and seek. There is an implicit contrast between the solitary state of the poet and pairing of the wind and butterfly. The poet then says that the plot of orchard where the butterfly and he were sitting, was the poets and his sisters. The trees were the poets while the flowers were his sisters. He welcomes the butterfly with open arms at their orchard to rest its wings when they are tired of flying. He tells the butterfly that it can stay in the orchard as he would in a sanctuary, meaning to say that his orchard was as safe as a sanctuary. He tells the butterfly to sit near him and they would then talk about sunshine and song, and of summer days when the boy was young which were sweet childish days that lasted as long as twenty days of now.