Question

In the heat of the mid-day the houses stood with shut doors
I wandered along the crooked lane
An old man came out with his bag of gold.
He pondered and said, “I will hire you with my money.”
He weighed his coins one by one, but I turned away.

Why were the houses with the doors shut?

What did the old man bring out?

How did the speaker react to the old man’s offer?​

Answer 1

Answer:

1. The doors were shut as the old man was getting the money
2. The old man bought a bag of money to offer the speaker with a job
3. The speaker turned away from the offer as a resulted he rejected the offer

Answer 2

Answer:

The correct answers related to the given stanza are found to be as given below:

i) The doors of all the houses in the lane were shut closed as the weather outside was very hot, humid and tropical. Due to the harsh weather, everyone was inside their homes with their doors shut.

ii) The old man who passed by the narrator in the crooked lane with closed houses, brought a job offer to him exclaiming that he can hire the narrator with his money. He brought out a bag full of gold coins, which he was carrying while making the offer.

iii) The narrator was not attracted to the job offer presented to him by the old man, and turned him down with a thought that he might not have his basic independence while working for the old man who valued money a lot.

Explanation:

The poem "The Last Bargain" was composed by Rabindranath Tagore. In this poem, the narrator was on a voyage on wanting to be hired. In the end, the kid playing with the shell said he wouldn't charge anything, and won innocently with the kid's actions. This invalidated the agreement and narrator became a free man.

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