What does the speaker mean by saying”death is the brother of sleep”?
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
Lesson and Explanation
HIGH above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his sword hilt.
gilded: to covered with something, coating of something
hilt: the handle of a weapon or tool, especially a sword, dagger, or knife
The statue of a prince stood on a high platform, overlooking the city. This prince was called a Happy Prince because when he was alive, he always remained very happy. Upon his death, a big statue of his was erected in the center of the city in his remembrance. The statue of this happy prince was covered with thin layers of gold and instead of eyeballs, there were two bright, shining sapphire stones. In the handle of his sword, a bright ruby stone was placed.
One night there flew over the city a little swallow. His friends had gone away to Egypt six weeks before, but he had stayed behind; then he decided to go to Egypt too.
swallow: a tiny bird
Swallow is a tiny bird. Although it is not a human being, still the writer is referring to it as ‘he’ and ‘his’. He says that all the friends of this swallow had flown away to Egypt six weeks ago. This bird did not go with them. But later, it thought of going to Egypt to his friends. So, it was on its way to Egypt.
All day long he flew, and at night time he arrived at the city.
“Where shall I put up?” he said. “I hope the town has made preparations.”
Put up means where to live for the night
This bird kept on flying on its way to Egypt and at night it reached the city, the city of the Happy Prince. It wanted to stay somewhere for the night. It thinks upon where to stay at night. The bird says that hopefully, the city has made some arrangements for it to stay. Obviously the bird does not mean what it is saying. We can say that probably the bird is being humorous.
Then he saw the statue on the tall column.
“I will put up there,” he cried. “It is a fine position with plenty of fresh air.” So he alighted just between the feet of the Happy Prince.
Now when this tiny bird saw this huge statue of the Happy Prince, it thought of staying there for the night.
So the bird thought that it was a good place spend the night. There was shelter and a lot of fresh air. So, the bird came and alighted. It stopped and sat in between the feet of the statue of the Happy Prince.