Objective Questions (MCQs)
Q.1. What is the meaning of 'who art thou'?
(A) who are you?
(B) what are you?
(C) how are you?
(D) whose art is this?
Q.2. What does 'reck'd or unreck'd' mean?
(A) Enrichment or no enrichment
(B) Cared for or not cared for
(C) To purify or not
(D) To wash or not to wash
Q.3 What does the word 'descend' mean?
(A) Not clear
(B) Come down
(C) To wash
(D) Hidden
Q.4. In which of the following lines 'hyperbole' is used in the poem?
(A) I am the Poem of Earth
(B) Soft-falling shower
(C) Bottomless sea
(D) Voice of the rain
Q.5 From where does the song of rain originate?
(A) From heaven
(B) From ocean
(C) From the heart of the singer
(D) From the soul of earth
Q.6. What does the poet compare the rain with?
(A) Song
(B) Heaven
(C) Beauty
(D) Flowers
Q.7. How does the rain help the seeds inside the earth?
(A) Provides water
(B) Provides life and helps them grow
(C) Provides love
(D) None of the above
Q.8. According to the poet, from which two places does the rain rise in the form of water vapour?
(A) Land and sea
(B) Land and pond
(C) Mountains and lakes
(D) None of the above
Q.9. What does the rain reply to the poet's question 'Who are you'?
(A) She is rain.
(B) She is the poem of earth.
(C) She is rain from mountains.
(D) She is poem of mountains.
Q.10. The poem 'The Voice of the Rain' is a conversation between
(A) poet and rain
(B) poet and mountains
(C) rain and trees
(D) birds and rain
Q.11. In which of the following expressions 'metaphor' is used?
(A) I am the Poem of Earth
(B) Soft-falling shower
(C) Bottomless sea
(D) Voice of the rain
Q.12. Why does the rain tell the poet that she cannot be touched?
(A) Because she is water
(B) Because she rises in the form of water vapour
(C) Because she is in the form of clouds
(D) None of the above
Q.13. Why does the rain descend 'on the earth'?
(A) To wash off the drought.
(B) Remove the dust and dirt and clean and purify the Earth.
(C) To germinate the seeds lying on the ground.
(D) All of these
Q.14. Where does the song return?
(A) To its originator
(B) To the poet
(C) To the earth
(D) To the ocean
Q.15. Why does the poet compare the rain with a song?
(A) Because she beautifies the earth
(B) Because she provides life on earth
(C) As they both share a common journey
(D) None of the above
Answer Key
1. Option (A) is correct
Explanation: Latin English translation.
2. Option (B) is correct
3. Option (B) is correct
4. Option (C) is correct
Explanation: Bottomless sea is an exaggeration.
5. Option (D) is correct
Explaination: The Rain originates from the land and the deap sea.
6. Option (A) is correct
Explanation: For song, issueing from its birthplace, after fulfillment, wandering Reck'd or unreck'd duly with love returns.
7. Option (B) is correct
Explanation: it provides life to the latent seeds.
8. Option (A) is correct
9. Option (B) is correct
10. Option (A) is correct
Explanation: And who art thou? said I to the soft falling shower,
Which strange to tell gave me an answer.
11. Option (A) is correct
Explanation: Rain is called as the poem of the Earth
12. Option (B) is correct
Explanation: Water vapuors or steam cannot be touched.
13. Option (D) is correct
14. Option (A) is correct
Explanation: For song, issueing from its birthplace, after fulfillment, wandering Reck'd or unreck'd, duly with love returns.
15. Option (C) is correct
Explanation: Both rise from their originators and after fulfilling the task of spreading happiness around, they return back to their originators with love.
Extract Based MCQs
I. Read the extract given below and answer the following questions by choosing the correct option:
And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower,
Which, strange to tell, gave me an answer, as here translated:
I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain,
Q.1. What is the tone of the poet in these lines?
(A) Dominating
(B) Conversational
(C) Enthusiastic
(D) Compassionate
Q.2. What does the phrase 'strange to tell' express about the poet's feelings?
(A) He is surprised.
(B) He finds himself dumbstruck.
(C) Both (A) & (B)
(D) None of these
Q.3. What type of effect is created with, 'soft falling showers'?
(A) Musical
(B) Sleepy
(C) Nostalgic
(D) Exciting
Q.4. Which poetic device can you spot in the first line of the stanza?
(A) Personification & Alliteration
(B) Apostrophe & Personification
(C) Apostrophe & Alliteration.
(D) Personification & Metaphor
Q.5. A reader should take note of the fact that the speaker says that the rain's words were "translated". What was the original language?
(A) Something more conventional
(B) Atmosphere of a rain shower
(C) The sounds and emotions associated with it
(D) All of these
II. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless sea,
Upward to heaven, whence, vaguely form'd, altogether changed and yet the same,
Q.1. How is rain born?
(A) In an obscure and concrete form
(C) In an invisible and intangible form
(B) In a discernible and elusive form
(D) In a perceptible and vague form
Q.2. 'Eternal I rise....'
This shows that the process is:
(A) heavenly
(C) continuous
(B) interrupted
(D) time-bound
Q.3. How does the rain manage to reach the 'heaven'?
(A) The vapours reach the sky which is called 'heaven'.
(C) The vapours form the clouds in the 'heaven'.
(B) The rain lives in the heaven.
(D) It is not clear.
Q.4. What is formed vaguely?
(A) Rain
(B) Vapours
(C) Ice
(D) Clouds
Q.5.Which figure of speech can be spotted in: "...altogether changed and yet the same"?
(A) Alliteration
(C) Oxymoron
(B) Pun
(D) Personification
III. Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
I descend to lave the droughts, atomies, dust-layers of the globe,
And all that in them without me were seeds only, latent, unborn;
And forever, by day and night, I give back life to my own-origin and make pure and beautify it;
Q.1. Which of the following is the purpose of rain when it comes down?
(A) To quench thirst of the parched land
(B) To wash the smallest particle on earth
(C) To clean the entire earth surface
(D) All of these
Q.2. Who What does them' refer to in 'And all that in them...?
(A) Seeds
(B) Plants
(C) Human beings
(D) Clouds
Q.3. Which figure of speech can be found in: "I give back life to my own origin"?
(A) Simile
(B) Antithesis
(C) Irony
(D) Metaphor
Q.4. How does the rain 'make pure and beautify it'?
(A) By filling water in the dry water bodies
(B) By covering the earth's surface with plants
(C) Both (A) and (B)
(D) None of these
Q.5. What is the advantage of conversational tone in this poem?
(A) It helps to maintain continuity of thoughts and ideas of the poet.
(B) It brings clarity and vividness in expression.
(C) Both (A) & (B)
(D) None of these
Answer Key:-
I. 1. Option (B) is correct.
Explanation: the poet and the rain are in the conversation with each other.
2. Option (C) is correct.
Explanation: the poet does not find it normal to hear an answer from the rain.
3. Option (A) is correct.
Explanation: 'Soft falling showers' creates a melodious musical effect.
4. Option (C) is correct.
Explanation: the poet talks to the rain; said to the soft falling shower.
5. Option (D) is correct.
Explanation: its original language would be more predictable.
II. 1. Option (C) is correct.
Explanation: Water Vapours that rise from the water bodies cannot be touched or seen.
2. Option (C) is correct.
Explanation: Eternal means ceaseless/timeless.
3. Option (A) is correct.
4. Option (D) is correct.
Explanation: the clouds are shapeless.
5. Option (C) is correct.
Explanation: Oxymoron is one where ideas in a sentence contradict each other. The poem is based on rain talking to the poet. So altogether changed refers to the concept of rain formation-evaporation, condensation and precipitation.
Water evaporates to form vapour and changes to clouds. Though it takes a different form, it is water. The water form as rain is what has two different ways
III. 1. Option (D) is correct.
Explanation: I descend to lave the droughts, atomies, dust-layers of the globe.
2. Option (A) is correct.
Explanation: Seeds need water to transfer into a plant.
3. Option (B) is correct.
Explanation: A person or thing that is the directe opposite of someone or something else.
4. Option (C) is correct.
5. Option (C) is correct.
Short Answer Type Questions:-
Q.1. The poem begins in a conversational tone. Who are the two participants in this conversation?
Ans. The two participants are the poet and the rain. The poet makes the rain relate its own story. This direct presentation makes the narration more authentic, interesting and captivating.
Q. 2. How did the poet look at the rain? What did he ask?
Ans. The poet looked at the rain as the soft falling shower and asked who she was.
Q. 3. What questions does the poet put to the rain and how does he feel when he gets the answer?
Ans. The poet watches the falling showers f the rain. The showers are falling very lightly producing a soft music. The poet is fascinated and asks who it is Strangely enough, the rain itself answer the questions posed to it. The poet feels really surprised to get an answer and translates the answer into his own language.
Q.4. How does the rain justify its claim: "I am the Poem of Earth'?
Ans. In poem The Voice of the Rain, the rain is personified and describes what it is and what it does using metaphoric and literary phrases. The whole journey of rain has a beauty and charm associated with it and like a poem it brings joy happiness and life to everything it touch.
Q.5. What is the cycle of the song? What does it represent?
Ans. The cycle of the song is that it issues from its birthplace fulfills its journey moving reck'd-unreck'd and returns to its origin with love. It represents completion of a whole journey with love which is very similar to that of the rain.
Q.6. What does the rain do day and night to the things?
Ans. The rain gives back life to its own origin and continues making it pure and beautiful. This action of rain is automatic. It is a source of life to all things without which it would remain seeds only.
Q.7. On what does the rain descent? What does it do to those things on which it falls? Ans. The rain descends on droughts, atoms and dust particles on the surface of the earth. It also falls on everything that is there. It gives life to those things on which it falls. The things not getting it remain seeds only, latent and unborn.
Q.8. "Eternal, I rise impalpable. What gives eternity to rain?
Ans. Rain water cycle makes it eternal as it rises out of the land and deep sea. It gathers in the sky, changes its form and then comes down to the earth.
Q.9. What answer does rain give to the poet about its origin?
Ans. The rain answered the poet that it was the Poem of Earth. It rose eternally out of the land and the bottomless sea into the sky. There, it formed vaguely and changed its form. But it remains the same.
Q.11. Behind the apparent simplicity, the poem hides a deep meaning. What exactly does the poem convey to the reader?
Ans. The poem is not merely a description of life-cycle of rain. It has deeper meaning. Rain is a poem or thing of beauty of Earth and so is song or music. The comparison between rain and music and their function, making the Earth pure and beautiful conveys the eternal role of natural phenomenon and art in real life.
Q.12. How does the rain describe herself in the poem 'The Voice of the Rain'?
OR
Give the central idea of the poem, "The Voice of the Rain."
Ans. The rain calls itself the poem of earth. It is everlasting and perpetual. It is something that cannot be touched. It originates from the land and the deep sea. Then it rises upward to heaven, changing its form into a cloud yet remaining the same in quality. From the sky, it pours down on earth to wash the earth's dry, thin particles and dust layers. The rain helps the unborn seeds to sprout. These seeds lay hidden and unborn under the layer of the earth. Rain gives back life to its origin, making it pure and beautiful.
Q.13. Why are the last two lines put within brackets?
Ans. The last two lines are in brackets because the rest of the poem is in the form of conversation between the poet and the rain. The last two lines are written by the poet as narration.
