NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Poem Chapter 10 A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal

A Slumber did my Spirit Seal Extra Questions and Answers Class 9 English Beehive

A Slumber did my Spirit Seal Extra Questions and Answers Short Answer Type

Question 1.
What does the poet mean by ‘spirit’ and in what state was it?
Answer:
In the poem the word ‘spirit’ refers to the mind of the poet. He was in a slumber. That is, a deep sleep or a state of unawareness as if unconscious to the realities of life. It is as if he was drugged or under some spell.

Question 2.
What caused the slumber of the poet?
Answer:
The poet was passionately in love with the girl. Her death shocked and saddened him. He felt bitter grief. His deep emotion overwhelmed his mind. Such was the intensity of his sorrow that it overpowered his consciousness.

Question 3.
What changes did the slumber bring in the poet’s feelings?
Answer:
The poet was shocked and saddened by his beloved’s death. But the slumber brought peace to his mind. He realised that his beloved had become part of Nature and would always remain around him.

Question 4.
Who does not feel any human fears? Why?
Answer:
The poet does not feel any fears and his soul feels at peace, as though asleep and existing in a deep calm where he has nothing to fear. His love for Lucy was so strong that he did not want her to grow old and suffer the problems of old age as human beings do. She would not now be marked by the passing of time or the ravages of nature as other mortals are. For him, she has attained the status of a supernatural being.

Question 5.
Explain the line: “The touch of earthly years”. Who would not feel the touch of earthly years?
Answer:
The expression “The touch of earthly years,” refers to the ravages of old age faced by human beings – the depletion of energy, diseases, senility and death which a person has to suffer as one grows old during life on this earth. The poet’s beloved Lucy will not face the problems of old age as she is no more alive.

Question 6.
How does the poet come out of his ‘slumber’?
Answer:
The poet comes out of ‘slumber’ as the realisation dawns of him that with her death Lucy is no longer a human being and as vulnerable to death as others. She has become an immortal being and he sees her as a supernatural goddess. This brings him out of his unconsciousness or ‘slumber’.

Question 7.
How does the poet react to his loved one’s death?
Answer:
At first the poet is shocked by the death of his beloved and he feels bitter grief. But after some realisation, he feels a great peace. He is content that the passing of time will no longer affect her. She has become part of Nature and is free from human travails.

Question 8.
The poet does not refer to the death of Lucy. How does he reveal that she is no more?
Answer:
The poet does not refer to Lucy as being dead directly. However, he makes it obvious that she is no longer alive by stating that she has become completely still, motionless, inactive and inert. Moreover, she has lost her senses of hearing and seeing.

Question 9.
How does the poet imagine “her” to be after death?
Answer:
The poet imagines her to be at peace after death. She is in a deep sleep, no longer affected by worldly affairs or by the passage of time. She is now part of nature. ‘No motion has she now, no force She neither hears nor sees,’

Question 10.
What does the poet mean by “earth’s diurnal course”? How has “she” become a part of earth’s diurnal course?
Answer:
The phrase “earth’s diurnal course” refers to the daily rotation of the earth on its axis that causes day and night. According to the poet Lucy has become an inseparable part of the earth after her death. As she has mingled with the earth, she naturally participates in its daily course just like the stones, the rocks, and the trees.

Question 11.
What is the relation of Lucy with rocks, stones, and trees?
Answer:
Lucy, after her death, has part of Nature as she has mingled with the soil. As such she is a part of the other things on the earth like rocks, stones or trees. She has now become a part of Nature.

Question 12.
What is the central theme of the poem?
Answer:
The poem deals with the loss of a loved one through death and the sorrow that follows. The death of Lucy left the poet in great pain. However, Wordsworth conveys the idea that death may separate our loved ones from us but they always remain around us in the form of nature. Wordsworth immortalizes Lucy by stating that she lives on in Nature after her physical death. Therefore, the death of a loved one should not leave us grief-stricken.

A Slumber did my Spirit Seal Extra Questions and Answers Long Answer Type

Question 1.
Give a brief summary of the poem ‘A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal’ in your own words.
Answer:
In the poem A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal the poet says that grief over the death of his beloved has left him numb and that human fears no longer affect him. But he realises the reality of life after her death and through this realisation he has now attained peace. He is content as the passing of time will no longer affect her. She is in her grave, covered with soil and has thus become the part of Nature and of the earth. She is rolling with the earth as it turns from day to night and vice versa.

Question 2.
How did Lucy’s death affect the poet? What does it reveal about his attitude towards her?
Answer:
The poet remarks that he had become unaware of the realities of life when he was under the spell of Lucy’s love. He felt as if he was under some spell and this seemed to have clouded his sense of reasoning. He felt Lucy was not subject to the consequences of time and the aging process. He did not realise she would one day be conquered by death. For him, she had attained the status of a supernatural being – a goddess or a deity beyond worldly suffering.

Such was the poet’s intensity of love for the girl that he was blind to the hard fact of life that everybody who is born has to ultimately die. Death, however, leaves her unable to perform any physical activity. As he comes to terms of her death, the poet feels that in her death his beloved Lucy has become a part of Nature. She is now under the surface of the earth and revolving along with it on its path. He tells us that like other stones, rocks and trees she also revolves with the earth now.

Question 3.
How does the poet reveal that Lucy is dead without using the words ‘death’ or ‘dead’? What according to him, has happened to Lucy after her death?
Answer:
Though the poet does not use the words ‘death’ or ‘dead’ for Lucy, yet he is able to convey very clearly that Lucy is no longer alive. He writes that Lucy has lost all force and strength; she has become absolutely inert and motionless. Her body has lost all activity. The young girl is also deprived of her senses like that of hearing or seeing. He says that her body has integrated itself with the earth. She has become as inseparable from the earth as stones, rocks, or trees. Like them, she rolls with the earth as it rotates on its axis. The idea that she still exists as a part of the earth soothes the mind of the poet who does not shed tears or cry over her death.

A Slumber did my Spirit Seal Extra Questions and Answers Reference to Context

Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.

Question 1.
A slumber did my spirit seal
I had no human fears.
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.

(a) What was the poet’s state of mind when Lucy was alive?
Answer:
When Lucy was alive the poet was in a state of spiritual peace as he did not even think about her aging or dying.

(b) What was the ‘human fear’ he did not have?
Answer:
It blinded him to the reality that eventually all things that are born perish or die one day.

(c) Why did he not have this fear?
Answer:
The poet could not imagine that she was a human being and subject to suffering and death.

(d) How does the poet imagine her to be, after death?
Answer:
The poet imagines her to now be a part of nature.

Question 2.
A slumber did my spirit seal-
I had no human fears.
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.

(a) Who does ‘she’ refer to?
Answer:
The poet does not disclose in the poem the identity of the girl. But because the poem is one of the Lucy Poems, she refers to Lucy, the girl Wordsworth loved.

(b) What could she not feel?
Answer:
She could not feel the touch of earthly years.

(c) Explain “the touch of earthly years”.
Answer:
By “the touch of earthly years”, the poet means the ravages of time or the process of aging.

(d) Why does the poet say that his loved one is rolling round in the way of the earth?
Answer:
The poet says that his beloved is a part of Nature she is also moving round with the earth.

Question 3.
No motion has she now, no force –
She neither hears nor sees,
Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course
With rocks and stones and trees.

(a) What happened to the poet’s beloved?
Answer:
The poet’s beloved was dead.

(b) Where is she now?
Answer:
After her death she has become one with Nature.

(c) How does she become an inseparable part of nature?
Answer:
She has become an integral part of nature as she is buried and has become one with the earth.

(d) Explain: she is in “earth’s diurnal course with rocks and stones and trees”?
Answer:
She is now a participant in the daily routine of the earth and rolls with it along with the rocks and trees and other things of Nature.

Question 4.
No motion has she now, no force –
She neither hears nor sees,
Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course
With rocks and stones and trees.

(a) What does the word ‘slumber’ refer to?
Answer:
The word ‘slumber’ refers to a deep sleep. Here it refers to death.

(b) How will time not affect the poet’s beloved?
Answer:
The poet’s beloved is dead and therefore has become immortal.

(c) ‘No motion has she now, no force.’ Why is ‘she’ motionless?
Answer:
‘She’ is the poet’s beloved who is no longer alive. Therefore she is motionless.

(d) What is the central theme of the poem?
Answer:
The poet wants to convey the idea that though death separates our loved ones from us but they always remain around us in the form of nature.