The axe in the wood question and answer for 8th standard students. We explained notes of the poem The axe in the wood.
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C1 Answer the following questions and share your responses with your partner:
1. What words in stanzas 1 and 2 mean
[a] 100 years [b] scene?
Ans: a) 100 years = century b) scene = sight
2. Make a list of all the words that are used in the poem to describe the ‘axe.’
Ans: Quick, sharp, glittering, glory. These words are used to describe the axe.
3. Read the following words:
trunk, axe, wood, timber, tree.
Which word does not fit into the list above? Strike it out.
Ans: axe
C2 Answer the following questions picking up the most appropriate ones from those given in brackets:
1. What did the man strike the tree with?
[knife, axe, sickle, saw]
Ans: The man strikes the tree with axe.
2. Who were watching the sight of the man cutting the tree?
[women, people, woodcutters, children]
Ans: People were watching the sight of the man cutting the tree.
3. What did the tree look like?
[small, strong, weak, dry]
Ans: The tree looked like strong tree.
C3 Read and discuss your responses with your partner. Then write.
1. Who do you think ‘I’ refers to in this poem?
Ans: I refer to the poet. He is the speaker of this poem.
2. Why do you think the poet stopped?
Ans: Because he was attracted by the sight of cutting tree and the rhythmic sound of the axe.
3. Which line tells us that the tree is aged?
Ans: “The Tree grown strong through many centuries.” This line tells us that the tree is aged.
4. Does the poem mean that cutting a tree is a huge loss for human beings? Which line supports your answer?
Ans: Yes. Cutting a tree is huge loss for human beings. The line ”there is more good in it than growing tree”. Suggests it.
5. Do you think the poet wrote this poem while the tree was being cut? Support your answer picking up the relevant line/lines from the poem.
Ans: No. This line will support my answer “And I remember how I liked the sight.”
6. Do you think the poet has made his intention clear to the reader at the end? Which lines support your answer?
Ans: Yes. Poet has made his intention clear. The following lines support our answer.
“I saw death cut down a thousand men” and “in that tall lovely legacy of wood”.
7. What message does the poem give us?
Ans: The poem gives us the harmful effects of poaching and indiscriminate cutting of trees.
8. What do you learn about the trees from this poem?
Ans: Trees live long. They live for centuries together. If it falls it is dangerous. We get timber from the trees. Trees are legacy of wood.
9. ‘But I saw death cut down a thousand men.’ Explain. What does the poet mean by ‘Lovely legacy of wood.’?
Ans: Poet suggests trees support the lives of men. They give us shelter and shade. If you cut tree you are causing death to thousands of men. Here lovely legacy of wood means that trees are handed over to us by our predecessors.
10. A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines. Usually a sonnet has a rhyme scheme. Is this poem a sonnet? Check whether this poem has a rhyme scheme or not.
Ans: This poem is a sonnet. It contains 14 lines. But the poem does not contain rhyme scheme.
Watch this video for explanation of The axe in the wood question and answer for class 8.