Dream
Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.
I DREAMED that as I wandered by the way
Bare winter suddenly was changed to Spring,
And gentle odours led my steps astray,
Mix’d with a sound of waters murmuring
Along with a shelving bank of turf, which lay5
Under a corpse, and hardly dared to fling
Its green arms round the bosom of the stream,
But kissed it and then fled, as Thou mightest in the dream.
There grew pied wind-flowers and violets.
Daisies, that pearled Arcturi of the earth,
The constellated flower that never sets;
Faint oxlips; tender bluebells, at whose birth
The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets—
Like a child, half in tenderness and mirth—
Its mother’s face with heaven-collected tears.
When the low wind, its playmate’s voice, it hears.
And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine,
Green cow-bind and the moonlight-coloured May,
And cherry-blossoms, and white cups, whose wine
Was the bright dew yet drained not by the day;
And wild roses, and ivy serpentine
With its dark buds and leaves, wandering astray;
And flowers azure, black, and streaked with gold,
Fairer than any waken’ eyes behold.
And nearer to the river’s trembling edge
There grew broad flag-flowers, purple pranked with white,
And starry river buds among the sedge,
And floating water-lilies, broad and bright,
Which lit the oak that overhung the hedge
With moonlight beams of their own watery light;
And bulrushes, and reeds of such deep green
As soothed the dazzled eye with sober sheen.
I thought that of these visionary flowers
I made a nosegay, bound in such a way
That the same hues, which in their natural bowers
Were mingled or opposed, the like array
Kept these imprisoned children of the Hours
Within my hand,—and then, elate and gay,
I hastened to the spot whence I had come
That I might their present it—O! to Whom?
—P.B. Shelley
(I) On the basis of your understanding of the poem answer the following questions with the help of the given options:
(a) The poet had dreamt that ……………
(i) bare summer had given way to spring
(ii) spring suddenly changed to winter
(iii) summer and winter were together
(iv) bare winter had changed to spring
(b) The poet had wandered in his dream ………………….
(i) on to a bank of turf
(ii) under the river
(iii) under a copse round the bosom of the stream
(iv) into a dream
(c) What the poet saw growing along the banks were …………………
(i) a variety of flowers
(ii) a variety of cows
(iii) his fair eyes awakened
(iv) a dazzling of sunshine
(d) The poet imagined that ……………
(i) kept the flowers as a gift
(ii) made the flowers into a nosegay
(iii) the flowers present themselves
(iv) the flowers were opposed to one another
(II) Answer the following questions briefly.
(a) Where was the poet led in his dream?
(b) Describe two characteristics of the copse.
(c) What was growing in the hedge?
(d) What flowers grew close to the river’s edge?
(e) Why did the bulrushes soothe the eye?
(f) Why had the poet hastened back to the spot from where he had come?
(III) Find words from the passage which mean the same as:
(a) earth (verse 2)
(b) blue (verse 3)
Ans. (I) (a) (iv) bare winter had changed to spring
(b) (i) on to a bank of turf
(c) (i) a variety of flowers
(d) (ii) made the flowers into a nosegay
(II) (a) The poet has led astray towards the sound of waters in his dream.
(b) The copse had greenery covering the stream and was hidden by it in the water.
(c) In the hedge eglantine flowers, cow-bind cherry and wild roses were growing.
(d) Close to the river’s edge grew broad flag-flowers, and floating water lilies.
(e) The bulrushes soothed the eye because of their deep green colour white added a sober’ sheen to the plants.
(f) The poet had hastened back to the spot because he wanted to present the nosegay of coloured flowers to someone but did not know to whom.
(III) (a) sod
(b) azure
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