HSC Board Activity Sheet July 2023

Q.3 (B) Read the extract and write the appreciation of the poem:: (04)

When I had money, money,
O! I knew no joy till I went poor;
For many a false man as a friend
Came knocking all day at my door.  

Then felt I like a child that holds
A trumpet that he must not blow
Because a man is dead; I dared
Not speak to let this false world know.  

Much have I thought of life, and seen
How poor men’s hearts are ever light;
And how their wives do hum like bees.
About their work from morn till night.  

So, when I hear these poor ones laugh,
And see the rich ones coldly frown
Poor men, think I, need not go up
So much as rich men should come down.

Ans. About the poem/poet and the title:

 'The Inchcape Rock' by Robert Southey is a ballad of seventeen stanzas. The poem is about some dangerous rocks near the coast of Scotland. The title of the poem is very suitable because the rock is a central point of the whole poem.

The theme:

 The theme of the poem is on the proverb ' Evil digs a pit for others but falls into the same'. It is about the evil feeling of jealousy. The Abbot installed a bell on the dangerous Inchcape rock to save the ships from the dangerous rock during the storms. So, the seamen blessed the Abbot for his good work.

       But Rove felt jealous at the fame of the Abbot and cut down the bell from the Inchcape rock. But finally he himself was the victim of the Inchcape rock.

Poetic style:

The poem is a ballad type. It has a, a, b, b rhyme scheme. There are total seventeen stanzas and each stanza consist four lines. There are some archaic (old) words used in the poem, such as quoth, canst, blest, hath etc.

The language/ poetic devices used in the poem:

The language of the poem is very simple and easy to understand. The poem consists of different figures of speech such as personification, Transferred Epithet, simile, repetition, paradox, alliteration, onomatopoeia, apostrophe, inversion etc. The poem consists vivid imagery of the 'bright, shining sun', 'hazy sky’, the 'steady ship', 'green ocean', 'birds wheeling around', 'sinking ship'. etc. The use of symbolism also adds to the beauty of the poem where the Abbot is the symbol of good, while Sir Ralph symbolizes the evil.

Special features:

  The poem is didactic in nature, meaning that it conveys a moral through the story depicted in it. The moral of this poem is 'As you sow, so shall you reap'.

Opinion:

      In my opinion the poem is the best moral for all the human being. It is applicable for the current society to stop crimes and evil deeds.