Chapter- 2.5 Autumn
1. Question: Who is the poet of the poem “Autumn”?
Answer: The poet is Kalidas, translated by Prof. A. W. Ryder.
2. Question: What season is described in the poem?
Answer: The poem describes the autumn season.
3. Question: How is autumn described in the first line?
Answer: Autumn is described as a “maiden fair”, meaning a beautiful young girl.
4. Question: What qualities of the maiden are mentioned?
Answer: Her slenderness and grace are mentioned.
5. Question: What does autumn wear in her hair?
Answer: She wears nodding rice-stems in her hair.
6. Question: What is seen in her face?
Answer: Lilies are seen in her face, showing purity and beauty.
7. Question: What does “nodding rice-stems” suggest?
Answer: It suggests ripened rice plants gently moving in the wind.
8. Question: What does the maiden wear as her dress?
Answer: She is clad in flowers of grasses.
9. Question: What does the word “clad” mean?
Answer: “Clad” means dressed or covered.
10. Question: How do birds greet her?
Answer: Birds greet her with their happy cooing sounds.
11. Question: What is the cooing of birds compared to?
Answer: It is compared to a bracelet’s tinkling song.
12. Question: What does the comparison suggest?
Answer: It suggests the sweet and melodious sound of birds.
13. Question: What adorns the night according to the poem?
Answer: A diadem of stars adorns the night.
14. Question: What is a diadem?
Answer: A diadem is a crown or head ornament.
15. Question: What does autumn wear at night?
Answer: She wears a silken robe of white moonlight.
16. Question: From what is the moonlight “set free”?
Answer: It is set free from cloudy bars (patches of cloud).
17. Question: What is meant by “cloudy bars”?
Answer: It means patches or strips of clouds that partly hide the moon.
18. Question: What shines on her face?
Answer: Bewitching smiles shine on her face.
19. Question: What does “bewitching” mean?
Answer: “Bewitching” means charming or enchanting.
20. Question: How does the poet describe her face?
Answer: He compares it to the radiant moon with beautiful smiles.
21. Question: What does the word “radiant” mean?
Answer: “Radiant” means bright or shining.
22. Question: What does the poet say about her figure?
Answer: She seems slender, like a maid who will soon become a woman.
23. Question: What is the symbolic meaning of “slender maid”?
Answer: It symbolizes youth and freshness of the autumn season.
24. Question: What does autumn symbolize in the poem?
Answer: Autumn symbolizes beauty, maturity, and gentleness.
25. Question: Which natural things are personified in the poem?
Answer: Rice-stems, lilies, moonlight, and stars are personified as parts of a maiden.
26. Question: What kind of tone does the poem have?
Answer: The tone is soft, calm, and graceful.
27. Question: How does the poet make autumn look alive?
Answer: By giving her human qualities, like a maiden dressed in beauty.
28. Question: What does the line “set free from cloudy bars” suggest?
Answer: It suggests that the sky has cleared, and moonlight spreads freely.
29. Question: What is the central idea of the poem?
Answer: The poem describes the beauty and grace of the autumn season through personification.
30. Question: What feeling does the poem create in the reader?
Answer: It creates a feeling of peace, admiration, and love for nature’s beauty.
