NCERT Solutions for class 9th English Poetry A Legend of the Northland

TEXTBOOK QUESTIONS SOLVED
THINKING ABOUT THE POEM

QueI.

  1. Which country or countries do you think ‘‘the Northland’’ refers to?
  2. What did Saint Peter ask the old lady for? What was the lady’s reaction?
  3. How did he punish her?
  4. How does the woodpecker get its food?
  5. Do you think that the old lady would have been so ungenerous if she had known who Saint Peter really was? What would she have done then?
  6. Is this a true story? Which part of this poem do you feel is the most important?
  7. What is a legend? Why is this poem called a legend?
  8. Write the story of ‘A Legend of the Northland’ in about en sentences.

Ans. 1. It is a country in the north where days are short and nights are long.

2. Saint Peter asked the old lady for alms. The lady behaved miserly and kept changing the size of the cake but could not give him anything to eat.

3. He cursed her and made her a woodpecker.

4. The woodpecker bores the hard and dry wood to get its food.

5. No, she would not have done this. She might have given him the smallest piece of cake.

6. No, it is an imaginative story. It is a legend. The third stanza of the poem is very important.

7. A legend is a story from ancient times about people and events. The title of the poem tells that it is a legend. The poet himself says that ‘I don’t believe it is true’.

8. The poem is a story of an old woman. She is asked by Saint Peter for alms who has become weak with fasting and travelling. But her greed forces her not to give him anything. He becomes angry and makes her a woodpecker who bores hard and dry wood to get food. Her clothes are burnt to ashes and she is left with a cap on her head. She continues boring into hard wood for her little food.

Que II. 1. Let’s look at words at the end of the second and fourth lines, viz., ‘snows’ and ‘clothes’, ‘true’ and ‘you’, ‘below’ and ‘know’. We find that ‘snows’ rhymes with ‘clothes’, ‘true’ rhymes with ‘you’ and ‘below’ rhymes with ‘know’. Find more such rhyming words.

2. Go to the local library or talk to older persons in your locality and find legends in your own language. Tell the class these legends.

Ans. 1. Do yourself.

2. Do yourself.

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