Odisha State Board CHSE Odisha Class 11 Approaches to English Book 2 Solutions Poem 5 Ballad of the Landlord Textbook Exercise Questions and Answers.
CHSE Odisha 11th Class Alternative English Solutions Poem 5 Ballad of the Landlord
Pre-reading Activity
Landlords and tenants do not always enjoy a happy relationship. What does the tenant do if he is evicted without any valid reason? Does the law of the land protect him? What can he do if he is denied justice, especially where law and justice are handmaidens of racial prejudice? Here is a ballad that dramatizes a situation of racial prejudice.
Questions For Discussion
Question 1.
What are the tenant’s complaints to the landlord?
Answer:
The tenant’s complaints to the landlord are the leakage of water in the house and the broken steps to it.
Question 2.
“These steps are broken down”. Is the sentence grammatically incorrect? If not, why has the poet used it?
Answer:
The sentence “These steps are broken down” is grammatically incorrect. The correct sentence would be “These steps are broken down”. However, the poet makes use of such an ungrammatical sentence because such a sentence is suitable in spot to English between people of this Class. Further, the ballad meter is possible in tainibic trimeter pattern, with “is”
Question 3.
“Well, that’s Ten Bucks more’n I’ll pay you/Title you fix this house up new”. Explain these lines.
Answer:
Yes; the ten dollars of house rent which the tenant has to 3 pay will be cleared after the repair works of the house are complete.
Question 4.
Does the tenant actually beat the landlord? How do you know?
Answer:
The tenant actually does not beat the landlord. False charges have been leveled against him. Because the landlord rather says that the tenant can’t utter a word if he is thrashed with a fist.
Question 5.
“He’s trying to ruin the. government and overturn the land” who speaks these words? And to what effect?
Answer:
The landlord speaks these words to the police to arrest the tenant.
Question 6.
Do you think the tenant committed an unbailable offense? Explain.
Answer:
The tenant never committed the unbailable offense. It was because the tenant immediately repair the landlord who never wanted to do it. His sole desire was to extort money from the tenants without providing adequate facilities for living. simply reminded of the complaints about the leaking house and broken steps which needed.
Question 7.
What is the attitude of the poet towards the legal system and social justice of the land? Is it justifiable in the context, of the poem?
Answer:
The poet develops a negative attitude towards the dying legal system and social justice of the land. An innocent tenant is put behind the bars for no fault of his and the wicked and notorious landlord gets the upper hand. The innocent are punished and the notorious are let loose. Law in the context of the poem is not justifiable.
Question 8.
Why is the last stanza printed in capital letters?
Answer:
The last stanza comprises capital letters because these are the exact newspaper headlines that appear on a newspaper so as to draw the attention of the reader.
Question 9.
In this poem, the poet uses some words that are plain or ungra¬mmatical or clipped or telegraphic. Can you identify them?
Answer:
“These steps are broken”; ‘member……..Ten Bucks more’n I’llYou gonna………..”; “You ain’t gonna He’stryingto.“Man Threatens Landlord Tenant Held No Bail Judge Gives Negro 90 Days In Country Jail”
Question 10.
Who do you sympathize with the landlord or the tenant? And why?
Answer:
Actually, the tenant draws more sympathy than the landlord. It is because he has fallen victim in the hand of the kind landlord who without any rhyme and reason puts him behind the bars on false charges. The tenant simply puts forth his problems in the house he had taken on rent, But the angry landlord takes recourse to unethical activities.
Composition
Question 1.
Examine how far the title “Ballad of the Landlord” is justified.
Answer:
The poem “Ballad of the Landlord” has been composed by Langstone Hughes, a prominent and outstanding poet of America. He has written a large volume of poems. He is an outstanding master who provides very apt and suggestive titles to his poems. Actually, a colorful and attractive signboard automatically arrests the attention of the customer to the shops. Similarly, an apt and adequate, and suggestive title, automatically fascinates the reader and makes them spellbound to go through the poem.
The discussed poem “Ballad of the Landlord” presents the same powerful force to justify the title of his poem. In fact, the ballad is a narrative poem that tells the story of some event in the form of a verse. Here, the poem; tells about the complaints of a tenant and the action taken by the landlord on that issue.
However, going through the poem, we have marked that the tenant had already given information to the landlord a week ago as to the leakage in the house and the broken steps which needed immediate repair. He also tells the landlord that he would pay him his due often dollars rented money when the landlord would complete the repair work of the house.
On the other hand, the landlord becomes irritated and resorts to illegal means to evict the tenant from the house. He even threatens him to fist on his back and the tenant can’t utter a word against him. The landlord also cries, “Police ! Police .” to come and arrest the tenant with no fault of his. Therefore, the tenant is arrested on false charges. He is thrown to prison due to the unbailable offense’ leveled against him.
The next day it came out in the newspaper Headline “Man Threatens Landlord/ Tenant Held No Bail/ Judge Gives Negro 90 Days In Country Jail” As a matter of fact the poem is entirely apt ‘and justified. Although unjust still then the landlord is ‘fully involved in the development of the theme. Without the illegal action taken by the landlord, the event can’t be completed. On the whole, in spite of the negation and injustice, the poem makes us spellbound and amused. In fact, the title is proper and justified.
Question 2.
Write an appreciation of the poem, following the outlines: (theme deviant (unusual) language used response to the poem and your analysis of the sequence of events, in narration stanza by stanza effectiveness of the poem in communicating the intended ideas and feeling- the functions of the considered opinion. Landlord” is undoubtedly the best masterpiece of Hughes. It is, indeed, Hughe’s ‘protest’ poem that tells about the. the sobriety of the tenants contrasted with the high-handed attitude of the landlords who exploit and harass their tenants. This event has been generalized and even universalized. The first and second stanza deal with the complaints given by the tenant before to the landlord as to the leakage in the house and the broken steps. The tenant had already given
Answer:
In fact, the poem “Ballad of the information about it to the landlord a week before. But no action has been taken so far relating to the condition of the house and the steps. The third stanza tells about the tenant’s warning against the nonpayment of the ten dollars that he owed to the landlord. He declared that he. would not pay the sum till repair works are undertaken. The fourth stanza explains the landlord’s reaction to the tenant’s request for the repair of the house again and over again. He says that the tenant is going to get the eviction orders to leave the house very soon.
He also adds that the tenant is talking high and mighty. He never hesitates to say that the tenant can’t have to say anything if it is thrashed with a fist. In die concluding stanza, the poet says that the landlord shouts for the police who came and arrested the tenant for no fault of his. He is imprisoned. He was tried in the court which convicts him. He is put behind the bars. In fact, it is a unique poem. Because there is scarcely any poem that is grounded on the tenant-landlord relationship.
It gives a realistic picture of the society in which people like these still exist. It is extremely important in the sense that the personal event has been generalized and universalized. Activity on Poem Completion Completes the following poem by filling the gaps appropriately with the lines given below it.
Activity on Poem Completion
Complete the following poem by filling the gaps appropriately with the lines given below it.
Fight your little fight my boy Don’t be a good little, good little boy and agree with all the mealymouthed. mealy-mouthed Cowardice, every old lout (D.H. Lawrence)
Lines for the gaps:
i) truths that the shy trot out.
ii)being as good, as you can.
iii) fight and be a man.
iv) to protect themselves and their greedy-mouthed, greedy-mouthed.
Answer:
Fight your little fight, my boy Fight and be a man Don’t be a good little, good little boy Being as good as you can. And agree with all the mealy-mouthed, mealy-mouthed. To protect themselves and their greedy-mouthed, greedy-mouthed. The truth that the shy trot out Cowardice, every old lout.
Notes on the poet:
Haid as the poet of the Harlem (a district in New York with a large concentration of Black Americans) Langston Hughes (1902- 1967) is famous for works like “The Weary Blues” (1926), “One Way Ticket” (1949) and “The Panther and the Lashi” (1967). His poetry has a rhythm close to Jazz Music; it is characterized by conflicting changes …… sharp interjections, broken shy them. The poem “Ballad of the Landlord” is one of Hughes’s protest poems.
The Ballad As A Verse Form:
A ballad is a narrative poem that tells a story, or it can be said to be a story in verse. Both the ballad and the lyric arise in response to the same need, both are associated in their origin with the communal dance, but while the ballad has remained a wayside flower, the lyric gradually becomes an exotic product of conscious art. The term ballad is used now to cover a wide variety of verses, but the word originally signified a dance song and many ballads eloquent of love youth and the spring tide were sun the villagers at their feasting t0 a rhythmic measure.
What we have are the product of Saxon, the intensity of feeling, softened and lightened by Norman sentiment and grace; though the ballad measure is of ancient origin and probably dates from early medieval times. Its History Thus, the ballad is a narrative poem, associated in its origin with the communal dance, possessing no marks of authorship and the outcome of tradition among people free from literary influence.
As in the case of the lyric, one more gifted member of the tribe would compose the verse of the song, while the rest would chant the refrain. The bard would recite the exploits of the hero in battle or the leader himself might even do this and the surrounding warriors join in the primitive chorus. Such is the history of the ballad not only in England but as recent investigations have shown, it can be paralleled in the unwritten literature of every savage race.
The term ballad has, however, been loosely applied to all poems written in what I know as “ballad meter”; what is, four-line stanzas technically described as iambic tetrameter and iambic trimetre, hence the term often includes poems that are real I “artificial ballads” in as much as they imitate the artless, simple, narrative form of the original literary prototypes, but which sin they are not the outcome of the condition which produced them are hot to be classed with them. “Conditions favorable to the making of such poetry ceased to be general after the fifteenth century”.
The charm of the ballad lies in its native, simplicity and primitive feeling. To call it artless, as some do, is a mistake, for it has its own rules of diction, its tricks of phrasing, and conventional refrains. But it has the case and sincerity of genuine poetry and is deep-rooted in its love of Earth and primal human qualities.
Ballad Of The Landlord Summary In English
The tenant complains about the problems of his rented house to the landlord. the house has become porous and water leaks through it causing problems for tenants. he had complained landlord about the matters before last week. The step of the house has broken and he had already received complaints about it. The tenant is surprised that the landlord never falls down when he climbs the broken steps. He also says that he would clear the dues of ten dollars after dies, the landlord, and repairs the house new.
This irritates die landlord who sharply says that the tenant is going to get eviction orders very soon. He is going to cut off his head and take his furniture and throw it in the street. He also scolds the tenant because he is thought of as arrogant and outspoken. He warns him that the tenant can not speak a word if the former strike him with his fist He also calls for the police to arrest the gentlemanly tenant. He charges him with trying to ruin the government and overturn the land. to the prison. The newspaper headlines run— Man Threatens Landlord Tenant Held Sio Bail Judge Gives Negro 90 Days In Country Jail. At last, the tenant is arrested and taken.
Analytical outlines
- The tenant complains to the landlord about the rented house.
- The house has become porous
- Water leaks through it.
- it causes various problems
- The tenant complains about it before last week,
- The steps of the house have broken.
- The landlord had already received complaints against if
- The tenant has Dyes often dollars
- He would pay it after repairing the house
- This irritates the landlord
- He sharply says that the tenant is going to get eviction orders very soon
- he is going to cut off his heat
- he is going to take his fortune
- He is also going to throw these in the street.
- He also scolds the tenant
- Because he is thought of as being arrogant and outspoken
- He warns him that a tenant can’t speak a word against him
- Even if the landlord strikes him with his fist
- He also calls for the police to arrest the gentlemanly tenant.
- He charges him with trying to ruin the government and overturn’ the land.
- At last, the tenant is arrested and taken to prison.
- The tenant is surprised ‘that the landlord never falls down when he climbs the broken steps.
Meaning of difficult words:
sprung a leak – has a crack through which water leaks
member – remember, recall
bucks – dollars
gonna – going to
high and mighty – arrogant
copper’s – policeman’s
precinct -the main police station in a particular area.