Odisha State Board CHSE Odisha Class 12 Approaches to English Book 2 Solutions Poem 2 The Goat Paths Textbook Exercise Questions and Answers.
CHSE Odisha 12th Class Alternative English Solutions Poem 2 The Goat Paths
Pre-Reading activity:
The goat is a very common animal in our part of the country. What qualities do you associate with goats? Think up five words that come to your mind when you think of goats. The poem you are about to read has the title. “The Goat-Paths”. Can you guess what the poem is about? Write your guess here. Now read the poem is see what it is really about.
Notes On The Poet:
James Stephens (1882-1950), a British poet and novelist, is known for such work as Insurrections (1909). The Crack of gold (1912). The Hill of Vision (1912). Green Branches (1912) and Collected Poems (1936). His ‘delicates inspired’ poetry makes effective use of imagery, the familiar scene is often ‘translated into an image for a human meaning’. In this poem, the poet likes the goats, seeks harmony with Nature.
Questions For Discussion:
Question 1.
Where are the straying goats found?
Answer:
The goats prefer to go to the heather and not to a grassy field because there was nothing stir.
Question 2.
Why do the goats go to the heather and not to a grassy field?
Answer:
The goats prefer to go to the heather and not to a grassy field because there was nothing stir.
Question 3.
Are these goats different from the others of their kind?
Answer:
These goats are different from the others of their kind because they behave in different way from the others.
Question 4.
How many times para the words relating to ‘quiet’ used in this poem?
Answer:
Five times.
Question 5.
How does the poet related ‘quietly in quietness’ (line 13 to ‘the moving sky’?
(Line 16). If you were to make two sections of the poem how would you divided it?
Answer:
“Quietly in quietness’ means being alone in a lonely place. The moving sky implies the limitless sky.
Question 6.
How would you read of someone called the first section ‘observation’ and the second ‘reflection’?
Answer:
It would be right to say that the first section of the poem is based on ‘observation’ and the second section on ‘reflection’.
Question 7.
What do you notice in the voice of the poet? urgency, defiance, arrogance, envy, frustration, expectation or a sense of oneness with God’s creation?
Answer:
Urgency, defiance, expectation, a sense of oneness with God’s creation.
Question 8.
What does the poet say he would do when his ‘sunny solitude’ is distributed?
Answer:
He would stray apart and brood, he would beat a hidden way through the quiet heather spray in the sunny solitude.
Question 9.
Why does the poet call the goats ‘wise’?
Answer:
The poet calls the goats wise because they brood and beat the hidden way through the quiet heather spray in the sunny solitude.
Question 10.
The expression ‘IfI were’ conveys a wish. What is the poet’s wish?
Answer:
The poet’s wish is to be wise enough to brood and beat the hidden way through the quiet heather spray to a sunny solitude. He would run away and make an angry sound and would stare and turn and bound to the deeper silence where nothing disturbs.
Question 11.
I would think until I found/something I can never find’. How would you comment on the complexity of thought implicit in these lines?
Answer:
It is just like attaining the unattainable. The first lines is in simple past tense while the second line occurs in simple present form. The use of simple past in the present delineates are unfulfilled of he poet who would never find it. Hence, it is unfulfilled wish.
Question 12.
Can you write a simple paraphrase of the last stanza?
Answer:
The last stanza speaks of attaining of the unattainable. The poet makes use of the simple past tense form of verb, that is ‘found’ in the present context. The grammatical usage of such expression explains the unfulfilled wish of the poet. The poet is of the view that he will go on thinking until he has found what he can never find.
Question 13.
Point out same of the striking images in the poem?
Answer:
There are some striking images in the poem. They are-crooked paths, sunny quietness, crouching, beaten way etc.
Question 14.
What purpose do the words ‘quiet sunniness’. Sunny quietness’ ‘deeper sunniness’, ‘Quietly in quietness’. ‘Sunny quietude’. ‘Sunny solitude’ serve?
(i) They cast a spell on the reader.
(ii) They add to the musically of the poem
(iii) They are meant to create ambiguity for the reader.
Answer:
(iii) They are meant to create ambiguity for the reader.
Question 15.
Can you think of possible revisions of the following lines of the poem?
Line 17: “If you approach they run away.”
Line 30: “And should you come I’d run away”
Answer:
“If you approach they run away”
“If you come I’d run away”
Composition
Question 1.
Would you agree that the poem suggest the possibility of a harmony within the self and within the natural process of life and world”? Justify your answer.
Answer:
The poem‘ The Goat – Paths” is undoubtedly the master piece of James Stephens, an eminent and out-standing British poet and novelist. In this discussing poem, he expresses the possibility of a harmony within the selfand with the natural process of life and the world. The goats and goat paths are natural elements. The process of life is best reflected by means of these things. Life and life’s process are a part of nature. The outer reflections cost a deep spell on human life. It is because the external nature has a tremendous influence on the internal nature of man. Man internalises the outer nature which is at times didactic and delightful. The nature says words worth, ‘is the friend, philosopher and guide’, for man. In this discussing poem ‘The Goat – Paths,’ the poet James Stephens reflects the human self and natural processes. The poem ultimately leads the poet to identify himself with the goats! He says, “IfI were as wise as they I would stray apart and brood ….”. If a man appears on the scene, he would run away, he would like goats make an angry sound. He would is to a place where nothing stirs in the silence ofthe furze. He would also like to think in the airy quietness through the quiet sunniness, he would stray away to brood by hidden, beaten way in the sunny solitude. He would think until he found something he can never and something lying on the ground. As a matter offact, Stephens has tried his best to establish a harmony within the self and with the natural process of life and the world. The way Stephens explains it is superb and fantastic. On the whole. Stephens’s expression is most during, evaluating, inspiring and heart-touching.
Question 2.
Comment on the appropriateness of the title “The Goat-Paths”.
Answer:
The poem “The Goat-Paths” is, indeed, the best typical master-piece of James Stephens, a prominent and outstanding British poet and novelist of the twentieth century. His ‘delicately inspired’ poetry tinged with apt and suggestive titles is undoubtedly superband excellent. However, the title of any piece of art must be thoroughly exact, appropriate and suggestive. It should be like a colourful and attractive signboard of a shop. An attractive signboard automatically arrests the attention of the customers and makes them spell bound to have a visit to the shop. It also explains what a shop contains similarly, and apt and suggestive title arrests the attention of the reader instantly and makes them spell bound to go through it completely. It is like ‘the face is the index of heart.’ The discussing poem ‘The Goat-Paths”| bears the same ideas to prove the authenticity and appropriateness of the title of the poem. Moreover, the goat-paths are usually crooked and they lead uphill. They also wind about through the heather in and out of the quiet sunniness. The goats keep cropping here and there, they pause and turn and pass. When approaches they run away, leap and stare and they go away to the sunny quietude with a sudden angry sound. The poet brings oneness between the goats and his life. In feet, appropriateness of the title applies to the poem. The poem bears all qualities of being an apt and suggestive one. The external natural things like the goats, goat-paths have been identified with human life. The poet wishes to internalise these values and learn a lot from the goats. As a matter of feet, the title of the poem‘ The Goat-Paths” is apt and suggestive. The way the poet has expressed the central idea of the poem through the appropriate title is superb and outstanding. One the whole, the title of the poem is thought-provoking, inspiring and heart enduring.
The Goat Paths Summary in English
The crooked paths go every way upon the hill. They wind about though the heather in and out of the quiet sunniness. The goats there, day after day, stray in sunny quietness, cropping here and there as they halt and turn and pass. There is a bit of Heather spray, a mouthful of the grass in the deep sunniness in the place where nothing stirs quietly in the quietness. In quiet of the furze, they come and lie staring on the roving sky. When somebody approaches they run away. They leap and stare, they bound away with a sudden angry sound of the sunny quietude. Crouching down where nothing stirs in the silence of these furze, crouching down again to brood in the sunny solitude. If we were as wide as they were, he would stray apart and brood, he would beat a hidden way through the quiet heather spray to a sunny solitude. If someone came he would run away, he would make an angry sound and would stare and turn and bound to the deeper quietude to the place where nothing stirs in the silence of the furze. He would think as long as they in that airy quietness through the quiet sunniness he would stray away to brood by a hidden beaten way in the sunny solitude.
Analytical Outlines:
- The crooked paths go every way.
- It goes every way upon the hill.
- They wind about through the heather.
- They wind about in and out of the quiet sunniness.
- There, the goats stray in sunny quietness.
- The goats stray day after day.
- They halt here and there.
- They turn here and there
- They pass here and there
- They crop here and there
- There is a bit of heather spray.
- It is mouthful of the grass.
- It is in the deep sunniness in the place.
- There nothing stirs quietly.
- Actually, there is an entire quietness.
- They come in the quiet of the furze.
- They lie staring on the roving sky.
- They run away when somebody approaches.
- They leap.
- They stare
- They bound away with a sudden angry sound.
- They do it with the sound of the sunny quietude.
- They crouch down.
- Nothing stirs in the silence of the furze.
- They crouch down again.
- They brood in the sunny solitude.
- If he were as wise as they.
- He would stray apart.
- He would brood.
- He would beat a hidden way through the quiet heather.
- He would spray to a sunny solitude
- If someone came.
- He would run away.
- He would make an angry sound.
- He would stare.
- He would turn.
- He would bound to the deeper quietude.
- There nothing stirs in the silence of the furze.
- He would think as long as they were in that airy quietness.
- He would think this through the quiet sunniness.
- He would stray away to brood.
- He would brood by a hidden beaten way.
- He would do this in the sunny solitude.
Meaning Of difficult Words:
croocked- bent, not straight
heather- wasteland covered with strubs
cropping- grazing
furze- shrub with spikes
roving (sky) – moving (here, appearing to move)
quietude – calmness, serenity, solitude
crouching – lying close to the ground
beat- make a path
stare- to look fixedly, to glance
solitude- loneliness, calmness, pin drop silence
brood- act ofbreeding
stray- to wander
spray- to sprinkle