Chapter 3 – Now the leaves are falling fast

Now the leaves are falling fast

Check out the topics covered in Chapter before you start your preparation. Improve your grammar skills with the help of Bihar Board Class 12 English Poem 3 Now the leaves are falling fast pdf links. The solutions for Bihar State Board Class 12 English Textbook are prepared by the English experts. So, if you follow Bihar Board Class 12 English Textbook Solutions you can cover all the topics in Poem 3 Now the leaves are falling fast. This helps to improve your communication skills.

A. Work in small groups and discuss these questions

Question 1.
There is a season in which trees shed their leaves. Which season is this? What are the other things that take place in this season?
Answer:
It is autumn. In autumn trees shed their leaves. Fruit ripen. Wheat and barley are sown.

Question 2.
What feelings do the trees without leaves evoke in you?
Answer:
The trees look naked and ugly. The sights evoke a feeling of sympathy for them.

Question 3.
How do old people think about their own life and age when they see a child?
Answer:
They are reminded of their own childhood. They think of their past with nostalgia.

B. 1. Read the following sentences and write T for true and F for false statements 

(a) The leaves are falling very fast.
(b) The nurses are still there to take care of the flowers.
(c) All the prams are gone to the grave.
(d) Whispering neighbours’ disturb the ‘real delight’ of the ageing persons.
(e) Old persons feel lonely as they gradually become inactive.
(f) Death freezes the body and separates us from the crowd of die people.
(g) The promises of love are often deceptive.
(h) Starvation and suffering do not characterise human life.
(i) Travellers get one relief in the waterfall of the mountain.
(j) The prams go rolling on’ suggests the continuity of life.
Answer:
(a) T, (b) F, (c) T, (d) T, (e) T, (f) T, (g) T, (h) T, (i) T, (j) F.

B. 2. Complete the following sentences on the basis of what you have studied

(a) Nurses to the………………………….rolling one.
(b) The cold, impossible, ahead……………. lovely head
……………………………………………could bless
…………………………………………last distress.
Answer:
(a) Nurse’s flowers will not last;
Nurses to the graves are gone,
And the prams go rolling one.
(b) Cold impossible ahead.
Lists the mountain’s lovely head
Whose white waterfall could bless
Travellers in their last distress.

B. 3. Answer the following questions briefly

Question 1.
What does the poet mean when he says “Now the leaves are falling fast”?
Answer:
The poet means that the leaves of the branches of the tree are falling and the trees are becoming leafless. It is also meant by a person who slowly goes to its death and at last in a grave. Like a tree, every human life has to be destroyed. There is none who can be alive. Everyone is mortal.

Question 2.
What are the words in the second stanza suggest death and the effect of death on the human body?
Answer:
In the second stanza, the following are the words that suggest death and the effect of death on the human body Wishpering neighbours, Pluck and Freeze.

Question 3.
How do we complete our last journey to the grave?
Answer:
When a man is dead hundreds of men carry the dead body in a wooden coffin to the grave. This is our last journey.

Question 4.
What do “Trolls” do in the “leafless wood”?
Answer:
Trolls run in search of their food in the leafless wood. They search for food to live.

Question 5.
Who are the ‘travellers’ and how will they be blessed?
Answer:
Old persons are the travellers and they are blessed with their last distress and that is death.

Question 6.
Which words in the first stanza suggest objects from Nature?
Answer:
‘Nurse’s flowers’ is the word in the first stanza that suggests objects from nature. It means ‘a nurse’.

Question 7.
Who are the ‘whispering neighbours’?
Answer.
Agents or messengers of death are the whispering neighbours who come when a human body is dead.

Question 8.
How does human life become miserable?
Answer:
Suffering from diseases and other problems, make human life become miserable and unhappy.

Question 9.
In what way will the travellers be blessed?
Answer:
Travellers will be blessed of those white waterfall which comes out from the mountain’s head. They will be blessed in their last distress.

C. 1. Long Answer Questions

Question 1.
Falling of leaves suggests the process of death and human waste on a large scale. Explain with reference to the poem.
Answer:
Falling of leaves suggests the process of death and human waste on a large scale. It means human life is just like a leaf which falls from a tree. Firstly, human life just starts as a baby and slowly it grows. After some time a human life suffers from a lot of diseases. Just like weather a human life also changes. When the weather changes the leaves fall down. In the same way, human life also decreases and decays.

Question 2.
The poet is critical of the negative tendencies of human society. What are these tendencies ? Give details.
Answer:
The poet W.H. Auden wants to say that human life is totally dependent on human society. Without a human society, it can’t grow properly and also can’t do anything well. The poet is critical of the negative tendencies of human society. There are different kinds of caste or creed. The poet says that all human life is the same and belongs to the same society but the people create different kinds of caste and divide themselves. The poet says that it is not good.

Question 3.
Who are the ‘Strolls’ in the real world?
Answer:
In this poem “The Leaves Are Falling Fast” is written by the poet W. H. Auden. According to his knowledge, those people are the ‘trolls’ in the real world who divide human life in different caste or creeds. The people who did crime anywhere and give troubles to others always think wrong things. They don’t think about others and their problems. They hurt those people who are gentle. Such types of people are the ‘trolls’ in the real world.

Question 4.
Though the poet refers to ‘death’ several times, yet the poem is not a pessimistic one. Justify your answer.
Answer:
The poet W. H. Auden refers to death several times in his poem, yet the poem is not a pessimistic one. In this poem, the poet tells that a tree becomes leafless in autumn. It looks like an old person who suffers from the illness. It seems that the poet has narrated the reality of life. Everything is bound to come to an end. But the circle of life and death will continue. Yet the poet is not a pessimistic one. In this poem, he tells that a tree becomes leafless in this season. It seems like an old person who suffers from an illness and can’t live for a long such as the tree also seemed that it would soon dry. As different types of seasons people also suffer from different kinds of disease.

Question 5.
Write in short the summary of the poem, “Now the Leaves are Falling Fast” [Board Model, 2009]
Or, write a short note of the poem, “Now the Leaves are Falling Fast” [B.M., 2009 A]
Answer:
“Now the Leaves are Falling Fast” is a simple but revealing poem by W.H. Auden. He is a 20th Century poet who tries to expose the frustration which is naturally present in human life. In this poem, the poet tries to show the crisis that has overtaken modem life. The poet describes the slow dismantling of our aspirations, our loneliness and our frustration against a very suitable background of autumn. Our rising aspirations are falling apart like leaves in autumn. Even the flowers growing under big trees are not able to survive. Death lays its icy hand on all. The poet coins highly suggestive expression to refer to death such as “whispering neighbours” and “pluck us from the real delight”. These two expressions suggest that human life is no better than death. In fact, it is life in death. The poet describes the situation of helplessness with the help of trolls who are mining for food without any success. The shocked silence of the nightingale completes the image of death. However, a sense of optimism is betrayed in the closing lines of the poem :

“Cold, impossible, ahead
Lists the mountains Lovely head
Whose white waterfall could bless
Travellers in their last distress.”

Thus the present poem is a fine lyric written by an accomplished poet like W.H. Auden. He has the most beautifully depicted mortality. Mortality and continuity are the two wheels on which life runs.

C. 3. Composition

Write a paragraph in about 100 words on each of the following:
(a) If winter comes, can spring be far behind?
Answer:
Life is blessed with good and bad. Winter is always associated with sad, dull and gloomy atmosphere whereas spring is the sign of freshness, happiness and enjoyment. Human beings should always be optimistic in their approach to life. They should understand the law of Nature. If there is pain, unhappiness or tears today, how far away is the happiness from us? There are two sides to everything. If today there is sorrow, tomorrow it will be happiness. We should believe that a tune will come when there will be equality justice and love everywhere. So we should never lose our hope and always be optimistic.

(b) Let us make this world a better place to live in.
Answer:
Life is beautiful and the world is a beautiful place to live in. But the fact is that we are trying to destroy this world for our selfish ends. God blessed us with a beautiful world. But human beings are destroying their beauty by bringing destruction to Nature. Man is giving so much pressure on this earth that an imbalance is created. They are not only unbalancing the earth but killing people, damaging their properties and making life fearful. Today, a time has come that there is no fellow feeling among the people. They are scared of believing other people. They are trying to protect and save themselves from their enemies in great fear. So it is our duty to make this world a better place to live in and enjoy its beauty.

D. Word Study
D. 2. Word-formation

Read carefully the following sentence taken from the poem:
And the prams go rolling on.
In the above sentence, the word ‘pram’ is the shortened form of perambulators. Write down the short forms of the following :
examination
programme
department
congratulation
modem
advertisement
Answer:
examination — exam,
programme — prog,
department — dept,
congratulation — congrats
modem — mod.
advertisement — ad.

D3. Word-meaning

Ex. 1. Write the antonyms of the following words and use them in your own sentences:

falling…………..
last……………….
freeze…………..
responsive………..
impossible………..
separate………
fast…………….
real…………
false…………
bless………..
Answer:
falling — raising — The children were raising fund for charity.
fast — slow — Ram is very slow in his reading.
last— first — Tom comes first in class.
freeze — melt — The ice got melt.
separate — together — We must work together.
responsive — unresponsive — He played unresponsive due to his bad health.
false — true — She is a true lady.
impossible — possible — Everything is possible in this world,
bless — curse — I never curse others.

E. Grammar

Ex. 1. Read the following sentences carefully:
’And the prams go rolling on’.
The line suggests continuity of action. It can also be rewritten as: ‘And the prams go on rolling’.
Write five similar sentences with ‘go on using the following verbs:
swim, walk, read, sleep, sketch
Answer:
(1) The students go on swimming.
(2) Healthy people go on walking.
(3) The students go on reading.
(4) The lazy go on sleeping.
(5) ‘The children go on sketching.

Ex. 2. Read the following sentence carefully:
‘And the active hands must freeze. ’In the above line ‘must’ suggests ‘compulsion’ or necessity. ‘Must is different from ‘should’ and ‘ought to’ which suggest ‘suggestion’ or ‘obligation’. Fill in blanks with ‘must’, ‘should’, ‘ought to’ to complete the following sentences
(1) We follow a suitable time-table of study.
(2) The young be considerate about the sentiments of their elders.
(3) Death does not mean the end of everything, life goes on.
(4) Why I always follow fashion.?
(5) We, the Indians show respect to the national flag.
Answer:
(1) should, (2) must, (3) must, (4) should, (5) ought to.

Comprehension Based Questions with Answers

1. Read the following extract of the poetic piece and answer the questions that follow:
Now the leaves are falling fast,
Nurse’s flowers will not last;
Nurses to the graves are gone,
Arid the prams go rolling on.

Questions.
(a) Name the poem and the poet.
(b) What do the falling leaves suggest?
(c) What does “nurses flowers will not last” mean?
(d) Whom the poet says, “nurses to the graves”?
(e) What does “the prans go rolling on”, mean?
Answer:
(a) The poem is “Now The Leaves Are Falling Fast.” and the name of the poet is “Wystan Hugh Auden”.
(b) The falling leaves suggest the process of death and human waste on a large stale, indicating the frustration and un fulfilment of human wishes.
(c) Flowers do not last long, because they are short-lived. It is the process of nature that nothing is everlasting.
(d) The poet explains the mortality of life. Death is inevitable. Since nurses have also to meet the same fate, as such they have gone to the graves.
(e) The prans rolling on proves that life goes on despite mortality. Love and compassion can provide heating touches to our tired nerves in the journey of life.

2. Read the following extract of the poetic piece and answer the questions that follow [Board Model, 2009]
Whispering neighbours left and right,
Pluck us from the real delight
And the active hands must freeze
Lonely on the separate knees.

Questions.
(a) Write the title of the poem and the poet’s name.
(b) Who are the “Whispering neighbours?”
(c) What does, “pluck us from the real delight knees”?
(d) Why the active hands must freeze?
(e) To whom the poet says “lonely on the separate knees”?
Answer:
(a) The title of the poem is, “Now The Leaves Are Falling Fast” and its poet is W. H. Auden.
(b) Agents or messenger of death is the whispering neighbours, who come at the time of death, to inform us of the inevitability of death.
(c) The whispering neighbours who are really the agents of death, spoil the joy of our life by pointing to the inevitability of death.
(d) Death freezes the active hands. It means that life.comes to an end with death. It is bound to come one day or another.
(e) Death separates us from the crowd of the people, to remain peacefully under the graves.

3. Read the following extract the poetic piece and answer the questions that follow [Board Model, 2009]
Dead in hundreds at the back
Follow wooden in our track,
Arms raised stiffly to reprove.
In false attitudes of love.

Questions:
(a) Name the poem and the poet.
(b) What does the poet say of the dead?
(c) Whose arms are raised stiffly?
(d) Why the poet feels “false attitude of love”?
(e) What is the feeling of the poet in these lines of the stanza?
Answer:
(a) The poem is, “Now The Leaves Are Falling Fast” and the name of the poet who wrote the poem is, W.H. Auden.
(b) The poet says that so many persons have died shortly because death cannot be avoided.
(c) Dead persons have raised their arms desperately to rebuke it. They are highly aggrieved with the end of life in such away.
(d) The poet feels false attitude of love because of the uncertainty of life and certainty of death. As such he calls it the false attitude of love.
(e) Poets reaction in this stanza relates to the inevitability of death, which cannot be avoided. It is the reality of human life.

4. Read the following extract of the poetic piece and answer the questions that follow [Board Model, 2009]
Starving through the leafless wood
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Trolls ran scolding for their food;
And the nightingale is dumb.
And the angel will not come.

Questions:
(a) Name the poem and the poet.
(b) Who are they starving?
(c) Who is scolding for the food?
(d) Why the nightingale is dumb?
(e) Who will not come there?
Answer:
(a) The poem is, “Now The Leaves Are Falling Fast” and the name of the poet is W.H. Auden.
(b) Wicked and ugly creatures are become starving (“trolls” are wicked and ugly creatures in Scandinavian mythology).
(c) Wicked and ugly creatures (trolls) are scolding for the food they require.
(d) The nightingale has become dumb to see the leafless trees. The trees are looking like death and the nightingale becomes silent to mourn this tragedy.
(e) The angel or innocent persons will not come there to witness the ugly and distressing conditions of the leafless trees.

5. Read the following extract of the poetic piece and answer the questions that follow [Board Model, 2009]
Cold, impossible, ahead
Lists the mountain’s lovely head
Whose white waterfall could bless
Travellers in their last distress.

Questions.
(a) Mention the title of the poem and poets’ name.
(b) What is cold and impossible?
(c) What does mountain’s lovely head mean?
(d) To whom white waterfall could bless?
(e) Who happens to be in last distress?
Answer:
(a) The title of the poem is “Now The Leaves Are Falling Fast” and the name of the poet is W.H. Auden.
(b) There are the lovely mountain peaks ahead, which are cold and it is not possible to climb over them.
(c) Mountain’s lovely head means – lovely peaks of the mountain which Jook beautiful.
(d) White waterfall could bless the travellers passing through that way.
(e) The travellers who are passing through lovely mountain peaks and white waterfall are in last distress.