Unit 4 - 4.4 The Height of the Ridiculous — English STD 10 — Question

What attributes of Rabindranath Tagore does the poem (prayer) reflect?

Who are the mighty dead? Why are they attributed with grandeur?

Who is ‘Thee’ in the poem ? What does the poet appeal to ‘Thee’ to do ?

From the extract provide evidence for the following:

Stages	Evidence (lines from the extract)
(a) the attempts by the peasants to help alleviate the mother's pain
(b) evil versus good

Poem
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by Thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. - Rabindranath Tagore

Read the poem carefully and complete the table after the discussion in pairs. One is done for you.

Concepts in the poem	Present situation	Expected/ideal situation
(1) mind	mind is full of fear	fearless mind
(2) head	____________	____________
(3) knowledge	____________	____________
(4) words	____________	____________
(5) habit	____________	____________
(6) thought and action	____________	____________

With the help of the poem, find the differences between animals and human beings:

Write down in your own words the differences between the 2nd stage and the 4th stage of a man's life:

Complete the following sentences using your own interpretation.
1. When the mind is without fear and head unbowed, we enjoy _____________. freedom.
2. When knowledge is free, every citizen enjoys the right to _____________. and _____________ .
3. We can prevent _____________. injustice when we pull down discriminatory walls of caste, class, religion etc.
4. Constant effort and strife leads to _____________ .
5. Logical thinking and reasoning can put a stop to _____________. .
6. Tagore appeals to God to make his country a _____________ .

What qualities does the poet wish to inculcate in his countrymen ?

The poet wants us to possess all the strengths and keep away from all the weaknesses. Make a list of all words and phrases from the extract showing Strengths in table A and Weaknesses in table B:

A (Strengths)	B (Weaknesses)
capacity, strength, sagacity
faith, hope, confidence
doggedness, grimness
the help given by God