Poem- Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
bu William Wordsworth
S.No Words. Meaning
1 Slumber Deep sleep
2. Seal Fasten securely
3. Spirit. The non-physical part of a person which is the seat of emotions and character
4.Earthly years The passing time and seasons in Earth
5 Diurnal. Pertaining to happening daily
6.Implied. Indirect or hidden
7.Melancholy Extreme sadness
8. Numb Having no feeling or emotions
9. Depart. To leave or exit
10.Pangs. The pain that one experiences
11. Fragments. Broken pieces of a whole substance
12.Charisma. Enthusiasm or charm
A. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
A slumber did my spirit seal;
I had no human fears:
She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.
Q1. What does the poet mean by “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal”?
Ans. The poet implies that a deep slumber (sleep) prevented him from seeing the reality of life.
Q2. Which human fears does the poet talk about?
Ans. The poet discusses the human fears of dying, being sick and starvation.
Q3. What did the poet feel about his loved one?
Ans. The poet felt that his loved one was immortal.
Q4. Which slumber is the poet talking about?
Ans. The poet is talking about the false impression he had about his loved one.
B. Read the following extract and answer the questions that follow:
No motion has she now, no force;
She neither hears nor sees;
Rolled round in earth’s diurnal course,
With rocks, and stones, and trees.
Q1. What realization dawns on the poet?
Ans. The poet realises that his loved one’s body is motionless and lifeless.
Q2. What shocks the poet?
Ans. The realization that his loved one is not alive, shocks the poet.
Q3. Which words from the poem describe death?
Ans. ‘No motion’, ‘no force’ and ‘neither hears nor sees’
Q4. Why does the poet compare his loved one to “rocks, stones, and trees”?
Ans. The poet compares his loved one being now a part of the earth, the poet’s loved one now spins with the earth, much like rocks, stones, and trees do.
Q1. What happened to the poet’s beloved?
Ans. The beloved of the poet was gone. She was no longer a living person. Through the poetry, the poet honours her sweetheart. Her spirit is now tranquil or sealed by death. All human fears were put to rest by her death. She had passed away and was no longer susceptible to human mortality.
Q2. How does she become an inseparable part of nature?
Ans. The poet’s beloved merges with nature and becomes a part of it. She gets rolled around in the earth’s course by rocks, stones, and trees while stuck beneath the earth’s surface. She is moving in the daily course of the planet. In actuality, she has merged with nature or has become an inseparable component of it.
Q3. Is she visible? If not, why not?
Ans. No, she is not visible because she no longer exists. She is invisible to the sight. She can be seen by the poet in his soul. She now moves with the planetary diurnal cycle. She has merged with the trees, rocks, and other elements of nature.
Q4. How will time not affect the poet’s beloved?
Ans. The poet’s beloved is dead and a dead thing becomes immortal. The fact that immortality is unaffected by time or the physical world is a commonly acknowledged truth. The poet’s beloved can neither see nor hear. She has left the physical world behind. She has reached the end of her earthly years. She was absorbed into the daily cycle of nature and became a part of nature’s diurnal course.
Q5. How does the poet react to his beloved’s death?
Ans. The death of the poet’s beloved is so sudden and unexpected that his mind as well as his body seems to be closed off. A deep slumber has taken hold over him. His spirit seems to be sealed. He has lost touch of earthly consciousness. Her death has cut him off from all earthly fears. A deep slumber has engulfed all his worldly feelings.
Q6. How does the poet imagine her beloved after her sudden and untimely death?
Ans. The poet’s beloved is no longer a living being in this mortal world. She would be beyond the touch of earthly years. She is beyond the action and reaction of all five senses and the earthly body. She will, however, merge completely with nature. She will be moving with the daily rotation of the planet. She will merge with the trees, rocks, and other elements of nature.
Class 9 A Slumber did my Spirit Seal Long Answer Questions Poem 8
Q1. Give a brief analysis of the poem ‘A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal’ in your own words.
Ans. The poet of “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal” confesses his love (and sorrow over) an enigmatic, idealised woman in this poem. The poet of this poem is struck by the strangeness of his beloved’s passing since he has always imagined her as young and vibrant and finds it difficult to comprehend that her body is now as inert as the “rocks, and stones, and trees.” The poem serves as a reminder to readers that despite death’s certainty, the majority of people live deeply delusional lives, seldom recognising their mortality.
The poet claims in the first stanza that the loss of his beloved left him feeling extremely unhappy. He claims that his beloved has changed into a thing that is no longer alive and cannot be touched by anything on earth. He claims that his beloved is motionless in the second stanza. She can neither hear any sound nor can she see anything. She is imprisoned beneath the ground and rotates around trees, rocks, and other objects.
Q2. How does the poet react to the untimely, sudden and shocking death of his beloved? What does he imagine her to be after her death?
Ans. The poet is devastated by the abrupt and untimely death of his beloved. The poet’s emotions are difficult to put into words. The poet’s body and spirit appeared to have been sealed off by slumber (sound sleep). She is no more and will not be affected by the earthly years as well as by the touch of five physical senses. She won’t experience any force, motion, or movement. She won’t be able to hear or see either. Nevertheless, she will merge completely with nature.
The speaker appears to awaken after losing his beloved and realises that his belief in his loved one’s immortality was only a delusion. This alteration implies that grief compels people to face a truth they’d prefer not acknowledge.
In the reality the speaker awakens to, his beloved is certainly past “the touch of earthly years,” but only because she’s become an object, just like the “rocks, and stones, and trees.” According to this natural imagery, dying is as normal as “earth’s diurnal course” (the earth’s daily rotation).
