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Animals Introduction, Walt Whitman has shown the comparison between human beings and animals in his poem. He has pointed out the evils present inside the human brain which he thinks animals don‘t have. That is why he thinks that animals are much better than human beings., Animals Poem Summary, Animals Summary – In the poem animals, the poet has described his will to become an animal because he thinks animals are far better than human beings. Human beings are greedy and full of jealousy against each other. But animals are calm and self contained. The animals are happy with what they have. They never complain about miseries and sorrows. On the other hand human beings complain about their miseries. They give more importance to the rich and strong people, stay restless because of their wrongdoings and run behind the luxurious things of this world. Whereas animals are honest about their relations and don’t give importance to a particular class. They live a life which is full of honesty and less of greed and jealousy., Animals Poem Explanation, I think I could turn and live with animals, they are, So placid and self-contained,, I stand and look at them long and long., Word meanings, Placid: calm, peaceful, Contained; keep up control, The poet says that he wants to live in the world of animals. Here we can say that the poet finds the world of animals better than that of human beings. He further says that he finds animals more peaceful than humans. He says so because animals are not running after worldly things like human beings. They are calm and have no greed for worldly things or any kind of achievements. They are self contained means they are happy with life and never interfere in the lives of others. Humans have the habit of interfering in the lives of others. So, poet thinks that animals are better than humans for being calm and not interfering in the matters of others. The poet further says that these are the reasons why he stands still and looks at the animals for a very long time., Literary Devices:, Assonance: use of vowel sound ‘I’ (I, think, I, live, with, animals), Repetition: use of the word ‘long’, Anaphora: ‘I’ word used at the start of two consecutive lines, They do not sweat and whine about their condition,, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,, They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,, Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with, The mania of owning things,, Sweat: here it means complaint, Word meanings, Whine: cry, Sins: wrongdoing, Demented: mad, disturbed, The poet says that unlike humans, animals don‘t complain of any misery. They never cry out loud like humans do, to show what they have lost. They never stay awake in the night, crying in repentance for their wrongdoings. This means that animals are different from human beings because they don’t show anger or grief if something wrong happens with them. He further says that animals are very truthful because they never boast of their good deeds done in the name of god. He says so because most of the human beings do this. They try to show their good deeds and religiousness to others. They do so in order to gain popularity among their fellows. So, the poet thinks that animals never irritate him by doing such things just to gain some praise from their fellow people. He feels that the animals are not dissatisfied like humans. They stay happy with whatever they have. They never run behind worldly things. They never try to possess things of comfort or luxury. He says that none of them is mad behind owning the worldly things., Literary Devices:, Anaphora: use of repeated words at the beginning of two or more consecutive lines (use of “they do not”), Metaphor: sweat and whine refer to the cries and complaints of human beings, Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that, Lived thousands of years ago,, Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth., So they show their relations to me and I accept them,, They bring me tokens of myself, they evince, Them plainly in their possession, Word meanings, Kneels: bow down, Evince: show, reveal, Possession: ownership of something, Tokens: here, the qualities, Here the poet says that he has never seen any animal showing his devotion to anyone by bowing down in front of the person. They never do so even for their ancestors. They do not show devotion towards God like humans do. No one among them is more respectable or important as we have in human society. In human beings, rich people are generally given more importance and are treated with more respect as compared to the poor. But in the society of animals, they never do so. They never give more or less importance to any other animal. Everyone in the animal world is happy. They are not like human beings who find themselves the happiest or the saddest person on earth. Further the poet says that animals are more honest in showing their relations with other animals. Here he wants to say that animals use other animals as their food and they never try to hide this. Whereas human beings show that they have nice and friendly relations with others, though the reality is opposite. The poet says that he accepts the fact that animals are true towards showing their relation with other animals., Literary Devices:, Metaphor: The inner qualities of humans are referred to as tokens, I wonder where they get those tokens,, Did I pass that way huge times ago and negligently drop them?, Word meanings, Negligently: Carelessly, So at last the poet introspects himself and says that from where the animals got those good qualities. He further questions himself that where his own good qualities are gone? Did he left them or had carelessly lost them somewhere. The qualities that were found in human beings in the past, like innocence, kindness, truthfulness are now seen in animals. He wonders that humans gave up these qualities and they have been passed on to the animals., Animals Poem Rhyme Scheme, There is no rhyme scheme followed in the poem., Question Answers, Q1- Notice the use of the word ‘turn’ in the first line, “I think I could turn and live with animals…” What is the poet turning from?, A1- The poet is turning away from living in the world of human beings. He finds animals more placid and self contained and therefore, he wants to live with them., Q2- Mention three things that humans do and animals don‘t?, A2- The three things that humans do and animals don‘t are as follows:, Humans complain and cry about the miseries and sorrows they face., Humans lie awake in the night thinking about their wrongdoings., Humans also keep telling others about their religiousness and duties towards God., Q3- Do humans kneel to other humans who lived thousands of years ago? Discuss this in groups?, A3- Yes humans kneel to other humans who lived thousands of years ago. They could be some ancestors, saints, or preachers whom they follow religiously. They worship them and follow their preaching., Q4- What are the ‘tokens’ that the poet says he may have dropped long ago, and which the animals have kept for him? Discuss this in class. (Hint: Whitman belongs to the Romantic tradition that includes Rousseau and Wordsworth, which holds that civilisation has made humans false to their own true nature. What could be the basic aspects of our nature as living beings that humans choose to ignore or deny?), A4- The word tokens according to the poet is the good qualities in human beings. The poet feels that nowdays good qualities do not exist in human beings. They have lost them for the sake of worldly things which they want to achieve at any cost., EXTRA QUESTIONS, Extract Based Questions, Read the following extracts carefully and answers the questions that follow., Question 1., I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-containd, I stand and look at them long and long., (a) What does the poet want to turn into?, (b) Which qualities of animals attract the poet?, © Which word is similar to the word “Calm”?, (d) Explain the successive use of the word ‘long’ twice and bring out its significance., Answer:, (a) The poet wants to turn into an animal., (b) The poet is attracted to the calmness and poise of the animals., © The word is ‘Placid’., (d) The successive use of the word ‘long’ makes the line significant; the first ‘long’, denotes ‘period/Time’ whereas the other, ‘a desire’., Question 2., They do not sweat and whine about their condition, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, (a) Why do humans lie awake in the dark?., (b) What do humans do about their condition?, © Which word is opposite to “good deeds”?, (d) Find a word from the passage that is an antonym of ‘Thanking’., Answer:, (a) Humans lie awake in the dark weeping for their sins., (b) They sweat and whine about their condition., © The word is ‘Sins.’, (d) The word is ‘whine’, Skip to content, CBSE Sample Papers, Mobile Menu, Animals Extra Questions and Answers Class 10 English First Flight, July 23, 2021July 24, 2021, In this article, we are providing Animals Extra Questions and Answers PDF Class 10 English First Flight CBSE, Extra Questions for Class 10 English was designed by subject expert teachers., Animals Extra Questions and Answers Class 10 English First Flight, Extract Based Questions [3 Marks each], Read the following extracts carefully and answers the questions that follow., Question 1., I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-containd, I stand and look at them long and long., (a) What does the poet want to turn into?, (b) Which qualities of animals attract the poet?, © Which word is similar to the word “Calm”?, (d) Explain the successive use of the word ‘long’ twice and bring out its significance., Answer:, (a) The poet wants to turn into an animal., (b) The poet is attracted to the calmness and poise of the animals., © The word is ‘Placid’., (d) The successive use of the word ‘long’ makes the line significant; the first ‘long’, denotes ‘period/Time’ whereas the other, ‘a desire’., Question 2., They do not sweat and whine about their condition, They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, [CBSE 2015], (a) Why do humans lie awake in the dark?., (b) What do humans do about their condition?, © Which word is opposite to “good deeds”?, (d) Find a word from the passage that is an antonym of ‘Thanking’., Answer:, (a) Humans lie awake in the dark weeping for their sins., (b) They sweat and whine about their condition., © The word is ‘Sins.’, (d) The word is ‘whine’, Question 3., Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,, Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,, Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth., (a) What does the poet call a mania here?, (b) How are the animals not dissatisfied?, © What does ‘demented’ mean?, (d) Which word in the passage means ‘species’?, Answer:, (a) The habit of owning things by humans has been called a mania., (b) Since animals do not have the desire to own anything, therefore they are never dissatisfied., © It means mad or unbalanced., (d) The word is ‘Kind’., Question 4., Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,, Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth., (a) Who does ‘another’ refer to here?, (b) Who is the poet referring to that lived thousands of years ago?, © What does ‘kneel’ symbolise here?, (d) Which word in the passage is an antonym of ‘a part’?, Answer:, (a) ‘Another’ refers to other animals here., (b) The poet is referring to the ancestors of human beings who lived thousands of years ago., © Kneel is symbolic to praying in the above line., (d) The word is ‘Whole’., Question 5., So they show their relations to me and I accept them, They bring me tokens of myself, they evince them plainly in their possession I wonder where they get those tokens, Did I pass that way huge times ago and negligently drop them?, (a) Who does ‘they’ refer to here?, (b) Explain the line: “They bring me tokens of myself”, © Which word in the stanza means “show”?, (d) What similarities does the poet find between the human beings and the animals?, Answer:, (a) ‘They’ refers to the animals., (b) The poet here means that the animals remind him of true values of the human nature such as kindness and innocence., © The word is ‘Evince’., (d) The poet finds that animals, like human beings do not trouble others unless they are compelled; they are equally kind and innocent., Question 6., I wonder where they get those tokens, Did I pass that way huge times ago and negligently drop them?, (a) What does the poet wonder?, (b) Why does the poet say that he negligently dropped them?, © Which word in the stanza means “carelessness”?, (d) Find from the passage a word which means ‘enormous’?, Answer:, (a) The poet wonders whether the animals get all their virtues from humans., (b) The poet believes that animals got their values from humans while they lost them a long time ago and have forgotten about them., © The word is ‘Negligent’., (d) The word is ‘Huge’., Short Answer Type Questions, Question 1., Why does the poet like animals?, Answer:, The poet likes animals for their self-contained and quiet nature. The fact that animals are not like human beings and satisfied with their lives appeals to the poet a lot., Question 2., Explain the satisfaction that animals have and humans don’t, Answer:, Animals do not have the desire to possess worldly things. Whereas, the more humans own, the more their desire to own grows, leaving them dissatisfied forever. The absence of this greed in animals keeps them satisfied and its presence keeps humans dissatisfied., Question 3., Why do animals not weep for their sins?, Answer:, Animals do not weep for their sins because they do not need to do so. They are innocent creatures that commit no sins. It is humans, who weep yet commit sins., Question 4., What makes the poet sick?, Answer:, The fact, that humans commit all kinds of sins and still discuss their duty to God, makes the poet sick. This shows the hypocrisy of humans, who on one hand do wrong and on the other pray to God., Question 5., Differentiate between humans and animals in terms of desire., Answer:, Animals are very different from humans as they have no desire to own things. They are happy without an unending greed while humans become maniacs in their greed for possessing valuables., Question 6., What does the poet mean by, “Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth”?, Answer:, The poet means that animals do not pray to God or to ancestors and all of them are equal, hence no one is more respectable than the other. The good values of animals and the lack of social conventions make them happy., Long Answer (Value Based) Type Questions, Question 1., Why do you think the poet has called the desire to own things, a mania? Is the poet right in doing so? Write your own views., Answer:, The poet uses words such as ‘demented’ and ‘mania’ for never ending desire of human beings to own things. These words show that poet is comparing this desire to madness. The poet stands right in doing so as this desire makes us so greedy and traps us in a vicious circle of aspiring more and more. Animals that are free from any possession are also free from sins, worries and complaints. In order to gain more wealth, all the important values such as morality and kindness are left behind., Question 2., What according to you should be the virtues that humans should possess?, Answer:, Human beings should be gentle not only to their own kind but also to everyone and everything. Virtues such as kindness bring along other important values like innocence and honesty that together make the world a better place to live. The lack of such values results in a corrupt society where people commit sins and weep over them in dark. This situation makes them dissatisfied and unhappy in life. Human beings probably had these virtues in them but along with civilisation processes, they have left them behind and adopted greed and cunningness., Question 3., It is not complaining but accepting a situation, the key to happiness in life. Elaborate in context of the poem Animals‘., Answer:, The poet Walt Whitman in his poem ‘Animals’ compares animals to human beings and differentiates between them on the basis of their characteristics. Animals have been ranked much higher than humans in poet‘s perception. Since animals do not complain about their situation, they are considered to be much happier than humans.Animals live in natural surroundings, they accept their natural lives. Humans, on the other hand, have never accepted nature, i.e., they complain about it and try to change it, leading to an unhappy life., Question 4., The poet in the poem Animals‘ laments the loss of certain values on the part of human beings, whereas animals seem to have retained them and are self contented. Analyse the cause of degeneration of values in today’s hard times., Answer:, In the modern civilised world, human beings have achieved a lot of material values but lost the real virtues. The more developed and modern human beings became, the more they lost the essence of their characters.Animals, whereas, never adapted to any material goods and always remained natural. This natural aspect of animals has helped them maintain their values. Humans, in order to possess more and more have forgotten kindness and innocence.