Top 100 ASSEB Class 12 Alternative English Poetry Questions for Exam Prep

In preparation for the ASSEB Class 12 Alternative English exam, particularly for the Poetry section, we have compiled a list of the Top 100 Very Short Questions that may help you in your exam preparation. This set of questions covers key poems included in the syllabus, helping you grasp essential themes, poetic devices, and meanings.

This collection of questions is designed to provide you with a comprehensive overview of each poem, ensuring that you are well-prepared for the exam. It is advised to go through these questions thoroughly, as they may appear in the exam, and will guide you in understanding key concepts and interpretations of the poems

Ozymandias of Egypt

1. What type of poem is Ozymandias?
   Answer: It is a sonnet.

2. What does the inscription on the pedestal say?
   Answer: It says, "Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

3. Who carved the statue?
   Answer: A skilled sculptor carved the statue.

4. What remains of the statue are described?
   Answer: The legs, broken face, and pedestal remain.

5. What message does the poem convey about time?
   Answer: Time destroys all human achievements.

6. What surrounds the statue in the desert?
   Answer: Endless sands surround it.

7. What is the central theme of the poem?
   Answer: The poem shows the temporary nature of power.

8. Who wrote Ozymandias?
   Answer: Ozymandias was written by P. B. Shelley.

9. What expression is seen on the statue's face?
   Answer: A sneer of cold command is seen.

10. What does Ozymandias call himself in the inscription?
    Answer: He calls himself the King of Kings.

11. Which poetic device is used in "sneer of cold command"?
    Answer: Imagery is used.

12. Who narrates the story in the poem?
    Answer: The speaker narrates the story.

13. What does the ruined statue symbolize?
    Answer: It symbolizes the decline of human pride.

14. From whom does the speaker hear the story?
    Answer: He hears it from a traveller.

15. Where is the broken statue located?
    Answer: It is located in the desert.

16. Which poetic device shows irony in the poem?
    Answer: Irony is used in the ruined statue's message.

17. What does the poem suggest about political power?
    Answer: Political power does not last forever.

Because I Could Not Stop for Death

1. Who is the poet?
   Answer: Emily Dickinson.

2. Who stops for the speaker?
   Answer: Death stops for the speaker.

3. In what vehicle do they travel?
   Answer: They travel in a carriage.

4. Who accompanies them?
   Answer: Immortality accompanies them.

5. What does Death symbolize?
   Answer: Death symbolizes the end of life.

6. What stages of life are represented?
   Answer: Childhood, maturity, and old age.

7. What does the school symbolize?
   Answer: It symbolizes childhood.

8. What does the setting sun symbolize?
   Answer: It symbolizes the end of life.

9. What does the house in the ground represent?
   Answer: It represents the grave.

10. What poetic device is used when Death is humanized?
    Answer: Personification is used.

11. What is the tone of the poem?
    Answer: The tone is calm and peaceful.

12. What is the central theme?
    Answer: The inevitability of death.

13. What does the slow carriage ride symbolize?
    Answer: The journey from life to eternity.

14. What does the speaker realize after centuries?
    Answer: She realizes eternity feels shorter than a day.

15. What does eternity signify?
    Answer: Eternal life after death.

16. What type of poem is it?
    Answer: It is a lyric poem.

Strange Meeting

1. Who wrote the poem?
   Answer: Wilfred Owen.

2. In what setting does the meeting take place?
   Answer: In a tunnel in the underworld.

3. Who does the speaker meet?
   Answer: He meets a dead enemy soldier.

4. What does the tunnel symbolize?
   Answer: It symbolizes hell.

5. What was the identity of the stranger?
   Answer: He was the soldier killed by the speaker.

6. What theme is highlighted?
   Answer: The horror and futility of war.

7. What does the enemy soldier call the speaker?
   Answer: He calls him his enemy.

8. What does the poem say about war?
   Answer: War destroys humanity.

9. What is the tone of the poem?
   Answer: The tone is tragic.

10. What does "the pity of war" suggest?
    Answer: It suggests the suffering caused by war.

11. What does the enemy soldier regret losing?
    Answer: He regrets losing his future.

12. What poetic device is used in the dialogue?
    Answer: Dramatic monologue is used.

13. What does "Let us sleep now" suggest?
    Answer: It suggests final peace in death.

14. What type of poem is it?
    Answer: It is a war poem.

15. Which war influenced the poem?
    Answer: World War I.

16. What does the meeting symbolize?
    Answer: Brotherhood beyond enmity.

17. What emotion dominates the poem?
    Answer: Sadness dominates the poem.

The Solitude of Alexander Selkirk

1. Who wrote the poem?
   Answer: William Cowper.

2. Who is Alexander Selkirk?
   Answer: A sailor stranded on an island.

3. Where was Selkirk stranded?
   Answer: On a lonely island.

4. What is the main theme?
   Answer: Loneliness and desire for society.

5. What does Selkirk feel despite being monarch?
   Answer: He feels lonely.

6. What does the island symbolize?
   Answer: Isolation.

7. What does the poet emphasize?
   Answer: The pain of loneliness.

8. What does Selkirk long for?
   Answer: Human companionship.

9. What is the tone?
   Answer: The tone is sorrowful.

10. Which poetic device describes nature?
    Answer: Imagery.

11. What type of poem is it?
    Answer: It is a lyric poem.

12. What lesson does the poem convey?
    Answer: Society is more valuable than power.

13. What does Selkirk value more than power?
    Answer: Human company.

14. What feeling dominates the poem?
    Answer: Loneliness.

15. What does the poem suggest about isolation?
    Answer: Isolation causes suffering.

16. What does Selkirk compare his life to?
    Answer: A lonely kingdom.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

1. Who wrote the poem?
   Answer: W. B. Yeats.

2. Where does the poet wish to go?
   Answer: To Innisfree.

3. What does he plan to build?
   Answer: A small cabin.

4. What natural sounds does he want to hear?
   Answer: The sound of lake water.

5. What does Innisfree symbolize?
   Answer: Peace and nature.

6. What is the central theme?
   Answer: Desire for peace.

7. What does the poet hear in his heart?
   Answer: The sound of lake water.

8. Which poetic device is used in "lapping"?
   Answer: Onomatopoeia.

9. What type of poem is it?
   Answer: A lyric poem.

10. What feeling dominates?
    Answer: Longing for peace.

11. What contrast is shown?
    Answer: City life versus nature.

12. What does the bee-loud glade represent?
    Answer: Natural beauty.

13. What is the tone?
    Answer: Peaceful.

14. What does the poem suggest about peace?
    Answer: Peace is found in nature.

15. What does the poet do on the roadway?
    Answer: He remembers Innisfree.

Night of the Scorpion

1. Who wrote the poem?
   Answer: Nissim Ezekiel.

2. Who is stung?
   Answer: The poet's mother.

3. During which condition does the incident occur?
   Answer: During heavy rain.

4. How do villagers react?
   Answer: They gather and pray.

5. What do villagers believe?
   Answer: The sting purifies past sins.

6. Who tries remedies?
   Answer: The father tries scientific methods.

7. What does the father represent?
   Answer: Rational thinking.

8. What is the tone?
   Answer: Sympathetic.

9. What theme is highlighted?
   Answer: Superstition versus science.

10. What does the mother say at the end?
    Answer: She thanks God the poison spared her children.

11. What does her statement reveal?
    Answer: A mother's selfless love.

12. What poetic device is used in villagers' chanting?
    Answer: Repetition.

13. What does the scorpion symbolize?
    Answer: Suffering.

14. What contrast is shown?
    Answer: Faith versus rationality.

15. What emotion dominates?
    Answer: Concern.

16. What type of poem is it?
    Answer: A narrative poem.

17. What is the central incident?
    Answer: The mother's scorpion sting.

18. What message does the poem convey about motherhood?
    Answer: Mothers are self-sacrificing.

19. What is the significance of the ending?
    Answer: It highlights maternal love and gratitude.

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