Telangana SCERT 8th Class English Study Material Telangana Unit 6B The Earthen Goblet (Poem) Textbook Questions and Answers.
TS 8th Class English Guide Unit 6B The Earthen Goblet (Poem)
O silent goblet red from head to heel,
How did you feel
When you were being twirled
Upon the potter’s wheel
Before the potter gave you to the world?
‘I felt a conscious impulse in my clay
To break away
From the Great Potter’s hand that burned so warm,
I felt a vast
Feeling of sorrow to be cast
Into my present form.’
‘Before that fatal hour
That saw me captive on the potter’s wheel
And cast into his crimson goblet-sleep,
I used to feel
The fragrant friendship of a little flower
Whose root was in my bosom buried deep.’
The Potter has drawn out the living breath of me
And given me a form which is the death of me,
My past unshapely natural stage was best
With just one flower flaming through my breast.’
– Harindranath Chattopadhyaya
Answer the following questions :
Question 1.
Who is ‘I’ in the poem? Who is the speaker in the first stanza?
Answer :
‘I’ in the poem is “The earthen goblet”. The speaker in the first stanza is the poet. The poet himself addresses the goblet to know its feelings in taking different shapes in the hands of the potter.
Question 2.
What does the phrase ‘fragrant friendship’ convey about the goblet’s relationship with the flower?
Answer :
The phrase “fragrant friendship” conveys the true and pure friendship between the soil and the plant. When the goblet was in the form of soil, it could give life to a plant. The plant gives life to beautiful flowers that blossom, spreading fragrance on the earth.
Question 3.
The poem has the expression ‘burned so \mathrm{warm}^{\prime}. Does the poet have tender feelings towards the goblet or the earth? What is your opinion?
Answer :
The poet has tender feelings towards the goblet. Tender feelings mean kind feelings. The goblet is burnt in the fire after taking a shape or form. It becomes hard.
Question 4.
The goblet has certain feelings towards its present life and past life. Which life does it like? Why?
Answer :
The goblet likes its past life. In its past life it was in the form of soil where it could give life to a plant and help it blossom a beautiful flower.
Question 5.
What common things do you notice between the expression ‘living breath’ of me and ‘natural stage’?
Answer :
Living breath expresses the life which is drawn out by the potter while moulding the soil into a goblet.
Natural stage expresses the free living style of the goblet in the form of soil. There it can provide life to the plants that give flowers. It need not undergo the painful experience of burning and moulding by porter.
Literary Devices :
The devices which can be used to recognize or identify the literary text are called literary devices. Literary devices are useful to interpret or analyse the literary texts.
Tone: The implied attitude towards the subject of the poem. Is it hopeful, pessimistic, dreary, worried? A poet conveys tone by combining all the elements listed above to create a precise impression on the reader.
Genre: A category used to classify literary works, usually by form, technique or
content (e.g., prose, poetry).
Satire: A literary tone used to ridicule or make fun of human vice or weakness.
Point of View – Pertains to who tells the story and how it is told. The point of view of a story can sometimes indirectly establish the author’s intentions.
Metaphor vs. Simile : A metaphor is a direct relationship where one thing is implied another (e.g. “Juliet is the sun”). A simile, on the other hand, is indirect and usually only linked to be similar to something else. Similes usually use “like” or “as” (e.g. “Your eyes are like the ocean”).
The Earthen Goblet (Poem) Summary in English
The poem “The Earthen Goblet” depicts the natural living style of the soil and how it is transformed into a goblet in the hands of a potter. It loses its life after becoming a goblet.
The poet asks the goblet what its feelings are while being twirled upon the potter’s wheel and transformed into a goblet from clay.
The goblet says that it has felt the impulse in its clay form, while it has a feeling of sorrow after being transformed into the present form of goblet.
The potter burns the clay and makes a goblet out of it. The potter gives a beautiful shape to the clay by casting it into a goblet, but the goblet loses its soul. The goblet compares its present beautiful form to its past unshapely natural stage. It remembers its happy past life as clay enjoying the friendship of a fragrant flower.
The beauty of the poem:
The potter makes goblets with clay. He gives them beautiful forms. The clay has not so much beauty as that of the goblet. But the soil can give birth to a fragrant flower. A goblet can not do so. The poet has taken the soil and the goblet as examples to express that the beauty got from a good deed is indeed greater than that obtained by a form.
The poet Harindranath Chattopadhyaya was the brother of Sarojini Naidu, the Nightingale of India.
Glossary :
1. twirl (v) : turn something round and round
2. fatal (adj) : causing death
3. captive (n) : prisoner
Additional Meanings :
4. head to heel : top to bottom
5. potter : a person who makes pots
6. wheel : a round frame that turns on a pin
7. impulse : hasty inclination
8. conscious : knowing or aware of
9. vast : immense
10. cast : throw
11. warm : having some heat
12. crimson : red colour tinged with purple
13. flame : hot blowing body
14. fragrant : having good smell
15. bosom : heart
16. unshapely : without form
17. earthen : made of clay
18. goblet : a cup for wine