Tamilnadu State Board New Syllabus Samacheer Kalvi 12th English Guide Pdf Poem 5 A Father To His Son Text Book Back Questions and Answers, Summary, Notes.
Tamilnadu Samacheer Kalvi 12th English Solutions Poem 5 A Father To His Son
12th English Guide A Father To His Son Text Book Back Questions and Answers
1. Fill in the blanks choosing the words from the box given and complete the summary of the poem:
(Text Book Page No. 64)
Lines 1-25:
The poet Carl Sandburg gives a vivid description of a father’s worldly (1) ______ in directing a son who is at the threshold of his (2) ______. Here the father motivates his son to be like a hard (3) ______ and withstand life’s (4) ______ and sudden betrayals. (5) ______ is like fertile soil. We can make our life fruitful if we are gentle, and take life as it comes. At times (6) _________ overtakes harshness. The growth of a (7) ______ can split a rock. One should have an (8) ________and strong will to achieve. Greed for (9) _________ has left men dead before they really die. Good men also have fallen prey in the quest for (10) ______ money. Time for (11) ______ is not a waste. When you seek knowledge never feel ashamed to be called a (12) ______ for not knowing, at the same time learn from your (13) _________and never (14) ______ it.
Answers:
- wisdom
- manhood
- rock
- challenges
- life
- gentleness
- tender
- deep
- money
- carry
- leisure
- fool
- mistake
- repeat
Lines 26-44:
Do (15) ______ often, and do not hesitate to accept your shortcomings, avoid (16) _________to protect self against other people. Solitude helps to be (17) and (18) ________ are taken in silent rooms. Instead of being one among many, be (19) ______. if that is your nature. The son may need lazy days to find his (20) ______abilities, to seek what he is born for. He will then know how free imaginations bring (21) ______ to the world, which (22) ______ change. During such resentment, let him know that it is time for him to be on his own, and (23) ______to achieve like Shakespeare, the Wright brothers, Pasteur, Pavlov, and Michael Faraday.
Answers:
(15) introspect
(16) white
(17) creative
18) final decision
(19) different
(20) inherent
(21) changes
(22) resents
(23) work
2. Based on your understanding of the poem answer the following questions in one or two sentences:
(Text Book Page No. 165)
Question a.
How would the poet’s advice help his son who is at the threshold of manhood?
Answer:
The poet’s advice would help the son at the threshold of manhood, to grow as a positive individual and succeed in life like great scientists and dramatists.
Question b.
‘A tough will counts.’ Explain.
Answer:
In life, everybody may face a tough situation which is surrounded by obstacles. But we should not give up our try to achieve our goal or success. One should have a deep desire and strong will power to achieve it.
Question c.
What happened to the people who wanted too much money?
Answer:
People who wanted too much money fell prey to greed. They lost their reputation also.
Question d.
What has twisted good men into thwarted worms?
Answer:
Questing for easy money in a dishonourable way has twisted goodmen into thwarted (frustrated) worms.
Question e.
How would his being alone help the boy?
Answer:
Solitude would help the boy to be creative.
Question f.
Where are the final decisions taken?
Answer:
The final decisions are taken in a silent room.
Question g.
What are the poet’s thoughts on ‘being different’?
Answer:
Instead of being one among many, one can be different if it is one’s nature to be so. One need not take conscious efforts to be different.
Question h.
Why does the poet advise his son to have lazy days?
Answer:
The poet advises his son to have lazy days because that helps him to seek his strong motives and find his own real inherent abilities.
Question i.
The poet says ‘Without rich wanting nothing arrives’ but he condemns ‘the quest of lucre beyond a few easy needs. Analyze the difference and write.
Answer:
Appreciating the rich wanting and condemning ‘the quest for lucre beyond a few easy’ needs seems like a conundrum. One needs to take both the statements with a pinch of salt. One needs strong will power to succeed. One can earn a lot too. Jack Ma has had a strong will and earned beyond lucre but invested a major part in community development and charitable works retaining some for his basic needs. Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and Ratan Tata are other such examples. The wealth earned should benefit a large number of people and not the individual who initiated the wealth.
4. Read the lines given below and answer the questions that follow: (Text Book Page No. 166)
a) “Life is hard; be steel; be a rock.”
i) How should one face life?
Answer:
One should face life daringly like steel and hard rock.
ii) Identify the figure of speech in the above line.
Answer:
Metaphor.
b) “ Life is a soft loam; be gentle; go easy.”
And this too might serve him.
i) Why does the poet suggest to take life easy?
Answer:
Life is like fertile soil. If one is gentle and easy, he too can succeed.
ii) Identify the figure of speech in the above line.
Answer:
Metaphor.
c) Tell him solitude is creative if he is strong
and the final decisions are made in silent rooms.
i) Can be in solitude help a strong human being? How?
Answer:
Yes, being in solitude helps a strong human being. He becomes creative and strong in solitude.
ii) Identify the figure of speech in the above line.
Answer:
Transferred Epithet.
d) Tell him time as a stuff can be wasted.
Tell him to be a fool every so often
i) Why does the poet suggest that time can be wasted?
Answer:
Time can be wasted in learning new things and learning from one’s mistakes.
ii) Identify the figure of speech in the above line.
Answer:
Repetition.
e) Tell him to be a fool ever so often
and to have no shame over having been a fool
yet learning something out of every folly
hoping to repeat none of the cheap follies.
i) Is it a shame to be a fool at times?
Answer:
No, it is not a shame to be a fool at times and at the same time learn from your mistake and that should not be repeated.
ii) What does one learn from every folly?
Answer:
One does learn something from every failure.
f) ……………..Free imaginations
Bringing changes into a world resenting change.
i) How does free imagination help the world?
Answer:
Free imagination helps to bring changes into the world.
ii) Identify the figure of speech.
Answer:
Transferred epithet.
e) Pick out the alliterated words from the poem and write.
And this might stand him for the storms.
Answer:
Stands-Storms
| Poetic lines | Figure of speech |
| 1. ‘The growth of a frail flower in a path up’ | Antithesis / Metaphor |
| 2. ‘has sometimes shattered and split a rock’ | Antithesis |
| 3. “Brutes have been gentled where lashes failed.” | Antithesis |
| 4. e.g. and left them dead years before burial: | Transferred Epithet |
| 5. Let him have lazy days seeking his deeper motives. | Transferred Epithet |
| 6. Bringing changes into a world resenting change. | Transferred Epithet |
| 7. Tell him to be alone often and get at himself and above all tell himself no lies about himself | Repetition ‘ |
| 8. “Life is hard; be steel; be a rock.” | Metaphor / Imagery |
| 9. “Life is a soft loam; be gentle; go easy.” | Metaphor / Imagery |
| 10. “Tell him solitude is creative if he is strong” | Metaphor |
| 11 …………..Free imaginations
Bringing changes into a world resenting change. |
Transferred Epithet / Personification |
| 12. “Tell him too much money has killed men” | Alliteration |
| whatever the white lies and protective fronts | Alliteration |
| 13. “Tel! him time as a stuff can be wasted. Tell him to be a fool ever so often” | Repetition |
Additional Questions:
a) “and serve him for humdrum monotony?
i) Who does ‘him’ refer to?
Answer:
‘Him’ refers to son.
ii) What does ‘humdrum monotony’ mean?
Answer:
Humdrum monotony means boring routine.
b) “Tell him too much money has killed men and left them dead years before burial”
i) What would kill the men?
Answer:
Too much money earning in a dishonest way would kill the men.
ii) What would bring if men greed for money?
Answer:
Greed for money has left men to die before they really die.
“Whatever the white lies and protective fronts”
i) Pick out the alliterated words from the above line.
Answer:
Whatever – Whitelies.
ii) What does ‘white lies’ mean?
Answer:
‘Whitelies’ means lies told to avoid hurting one’s feelings.
d) “has twisted good enough men sometimes into dry thwarted worms”.
i) What makes good men into thwarted worms?
Answer:
Questing for easy money makes good men into thwarted worms.
ii) What does ‘thwarted’ mean?
Answer:
‘Thwarted’ means frustrated.
5. Explain the following lines with reference to the context: (Text Book Page No. 167)
a) and guide him among sudden betrayals and tighten him for slack moments:
Reference:
These lines are taken from Poem – “A father to his son”, Poet – “Carl August Sandburg”.
Context:
The poet brings out his advice to his son.
Explanation:
The poet advises his son who is standing at the threshold of manhood. It’s a time when nearly each and every father becomes protective and cautious. So the poet motivates his son to be like a hard rock (daring) and bold enough to face challenges and sudden betrayals. ‘Slack moments’ refers to a state of depression also, he should know how to overcome that.
b. Brutes have been gentled where lashes failed.
Reference:
These lines are taken from Poem – “A father to his son”, Poet – “Carl August Sandburg”.
Context:
The poet tells his son how the brute will become gentle.
Explanation:
The poet motivates his son to reach manhood to be gentle. This will make him face the challenges of life and sudden betrayals. At times gentleness overtakes harshness. Thrashing may fail to change a man. But a gentle approach will make a brute good-natured.
c. Gentleness makes our life fruitful.
Yet learning something out of every folly hoping to repeat none of the cheap follies
Reference:
These lines are taken from Poem – “A father to his son”, Poet – “Carl August Sandburg”.
Context:
The poet tells his son not to repeat his mistakes.
Explanation:
The poet advises his son that making mistakes is common. He should not get discouraged. When he seeks knowledge never feel ashamed to make mistake. But at the same time, he could learn from his mistakes. Doing the same mistakes makes the man less effective. So we should be careful not to repeat the mistake.
d. ‘He will be lonely enough
to have time for the work.
Reference:
These lines are taken from the Poem – “A father to his son”, Poet – “Carl August Sandburg”.
Context:
The poet says how his son’s loneliness makes him work effectively.
Explanation:
The poet wants his son to know how free imagination brings changes to the world which resents change. During such resentment, let him know that it is time for him to be his own and try to achieve like great people.
6. Answer the following questions in about 100-150 words each: (Text Book Page No. 167)
Question a)
Explain how the poet guides his son who is at the threshold of manhood, to face the challenges of life.
Question b)
How according to the poet is it possible for his son-to bring changes into a world that resents change?
Introduction:
The poet Carl Sandburg gives a vivid description of a father’s worldly wisdom in directing a son who is at the threshold of “manhood”. The caring father wants him to be like a rock and face the storms of life and betrayals.
What is Life:
Life is like fertile soil, so he directs him to go easy with gentleness. “Life is a soft loam; be gentle; go easy.” We can make our life fruitful if we are gentle and take life as it comes. The poet tells his son how the brute will become gentle. This will make him face the challenges of life and sudden betrayals. At times gentleness overtakes harshness. Thrashing may fail to change a man. But a gentle approach will make a brute good-natured. Gentleness makes our life fruitful. The growth of a tender flower (gentleness) can split a rock (harshness).
Father’s advice:
One should have a deep and strong “will” to achieve his good. While achieving his goal, he would face discouragement but he should not get vexed. He should not give up his task. Greed for money has left men to die before they really also. Goodman also has fallen prey in the quest for easy money. But that should not be encouraged. He should earn money in the right way. When you seek knowledge never feel ashamed to be called a fool for not knowing, at the same time learn from his mistake and never repeat it. Do introspect often, and do not hesitate to accept your shortcomings and avoid white lies to protect yourself against other people. He wants his son to avoid white lies and tells him that solitude is creative.
Father’s belief:
The son may have his lazy days to seek his inner motives and find his talent. Free imaginations bring him to know that it is time for him to be on his own and work to achieve like Shakespeare, the Wright Brothers, Michael Faraday.
Conclusion:
The poet wants his son to know how free imagination brings changes to the world. During such resentment, let him know that it is time for him to be his own and try to achieve his goal.
கவிஞரைப் பற்றி:
சான்பர்க் (Sandburg) Swedish ancestry பெற்றேரருத்த இல்லினஸ்ஸின் (Illinois) a Giron கேல்ஸ்ஸ ர்க்கில் (Galesburg) பிறந்தவர். கார்ல் ஆகஸ்ட் சான்பர்க் (ஜனவரி 6, 1878 –ஜீலை 22, 1967) அமெரிக்காவை சார்ந்த கவிஞர், எழுத்தாளர் மற்றும் பதிப்பாளர் ஆவார். இவரின் இரு கவிதைகளுக்காகவும், ஆபிரகாம் லிங்கனின் (Abraham Lincoln) வாழ்க்கை வரலாற்றை எழுதியதற்காகவும் மும்முறை புலிட்சர் பரிசு (Pulitzer Prizes) வழங்கப்பட்டார்.
இவரின் வாழ்க்கையில் சான் பர்க் இலக்கியத்தில் சிறந்தவராக கருதப்பட்டார். முக்கியமாக இவரின் Chicago poems (1916) Corn huskers (1918) மற்றும் Smoke and steal (1920) ஆகியவற்றிக்காவும் சிறந்தவராக கருதப்பட்டார். இவர் 1967ல் இவரின் மரணத்தின் போது Lyndon B. Johnson ஆகியவர்களாலும் அமெரிக்காவில் சிறந்த கவிஞராக கருதப்பட்டார்.
கவிதையைப் பற்றி:
ஒவ்வொரு பெற்றோரும் தன் குழந்தையின் நலனையே விரும்புவர். அதை அவர்களுக்கு அறிவுரை வழங்கி வெளிப்படுத்துவர். இந்த கவிதையிலும் தந்தை தன் மகனுக்கு குழந்தை பருவம் முதல் இளமை வரை செய்ய வேண்டிய செயல்களை கற்று கொடுப்பதாக அமைத்திருக்கிறார். வாழ்க்கையின் இன்ப துன்பங்களை கற்று கொடுக்கிறார். அவன் புயலை தாங்கும் பாறையைப் போல் வாழ்க்கையை எதிர் கொள்ள வேண்டும்.
அவன் மென்மையான இதயம் கொள்ள வேண்டும். பேராசையுடன் இருக்க கூடாது. தன் தவறுகளிலிருந்து பாடம் கற்றுக் கொள்ள வேண்டும். தனிமையில் ஆக்கப்பூர்வமான சிந்தனைகளை சிந்திக்க வேண்டும். தன்னை சிறப்புமிக்கவனாக மாற்றிக் கொள்ளவேண்டும். தன்னைத்தானே முழுமையாக புரிந்து கொள்ள வேண்டும். இதனைப் பற்றி முழுமையாக இக்கவிதை வாசித்து புரிந்து கொள்வோம்.
A Father To His Son Summary in Tamil
வளரும் பருவத்தில் (manhood) தன் மகனிடம் தந்தை
என்ன செய்தியைக் கூறுவார்? “வாழ்க்கை கடினமானது, இரும்பென (steel) இரு. பாறையாய் (rock) இரு”.
அது அவனைப் புயலை (storm) எதிர்த்து நிற்கச் செய்யும்
தனிமையிலும் சோர்விலும் (humdrum monotony) அவனுக்கு உதவி செய்யும்.
எதிர்பாரா ஏமாற்றங்களில் (betrayals) அவனை வழி நடத்தும் (guide)
வலுவற்ற தருணங்களில் (slack moments) அவனுக்கு வலுவூட்டும்
“வாழ்க்கை எளிமையானது. நேர்மையாயிரு (gentle), எளிதாய் செல்”.
இதுவும் அவனுக்கு பயன்படும்.
சாட்டைகளின் (ashes) சரிவில் மிருகங்கள் (brutes) கூட மிருதுவாகிவிட்டது.
பாதையில் பூக்கும் (frail flower) பஞ்சுபோன்ற பூ கூட
பாறைகளை பிளந்து சிதறடிக்கிறது (shattered) சிலநேரங்களில்
கடினமானவையும் (tough) விருப்பங்களும் (desire) மிக முக்கியமானவை.
அதுபோன்றே பணம்படைத்தோரின் எளிய எதிர்பார்ப்புகளும்
சிறந்த எதிர்பார்ப்புகளின்றி ஏதும் வருவதில்லை.
அவனிடம் கூறுங்கள் அதிக பணம் மனிதரைக் கொன்றிருக்கிறது.
புதைப்பதற்கு (burial) பல வருடங்களுக்கு முன்பே என்று
தேவைகளைத் தூண்டிய பணம் குவிக்கும் ஆவல் (guest)
நல்ல மனிதர்களைக் கூட சிலநேரம்
வெறுக்கத்தக்க காய்ந்த (thwarted) புழுக்களாக (worms) மாற்றிவிடும் (twisted).
அவனிடம் கூறுங்கள் நேரம் வீணாக்குவதற்கே.
கூறுங்கள் அவனிடம் அடிக்கடி முட்டாளாக (fool)
முட்டாளாவதற்கு அவமானப்பட (shame) வேண்டாமென்று
அந்த முட்டாள்தனத்திலிருந்து (folly) ஏதேனும் கற்றுக்கொள்வதற்கு கூறுங்கள்
அதில் எதையும் திரும்ப (repeat) செய்யக் கூடாதென்று.
இவ்வாறாக உலகின் முட்டாள்களைப் (fool) பற்றிய
ஆழ்ந்த புரிதலை (intimate understanding) அடைய வேண்டுமென்று.
அடிக்கடி தனித்திருந்து சுயத்தை அடையக் கூறுங்கள்.
அனைத்துக்கும் மேலாக தன்னைப் பற்றி பொய் (lies) கூறக் கூடாதென்று
பிறரைக் காயப்படுத்தா பொய்களையும் (white lies), பாதுகாப்பு (protective) உரைகளையும்
பிறருக்கெதிராய் (against) அவன் பயன்படுத்திய போதிலும்
கூறுங்கள் அவனிடம் தனிமையே (solitude) புதுமை அவன் வலிமையாயிருந்தால்
மற்றும் இறுதி முடிவுகள் (decisions) உருவாவது அமைதியான அறையிலே (silent rooms).
அவனிடம் கூறுங்கள் பிறரிடமிருந்து வேறுபட்டிருக்க
இயற்கையாகவும் (natural) எளிதாகவும் (easy) வேறுபாடு வருமென்றால்
அவன் ஓய்வு நாட்கள் (lazy days) பெறட்டும் ஆழ்ந்த நோக்கங்களைத் தேட (deeper motive)
அவன் ஆழமாய் தேடட்டும் அவன் எங்கு பிறந்தான் என்பதை
பின் அவன் புரிந்துகொள்வான் ஷேக்ஸ்பியரையும் (shakespeare), ரைட் சகோதரர்களையும் (wright brothers), பாஸ்டரையும் (Pasteur), பாவ்லோவையும் (Pavlov) மைக்கேல் பாரடே (Michael Faraday) மற்றும் சுதந்திர
சிந்தனைகளை (free imaginations)
மாற்றங்களை விரும்பா உலகிற்கு மாற்றம் (resenting change) கொண்டு வருவனவற்றை
தேவையான அளவு தனிமையில் இருப்பான் அவனறிந்த
அவனுடைய வேலைகளைச் (work) செய்ய
சரியான நேரம் (time) பெற.