1.3 ‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers – English Workshop

1.3 ‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers –

English Workshop

Warming up!

Chit  chat

1. Do you ever feel nervous?

- Yes, sometimes, I feel nervous.

2.  Do you ever feel really depressed?

- Yes, I feel depressed.

             Or

- No, I don’t feel nervous.

3. What makes you nervous or depressed?

- When something goes wrong or against my wish, I become nervous.

 4. What do you hope for on these occasions?

- I hope that everything should go fine and nice.

 5. Have you hoped for something that you knew was difficult?

-          Yes, a few times I hoped for the things to happen according to my

wish though I knew that they were really difficult.

6. What do you have to do to fulfill your hopes?

- To fulfill my hopes, I always have to talk to myself and remain positive to increase my confidence in tough situations.

1. Match the following.

(A)	(B)
(1) Hope	(a) difficulties and problems
(2) Gale / storm	(b) toughest times in life
(3) keep warm	(c) a very small bit
(4) chillest land	(d) a nest in the tree
(5) a crumb	(e) provide comfort
	(f) Bird

Answers –

(1)  Hope-              (f) Bird

(2)  Gale / storm -  (a) difficulties and problems

(3)  keep warm -    (e) provide comfort

(4)  chillest land -  (b) toughest times in life

(5)  a crumb -         (c) a very small bit

2. Use the proper form of the verb in each line.

        ‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers -

        That perches in the soul -

        And sings the tune without the words -

       And never stops at all –

3. Read the examples and fill in the blanks in the same pattern.

(a) Examples: • sweet - sweeter - sweetest

fast	faster	fastest
Slow	slower	slowest
high	higher	highest
low	lower	lowest
great	greater	greatest
warm	warmer	warmest
bright	brighter	brightest
cold	colder	coldest

(b) Examples: • strange - stranger – strangest

                                                                                                      

brave	braver	bravest
fine	finer	finest
simple	simpler	simplest
large	larger	largest
close	closer	closest
wise	wiser	wisest

 (c) Examples: • pretty - prettier - prettiest (Note the changes in the last letter.)

nasty	nastier	nastiest
hungry	hungrier	hungriest
angry	angrier	angriest
naughty	naughtier	naughtiest

   4. Find the phrases/lines in the poem that means the following :

(a) Hope is a light, delicate thing :

--‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers -

(b) Hope offers comfort to your soul:

-- That perches in the soul -

(c) Hope is not a wordy thought, it is more

     like a feeling, an emotion :

-- And sings the tune without the words

(d) In the most difficult times,

      hope offers the greatest comfort :

-- And sweetest - in the gale - is heard -

(e) Hope is not easily defeated:

 -- And sore must be the storm -

     That could abash the little Bird

(f) Hope has given comfort to many people :

 -- That kept so many warm -

(g) Hope lives on in very hard times,

      even when it gets nothing from you  

--  Yet - never - in Extremity,

       It asked a crumb - of me.

5. We can relate many of our feelings and experiences to events or things in nature.

    Which of our feelings or experiences can we relate to the following?

·         darkness: sadness, sorrow, negativity

·         a storm: trouble

·         sunrise: hope, positivity

·         a light shower: happiness

·         sunshine: happiness

·          earthquake: anger, surprise

·         a rainbow: excitement, joy

·         dawn: a new beginning,

·         dark clouds: troubles and difficulties

·         dusk (evening): end

·         a peacock: joy,

·         flood: difficulties

6. Write in a few lines, about an experience of your own where you scored in your

Exams much more than you hoped for. What did that experience teach you?

Answer –

Last year I was not well before the exam. I missed many classes in those days. Even I couldn’t make up it at home. But my basic knowledge and my consistency in my studies over the last few years were good. This helped me to write well in the exam after a long illness. I was confident about my marks and hoped to do well and get satisfactory marks. But to my surprise and all, I got the first rank in the class.

This teaches us that we should face the troubles and difficult times and should not bring negativity into our minds. We must hope for the best and need to be positive till the end.

7. This poem is an example of personification. When we refer to inanimate objects,

ideas, and emotions as living things, it is an example of personification. Here, ‘hope’ is

portrayed as a little bird. Describe it in your own words.

-          Hope is the light feeling in our mind that is very soft like a feathered bird. That bird sits on the branches of the tree as the hope in our minds. This bird has soft feathers but it is very strong to face any storm and can endure the chilliest lands, so the hope does it by facing every difficulty and all troublesome situations taking many people to the land of happiness. And the most important thing is that it does not ask anything from us, not even a crumb, nothing.  

Find other examples of personification-

·         The tree heaved a sigh.

·         The moon smiled at them.

·         The waves ran towards the cost