NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Animals Poem

NCERT Solutions for CBSE Class 10 English Poem Animals are provided here. This poem is written by Walt Whitman and includes many questions that are important for exams. We have solved all the NCERT questions of the lesson with a detailed explanation that help students to complete their assignments & homework. We have provided NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English Poem Animals in PDF format so that you can download them for offline use.

Class 10 English Poem Animals NCERT Questions and Answers

Thinking About the Poem

Question 1. 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?

Answer: In this line here, the poet wants to turn from human into an animal. This turning is symbolic of the poet’s detachment from human beings and their nature and his appreciation of the animal kind.

Question 2. Mention three things that humans do and animals don’t.

Answer: According to the poet, here we outline the three things that humans do and animals don’t:

  1. Humans complain about small things and are always dissatisfied. On the other hand, animals are non-complaining creatures who are satisfied with whatever they have.
  2. Human beings sweat and work hard to earn their living and they whine about their condition always whereas, animals are placid creatures and do not sulk about their condition at any time.
  3. Humans are fond of materialistic things as this makes them happy. On the contrary, animals are non-demanding creatures and do not behave irrationally to possess worldly pleasures.

Question 3. Do humans kneel to other humans who lived thousands of years ago? Discuss this in groups.

Answer: Yes, humans kneel to other humans who lived thousands of years ago as it is a cultural tradition to do so. (Students can discuss their own culture with their classmates and share the rituals and traditions of their culture and also get to know about other cultural practices.)

Question 4. 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?)

Answer: The token that the poet says he might have dropped long ago, and which the animals have kept for him, is his true nature as a human. While humans came close to civilisation, they gradually moved away from their true nature. The natural instincts that humans had and the innocence with which they lived and helped each other have been left behind somewhere. As they got near civilisation, they chose to leave behind the virtues of kindness, sincerity, unselfishness, joy, satisfaction, respectability, and sharing. They took to vices such as greed, selfishness, desire to capture everything, and other such inhuman characteristics. Animals have carried forward the real instincts and characteristics, which the poet looks at and tries to remember where he had negligently lost his true nature.