Samacheer Kalvi 7th English Poetry Exercise Solutions

The poet longs to return to the sea. He wants "a tall ship and a star to steer her by" — a voyage on a ship guided by stars. He craves the freedom, wind, the cry of seagulls, the grey mist, and the companionship of a fellow rover. The sea represents freedom, adventure, and belonging.

• "The lonely sea and the sky" — vast, endless.
• "A tall ship and a star to steer her by" — adventure and navigation.
• "The wind's like a whetted knife" — sharp, biting wind.
• "The white sail's shaking" — movement, energy.
• "The grey dawn breaking" — early morning at sea.
• "The gull's way and the whale's way" — wild nature.

Yearning and longing. The repetition of "I must go down to the seas again" emphasises an irresistible, urgent desire — almost like a physical need. The poem ends with a desire for rest after adventure ("a quiet sleep and a sweet dream"). Mood shifts from restless longing to peaceful resolution.

Each stanza has 4 lines with rhyme scheme AABB:

The strong rhythm (iambic) mimics the rolling of ocean waves.

• "again / plain" (AA), "clear / steer her by" — near rhyme (BB).

The Traveller is a mysterious figure who arrives at a moonlit house in a forest. He knocks on the door, calls out "Is there anybody there?", but receives no human response. Only the phantom listeners — ghosts inside the house — silently hear him. He leaves a message ("Tell them I came") and rides away.

The Listeners are phantom (ghostly) presences inside the house — they listen to the Traveller from behind the door but never respond. They are silent, shadowy, and mysterious. The poem never explains who they are, which creates an atmosphere of haunting mystery.

Dark, mysterious, and eerily quiet. The moonlit forest, the silence broken only by the horse's hooves, the unanswered knocking — all create a ghostly, otherworldly atmosphere. The poem ends with silence returning as the Traveller departs.

This is left deliberately unexplained — one of the poem's great mysteries. He may have made a promise to visit someone long dead. The line "Tell them I came, and no one answered / That I kept my word" suggests he fulfilled an obligation, even if those who should have received him are no longer living.

The wandering singers are roving minstrels (musicians and poets) who travel freely from place to place. They carry their songs, their lutes, and their stories wherever the wind takes them. They represent freedom, artistry, and a life unbound by material possessions.

Freedom and their music. They do not own homes or land — they own only their songs and their instruments. They find joy in singing to whoever will listen — in temples, markets, forests. Their life is a celebration of art over material comfort.

Art brings joy, comfort, and spiritual nourishment to all people regardless of class. The wandering singers serve kings and peasants alike with the same devotion. Naidu suggests that music and poetry are the most democratic of gifts — freely given to all.

The poem is a humorous exaggeration: the speaker's grandmother is "swallowed" by the computer when she tries to email a letter. Various parts of her are swallowed — her glasses, her shawl, her dentures — until eventually she is retrieved via the modem. The poem playfully explores an elderly person's bewilderment with modern technology.

Older people who did not grow up with computers often find them baffling and even frightening. The poem treats this with gentle humour rather than mockery. It shows that technology moves faster than many people's ability to adapt — and that's sometimes funny.

1. Comic exaggeration: The grandmother being literally "swallowed" by the screen — impossible, but funny as an image. 2. Wordplay: "Mouse" (the computer device) — a grandmother might think of a real mouse. Technical vocabulary misunderstood by a non-tech-savvy person.