Hi Everyone!! This article will share Travel Questions & Answers.
In my previous posts, I have also shared the questions and answers of Dust of Snow, After The Storm, The Banyan Tree Poem, A New Name, Meeting Cezanne and The Starting Point so, you can check these posts as well.
Travel Questions & Answers
Question 1: In the first stanza, the speaker talks about two different sounds.
(a) What are these sounds?
Answer: The two sounds mentioned in the first stanza are:
i. Voices of people speaking.
ii. Shrieking of the train’s whistle.
(b) Which of these sounds does she actually hear?
Answer: The sound that the speaker actually hears is that of human voices.
(c) How is it that the other sound appears to ring out so clearly to the speaker, even though the source of the sound is nowhere nearby?
Answer: The speaker thinks about the train so often with such a deep desire to travel that the sound of its whistle in her dreams seems real to her. Thus, it appears to ring out so clearly even though the source is nowhere nearby.
Question 2: What are the speaker’s feelings towards the people who are currently in her life? Yet, despite her feelings, what does she want to do?
Answer: The speaker expresses warm feelings towards the people she has in her life. She seems happy and content with them. Despite this, she is keen to meet new people, have new experiences and make new friends.
Question 3: What, according to the speaker, is the night for? What is she doing instead?
Answer: The speaker says that the night is meant for sleeping and dreaming. But instead of sleeping, the poet is thinking about what it would feel like to get away on a train.
Question 4: Read the line and answer the questions:
‘And better friends I’ll not be knowing.’
(a) Who are these ‘better friends’?
Answer: These ‘better friends’ are people who the speaker imagines she will meet if she were to take a train and travel.
(b) What makes the speaker call them ‘better’?
Answer: The speaker calls them ‘better’ because the very idea of going on a journey and gaining new experiences makes her feel that the people that she will perhaps meet will be more exciting and likeable than the ones she already knows.
(c) Has she met them? Does she expect to meet them at all?
Answer: No, she has not met them and does not expect to meet them anytime soon.
Travel Questions & Answers
Question 5: What does the train represent in this poem?
(a) a means to get from one place to another
(b) a noisy object that the poet can never see but always hears
(c) an opportunity to go out and see the world
Answer: For the speaker, the train represents an opportunity to go out and see the world.
Question 6: Why does the speaker seem to be willing to take any train to any place? What does this tell you about her state of mind and the way she feels about her life?
Answer: The speaker seeks the thrill of adventure and the excitement of new experiences. This comes from the fact that she is unable to break away from her dull existence. She wants to travel and see more places and meet different people and thus is willing to take a train to any place. This tells us that she wants to experience something new, exciting and different in her life and perhaps finds her current routine a little dull and boring.
Question 7: Answer the following questions:
(a) Although the poet tells us that the train is far away, we are still able to see it and hear it for ourselves, as we read the poem. Which words or phrases bring about this effect in the poem?
Answer: The following phrases bring the effect:
i. ‘hear its whistle shrieking’
ii. ‘hear its engine steaming’
iii. ‘see its cinders red on the sky’
(b) How does the poet’s depiction of the train help you understand the feelings she associates with it?
Answer: The poet uses simple phrases to depict the longing she has for a train. There is no train that ever goes by, yet she sees it coming and hears its sounds. This shows us the feelings she has towards the train.
Question 8: Do you think the poem has been suitably titled? Why or why not?
Answer: The poem has been suitably titled. The word ‘travel’ is associated with going to new places, making new friends and getting an opportunity to know more about the world we live in. The speaker aspires to do all these by travelling in a train.
So, these were Travel Questions & Answers.