Hi Everyone!! This article will share A Day Questions & Answers.
This poem is written by Emily Elizabeth Dickinson. In my previous posts, I have shared the questions & answers of My Lost Dollar, The World In a Wall and All Summer In A Day so, you can check these posts as well.
A Day Questions & Answers
Word Galaxy
- Steeple – a tall pointed tower on the roof of a church, often with a spire on it
- Amethyst – a valuable purple coloured stone
- Stile – a set of steps that helps people climb over a fence or gate in a field
- Dominie – a pastor or clergyman
Question 1: Read and answer the questions:
(a) What does the phrase ‘a ribbon at a time’ mean?
Answer: The phrase ‘a ribbon at a time’ means that when the light of sun is scattered, it appears as a ribbon to the poet. There are many rays at that time so, she uses ‘at a time’ here.
(b) What does the word ‘swam’ suggest?
Answer: The word ‘swam’ suggests that the steeples were covered or dunked in sunlight. It suggests the beautiful view of steeples swimming of float in the sky during morning.
(c) What news is referred to in the last line?
Answer: The news of the rising sun is referred to in the last line.
(d) What does ‘like squirrels ran’ tell you about the speed at which the news spread?
Answer: The ‘like squirrels ran’ tells us about comparing of the speed at which news is spread over the place to the speed of squirrels. It suggests that the news spread very fast.
Question 2: Read and answer the questions:
(a) What time of the day is referred to in the first line?
Answer: The time after sunrise is referred to in the first line.
(b) What kind of ‘bonnets’ could the hills have?
Answer: The hills may have the clouds as bonnets.
(c) What is a ‘bobolink’?
Answer: Bobolink is a kind of bird found in North America. It is a singing bird.
(d) What did the bobolinks do?
Answer: The bobolinks began to sing when sun rose which suggest morning.
Question 3: Read and answer the questions:
(a) Whom does ‘I’ refer to?
Answer: ‘I’ refers to the poet (Emily Dickinson).
(b) What time does ‘then’ refer to?
Answer: It refers to the time after sunrise.
(c) What is the speaker talking about when she says ‘that must have been the Sun’?
Answer: The hills untying their bonnets and the bobolinks singing made the poet think it must be because of the sun.
(d) Why does the speaker speak ‘softly’?
Answer: The speaker said softly to herself because maybe she was alone and there was no one listening or she was trying to reason out and assuring herself about the rising sun.
Question 4: What does the speaker want to tell us about?
Answer: The speaker wants to tell us about what happened when the sun rose and what happened when it set. As the sun rises and sets, accordingly our life starts and ends. In this period, all the people and living things do their daily chores.
A Day Questions & Answers
Question 5: What happens when the Sun rises?
Answer: When the Sun rises, the hills seem to remove their bonnets and the bobolinks sing. The rays fall in beams and light up the place. Everyone talks about the sunrise.
Question 6: What happens when the Sun sets?
Answer: When the sun sets, the children who were out at play go over the hill and seem to disappear as they go home. The sunset is symbolized to death. When a person gets old and dies then, the soul goes to his/her destination passing all the barriers.
Question 7: What is it that the speaker doesn’t know?
Answer: The speaker doesn’t know how the sun sets. It means the speaker doesn’t have an idea how the time passes from morning to evening. All the people on the earth are busy in their deeds but nobody knows when the death will come to his/her door.
Question 8: What do the girls and boys do till they reach ‘the other side’?
Answer: The girls and boys keep climbing the stile till they reach the other side.
Question 9: Who guides the children?
Answer: A dominie in grey guides the children.
Question 10: Do you think the poem is only about sunrise and sunset?
Answer: No, the poem is not only about sunrise and sunset. It is also about life and death and about movement from imprisonment to freedom or vice-versa.
Question 11: Comment on the theme of the poem.
Answer: The themes in this poem are like the binaries of sunrise and the sunset. Both depict life and death. Just as the birds, steeples and almost everything rises and shines, the sunset causes closure, the children follow the Dominie and it looks as if they are finally home after a long day. The day represents circle of life.
Question 12: What do you think is symbolized in the second stanza by the speaker?
Answer: In the second stanza, the coming of everything to life due to sun rise is symbolized.
Question 13: Explain the lines:
Answer: It seemed that little children were climbing a stile to go across home to the other side at the end of the day. The stile seemed purple because the sunlight was disappearing and it was turning dark.
So, these were A Day Questions & Answers.