Hi Everyone!! This article will share The Ballad of a Bachelor Questions & Answers.
This ballad is written by Ellis Parker Butler. In my previous posts, I have shared the questions and answers of Success is Counted Sweetest, Barter and The Kabuliwala so, you can check these posts as well.
The Ballad of a Bachelor Questions & Answers
Question 1: Complete the summary of the poem with suitable words and phrases.
Answer:
John Henry King was a bachelor aged thirty-three who had two ladies eager to get married to him. Both tried to get his attention but John Henry couldn’t decide. While Kate was bright and jolly, Marie was kind, sedate. John Henry was caught in a dilemma for a year and then he decided to toss a dollar to decide which one he would marry. He thought if it was heads, he would marry Marie and if it was tail it would be Kate. In spite of this, as luck would have it, the coin stood straight making Henry decide to remain a bachelor.
Question 2: Read the lines and answer the questions:
(a) Each was so dear that John confessed
He could not tell which he liked best.
What does this mean?
Answer: This means that both were good and had good qualities.
(b) Then from his leather pocket-book
A dollar bright and new he took;
i. Who took the dollar from his pocket-book?
Answer: John Henry King took the dollar from his pocket-book.
ii. Why did he want the dollar?
Answer: He wanted the dollar because he wanted to toss it to decide who would be his bride.
iii. What happened to the dollar?
Answer: The dollar fell on the shore and got stuck and was straight i.e. neither heads or tails.
(c) ‘Ye fates’, he cried, ‘pray let this be
A lucky throw indeed for me!’
i. Who is ‘he’ in these lines?
Answer: John Henry King, the bachelor is ‘he’.
ii. What is the throw that is referred here?
Answer: The throw is the tossing of the dollar to decide whether he was to marry Mary or Kate.
iii. How would it decide the fate?
Answer: If it was heads, he would marry Mary and if it was tails, he would marry Kate.
Question 3: In what ways is this poem a ballad?
Answer: This poem is a ballad as it tells a story about love and is written in easy-to-understand language.
Question 4: What is the rhyme scheme of the lines given below?
Listen, ladies, while I sing
The ballad of John Henry King.
John Henry was a bachelor,
His age was thirty-three or four.
Answer: AABB.
Question 5: Do you think drama and dialogues add to the beauty of a ballad? Give examples from the poem to support your answer.
Answer: Yes, drama and dialogues add to the beauty of a ballad. In this poem, when John Henry King is contemplating about whom to marry, there are dialogues which make it interesting.
So, these were The Ballad of a Bachelor Questions & Answers.