Hi Everyone!! This article will share Your World Questions & Answers.
This poem is written by Georgia Douglas Johnson. In my previous posts, I have shared the questions and answers of Marshlands, Saving The Gharial and The Elephant and The Tragopan so, you can check these posts as well.
Your World Questions & Answers
Word Galaxy
- Abide – (old-fashioned) live
- Immensity – extremely large and great world
- Battered – damaged or broke something by hitting it hard repeatedly
- Cordons – obstacles preventing her access to something she wanted
- Cradled……breeze – let the gentle wind guide her wings
- Uttermost reaches – places that are extremely far away from where she began
- Rapture – intense pleasure or joy
Question 1: Mark these sentences as true (T) or not true (NT). If the sentences are not true, rewrite them correctly.
1. In this poem, the speaker draws on her own experience to give the audience advice on living life with courage, ambition and passion.
Answer: True
2. When she says ‘world’, the speaker refers to our planet and the people residing in it.
Answer: NT. When she says ‘world’, the speaker refers to an individual’s life and space.
3. According to the speaker, destiny or fate has an important role to play in our lives.
Answer: NT. According to the speaker, destiny has no role to play in our lives and a person is responsible for his turn of fate.
4. Here, ‘wings represents a person’s abilities or talents.
Answer: True
5. Here, ‘horizon’ refers only to the line in the landscape where the sky meets the sea.
Answer: NT. The horizon refers to a light at the end of tunnel and not merely the landscape where the sky meets the sea.
Question 2: What is the speaker like initially? What fears do you think kept her from pursuing the life that she wanted? Which line from the poem tells us that she was afraid?
Answer: Initially, the speaker was norm abiding. She would restrain herself from accomplishing her dreams and aspirations.
Social prejudices and the fear of getting judged kept her from pursuing the life that she wanted. The line, “My wings pressing close to my side” tells us that she was afraid.
Question 3: What inspired the speaker to leave her nest and fly?
Answer: The realisation that there is a promising world outside the confines of her circumstances inspired the speaker to leave her nest and fly. As a result, the speaker began shattering everything that was restricting, making her hesitant to explore the world. The freedom and levels of success she has achieved has been rapturous and powerful.
Question 4: With rapture, with power, with ease! Where do you think the speaker found the power or the strength to pursue her dreams?
Answer: The speaker found the strength to pursue her dreams within herself. The poem is about self-discovery that brings to her a new sense of confidence and conviction. The speaker compares herself to a little bird whose wings were at first pressed closely to her sides. She was perhaps, conditioned by circumstances. But soon she found strength within herself to explore the exciting world of endless possibilities that beckons.
Your World Questions & Answers
Question 5: Did the speaker find it difficult to ‘soar to the uttermost reaches’? What was the most difficult part of her journey?
Answer: Once the speaker began her flight, it was not difficult at all to the soar to the uttermost reaches. In fact, the speaker says, “Then soared to the uttermost reaches, with rapture, with power, with ease!” The most difficult part of the speaker’s journey was breaking the shackles that tied her down and finally taking the leap.
Question 6: In your opinion, what makes our world ‘big’ or ‘narrow’?
Answer: It is perhaps one’s perspective which makes their world ‘big’ or ‘narrow’. A wide worldview enables a person to break through the obstacles and achieve what he desires. A narrow perspective or one which is marred with biases pulls the person down and stops him from pursuing what he desires.
Question 7: Underline the words in the second and third stanzas that the poet uses to express the vastness of the world the speaker desired to see and explore.
Answer: Distant, immensity
Question 8: Look at these words/phrases-throbbed, burning desire, battered, soared, rapture and power. What quality of the speaker and her new world do you think they express?
Answer: The given words hint at the emancipatory nature of the speaker’s new world.
Question 9: The word abide in the poem means ‘to live’. But abide can also mean ‘to accept or submit to certain rules or decisions’. Why do you think the poet has very specifically used the word ‘abide’ instead of ‘live’? What does the poet want to say about the speaker of the poem using the word abide?
Answer: The word abide has been used in the poem deliberately to show that the speaker was not living life in her own terms. She was abiding by the norms and regulations laid out for her.
Question 10: a. In the title ‘Your World’, do you think the emphasis would be on the word ‘Your’ or ‘World’? Why?
Answer: In the title, the emphasis would be on both the words, “Your” as well as “world”. This is because a person’s world is what they make of it. It entirely depends on one’s perspective.
(b) In your opinion, does the title express the message of the poem well? How would you rename the poem?
Answer: In the first stanza, the poet describes how she would follow norms in life and how she never felt accomplished. The second stanza focuses on how the narrator decides to pursue her goals, no matter how difficult they may be. The third and final stanza shows how the narrator let nothing stand in her way. She felt liberated to be able to succeed. Her new world was a lot more promising and reassuring. The title does express the message of the poem in the sense that one’s world is what the make of it.
So, these were Your World Questions & Answers.