Now the Leaves are Falling Fast: Summary W.H. Auden

 

Now the Leaves are Falling Fast: Summary W.H. Auden

Now the Leaves are Falling Fast: Summary

Now The Leaves Are Falling Fast’ is a very fine poem written by W.H. Auden. In this poem, the poet describes the frustration that is naturally present in human life. Here, the poet says that now the leaves are falling fast.

It means all human beings are going towards death very fast, due to diseases and other reasons. During their life span, their desires and aspirations are not fulfilled.
So, they become hopeless and feel lonely. The messengers of death are present everywhere in a different form to snatch human happiness. The people who are today will die tomorrow.
People have confined themselves. They are suffering from the sense of loneliness in which they live and die. The poet says that the starving trolls are suppressing the gentlemen and wondering in this world in search of their prey.

As the gentlemen dare not to oppose them and they are silent. The shocked silence of the nightingale completes the images of death.

Thus, the poem concludes with a feeling of optimism. The poet also says that like a tree every human life to be destroyed.

Objectives

1. The travelers are we …………… beings, moving towards our death.
  • animal
  • human
  • rural
  • urban
Answer:- human
2. …………… freezes the active hands.
  • Life
  • Death
  • youth
  • None of these
Answer:- Death
3. Trolls are called wicked and ugly creatures in ………….. mythology.
  • Scandinavian
  • Indian
  • Iranian
  • None of these
Answer:- Scandinavian
4. Now the Leaves are Falling Fast is written by …………….
  • John Keats
  • W.H. Auden
  • Rupert Brooke
  • John Donne
Answer:- W.H. Auden
5. Which thing signifies that nothing is everlasting?
  • stone
  • sun
  • flower
  • None of these
Answer:- flower
6. …………… rolling on proves that life goes on despite mortality.
  • The prams
  • The stone
  • The dog
  • None of these
Answer:- The prams
7. ………….. persons are travelers.
  • old
  • young
  • intelligent
  • clever
Answer:- Young
8. Who is scolded for food?
  • Trolls
  • Lions
  • Animals
  • None of these
Answer:- trolls

Song of Myself – Walt Whitman

9. The ………….. has become dumb to see the leafless trees.
  • peacock
  • hen
  • sparrow
  • nightingale
Answer:- nightingale
10. ……………. waterfall could bless the travelers passing through that way.
  • Red
  • White
  • Yellow
  • Grey
Answer:- White
11. The leaves are falling ………….
  • fast
  • slow
  • good
  • soon
Answer:- fast

12. W.H. Auden was born in?

  • 1917
  • 1908
  • 1907
  • 1913

Answer:- 1907

13. W.H. Auden died in?

  • 1963
  • 1953
  • 1973
  • 1965

Answer:- 1973

14. W.H. Auden won the Pulitzer Prize in the year?

  • 1947
  • 1958
  • 1948
  • 1946
Answer:- 1948

15. In the poem, ‘Now The Leaves Are Falling Fast’ ‘Whispering neighbors’ stand for …………

  • agents of Life Insurance
  • agents of State Bank of India
  • agents of Sahara India
  • agents of death

Answer:- agents of death

16. ‘Now The Leaves Are Falling Fast the ….….. frustration inherent in human life.

  • reacts
  • enacts
  • accepts
  • protests

Answer:- enacts

Subjective

1. What does the poem ‘Now The Leaves Are Falling Fast’ convey to the readers?
Ans:- The poem ‘Now the Leaves Are Falling Fast‘ by W. H. Auden conveys the grotesque conditions prevalent in this modern age. Human beings have to face many problems due to the inhuman condition of modern life.
2. What does the poet advice?
Ans:- The poet in the poem, ‘Now the Leaves Are Falling Fast‘ advises that as the world is on the brink of destruction.
We should try to save the world nature should be preserved and there should be peace and calmness all around. So that human beings can be at peace with oneself as well as one another.
3. What does the poet say about the leaves and what they suggest?
Ans:- The poet says that the leaves are falling fast. They refer to the speedy arrival of old age and death. They also hint at the frustration inherent in human life.
4. What conditions prevail in the woods?
Ans:- The woods are leafless. The nightingale is dumb and no angel is visible anywhere. The trolls are found running and scolding for their food there. everything seems to be freezing.
5. Who plucks us from real delight?
Ans:- It is the whispering neighbors, left and right, who plucks us from the real delight. They take death and spoil the joy of life.
6. How do we complete the last journey to the grave?
Ans:- By the time our life journey comes to an end, we become physically weak and inactive and get separated from the crowd of the people.
But the saving grace is that we die hearing the melodious sounds being created by the waterfalls.
7. Who are ‘The Travellers’ and how will they be blessed?
Ans:- The Travellers are we human beings, growing old and moving towards our death. They will be blessed because they will hear the music being created by the white waterfalls coming from the lovely head of the mountain.

Explanation

1. “Starving through the leafless wood” …………… And the angel will not come.

>>> The lines occur in the poem ‘Now The Leaves Are Falling Fast‘ by W.H. Auden. Here the poet is saying that the woods have become leafless.

Trolls are starving and searching for their food. The nightingale has become dumb and the angel will not come to rescue. The situation is very grave and dangerous.

2. “Cold impossible ahead – Travellers in their last distress”.

>>> In these lines of the poem ‘Now The Leaves Are Falling Fast‘ the poet W.H. Auden is optimistic and impresses upon us to be bold enough to face the old age, frustration in love and loneliness.

The sight of the lovely heads of the ranger of the mountain and its clean cold waterfalls though impossible and far away will bless the travelers in the last phase of their journey.

3. “Now the leaves are falling fast,
    Nurse’s flowers will not last;
    Nurses to the graves are gone,
    And the prams go rolling on”.
>>> These lines have been taken from the poem ‘Now the Leaves Are Falling Fast‘ which is written by W.H. Auden. The falling leaves suggest the process of death and human waste on a large scale, indicating the frustration and unfulfillment of human wishes.
Flowers don’t last long, because they are short-lived. It is the process of nature that nothing is everlasting. The poet explains the mortality of life. Death is inevitable.
Since the nurse has also met the same fate, as such they have gone to the graves. The prams rolling on proves that life goes on despite mortality. Love and compassion can provide healing touches to our tired nerves in the journey of life.

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