Important Questions Class 11 English Woven Words Chapter 6 Poem

Important Questions Class 11 English Woven Words Chapter 6 Poem – Mother Tongue

The discipline of literature has always been used to represent the thoughts and ideas of people. Poets and authors have utilised the tool of creative compositions of poetry and stories to appreciate their culture, traditions and language. Mother Tongue is a beautifully crafted poetic composition by Padma Sachdev. The poem is a token of appreciation and pride towards her most valued form of language – her mother tongue, Dongri.

Students are often unfamiliar with the ideas behind poetry and lose out on precise comprehension of the poem. Our team at Extramarks understands the needs of students. It is a useful learning platform with an abundance of valuable study resources such as CBSE sample papers, CBSE past years’ question papers and NCERT revision notes.

The set of important questions Class 11 English Woven Words Chapter 6 Poem will help students to build a strong grasp of understanding and explaining the various dialogues and ideas in the poem. All solutions conform to the guidelines of the CBSE curriculum. Moreover, every question and solution has been chosen from the NCERT textbook, NCERT important questions, CBSE sample and past years’ question papers, etc. Students can refer to Class 11 English Woven Words Chapter 6 Poem important questions for scoring well in the poetry section.

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Important Questions Class 11 English Woven Words Chapter 6 Poem – With Solutions

English is a language that can be mastered by consistent reading, writing and comprehension of English texts. Many students become baffled at the variety of words and ideas in any literary piece of work and don’t have enough time to make notes for exams. We advise students to equip themselves with the important questions Class 11 English Woven Words Chapter 6 Poem learn and score well in exams.

Students can go through Class 11 Chapter 6 important questions and solutions below:-

Question 1. The quill is the central element in the poem—what does it symbolise?

Answer    1. The quill symbolises the Sharade script. The poet wrote in her mother tongue Dogri. Dogri originally used the script Sharade which was replaced by the Persian and Devanagari scripts. Any spoken language is preserved for a longer period only when it continues to be written well. The Dogri script was originally written in Sharade but replaced the Devanagari script. The poet is devoted to the Dogri script and considers it shahni. She personified the reed and requested a quill so that she could use the quill to write beautiful verses and stories in her mother tongue –  Dogri.

Question 2. What did the poet say about Shahni?

Answer   2. The poet asked the reed to give her a quill to write. The reed replied that she used a quill a few days ago and inquired if she worked as Shah’s accountant. The poet calmly replies that she is a servant but serves the shahni, not the Shah. The Shahni she served was kind and well-off, and she had many other servants ready to do her work. The Shahni is none other than her mother tongue Dogri. The poet is dedicated to expressing her feelings and emotions in Dogri.

Question 3. You notice a sense of urgency in the poet’s request—what is the reason for this?

Answer    3. The poet holds her mother tongue Dogri in high regard and is apprehensive, for it might get diminished if it is not saved. She feels it will be difficult for the Dogri language to survive with the continuous influx of other languages and scripts. Therefore, the poet is strongly worried about the survival of the Dogri language. According to her, if people speaking Dogri do not realise its importance, the language could be lost forever.

Question 4. Why did the reed suddenly cut its hand off when the poet asked for a quill?

Answer   4. Reed, in the poem, symbolises a script. The reed cutting its hand off signifies the change of script from one to another. The old scripts are not completely lost, but their characteristics are used as inspiration by the newer scripts.

The poet informs the reed she wanted to serve and save the Dogri language, which was the Shahni. The reed realises the importance of preserving language with the help of the script and gives its stems to the poet. Therefore, the reed is also shown to be the Shahni’s servant.

Question 5. How has the poet brought out her emotional attachment to her mother tongue?

Answer    5. The poet is emotionally attached to her mother tongue, Dogri and wants to preserve the language and script as much as possible. She considers her mother tongue a Shahni, who is generous and rich. The Shahni has many servants, and the poet and reed are just two of those servants. The poet mentions that the reed was so dedicated to saving the Shahni that it chopped its arm off to present the poet with a quill as a tool to save the script of the mother tongue.

Question 6. What is the central theme of the poem?

Answer   6. The poem expresses pride and gratitude towards the poet’s native language – Dogri. The poet fears the disappearance of the original script in which Dogri is written. She is also sad when she thinks the spoken Dogri will disappear if the script is lost. She does not want her native language to diminish without a trace. Therefore the poet makes a lot of efforts to preserve her mother tongue. She requests a reed hurriedly to give her a quill so that she can write as much as possible to preserve the Dogri script. The reed is annoyed at first, but once it becomes aware of the shahni (the Dogri language) the poet serves, it cuts its arm off and gives it to the poet without a second thought. The poet uses the quill to save the script of Dogri.

The entire conversation between the reed and the poet revolved around the poet’s desire to protect the language she has always cherished – her native mother tongue, Dogri.

Question 7. Personification is a figure of speech that attributes human qualities to inanimate things and abstract ideas. How has it been used in this poem?

Answer   7. The poem has made clever use of personification. The poet has personified the language of Dogri as a queen or a shahni. The poet sincerely serves the shahni and wants to protect her at any cost. According to the poet, the shahni has many servants, and she is kind and wealthy. The poet, too, is her servant and is afraid of her Shahni being lost. The quill has been personified in the poem as well. The quill is the Sharade script in which Dogri was originally written before Persian and Devanagari replaced it. The quill, too, is Shahani’s servant and wants to prevent her disappearance. That is why the reed cuts itself to make a quill and gives it to the poet. The way it was written animates the entire piece of poetry and tells the importance of preserving one’s mother tongue.

Question  8. Why does the poet ask the reed for a new quill?

Answer     8. The quill is a symbol of the script in which Dogri was written. The poet has many ideas, feelings and thoughts she wishes to express and decides to write them down in her native tongue, Dogri. The Dogri language now uses the Devanagari script instead of the original Sharade script. Therefore, the poet asks the reed for this new quill. The poet requires a new quill (script) to put down her ideas in Dogri. Otherwise, her ideas and the Dogri language could be lost forever.

Question 9. Why did the reed agree to give a quill to the poet?

• The poet was the accountant for a king.
• The reed was a servant of the poet’s mother tongue Dogri
• The reed was annoyed at the poet and wanted to get rid of her 
• All of the above

Answer   9. Option (2) The reed was a servant of the poet’s mother tongue Dogri

Explanation:-

• Option (2) is correct. The poet approached the reed because she needed a quill to write her thoughts in her mother tongue. The reed was reluctant at first. The poet told the reed that she was a servant of her shahni or her mother tongue Dogri and she wanted to write down the script of Dogri to prevent it from being lost. When the reed came to know that it was talking to the servant of the Shahni Dogri, it readily chopped its arm to produce a quill for the poet so that she could continue writing and preserving her mother tongue Dogri. The reed was the servant of the same shahni as well.
• Option (1) is incorrect as the poet mentions in the poem that she did not work for the Shah or the king. It was a Shahni whom she served, and her Shahni was kind and well off and had many servants.
• Option (3) is incorrect. The reed did not want to get rid of her once it knew that she was the Shahani’s servant. The reed served the Shahni as well.

Question  10. Who was the Shahni, according to the poet?

Answer     10. The Shahni was the poet’s mother tongue – Dogri. The poet wanted to serve her mother tongue by preserving it through writing.

Question  11. Which of the following sentences describe the message of the poem “mother tongue”?

• The poem expresses sorrow because the Dogri language lost its original script called sharade
• The poem is a conversation about languages between the reed and the poet
• The poem describes the poet’s desire to leave her mother tongue and learn a new language.
• None of the above

Answer    11. Option (1) The poem expresses sorrow because the Dogri language lost its original script called sharade.

Explanation: –

• Option (1) is correct. The poet laments the loss of the Sharade script that was the original form of writing Dogri. However, Dogri is now written in Devanagari and Persian scripts. The poet is sad at the loss of Sharade but hopeful of preserving the language in new scripts.
• Option (2) is incorrect. The poem shows a conversation between the reed and the poet and their desire to serve the Dogri language. Both of them are servants of the Dogri language.
• Option (3) is incorrect. The poet is dedicated to her mother tongue and has no wish whatsoever to leave her mother tongue.

Benefits of Solving Important Questions Class 11 English Woven Words Chapter 6 Poem 

The examination pattern of literature is based on testing students’ understanding of the meaning behind the poet’s verses. Therefore, students must perceive the poet’s thoughts and ideas adequately and be skilled in writing detailed answers based on this understanding. It is a perplexing task but can be made easier using Extramarks important questions Class 11 English Woven Words Chapter 6 Poem for exam preparation.

• Students can check out the benefits of solving Chapter 6 Poem Class 11 English Woven Words important questions below:-
• The solutions are explained to understand the students at the school level.
• The important questions are strictly based on the topics within the CBSE syllabus of English literature Class 11.
• All important questions Class 11 English Woven Words Chapter 6 Poem and solutions have been carefully chosen by highly talented and efficient English subject and poetry experts.
• Solving important questions will enable students to become enthusiastic about the deeper message of every poetry piece within the syllabus.
• The important questions and solutions will also help students to gain knowledge of descriptive vocabulary to write impressive answers and score good marks in exams.

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