SHORT QUESTIONS ON THE POETRY OF EARTH BY JOHN KEATS.

OCTAVE 

1. When was this poem written? 

Answer:  This poem was written on 30th of December, 1816. 

2. Where was this poem published and when? 

Answer:  This poem was published in “The Poetical Works of John Keats” in 1884. 

3. Who challenged John Keats to write poetry on grasshopper and cricket? What was the name of his poem? 

Answer:  Keats’ friend Leigh Hunt challenged Keats to write a poetry on cricket and grasshopper. Hunt wrote a poem named “To the Grasshopper and The Cricket”. 

4. Who are the musicians of summer? 

Answer:  Different birds, grasshopper are the musicians of summer as mentioned in the sonnet “The Poetry of Earth”. 

5. When does the grasshopper take the lead? 

Answer:  When all the birds are faint with summer’s hot sunlight and they take shelter in the cooling shade of trees, the grasshopper takes the lead. 

6. Where does the grasshopper sing? 

Answer:  The grasshopper sings from hedge to hedge about the new-mown meadow. 

7. How does the grasshopper bear the music of earth? 

Answer:  The grasshopper luxuriously bears the music of earth from one hedge to another hedge about the new-mown meadow until it gets tired out of fun. 

8. How does the grasshopper get tired and what does it do then? 

Answer:  The heat the sunlight does not make the grasshopper tired. Grasshopper gets tired only out of fun. 

         Then, it takes rest at ease beneath some pleasant weed. 

SESTET 

9. Who creates silence and when? 

Answer:  The frost creates silence on a lone winter evening. 

10. Who carries the music of earth in winter? 

Answer:  Cricket carries the music of earth in winter season. 

11. Who takes the duty to carry on the music of earth during fall of frost? 

Answer:  Cricket takes the duty to carry on the music of earth during fall of frost 

12. How does the tempo of cricket’s song increase? 

Answer:  Getting the warmth from the stove, gradually the tempo of cricket’s song increases. 

13. To whom does the song of cricket seem the song of the grasshopper and why? 

Answer:  To the half-sleeping man, the song of cricket seems the song of the grasshopper because as he is in semi-conscious state of mind, he can not differentiate the cricket’s song from the song of grasshopper. 

14. When does the cricket take the lead? 

Answer:  When the frost creates a silence everywhere, the cricket takes the lead to carry on the music of earth.