“He sleeps in sunlight …”- Who is the person referred to here? Where does he sleep and how? What does the word sleep’ indicate in this poem?

The person referred to here is a very young soldier. He is sleeping in a small green valley under the open sky. The young soldier is sleeping with his mouth open. His head is kept on a pillow made of fern and his feet are among the flowers of the valley. There is an innocent and gentle smile on his face, just like an infant. One of his hands is placed upon his chest.

The word “sleep” indicates “eternal rest” in this poem. The young soldier is shot dead by a bullet. Not even the constant humming of the insects can wake him up that brings him back to life.

“In his side there are two red holes.”-Who is the person referred to here? What do the ‘two red holes’ signify? What attitude of the poet to war is reflected here?

The person referred to here is the dead soldier of the poem ‘Asleep in the Valley’ written by Arthur Rimbaud.

The two red holes’ are the marks of bullet wounds, in one side of the sleeping soldier. It signifies that the soldier has been shot to death at war.

The poet here perceives war as something futile and brutal. Rimbaud, being a soldier himself has witnessed the horrors of war, and in this line, he expresses how pitiful a war is! War destroys the lives of youths with all their dreams unfulfilled and without letting them experience the joys of life. In the name of sustaining peace of a nation, war, in reality, slaughters young soldiers. This meaninglessness of war perturbs the poet immensely. The concluding line of the poem is an alert to mankind against the ravages of war.

Give a description of the valley as found in Rimbaud’s poem ‘Asleep in the Valley’.

The word “sun’ is repeatedly used in the poem-explain the significance of it.

How does the poet express the futility of war through his poem ‘Asleep in the Valley’? What message does he want to convey?

How does the soldier lie in Asleep in the Valley’?

How does this picture of the soldier describe the tragedy of war? Explain.

Bring out the irony of the poem ‘Asleep in the Valley’.

Look at the word ‘asleep’. What do we normally associate with the word? When does the reader recognise that the soldier is asleep in a different sense?

Comment on Rimbaud’s treatment of symbol and imagery in the poem ‘Asleep in the Valley’.

Nature plays an important role in the poem ‘Asleep in the Valley’ by Arthur Rimbaud- Justify.

The poem ends a little abruptly but leaves the reader with utter surprise and shock Discuss.

The poem ‘Asleep in the Valley’ rests on two contrasting pictures. Discuss the use of two contrasting pictures in the poem,

What is the occasion of the poem ‘Asleep in the Valley’? Give a simile used by the poet in the poem. Are there other comparisons in the poem?

Give the substance of Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare.

Discuss the central idea of the poem, ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?.

Discuss the appropriateness of the title of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18.

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”-Who makes the comparison? Who is compared to a summer’s day’? What are the blemishes of summer?

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day”-Whom does the poet compare his friend to? What are the qualities that make the person superior to summer?

“Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed;” What is the figure of speech used in ‘eye of heaven’? What makes the dim? What does the poet imply in the above lines?