Tonight I Can Write 

Self-Assessment

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Short Type Questions

1.What is the full name of Pablo Neruda?

Ans: The full name of Pablo Neruda is Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto.

2.What did the poet’s voice try to find?

Ans: The poet’s voice tried to find the wind which touched his beloved.

3.“the stars are blue and shiver in the distance”— Mention the figure of speech used in the given line.

Ans: The figure of speech used in the given line is Personification.

4.“She will be another’s”– Who will be another’s?

Ans: In the poem ‘Tonight I Can Write’ the poet’s beloved will be another’s.

5. What rhyme scheme is used in the poem?

Ans: The poem ‘Tonight I Can Write’ is written in free verse.

6.In which language was ‘Tonight I Can Write’ originally written and who translated it?

Ans: The poem ‘Tonight I Can Write’ is originally written in Spanish and American poet W.S. Merwin translated it.

7.Why did the poet’s voice try to find the wind?

Ans: The poet’s voice tried to find the wind which touched his beloved so that his beloved could hear him.

8.What does the poet want to convey when he says, “The night is starry and the stars are blue”?

Ans: When the poet says, “The night is starry and the stars are blue”, he expresses his pain of separation from his beloved , that made him unable to have brightness in his life in spite of bright stars in the sky.

9.”The verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.” -Explain the figure of speech which is used in this sentence.

Ans: “The verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.”-In this sentence the poet’s verse is compared to dew , and his soul is compared to pasture. It is direct comparison between ‘verse’ and ‘dew’, and ‘soul’ and ‘pasture’. So, the figure of speech used in this sentence is simile.

10.What had happened to the poet in one of these nights according to the poet in ‘Tonight I Can Write’.

Ans: In ‘Tonight I Can Write’ The poet held his beloved in his arms and kissed her again and again under the endless sky

in one of these nights .

11.What do you mean by the sentence “She was before my kisses” in “Tonight I Can Write?

Ans: In “Tonight I Can Write” the poet has created an ambiguity in the sentence “She was before my kisses”. It may mean that the poet’s beloved will kiss someone else in the same way as she kissed the poet under the endless sky or the poet’s beloved had loved someone else before she loved the poet .

12.‘The verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.’ Explain.

 Ans: ‘The Verse’ falling to the ‘soul’ is compared to ‘dew’ falling to the ‘pasture’. His soul absorbed the verse but he was unable to stay with his beloved in the  same way as  the pasture absorbs the dew and reduces it to nothing. This sentence highlights the poet’s genuine feelings and natural technique of writing. 

Long Type Questions

1.Justify the title ‘Tonight I Can Write’.

Ans: The entire poem ‘Tonight I Can Write’ is a deeply felt elegy for lost love and a painful exercise to forget the poet’s beloved after getting separated from her for a long time. The poem begins with the single line ‘Tonight I can write the saddest lines’, which implies that till that day he couldn’t express his grief and feelings through a verse. This line repeats three times throughout the poem, depicts the recurrent theme of the poem ,and suggests the way the poet is coming back to the same thoughts of his lost love again and again. According to the poet, this night reminds him of other nights when he held his beloved in his arms and kissed her many times.

The poet emphasizes on the title phrase ‘Tonight I Can Write’ to convince himself that enough time has passed for him to forget his beloved and move on. The title phrase also emphasizes the unforgettable feelings and unbearable pains of the speaker, portrays the state of their love previously ,illuminates how the poet regrets separation, and as a consequence ,”the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture”. ‘Tonight I Can Write’ is a reduced phrase that hints the entire content and theme of the poem. So the title Tonight I Can Write’ is justified.

2.How does the poet mourn the loss of his beloved in the poem ‘Tonight I can Write’?

Ans: The poem ‘Tonight I can Write’, depicts pain and suffering of a lover who can’t forget his separation from his beloved , remembers his past, and  mourns the loss of his beloved. He recalls the night when he held her in his arms and kisses her many times. When he  thinks his beloved is not with him and he has lost her, he convinces himself that he is able to the saddest lines through a verse that night. According to him, She loved him and he also loved her too. He thinks of her ‘great still eyes’. That night seems to be ‘more immense’ without his beloved. He tries to forget her by saying himself that it does not matter that his love could not keep her, but again his soul is dissatisfied for losing her. His sight tries to get her close ,and his heart feels empty without her. The moon’s silvery light on the same trees makes him remember how their love for each other has been changed though everything looks the same. His voice searched the wind which touched her .He imagines she will love another person, and kissed him as she did with the poet. He confirms himself that he expresses all of his sadness and sorrows for his separation from his beloved through this verse which is the last verse for his beloved.

 

Exercise

A. Answer each of the following questions in one or two complete sentences:

1. “I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.”– What do you mean by ‘endless?

2.How did Pablo Neruda describe the night in the poem ‘Tonight I Can Write’?

3. How does Neruda use ‘night’ as a symbol?

4.Why does the poet say ‘Tonight I can write the saddest lines?

5. What is the role of the wind in Neruda’s poem?

B. Answer the following questions in about 150-200 words :

1.What symbolism did Pablo Neruda use in “Tonight I Can Write”?

2.What are the underlying feelings of the speaker in “Tonight I Can Write”?

3.How is Pablo Neruda’s poem “Tonight I can write” an elegy? 

4.Discuss the themes of memory and love in “Tonight I Can Write.”

5.Explore the ways in which the poet talks of his sadness in the context of nature.

6.“Love is so short, forgetting is so long” — Justify the statement with close reference to the poem.

7.How is the theme of love and passion expressed in the poem?

8.Justify the title of the poem.

Textual Grammar

C. Do as directed:

1.The same night whitening the same trees. We, of that time , are no longer the same.(Join into a complex sentence)

2.The poet said, “ Love is so short, forgetting is so long.” (Change the narration)

3.My voice tried to found the wind.(Correct the errors)

4.The poet says, “And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.” (Change the narration)

5.Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.(Split into two sentences)

6.The night is starry. She is not with me.(Join into a simple sentence)

7.My heart looks for her. She is not with me. (Join into a complex sentence)

8.This be the last pain that she makes me suffer and these the last verses that I write for her. .(Split into two sentences)

9.The poet says, “I no longer love her, that’s certain, but maybe I love her.” (Change the narration)

10.  The night wind revolve in the sky.(Correct the errors)

11. I kissed her again and again below the endless sky.(Correct the errors)

Word-Meaning:

starry-full of stars, shiver-shake, revolves-rotates, immense-great, verse-poem, dew-waterdrop of morning which is seen on the grass, pasture-a field where animals graze, distance-far from here , whitening the same trees- The Moon gives its silvery light to the same trees, certain -sure, infinite-limitless