Extract-Based Question
Q. 1. The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbour and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
Question. Which one/s of the following applies to the given lines?
(1) Personification is a literary device where you give an animal, object or natural phenomenon, qualities or abilities that only a human can have.
(2) Transferred epithet is a literary device when an adjective usually used to describe one thing is transferred to another.
(3) Imagery is the language used by poets, and writers to create visual representation of ideas in the minds of the readers.
(4) Oxymoron is a figure of speech in which contradictory terms appear side by side.
(a) 1 and 4
(b) 2 and 3
(c) Only 1
(d) Only 3
Answer : D
Question. Choose the option that DOES NOT list movement of the fog.
(1) It stole in on us like a foot-pad Somewhere out of the sea and air... -E.J.Pratt
(2) A fog drifts in, the heavy-laden Cold white ghost of the sea -Sara Teasdale
(3) The fog it tricks the eye The wonder of the veil of white Under the clear blue sky. -K.C.Cox
(4) ..comes gliding, rolling in at ground level, pressing its white featureless face against... -R. H. Grenville
(a) Option (1)
(b) Option (2)
(c) Option (3)
(d) Option (4)
Answer : C
Question. Pick the option that includes an image of the cat on its haunches.
(a) Option (1)
(b) Option (2)
(c) Option (3)
(d) Option (4)
Answer : B
Question. Choose the option with qualities of the cat that Carl Sandburg applies to the fog?
(1) Cats are independent animals, they don’t follow rules, they slip and slide in and out of our lives as they please.
(2) Cats are distrustful of strangers and can be jealous and moody.
(3) Cats are stealthy, moving in slow motion at times and they appear to be moving in a mysterious fashion.
(4) Cats often communicate with a combination of a distinctive sound and body language.
(5) Cats like to move on at their own pace and before you know it, they’ve disappeared.
(a) Only 1
(b) 2, 3 and 4
(c) 1, 3 and 5
(d) Only 4
Answer : C
Question. The poet has used short lines to compose the given poem. Choose the option that lists the most appropriate explanation for the same.
(a) By keeping the lines short, the poet keeps the liberty in stepping away from rule, traditional form, logic, or fact, in order to produce a desired effect.
(b) By keeping the lines short, the poet wants the reader to omit some parts of a sentence, which gives the reader a chance to fill the gaps while reading it out.
(c) By keeping the lines short, the poet wants to introduce ambiguity or contradiction into an otherwise straightforward sentence.
(d) By keeping the lines short, the poet is controlling the pace to make the reader slow down thereby reflecting the slow rolling in of the fog
Answer : D
Very Short Answer Type Questions
Question. Stealth is an important aspect of fog. State any two instances from the poem “Fog” that suggest the same.
Answer : The poet says a cat does not make a sound when it walks so also is the fog. But its presence is apparent. The way the fog sits is very much like a cat sitting on its house less, looking here and there.
Question. Highlight any two characteristics of fog from its description in the poem and justify your choice of characteristics briefly.
Answer : The silent arrival of the fog is like a little cat. The fog stays there sitting like a cat on its haunches. The fog appears unseen and suddenly and engulf everything underneath it.
Question. Is the fog portrayed as a resident of the city or as an outsider? Support your answer with two such references from the poem “Fog”.
Answer : Just like on outside, the fog’s arrival is unpredictable. It is quite and agile, always ready to move on like a stranger the fog come- discreet, stealthy and slow, awaiting its turn.
Short Answer Type Questions
Question. Would you describe the role of the fog as active or passive? Support your answer with reference to the poem “Fog”.
Answer : I would describe the role of the fog as passive one. The fog is compared to a cat that likes to sit on window edges and look outside. The fog too sits silently for a while and then moves on.
Question. Why does the poet use the phrase “silent haunches”? Substantiate your answer with reference to the poem “Fog”.
Answer : The fog enters silently like a small cat. Then, it sits there for a while overlooking and engulfing the harbour. It continues sitting silently there for a while as a cat on its haunches and moves ahead. The phrase silent haunches helps the readers to create mind pictures, hence is good example of imagery.
Question. Comment, in detail, on the significance of the closing phrase of the poem-“moves on”.
Answer : The fog like a cat keeps on lying for hour. It keeps on overlooking the harbour and the city below. The atmosphere around is filled with silence and mystery and then like a stalking cat, it moves on. It disappears silently unnoticed.
Long Answer Type Questions
Question. In the poem “Fog”, the poet features the fog as animated. If you had to write a similar poem for one other natural phenomenon, which animal would you use to convey the characteristics of that particular phenomena? Justify, in detail, your choice of animal corresponding to it by bringing out similarities.
Answer : The poem ‘Fog’ describes the advancement of fog toward the city and harbour. He says the fog comes like a cat comes on its little feet. This means the fog advances towards the city very slowly and calmly just like a cat. It enters our home in an unpredictable manner.
Similarly, the zig zag movement of the flowing river can be compared to the zig zag movement of a snake. Just like the river water never flows in a straight manner in the same way the snake can never walk straight. Its movement is graceful and beautiful. Many poets have described the wavy motion of the snake with that of the wavy water.
Question. Do you agree with the poet’s comparison of fog to a cat or do you feel some other image would have done justice to the poem?
Justify your answer by substantiating your claims with examples.
OR
The poet beautifully compares the fog to a cat. Choose any two animals from ‘How to Tell Wild Animals’ that do not have qualities that can be drawn out to be compared with a fog.
Answer : In the poem ‘Fog’ the poet Carl Sandburg compares the fog with the cat which enters our home in an unpredictable manner. Next he says that the fog sits over the whole of the city as a cat sits silently by folding her logs behind itself and looks around the nearby places and thinks. Similarly, it seems that the fog silently covers the city but later leaves it unnoticed.
‘How Tell Wild Animals’ that do not have qualities that can be drawn out to be compared with a fog are the Asian Lion and the Bear. Both of these animals have a huge and terrible built. There presence can never be unnoticed. One can notice them from a far distance Moreover, the loud roar of the Asian Lion and the black color the Bear can easily attract everyone’s attention.
