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2. What are the things you would require to be a good friend?

3. To be a good friend, what should you ignore?

4. What can you do to be friends with someone who has no friends?

5. How can you be richer than a prince?

Reference to the context

Read the lines from the poem and answer the questions.

Cheer the youth who’s bravely trying,

Pity him who’s sadly sighing;
Just a little labor spend

On the duties of a friend.

a. How can you be a friend of a young person who is trying hard?

b. How can you be a friend of a person who is sad?
c. According to the poet, what is one of the duties of a friend?

d. How does putting in a little effort from your side help others?

Time to enjoy

The rhyme scheme of a poem refers to the way in which the last words of each line of the poem
rhyme. Some poets maintain the same rhyme scheme throughout the poem.

Let us learn to find out the rhyme scheme in a stanza of a poem.

Here is an example:

Cheer the youth who’s bravely trying, a

Pity him who’s sadly sighing; a
Just a little labor spend b

On the duties of a friend. b

If you look carefully, you will find that

• The last word of line 1—trying—rhymes with the last word of line 2—sighing.
So we assign the letter a to both of them.

• The last word of line 3—spend—rhymes with the last word of line 4—friend.

So we assign the letter b to both of them.

Thus, we say that the rhyme scheme of this stanza is aabb.

Do all the stanzas of the poem have the same rhyme scheme?

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