Page 109 - Lavender-B-7

2. Which adjective describes the poet?

courageous adventurous

audacious heroic

3. What can you infer from the last line of the poem?

The poet is the captain of a ship.

The poet is the leader of a team.

The poet himself determines the course of his life.

The poet takes decisions that affect others.

4. Which word can replace circumstance in the second stanza?

option chance

situation event

B. Answer these questions.

1. What does the poet mean by ‘unconquerable soul’?

2. In Stanza 3, which place could Henley be referring to?
3. Read the information about Henley. How do you think Stanza 2 is connected to his
own life?

4. What does ‘Horror of the shade’ mean?

5. What is the meaning of the line, It matters not how strait the gate,/How charged with
punishments the scroll?

Reference to the context

Read the lines from the poem and answer the questions that follow.

1. Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

a. What is ‘night’ being compared to?

i. vice ii. darkness iii. grief iv. death

b. What could the pit symbolise?

c. Why does the poet thank the gods?

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