Samacheer Kalvi 10th English Solutions Poem 5 -The Secret of the Machines

Poem 5 – The Secret of the Machines

Tamilnadu Samacheer 10th English Guide The Secret of the Machines Textbook Questions and Answers

A. Answer the following briefly.

Question 1.
Who does ‘we’ refer to in the first stanza?
(a) Human beings
(b) Machines
Answer:
(b) Machines

Question 2.
Who are the speakers and listeners of this poem?
Answer:
The speakers are the Machines which is the brainchild of man. The listeners are the readers of this poem.

Question 3.
What metals are obtained from ores and mines? Iron ore
Answer:
Iron, Copper, Nickel, Lead, Tin, Aluminium, Gold and Chromium are some of the metals that are obtained from ores and mines. (or)

The metals obtained from ores are iron ores and minerals from mines.

Question 4.
Mention a few machines which are hammered to design?
Answer:
Pulley – Power lift, The Cutting Wedge, The Wheel and Axle, screw, lever, etc are a few machines which are hammered to design.

Question 5.
Mention the names of a few machines that run on water, coal or oil?
Answer:
Generator, steam engine, turbine of power plants etc., run on water, coal or oil.

Question 6.
Mention a few machines used for pulling, pushing, lifting, driving, printing, ploughing, reading, and writing etc?
Answer:
Pulling – Pulley, Winch, Elevator, Windlass, Pushing – Motor Engines, Lifting – Crane, „ Hoist, Driving – Car, Omnibus, Caravan, Printing – Typewriter, Computer printer, Fax machine, Ploughing – Tractor, Reading and Writing – Computer, Cellular Phones The above are a few machines used for pulling, pushing, lifting, driving, printing, ploughing, reading, and writing.

Question 7.
Are machines humble to accept the evolution of the human brain? Why?
Answer:
Yes, Machines are humble. They know that they are nothing more than the creation of human brain.

Question 8.
What feelings are evoked in us by the machines in this poem?
Answer:
Pride and superiority are the feelings evoked in us by the machines in this poem. There is also the feeling of fear and perusal that no error in handling the machinery should take place.

Question 9.
‘And a thousandth of an inch to give us play;
Which of the following do the machines want to prove from this line?
(a) Once Machines are fed with fuel, they take a very long time to start.
(b) Once Machines are fed with fuel, they start quickly.
Answer:
(a) Once Machines are fed with fuel, they start quickly.

Question 10.
And now, if you will set us to our task, We will serve you four and twenty hours a day!
(a) Who does the pronoun ‘you’ refer to here?
(b) Whose task is referred to as ‘our task’ here?
(c) Open conditional clause is used in the given line. Why ¡s the future tense ‘will set’ and ‘will serve’ used both in the ‘If clause’ and ¡n the ‘main clause?’
(d) Do the machines serve us twenty-four hours a day?
(e) Rewrite the given lines with the ending ‘365 days a year.’
Answer:
(a) ‘You’ refers to the industrialists and the people using the machines.
(b) The task to be performed for the industrialists by the machines is referred to as ‘our task’.
(c) The future tense ‘will set’ and ‘will serve’ is used both in the ‘if clause’ and in the ‘main clause’ to indicate surety and futurity.
(d) Yes, the machines serve us round the clock and non-stop the entire day.
(e) Some water, coal, and oil is all we ask,
And a thousandth of an inch to give us play, lend us your ear:
And now, if you will set us to our task,
We’ll serve you three hundred and sixty days a year!

Poetic Appreciation:

1. “We were taken from the ore bed and the mine
We were melted in the furnace and the pit
We were cast and wrought and hammered to design
We were cut and filled and tooled and gauged to fit”
(a) Where are the ore-metals obtained from?
(b) Where are the metals melted?
(c) Who is the speaker here?
(d) How are the machine designed?
(e) Who does ‘We’ refer to?
(f) Find out the rhyming words ¡n the above lines?
(g) What is the rhyme scheme of the above lines?
(h) What is the figure of speech employed in the above lines?
(i) What is the alliteration word in the 4th line?

(j) What is a furnace?
(k) What is ‘wrought’?
(l) What is hammered?
(m) Why is it hammered?
(n) Give the meaning of the word, ‘gauged’.
(o) What was taken from the ore-bed and the mine?
(p) What is a pit?
(q) All the four lines begin with the words, ‘We were’. Which poetic device does it indicate?
Answers:
(a) The metals are obtained from the ore-bed and the time
(b) The metals are melted in the blast furnaces
(c) The machine is the speaker here
(d) The machine are designed by casting and hammering
(e) We refer to machines
(f) Rhyming words: mine – design; pit – fit;
(g) abab
(h) Anaphora
(i) filled – fit

(j) A furnace is a highly heated oven to melt ores in large quantities.
(k) Wrought is the third form of the verb, ‘work’.
(l) The molten metal is hammered.
(m) The molted metal is hammered to shape it.
(n) The meaning of the word, ‘gauged’ is measured.
(o) Raw materials for machines such as the iron ore from ore-bed and minerals from mines are taken.
(p) A pit is a mine.
(q) It indicates the poetic device, ‘Anaphora’.

2. “Some water, coal, and oil is all we ask
And a thousandth of an inch to give us play
And now, if you will set us to our task
We will serve you four and twenty hours a day?”
(a) What do the machines need to run?
(b) What does the mean “thousandth of an inch to give us play”?
(c) Who will set the task? (or) Who allots the tasks to the machines?
(d) Who will serve us twenty-four hours?
(e) Find out the rhyming words in the above lines?
(f) What is the rhyme scheme of the above lines?
(g) What is the figure of speech employed in the last line? / First line
Answers:
(a) The machines need water, coal, and oil to run.
(b) A very small place is enough for machines to operate.
(c) Human beings will set the task.
(d) The machine will serve us twenty-four hours.
(e) ask – task; play – day;
(f) abab
(g) Hyperbole / Assonance

3. “We can pull and haul and push and lift and drive
We can print and plough and weave and heat and light
We can run and race and swim and fly and dive
We can see and hear and count and read and write”
(a) What kind of works can machines do?
(b) What are the rhyming words in the above lines?
(c) What is the rhyme scheme of the above lines?
(d) What is the figure of speech employed in the third line? and first line?

(e) What is meant by ‘haul’?
(f) What is the figure of speech in the last line?
(g) Pick out the alliterated words on the third line.
(h) Give the example of Anaphora in the above stanza.
(i) What is the rhyme scheme of the above four lines?
(j) Mention the figure of speech in the first line.
(k) What is personified?
(l) Write the alliterated words in the second line.
(m) Give the rhyming word for drive and light.
Answers:
(a) Machines can pull, haul, push, drive, print, plough and weave.
(b) drive – dive; light – write;
(c) abab
(d) Personification / Oxymoron

(e) ‘Haul’ means ‘carry’.
(f) The figure of speech in the last line is Imagery.
(g) The alliterated words are ‘run and race’.
(h) The words ‘we can’ is the example of Anaphora in the above stanza.
(i) The rhyme scheme is ‘abab’ in the above four lines.
(j) Personification is the figure of speech in the first line.
(k) The Machines are personified since they talk about the various tasks it performs.
(l) The alliterated words are print and plough.
(m) The rhyming words are dive and write respectively for drive and light.

4. “But remember, please, the law by which we live
We are not built to comprehend a lie
We can neither love nor pity nor forgive
if you make a slip in handling us you die!”
(a) What does the machine ask us to remember?
(b) Do machines purposefully harm us?
(c) What is the result of the mishandling machine?
(d) What are the rhyming words given in the above lines?
(e) What is the rhyme scheme of the above lines?
(f) What is the figure of speech employed in the third line?
Answers:
(a) They are operated according to the law.
(b) No, Machines have no feelings, so they never purposefully harm us.
(c) Mishandling machines causes death.
(d) live-forgive; lie-die;
(e) abab
(f) Personification

 

5. “Though our smoke may hide the Heavens from your eyes
It will vanish and the stars will shine again
Because for all our power and weight and size
We are nothing more than children of your brain”
(a) Who is the speaker of these lines?
(b) who does ‘Children’ refer to?
(c) What do machines give out when they run?
(d) Mention the major themes of the poem?
(e) What are the rhyming words given in the above lines?
(f) What ¡s the rhyme scheme of the above lines?
(g) What is the figure of speech employed in the 1st line?
(h) What is the figure of speech employed in the last line?

(i) What is the brain child of man?
(j) What is the figure of speech in the first line?
(k) Pick out the alliterated words in the first line.
(l) From where does the smoke come?
(m) What does the smoke hide?
(n)What is of no use in front of God?
Answers:
(a) The machines are the speakers.
(b) Children refer to the machines.
(c) When they run machines give out smoke.
(d) Significance of machines, Advance of Technology.
(e) eyes-size; again-brain.
(f) abab.
(g) Metaphor. / Connotation
(h) Personification.

(i) The brain child of man is the machines made by man.
(j) The figure of speech is alliteration.
(k) The alliterated words are hide the Heavens.
(l) The smoke comes from the factories.
(m) The smoke hides the sight of the heavens in the sky where the stars shine bright.
(n) The power, weight and size is of no use in front of God.

Write the outline of the poem “The secret of the Machines”, (or)
What feelings are evoked in us by the machines in the poem, “The secret of the machines”.

Introduction:
The poem “The secret of machines” deal with the problems of model technology. The poet informs about how the machines are produced.

Tools of Machines:
Machines are made from different kinds of metals. Metals are found in the earth in the form of ores. Ores are taken from the ore-bed and the mines. They were melted in the furnace and the pit. They were hammered to design. They are made into tools of perfection in appearance and quality.

Need of Machines:
Machines run by water, coal and oil. A very small place is enough for machines to operate. They are ready to serve us all around a day. But it did not get tired.

Uses of Machines:
Machines are used to pull; to drag without effort; to push; to life and to drive. Machines are used to print in papers, to plough the fields; to weave cloths; to heat water and oil. They are used in running, racing, swimming and flying. Machines are able to see, hear, count, read and write.

Feelings of Machines:
Machines run on certain rules. They can neither love nor pity. We should handle it carefully. Its smoke may hide the sky from our eyes. But the stars will shine again. Machines are powerful. They have no feelings. They are the children of the human brain.

Conclusion:
The machines explain how they serve humanity and state that they are our creation. Machines cannot create, they just transform things.

(OR)

Lesson: The secret of machines
Poet: Rudyard Kipling
Theme: Importance of machines

Machines are made from different kinds of metals. The ores of metals are taken from the ore-bed and mines. They were melted in the furnace and the pit.

They were hammered to design. Machines run by water, coal, and oil. They can pull, haul, push, lift, plough, heat, run, swim, fly, see, hear, count, read, and write. They don’t lie. They can neither love nor pity. We should handle it carefully. Its smoke may hide the sky from our eyes. But the stars will shine again. Machines are powerful. They are the children of the human brain.

(OR)

1. Machines are made from ores.
2. Man-made machines to do work.
3. They need water, coal, and oil.
4. But they work all around a day.
5. Machines are powerful and mighty.
6. They obey human commands.
7. They run on certain rules.
8. They have no feelings like love or pity.
9. They are our creations.
10. They are the children of human beings.

B. Write your favourite stanza from the poem and find the rhyming scheme.

Some water coal and oil is all we ask
And a thousandth of an inch to give us play.
And now, if you will set us to our task
We will serve you four and twenty hours a day!
Answer:
The rhyming words are “ask, task and play, day.
Hence, the rhyme scheme is a b a b

C. Read the poem and find the lines for the following poetic devices or write your own example.

(I) Personification:
We can pull and haul and push and lift and drive.
Here the human attributes are given to the machines.

(II) Alliteration:
(a) We can print and plough and weave and heat and light.
Here the alliterated words are ‘print, plough’.
(b) We can run and race and swim and fly and dive
The alliterated words are ‘run, race’
(c) But remember, please, the law by which we live the words “Law, live; which, we” are alliterated.
(d) We can neither love nor pity nor forgive.
The alliterated words in this line are: “neither, nor”

(III) Assonance:
Some water, coal, and oil are all we ask.
The words ‘all, ask’ are in assonance.

(IV) Hyperbole:
We will serve you four and twenty hours a day!
The figure of speech used here is hyperbole.

The Secret of the Machines Summary of the poem

The poem ‘The secret of machines’ describes a machine’s life. It describes the innocent manner of the machines. The machines are made by cutting, filing, etc and they work for four and twenty hours a day. The machines ask humans to remember that they work by the law of physics. If they have not cared properly the results will be fatal. The machines tell us that they are not build to comprehend a lie. At last, the machines agree that they are not only the children of the human brain.

About the Poet: The Secret Of The Machines by Rudyard Kipling 

A noble prize winner at 42, Rudyard Kipling was born on December 30, 1865, in Mumbai, India. He was educated in England but returned to India in 1882. He was fascinated by the advance made in science and technology and mechanisation through the Historical Revolution. A decade later, Kipling married Caroline Baluster and settled in Brattle boro, Vermont, where he wrote The Jungle Book (1894), among a host of other works that made him successful. Kipling was the recipient of the 1907 Nobel Prize in I Literature. He died in 1936.

Glossary:

furnace (n) – an enclosed structure in which material is heated to very high temperatures
wrought (adj) – beaten out of shape by hammering
gauge (n) – an instrument that measures perfection in appearance and quality
thousandth (adv) – a fraction of thousand
haul (y) – pull or drag with effort or force
comprehend (v) – grasp, understand
vanish(v) – disappear suddenly and completely