Very Short Questions
Question 1 : Who all had the man encountered till the evening?
Answer : The man encountered the king in the morning. Towards mid-day, he met the old man. In the evening, he came across the fair mad.
Question 2 : Did the man compromise?
Answer : No, the man did not compromise. He didn’t accept the offers made by the king, the old man and the fair maid because none convinced him.
Question 3 : What was the child doing when the speaker met him?
Answer : The child was playing with shells when the speaker met him on the seashore.
Short Questions
Question 1 : Why did the man turn down the offers made by the king, the old man and the fair lady?
Answer : The man turned down the offers made by the king, the old man and the fair lady because neither wealth nor power nor beauty attracted him. The man was looking for job, but not all the cost of his freedom. He desired goodwill and happiness.
Question 2 : What do the sword, the gold and the smile of the fair lady signify?
Answer : The sword signified power. The gold signified wealth. The smile of the fair lady signified beauty. None of these were capable enough to give the man everlasting happiness. Nor did any of these assure the man of his freedom.
Value Based Questions
Question 1 : The poem invests a lot of faith in the ideas of freedom comment.
Answer : Rabindranath Tagore, being a champion of human rights, invests a lot of faith in the idea of human freedom. The poem, therefore, showcases a wilful rejection of power, money and beauty as none of these are as necessary for human growth and development as freedom.
The works of the author especially coincide with the Indian national struggle . Therefore, too, the idea of individual freedom is upheld and glorified.