Directions : Read the poem given below and answer the questions that follow by…
2021
Directions : Read the poem given below and answer the questions that follow by selecting the correct/most appropriate options :
That time of year thou mayst in me behold,
When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day,
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self that seals up all in rest.
In me thou seest the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed, whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well, which thou must leave ere long.
What does ‘Death’s second self’ stand for?
- A.
sleep that gives rest
- B.
a dying fire
- C.
ashes of one's youth
- D.
setting sun
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
Concept: In poetry comprehension, a metaphorical phrase is decoded by tracing its grammatical antecedent and the descriptive clue attached to it within the same lines — not by matching it to whichever image sounds most ‘dramatic’. A metaphor names one thing in terms of another that shares one key resemblance; the words immediately describing the metaphor point to that shared quality.
Application: In the second stanza, the speaker likens himself to the twilight of a day that fades into black night. That night is called ‘Death’s second self’, and the very next words describe what quality earns it that name: it ‘seals up all in rest’. Night brings sleep, and sleep closes the senses and stills the body in the same enveloping rest that death does — the classical poetic idea of sleep as death’s twin or counterfeit. That shared quality of ‘sealing all in rest’ is exactly what sleep does, so ‘Death’s second self’ stands for sleep that gives rest.
A dying fire and the ashes of one’s youth belong to the poem’s third stanza, a separate image of a life-flame being consumed by what fed it — a different comparison from the night described in the line naming ‘Death’s second self’.
The setting sun is the image used earlier in the same stanza for the day’s fading twilight; ‘Death’s second self’ names the stage that comes after that fading, described in the following line, so the setting sun itself is not what the phrase refers to.
Cross-check: Re-reading the line as a whole — black night ‘seals up all in rest’ — confirms the resemblance is to the stillness of sleep, not to fire, ashes, or the sun, all of which sit in different lines describing different comparisons. ‘Death’s second self’ therefore stands for sleep that gives rest.