A bards Epitaph Questions and Answers Download PDF
1. The Theme and the Moral Tone of the Poem.
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Precisely and critically write a note on the theme and the moral of the poem.
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How far can the poem be assessed as a brief morality tale?
Burns’s poem is an epitaph for a dead bard. In the time of Burns, such bards or strolling musicians or minstrels were quite common in the rustic area of Scotland. Such rustic poets, singing their songs from place to place, were quite popular.
In Burns’s poem, the bard is already dead and the poem is a sort of epitaph engraved on the tombstone of such a dead one. The subject-matter of the poem is the epitaph which means what is the inscription on a tomb-stone of that very bard. The entire poem actually forms the Epitaph.
The theme of the poem is the content of the poem. Here is recorded the way of life of the bard when he was alive. He was a whimsical fellow who followed his whims and himself looked somewhat queer to others. He was a simple man who sang freely among his rustic listeners. His rustic songs touched his listeners’ heart who had used to assemble every week at a particular spot to hear him. His songs affected them deeply and both charmed and emboldened their hearts.
The nature of the bard was of no average person. His judgment of man and matter was enough clear. He could teach another well to stear the fellow concerned in the proper way. He was friendly and affectionate. He was prone to companionship and never looked hostile (stpotetta) to any one. The theme of Burns’s poem shows him as a basically goodnatured, although he was a poor rustic poet who roamed among rural people.Yet the theme of the poem reveals another side of the bard’s nature. He lived listlessly and followed a course of life, not at all simple and clear. His course of life was ‘wild as the wave’ and he led a mad career. What was more, he was found to commit the acts of follies and shame to turn him low and stain his name.
This is a tale of a man to evoke sorrow and woe. Here the poet tells his lesson to the readers to feel for the rustic bard. His lesson is of the importance of prudence, caution and self-restrain to enrich life with wisdom. After all, whatever may be the aim or ambition to pursue, the same is to be done with wisdom. This is the key to success and happiness in life. This is also the moral of the poem.
2. What is the Epitaph? What does the epitaph say of a bard?
Burns’s poem is an epitaph for a dead bard. In the time of Burns, such bards or strolling musicians or minstrels were quite common in the rustic area of Scotland. Such rustic poets, singing their songs from place to place, were quite popular.
In Burns’s poem, the bard is already dead and the poem is a sort of epitaph engraved on the tombstone of such a dead one. The subject-matter of the poem is the epitaph which means what is the inscription on a tomb-stone of that very bard. The entire poem actually forms the Epitaph.
The theme of the poem is the content of the poem. Here is recorded the way of life of the bard when he was alive. He was a whimsical fellow who followed his whims and himself looked somewhat queer to others. He was a simple man who sang freely among his rustic listeners. His rustic songs touched his listeners’ heart who had used to assemble every week at a particular spot to hear him. His songs affected them deeply and both charmed and emboldened their hearts.
The nature of the bard was of no average person. His judgment of man and matter was enough clear. He could teach another well to stear the fellow concerned in the proper way. He was friendly and affectionate. He was prone to companionship and never looked hostile (stpotetta) to any one. The theme of Burns’s poem shows him as a basically goodnatured, although he was a poor rustic poet who roamed among rural people.Yet the theme of the poem reveals another side of the bard’s nature. He lived listlessly and followed a course of life, not at all simple and clear. His course of life was ‘wild as the wave’ and he led a mad career. What was more, he was found to commit the acts of follies and shame to turn him low and stain his name.
3 . Write a precise critical appreciation of the poem ‘A Bird’s Epitaph’.
Burns’s A Bard’s Epitaph is the last poem of his successful poetical collection of the Kilmarnock Edition. The collection proved a great boon for the poet and enabled him to continue his poetical practices and stay in his homeland. The poetical fame of Burns started therefrom.
Burns’s poem A Bard’s Epitaph is an epitaph for a dead bard. The bard, is a strolling musician or ministrel, that was quite common in Burns’s time and land. The present poem is an epitaph, meaning a writing or an inscription on the burial place of such a roving poet, with the identity much unknown.
The epitaph, referred to, contains the entire account of that strolling poet, his practices and nature. He is shown as a successful and popular bard to draw a weekly throng of, rustic crowd, who had been much spelled and drawn, inspired and boldened by his stirring songs.
The epitaph also bears out the dead bard’s nature. He was no average rustic. He was a person of parts. Besides his skill as a bard, he was a man of worth in the matters of teaching and guiding common people. He was prone to be sympathetic and affectionate.
The epitaph, however, points out, too, the wrong side of the bard’s nature. His mode of living was nothing ideal or admirable in all matters. A listless and careless lifestyle was an unfortunate drawback in his nature. Moreover, he was often wild asa wave in the course of living. His career was often spoiled by his senseless acts of follies and shame, and reduced him to dishonour to stain his name.
The epitaph also contains a moral note through the presentation of the natura of the rustic bard. After all the praise of the dead bard, the epitaph urges the followers of the dead bard, to be prudent cautionu, and self-restraint in their action and ambition, least they should be stained in their life like the dead bard.
4. Can you trace Burns himself, in his of the Bard in the poem ‘A Bard’s Epitaph’? Evaluate critically.
This beautiful affecting ‘A Bard’s Epitaph’is the concluding poem of the Kilmarnock Edition of Burns’s collection. The life-story of a rustic bard, the central contention of the poem, is certainly the centre of the poem. Naturally, a question inevitably rises: Who is this bard? Does Burns represent himself here?
Burns writes with his usual taste and feeling on this issue of the identity of the bard whom did the poet intend should be thought of, as occuping that grave, over which after modestly setting forth the moral discernment and warm affections of the poor inhabitant, it is supposed to be inscribed that thoughtless follies laid him low,
‘And stained his name’!
Who but himself-himself anticipating but too probable termination of his own course. Here is a sincere and solemn avowal-a confession at once devout, poetical, and human—a history in the shape of prophecy! What more was required of the biographer, than to have put his seal to the writing, testifying that the foreboding had been realized and that the record was authentic?
The great poet’s soothing suggestion is not a definite assertion. Burns may be speaking of some local strolling poet, then known to him and has presented him according to his own mental trend. Here comes however much of the likeness between the two. The bard of the poem is a common singer, pleasant among the rustic population. The Bard’s command over his listeners is much emphasized, also his affection and sympathy for them. Here the poet Burns comer closes to his created bard. As a poet, lyricist and collector of rustic ballads, he was immensely celebrated and taken as such a cultural icon of his time. He almost had the unique position as the national bard of Scotland. The national bard of Scotland and the
literary bard of his poetic invention have definitely much closeness to lead to the Wordworthian assertion. In regard to the weak points of the literary bard, the bard in Burns had also his own weak points, his want of self-caution, his fondness for whisky and women. So he cautions the outlooker and to his reader to attend and learn to stear their lives with similar passionate Scottishness but no less with proper prudence and guidance. Just as the village-poet of Gray’s great Elegy has a good deal of similarity with his creator, so is Burns’s Bard with the poet himself.
5. There is a note of regret in the poem ‘A Bard’s Epitaph’. Discuss briefly.
The poem ‘A Bard’s Epitaph’is no poem of joy or happiness. This rather carries a note of regret. The theme of the poem treats an epitaph written on the burial place of a strolling rustic poet, rather a bard. The very experession bears a sense of sorrow, a matter of death. The epitaph is actually inscribed or recorded on the occasion of death only and on the very of spot under which the dead man lies. The whole matter definitely carries a sense of sorrow. After all, death and burial are always releated to sorrow and shock, and present no pleasure.
Burn’s poem A Bird’s Epitaph is concerned with an epitaph, inscribed on the burial ground of a popular rustic poet or bard. Ths definitely carries no sense of pleasure but rather weighs heavy with grief and sadness. This has definitely an agony of regret.
The dead bard was an expert as a singer and could steal and stir the heart of the crowd that regularly gathered to hear him. He did good to others and had sympathy and fellow-feeling. He was a good guide and friend. He only could not have self- restraint and caution in himself. His reckless and unwise pursuit was unfortunate enough to stain his name. Such a fall of such an able personality is a matter of regret. Indeed, the final impact of the poem is a sense of regret to perceive how good is often missed for want of wisdom.
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A bards Epitaph Questions and Answers Download PDF A bards Epitaph Questions and Answers Download PDF A bards Epitaph Questions and Answers Download PDF A bards Epitaph Questions and Answers Download PDF