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Question I:

1.                  

(i) "Beneath all uniforms . .." What uniforms do you think the poet is speaking about?

(ii) How does the poet suggest that all people on earth are the same?

2.                 In stanza 1,find five ways in which we all are alike. Pick out the words.

3.                 How many common features can you find in stanza 2? Pick out the words.

4.                 "...whenever we are told to hate our brothers..." When do you think this happens? Why? Who 'tells' us? Should we do as we are told at such times? What does the poet say?

Answer I:

1.                  

(a)             The poet is speaking about the uniforms which the soldiers wear at the time of war. The word "uniform" here can also mean the traditional dresses of a country.

(b)             Throughout the poem, the poet says that there is a similarity between all human beings. He says that though people may wear different dresses or uniforms, they all are same. Everyone walks, lives on the same earth, breathes in air, drinks water, eats food and is aware of the presence of all natural things. Everybody feeds on the crops grown on the earth and gets starved during an extended war. Our hands, the work we do, our eyes and even the fact that our strength can be won by love is similar. So, the poet suggests that nobody is foreign and no country is strange.

2.                 Words which suggest the five ways in which the poet draws similarity between all human beings are as follows:

(a)  "no men are strange"; "uniforms"; "single body breathes"; "land our brothers walk upon"; and "earth like this, in which we all shall lie".

3.                 There are five common features in stanza 2. These features are the sun, the air, the water, peaceful harvest, hands and the labour.

4.                 Usually, we are told to hate people belonging to other countries at the time of war. Political leaders and powerful people work for their personal profits, ask people also to do so. They use people for their own benefits. However, we should not become puppet in their hands and do as they say. Rather we should use our own brain and do what is right. We should understand that war is futile. We should not become ju dgemental but should analyse the situation before ju mping to conclusions. The poet asks us to rem ember that by hating other people, we are spreading hatred, betraya l and chaos amongst ourselves. When we stand against each other, we harm each other, our mother earth and the environmenT