Haunted Houses Questions and Answers

Haunted Houses Poem Questions and Answers & MCQs

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Haunted Houses Poem Questions and Answers

Haunted Houses Poem Questions and Answers & MCQs

Read the extracts and answer the following questions:

Question 1.
All houses wherein men have lived and died
Are haunted houses.Through the open doors
The harmless phantoms on their errands glide
With feet that make no sound upon the floors.

a. Name the poem and the poet of the given extract
b. Where is the poem set? What are the phantoms doing?
c. Where does the poet meet the phantoms? How does he perceive them?
d. With whom are these phantoms compared to and when?
Answers:
a. The name of the poem is “Haunted Houses” and it is written by H.W.Long fellow.

b. The poem is set in a haunted house. The phantoms are seen to be doing their regular activities. They are gliding through the open doors noiselessly.

c. The poet crosses the ghosts on the doorway, stairs, along the passages and at the dining table. The poet perceives them as domesticated ghosts, unnoticeable, busy with errands, moving purposefully around the house as they did in life. The speaker describes them as harmless and inoffensive.

d. The poet says that there are more ghosts than the living people in the well-lighted hail at the dining table. The hail is filled with quiet, in offensive ghosts and then these ghosts are compared to the pictures on the wall. Just as the pictures on the wall are noiseless, harmless and inoffensive, so also the ghosts.

Question 2.
There are more ghosts at table, than the hosts

a. Who are the guests and the hosts referred to in the above extract?
b. What are the guests doing?
c. What is illuminated hail thronged with?
d. What idea does the poet intend to convey through the words that the houses are haunted?
Answers:
a. The guests are the ghosts and the hosts are the living people around.

b. The ghosts are noiselessly sitting at the dining table of the well lighted hail.

c. There are more ghosts at table than the living people.The illuminated hall is thronged or crowded with quiet, non-violent, harmless ghosts who are like pictures on the wall. The ghosts are silent and harmless like the pictures on the wall.

d. The poet conveys that the spirits or ghosts are real by explaining how people who have lived before us, after being departed, still remain with us in this world, but in a changed form.

Question 3.
‘Owners and occupants of earlier dates’

a. Who are owners and occupants of earlier dates?
b. What do these owners and occupants do from the graves?
c. How does the “spirit world” surround the world of life?
d. What figure of speech is the line “From graves forgotten stretch their dusty hands?” What does it mean?
Answers:
a. The owners and dwellers of the houses are dead and so it is said here owners and occupants of earlier dates. They were owners and occupants when they were alive but now they are dead.

b. Since the once owners and occupants are dead now,they are in graves. They are forgotten now.But from the graves they stretch their hands and try to hold the mortmain (permanent ownership. of their old properties.

c. The spirit world surrounds the world of sense or world of living and floats like atmosphere. The spirits waft through the mists and vapours of the earth like a vital breath of unearthly air or of air beyond the world.

d. The line “From graves dusty hands” is a metaphor. It means that the dead still have a strong connection of mind with their possessions. So even though they are dead now and are forgotten by their descendants and are now in the graves, yet they stretch their hands to hold their possessions.

Question 4.
Come from the influence of an unseen star
An undiscovered planet In our sky.

a. What comes “from the influence. in our sky?”
b. What simile is used to compare the things that are coming from the influence of unseen star and
undiscovered planets?
c. What “bridge of light”descends from the world of spirit?
d. What can travel across the bridge to the world of spirit?
Answers:
a. The worries, the earthly wants that is our wants, desires, aspirations all come from an unseen star and an undiscovered planet in our sky.

b. The worries, aspirations, desires of the people are compared to a perpetual jar. Our worries, desires, cravings, aspirations all are unending like perpetual jar. It is the human nature to have worries, anxieties, cravings, desires and aspirations and they are eternal or never ending.

c. The unearthly beams of the moon, when fall on the water of the ocean, bridge of light is formed. So the ethereal image of the moonlight floating across the ocean waves is compared to a glorious “bridge of light” that descends from the world of spirits to the earth.

d. Our thoughts, memories and aspirations can travel across “the bridge of light” into the world of spirit. These travel across the trembling or shaking planks (since it is of light. of the bridge to connect with the spirits of loved ones who have departed before.

Question 5.
O’er whose unsteady floor, the sways and bends
Wander are thoughts above the dark abyss

a. “O’er whose unsteady floor” is referred to the above extract?
b. What does the “bridge of light” connect to?
c. Why is the poet saying “unsteady floor, that sways and bends”?
d. According to the poet, the world of the spirit is real. How does he convey this?
Answers:
a. The unsteady floor of the “bridge of light” that descends from the world of spirits is referred to the above extract.

b. The “bridge of lights” connects the world of spirits and the world of the living.

c. Here the poet talks about the floor of the bridge of light made by the moonlight. The moonlight ‘sways and bends’ on the water to create this unsteady or movable floor of this bridge through which only spirits can walk.

d. Here H.W. Long fellow in his poem “Haunted Houses” says that we cannot ignore the presence of spirits around us. They also exist as much as we do. Reality extends much beyond what we can see rationally and the world has various realms. So it is not possible for us to know everything, we only know a part of it.

Haunted Houses Poem MCQs

Question 1.
The ‘phantoms’ are described by the adjective
a. impalpable
b. inoffensive
c. harmless
d. quiet
Answer:
c. harmless

Question 2.
Where do we meet them?
a. at the door way, on the stair
b. on the stair, along the passages
c. at the doorway, along the passages
d. at the doorway, on the stair, along the passages
Answer:
d. at the doorway, on the stair, along the passages

Question 3.
“As silent as the pictures on the wall” is a …………..
a. metaphor
b. simile
c. symbolism
d. imagery
Answer:
b. simile

Question 4.
“From graves forgotten stretch their dusty hands” is a …………..
a. simile
b. imagery
c. metaphor
d. b and c both
Answer:
d. b and c both

Question 5.
“The forms I see,nor hear the sounds I hear” What does ‘forms’ refers to?
a. guests
b. hosts
c. ghosts
d. stranger
Answer:
c. ghosts

Question 6.
What is the meaning of ethereal?
a. unearthly
b. unclear
c. obliterated
d. earthly
Answer:
a. unearthly

Question 7.
Which is a simile?
a. “This perpetual jar of earthly wants….
b. Houses wherein men have lived and died are haunted houses
c. The spirit world around the world /Floats like an atmosphere
d. We have no title deeds to house or lands
Answer:
c. The spirit world around the world /Floats like an atmosphere

Question 8.
What is the meaning of perturbations?
a. worries
b. stress
c. disturbances
d. sadness
Answer:
a. worries

Question 9.
“From graves forgotten stretch their dusty hands
And hold in mortmain still their old estates”
Who does ‘their’ in the above extract refer to?
a. ghost
b. people who have died
c. children
d. a and b both
Answer:
d. a and b both

Question 10.
Why is the house haunted?
a. because it is scary
b. because people died there
c. because ghosts are present there
d. b and c both
Answer:
d. b and c both

Question 11.
What is the meaning of equipoise?
a. force
b. balance of force
c. undercover
d. balance of energy
Answer:
b. balance of force

Question 12.
The ghosts in the illuminated hail are compared to ……………
a. as silent as the books on the shelf
b. as silent as the pictures on the wall
c. as silent as the toys
d. as silent as the clothes in the cupboard
Answer:
b. as silent as the pictures on the wall

Question 13.
“He but perceives what is; while unto me”
In the above line ‘he’ is referred to
a. the poet
b. the ghost
c. the stranger
d. dead person
Answer:
c. the stranger

Question 14.
The spirits of the spirit – world are said to be wafting through the earthly
a. dust and vapours
b. dust and mist
c. mist and vapours
d. all the three
Answer:
c. mist and vapours

Question 15.
The poet says that the earthly wants and aspirations come from the influence of ………….
a. an undiscovered star and an unseen planet
b. an unseen star and an unseen planet
c. an unseen star and an undiscovered planet
d. an undiscovered star and an undiscovered planet.
Answer:
c. an unseen star and an undiscovered planet

Question 16.
The poem deals with ………….
a. the spirit world of ghosts and the world of living
b. the poet and his dead ancestors
c. the ghosts that haunt empty houses
d. the ghosts who perpetually scare us
Answer:
a. the spirit world of ghosts and the world of living

Question 17.
The mood of the poem is …………
a. sarcastic
b. eerie
c. contemplative
d. humorous
Answer:
b. eerie

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