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I. Read the given extracts from the poem and answer the questions that follow.
Extract 1
Brushstrokes of seeds, planted true,
Awaiting spring’s vibrant hue.
Awaiting spring’s vibrant hue.
(i) The poet has used a metaphor in ‘Brushstrokes of seeds’. Which option from those given below uses a metaphor?
A. Her mother’s heart heard her heartfelt request with kindness.
B. She has a heart of gold.
C. Her heart did a dance of joy on seeing the new doll.
D. She has a very kind heart.
A. Her mother’s heart heard her heartfelt request with kindness.
B. She has a heart of gold.
C. Her heart did a dance of joy on seeing the new doll.
D. She has a very kind heart.
How to answer:
A metaphor (bina ‘like/as’ ka comparison) directly calls one thing another. Find the option where the heart is directly said to BE something else.
View Answer
Correct answer: B. She has a heart of gold.
Why:
In B, the heart is directly called
gold
— one thing is said to
be
another, without ‘like’ or ‘as’. That is a metaphor, exactly like seeds being called “brushstrokes”. Option A and C give the heart human actions (personification), and D simply uses an adjective (“kind”) — no comparison at all.
(ii) Complete the sentence appropriately.
The phrase ‘planted true’ is significant because it implies __________.
The phrase ‘planted true’ is significant because it implies __________.
How to answer:
Think of what ‘true’ adds — care, correctness, faith. Connect it to how a painter places each brushstroke deliberately.
View Answer
Model answer:
The phrase ‘planted true’ is significant because it implies
that the seeds are planted carefully, correctly and with sincere faith and dedication — just as a painter places each brushstroke deliberately and precisely on the canvas
.
Why:
‘True’ here means
accurate, honest and faithful
. The gardener does not scatter seeds carelessly; each one is placed with care and hope, the way an artist places a careful brushstroke.
(iii) Why has the poet used the word ‘hue’ instead of ‘colours’ in the extract?
How to answer:
Two reasons — one about the painting metaphor (whose word is ‘hue’?) and one about sound (what does ‘hue’ rhyme with?).
View Answer
Model answer:
The poet has used ‘hue’ because it is a
painter’s word
— it means a
shade of a colour
— and so it keeps up the central metaphor of the garden as a painting. It also suggests the many fine, delicate shades that spring brings, which the plain word ‘colours’ would not. Besides, ‘hue’
rhymes with ‘true’
, maintaining the AABB rhyme scheme of the poem.
(iv) Complete the following analogy correctly with a word from the extract.
Summer: hot :: Spring : _________
Summer: hot :: Spring : _________
How to answer:
In the analogy, ‘hot’ is the word that describes summer. Find the describing word the extract attaches to spring.
View Answer
Answer:
Summer : hot :: Spring :
vibrant
Why:
Just as ‘hot’ describes summer, the extract describes spring’s hue as “
vibrant
” — “Awaiting spring’s
vibrant
hue.”
(v) Read the Assertion (A) and the Reason (R) and select the option that is correctly suited.
(A): Gardeners wait for Spring.
(R): Gardens are worth painting in Spring.
A. Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).
B. Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).
C. (A) is true but (R) is false.
D. (A) is false but (R) is true.
(A): Gardeners wait for Spring.
(R): Gardens are worth painting in Spring.
A. Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).
B. Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).
C. (A) is true but (R) is false.
D. (A) is false but (R) is true.
How to answer:
Check each statement separately first. Then ask: do gardeners wait for spring BECAUSE gardens are worth painting then? Or for a different reason?
View Answer
Correct answer: B. Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).
Why:
(A) is true — the seeds are “Awaiting spring’s vibrant hue”, so gardeners do wait for spring. (R) is also true — gardens in bloom are indeed worth painting. But gardeners wait for spring because that is when their
seeds sprout and blossoms bloom
, NOT because the garden becomes paintable. So (R) does not explain (A).
Extract 2
Each plot, a canvas wide,
Where art and life coincide.
Where art and life coincide.
(i) What does ‘Each plot’ refer to in this extract?
How to answer:
A ‘plot’ here is not a story-plot — think of land. What small unit of the garden is being compared to a canvas?
View Answer
Model answer:
‘Each plot’ refers to
every small piece of garden land
— each bed or patch of soil that a gardener tills and plants. The poet compares every such piece of earth to a wide canvas on which a living picture is created.
(ii) Select which option imitates the rhyme scheme of the extract.
A. beautiful and clear
laughter and cheer
B. beautiful and clear
laughter and tears
A. beautiful and clear
laughter and cheer
B. beautiful and clear
laughter and tears
How to answer:
In the extract, ‘wide’ rhymes with ‘coincide’ — the two line-ends rhyme. Which option’s line-ends also rhyme?
View Answer
Correct answer: A.
beautiful and
clear
/ laughter and
cheer
Why:
In the extract, the line-end words
wide / coincide
rhyme with each other (AA). In option A,
clear / cheer
rhyme the same way. In option B,
clear / tears
do not rhyme.
(iii) Select the line from the extract that shows that gardening blends aesthetic beauty with natural growth.
How to answer:
‘Aesthetic beauty’ = art; ‘natural growth’ = life. Find the line where these two words meet.
View Answer
Answer:
“
Where art and life coincide.
”
Why:
In this line,
art
stands for aesthetic beauty and
life
stands for natural growth — and ‘coincide’ says they
blend/come together
in the garden plot.
(iv) Complete the following sentence appropriately.
The plot is likened to a canvas suggesting that _____________.
The plot is likened to a canvas suggesting that _____________.
How to answer:
A canvas starts blank and the painter fills it with a picture. Apply the same idea to the empty plot and the gardener.
View Answer
Model answer:
The plot is likened to a canvas suggesting that
the bare garden plot is like a blank canvas on which the gardener, like a painter, slowly creates a beautiful, living work of art with plants and colours
.
(v) Why has the poet most likely used the word ‘wide’ instead of ‘long’ in ‘canvas wide’?
How to answer:
Two reasons again — one about the sense of space a canvas gives, and one about the rhyme with the next line.
View Answer
Model answer:
The poet has used ‘wide’ because it suggests an
open space spreading out in all directions
— like a broad canvas offering the gardener-artist room to create freely — whereas ‘long’ would suggest only one narrow direction. Also, ‘
wide
’
rhymes with ‘coincide’
, keeping the rhyme scheme of the poem intact.
II. Give reasons for the comparisons made by the poet in the poem.
1. A painter is compared to a gardener because ______________.
How to answer:
What do both DO? Both start with something blank/bare and create beauty with skill and patience.
View Answer
Model answer:
A painter is compared to a gardener because
both create something beautiful with skill, patience and imagination — the painter fills a blank canvas with colours, while the gardener fills a bare plot of earth with colourful, living plants
.
2. A palette is like earth as __________________.
How to answer:
What does a palette HOLD for the painter? What does the earth hold for the garden?
View Answer
Model answer:
A palette is like earth as
just as a palette holds and mixes all the colours from which a painting is made, the rich earth holds the seeds and nutrients from which all the colours of the garden come
.
3. The brushstrokes are like seeds because _________________.
How to answer:
One brushstroke at a time builds a painting. What builds a garden, one at a time?
View Answer
Model answer:
The brushstrokes are like seeds because
just as a painting is built up stroke by careful stroke, a garden is created seed by carefully planted seed — each small act adds to the final picture
.
4. A canvas is similar to a garden plot as __________________.
How to answer:
Both begin empty. Who fills each one, and with what?
View Answer
Model answer:
A canvas is similar to a garden plot as
both begin as blank, empty spaces and are slowly filled with colour, form and beauty — the canvas by the painter’s art and the plot by the gardener’s living, growing plants
.
III. Answer the following questions.
1. How does the metaphor ‘Brushstrokes of seeds’, enhance the understanding of gardening as an art form?
How to answer:
Say what the metaphor equates (seed = brushstroke), then explain what that tells us about the gardener’s care, skill and vision.
View Answer
Model answer:
The metaphor ‘Brushstrokes of seeds’ equates each
seed
the gardener plants with a
brushstroke
a painter places on a canvas. Just as no brushstroke is random — each is placed with thought, skill and a vision of the finished picture — each seed is “planted true”, with care and a dream of the blooming garden to come. The metaphor thus makes us see gardening not as rough manual labour but as a
deliberate, creative art form
, where the gardener is an artist, the earth is the palette, and the growing garden is the slowly emerging masterpiece.
2. What can you infer about the poet’s perspective on the relationship between nature and creativity from the following lines?
‘Each plot, a canvas wide,/Where art and life coincide.’
‘Each plot, a canvas wide,/Where art and life coincide.’
How to answer:
The key word is ‘coincide’ — the poet sees art and nature not as separate but as meeting in the garden.
View Answer
Model answer:
From these lines we can infer that the poet sees
nature and creativity as inseparable partners
, not as opposites. For the poet, human artistic creativity (“art”) and natural growth (“life”)
coincide
— they meet and merge — in every garden plot. Nature is not merely raw material for art; it is itself a living canvas, and the act of growing things is itself an act of creation. The poet’s perspective is that creativity is not confined to studios and galleries — it flourishes wherever human hands work lovingly with nature.
3. Do you think the imagery in the poem successfully paints a vivid picture in the reader’s mind? If yes, why? If no, why not?
How to answer:
Take a stand (yes works best), then quote 2-3 images — palette of earth, brushstrokes of seeds, blossoms dancing, shades of green, red, and blue.
View Answer
Model answer:
Yes, the imagery successfully paints a vivid picture. The poem appeals strongly to our
sense of sight
: we see the “palette of earth, rich and deep”, the “brushstrokes of seeds”, blossoms “dancing in the morning light” and the “shades of green, red, and blue”. Each image is concrete and colourful, and because every garden image is paired with a painting image, the reader actually
watches a picture being painted
as the garden grows. The movement (“dancing”), light (“morning light”) and colour together make the scene come alive in the mind’s eye.
4. Support the view that the poet’s mention of the colour yellow, besides red, blue and green, would have lent effectively to the imagery.
How to answer:
You must AGREE and give reasons — think of what yellow stands for in a garden: sunlight, marigolds, sunflowers, warmth, spring.
View Answer
Model answer:
The mention of
yellow
would indeed have enriched the imagery. Yellow is the colour of
sunlight
— the very “morning light” in which the blossoms dance — and of some of the most familiar garden flowers, such as
marigolds and sunflowers
. It is also the colour of
spring, warmth, energy and joy
, which matches the poem’s happy, celebratory mood. On a painter’s palette, yellow is a primary colour; adding it to red, blue and green would have completed the palette and made the painted garden feel even brighter and more alive.
5. Considering the line ‘Gardens become paintings still’, what can you interpret about the poet’s view on the timelessness of nature’s beauty?
How to answer:
Notice the double meaning of ‘still’ — a ‘still’ (unmoving, lasting) picture, and gardens ‘still’ (even now, always) becoming paintings.
View Answer
Model answer:
The line suggests that for the poet, nature’s beauty is
timeless and enduring
. The word ‘still’ carries a double meaning: gardens become
still-life paintings
— works of art whose beauty is fixed and lasting — and gardens
still
(even now, in every age) keep becoming paintings in the hands of those who till. Though individual flowers fade, the garden as a work of art is “ever new”: nature keeps renewing its masterpiece season after season. Thus the poet sees nature’s beauty not as a passing show but as a permanent, continuously renewed work of art.
6. Justify the title of the poem, ‘Canvas of Soil’.
How to answer:
Show how the title captures the poem’s central metaphor — soil/earth as the canvas on which the gardener paints with seeds and blossoms. Quote supporting lines.
View Answer
Model answer:
The title ‘Canvas of Soil’ is perfectly apt because it captures the
central metaphor
of the entire poem — that the earth itself is a canvas on which gardeners create art. Every image in the poem supports this: the earth is a “
palette
… rich and deep”, seeds are “
brushstrokes
… planted true”, blossoms make “a
painted
sight”, and “each plot” is “a
canvas
wide”. The poem closes with the thought that “Gardens become
paintings
still” in the hands of those who till. Since the whole poem presents soil as the surface on which the living artwork of a garden is painted, ‘Canvas of Soil’ sums up the poem in three words.
