Direct & Indirect Speech

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Macavity, the Mystery Cat (By T.S. Eliot)

Macavity, the Mystery Cat

(By T.S. Eliot) For class VII 

Stanza 1.

“Macavity’s a mystery Cat:…………not there.”

The poet describes a mysterious cat in this poem. It stands for ‘the Hidden Paw’, a symbol of crimes and cruelties, that is, Napoleon.

Here, in the poem, the cat is a mysterious figure. Even the famous detective agencies like Scotland Yard and the Flying Squad (group of police officers in England) are not able to find it out. He is the master criminal who defies any law. He is the cause of the bafflement to the detective agencies like Scotland Yard and Flying Squad. He is too clever to be caught by anyone. When they reach the place of crime, the mysterious cat is not there.

Word-meanings: 1. Despair: hopelessness

Stanza 2

“Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one…………..not there.”

No one is like Macavity. He has broken every human law. He even breaks the law of gravity. He has the power to rise or float in the air. I makes even a magician stare at his flight in the air You may search for him in the basement. You may look for him in the sky. But after doing crime, he is found nowhere.

Stanza 3

“Macavity’s a ginger cat……..”

Then the poet, T.S. Eliot, proceeds to describe the cat by telling us that he is brown in colour, very tall and thin in body. His eyes are sunken and eyebrows are deeply lined with thought because he is always in deep thoughts or making planning to wreak his atrocities anywhere.  His head is dome-like round in shape. His coat is dusty (means its furs) are dusty and his whiskers (long stiff hair grown near the mouth) are tangled (not combed) because he has no time to come out of his evil thoughts to think about good things. While moving like a snake, he sways (moves) his head from side to side as if in search of some prey. He is so alert that in sleep also he is found awake.

Stanza 4

“Macavity,  Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity…….”

In the fourth satanza, the poet says that there is no one like Macavity in his devilishness. He is a fiend (फींड cruel and unpleasant) in the guise of a cat. He is a monster of wickedness. He may be seen in a by-street or  in a square (plaza, open place). But when people come to know about a crime there, he is found nowhere.

Stanza Five

“He is outwardly respectable………”

The poets tells us about his more crimes in this stanza. He says that Macavity is a hypocrite , very clever and cunning being because his outward impression is respectable. No trace of his previous criminal record is found in the files of the detective agency like Scotland Yard. Several activities of loot are usually committed , for example, disappearance of  eatables and milk from the cupboards,  jewellery thefts at the gun-point, strangulation (killing by pressing the throat) of  a small Chinese dog (Pekinese), breaking of the greenhouse glass and trellis. But it is surprising that Macavity leaves no evidences of crime behind him.

Stanza Six

“And when the Foreign…….”

In this stanza also, the poet continues describing Macavity’s crimes. When a file of Treaty from the foreign office is found missing, or the Admiralty ( In the past in Britain: the naval office) has lost some plans and drawings, or a scrap of paper is found in the hall or on the stair, there is no use investigating the matter because Macavity would not be found responsible for those crimes. The Secret Service might say that it is done by Macavity, but that is of no use. He will be half a mile away from the place of crime and may be relaxing or licking his thumbs or may be busy in solving the complicated (difficult) sums of division.

Stanza Seven:

In the last stanza, the poet says that there had never been such a deceitful and tactful cat in the past. He is always ready to use an alibi (excuse) or more, but he is not present at time of the crime. Then the poet mentions about other cats like Mungojerrie and Griddlebone, whose wicked deeds were also known to people. But those were also the agents of Macavity who controlled their actions. He is really the Napoleon of Crime.

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Best Seller by O Henry Part II (Detailed Summary)

Best Seller by O Henry Part II

Gradually Pescud started asking the landlord about the family who lived in that big white house o the hill.

The landlord told him that everyone in that area knew as to who lived in that house. It was Colonel Allyn, the biggest (the wealthiest) and the man having the finest qualities in Virginia or anywhere else.

He also added that they were the oldest family in the state and the girl who had got off the train was the old man’s daughter. She had gone to see her aunt, who was sick.

Pescud stayed at the hotel and on the third day he saw the young lady walking in the front yard, down next to the paling fence. He asked her if she could tell him where Mr. Hinkle lived.

She looked at him coolly as if she thought that he had come to see the weeding of the garden. But Pescud saw just a slight twinkle of fun in her eyes.

She told him that no person of that name lived in that village, Birchton as far as she knew. Pescud felt amused at it and told her that he was serious about it.

She also understood that he had come from a long distance.

He said that he would have gone a thousand miles farther...

Jessie completed the rest of the sentence by saying that if he had not woken up at the railway station because the train had started moving.

After saying that, she turned red as one of the roses on the bushes in the yard. Pescud was amazed to listen that and wondered as to how she could know it.

He remembered that he had fallen asleep at a bench in Shelbyville station.

He was waiting to see as to which train she would take and he had managed to wake in time. After that, Pescud explained honestly the reason why he had come there. He told her everything about himself and also that he wanted to get acquainted with her and wished that she would like him.

She smiled a little and blushed also.

She explained to him that she had never talked to anyone in the past in that way and asked her about his full name.

He told her that it was John A Pescud.

Then she added that he was about to miss the train at Powhatan junction. She said that with a laughter that it sounded very good to Pescud.

He asked Jessie as to how she knew that. She told him that she knew that he was on every train and she had thought that he would speak to her.

After that, both of them had more conversation and at last a kind of proud serious look came on her face. Then she turned and pointed her finger at the big house.

She said that the Allyns had been living there for five hundred years. They were a proud family. Their mansion had fifty rooms and Jessie also told him to see the pillars, porches and balconies. The ceilings in the reception rooms and ball rooms were twenty-eight feet high. Her father was lineal descendant of belted earls.

She also told him that her father would not allow her to talk to any stranger. If he came to know about it, he would lock her in her room.

Pescud asked her if she would allow him to enter the mansion and if she would talk to him if he wished.

She clearly told him that he must not talk to her because they were strangers to each other. It was not proper to talk, so she bade him goodbye. But Pescud told her that he would come to meet her father the next day. At this, she laughingly said that her father would feed him to his fox hounds. He said that he would improve the speed of his hounds because he himself was a good hunter. After that she told him that she ought not to have spoken to him at all and bade him good bye wishing that he would that he would also have a pleasant trip back to Minneapolis or Pittsburgh.

He bade her good night and also asked her to tell him her first name. In the beginning she hesitated, but at last, she told him that it was Jessie.

The next morning, at eleven sharp, he rang the door-bell of that World’s Fair main building. After forty-five minutes, an old man about eight showed up and asked Pescud what he wanted. He gave him his business car4d and said that he wanted to meet the Colonel. He showed him in. There wasn’t enough furniture in.

When Colonel Allyn came, the place seemed to light up. A band was heard being played. It was the colonel’s style although he was in the same shabby clothes as he was in at the railway station.

For a few seconds, Pescud was confused. But he got his confidence back. The colonel told him to sit and Pescud related everything; how he followed his daughter and what he had done for her. He also told him about his salary and his bright future. He did not forget to tell the colonel about the code of his life i.e. to be always decent and right in his home-town.

At first, Pescud thought that the colonel was going to throw him out of his mansion, but he continued telling everything to the Colonel.

After that, the colonel started laughing and it seemed to Pescud that the colonel had laughed for the first time. Then they talked for two hours and the colonel asked him several questions.

Then the colonel mentioned that there was a Sir Courtenay Pescud in the time of Charles I, but Pescud refused him having any kinship with him. He told the colonel that their family lived around Pittsburgh and he had an uncle in real-estate business. He told the colonel that he could enquire about his family background from him. He also narrated anecdotes to the colonel.

After listening it, the colonel said that he had never been so fortunate and he also said that anecdotes and humorous occurrences had always been a very good way of promoting and perpetuating (maintaining for a long time) relationship between friends. He also offered to narrate a fox-hunting story to Pescud.

After two evenings, he had a chance to speak a word with Miss Jessie alone while the Colonel was thinking up another story.

Pescud told Jessie that the evening was going to be a pleasant one.

Jessie said that her father was coming and he was going to narrate that time a story about the old African and the green watermelons. Both of them talked a little more. Then she went into the house through one of the big windows of the house.

Pescud and the narrator then reached Coketown and Pescud gathered his hat and baggage to get down of the chair car. Before getting down, he told something more to the narrator. He said that he married Jessie one year ago. He also added that he had built a house in the East End and the colonel was also staying with them. He would be waiting for him to listen to a new story from him when he reached home even if he would pick up from the road.

The narrator looked out of the window of the chair car and saw that Coketown was looking nothing more than a rough hillside on which there were several huts looking like black dots under the dim cover of the heavy downpour out.

Pescud asked him the purpose of getting down at Coketown. He told him that he had dropped off there to get some petunias for Jessie. She used to raise them there in her old house in Virginia. Then Pescud bade goodnight to the narrator and also invited him to visit them at his new house.

After that the train moved forward. One of the ladies in dotted brown insisted on having window raised as the rain beat against them.

The narrator saw downward at the best seller. He picked it up and placed it carefully farther along on the floor of the car, where the raindrops would not fall on it. Then with a smile he reflected upon the idea that life has no geographical boundaries. It is the same everywhere.

The narrator also bade good bye to the hero of the best seller Trevelyan and wished if he could get petunias for his princess.

                        

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Best Seller By O Henry

BEST SELLER BY O HENRY: CLASS IX (C.B.S.E.) 
PART-1

L-5: Best Seller by O. Henry: Class IX

The narrator was going to Pittsburgh on a business tour one day during last summer. He was travelling in a chair car which was filled with people.

Some of them were ladies wearing brown silk dresses stitched in several styles. Men were also travelling among them. They seemed to from different business. The narrator was sitting in chair No. 07 and he was busy noticing the back side of the head of a person, who was sitting in the chair No. 09.

All of  a sudden, the person sitting in the chair No. 09 hurled (threw) a book on the floor between his chair and the window uttering some critical comments. The narrator read its title ‘’The Rose Lady and Trevelyan’, one of the bestselling novels of that time. After that, the person turned his chair towards the window.

The moment the narrator had a glimpse of the man in the chair No. 09, he recognized him immediately. He was John A Pescud, whom he met two years ago. He was a travelling salesman of a plate-glass company 'Cambria Steel Works'.

Within a few minutes, they started talking about the usual topics about rain, prosperity, health, residence and destination. Very soon those topics were exhausted. It seemed that the narrator did not like politics.

Then we come to know from the narrator that Pescud was a man of small stature and did not look handsome . He also believed that plate glass was the most important commodity (a useful thing) and his company Cambria Steel Works was the best company. He also told the narrator that a person ought to be decent and law-abiding in his home-town.

The narrator said that he had never had the chance to know about his views on life, romance, literature and ethics (moral principles that control one’ behaviour) in his small meetings in the past.

The narrator also came to know from Pescud that his business was flourishing and he was going to Coke-town. After that, he stirred (moved) the discarded (thrown) book with his hand and asked the narrator if he had read any of such best sellers. He also explained that he meant to say if he had read the novel in which the hero was an American wealthy person, maybe from Chicago, who fell in love with a royal princess from Europe, travelling in the guise of an ordinary girl under a fake name and the hero followed her to her father’s home (palace). The Pescud told the narrator that all such novels had the same theme and the story. Such things do not happen in real life.

After that Pescud continued telling the story of the princess being followed by the hero of the story. He said that the hero chased the girl to her residence and came to know all about the girl. Then he met her in the evening and talked for a long time. The line ‘She reminds him of the difference in their stations’ may mean that she told him about the difference between the statuses of their families. It may also mean the geographical distance between their houses. Another line ‘that gives him a chance to ring in three solid pages about America’s uncrowned sovereigns’ means that…

Pescud continues saying that if the narrator had read any of such novels, he would come to know that the hero slaps the king’s Swiss body-guards whenever they get in his way. He was a great fencer also.

He also said that such stories are real and believable and he also knew something about literature in spite of his odd business.

Song of the Rain by Kahil Gibran: Class IX

Song of the Rain by Kahil Gibran: Class IX

Kahil Gibrana is a Lebanese-American, artist, poet and writer. The use of formal language as well as insight in life situations in his poetry is notable. In this poem, he presents rain in personification undergoing the cycle of birth and death. He uses devices like imagery, metaphor and personification to highlight the theme.

Stanza 1: “I am dotted……..valleys”

Word-meanings: 1. Dotted: covered in dots 2. Adorn: decorate 3.

Explanation: The rain says that it is dropped from the heaven by the gods in the form of dotted threads. It means that when the rain pours in, it seems that long silver threads with shining dots on them are coming down towards the earth from the sky. The moment they reach the atmosphere of the earth, they fall on the fields and valleys. The fields and the valleys become clean and bright due to rain. In a way Nature takes the rain to decorate the fields and valleys.

Stanza 2: “I am beautiful pearls…….gardens”

Word-meanings: pearl: gem, precious stone 2. Embellish: to decorate

Explanation: In this stanza, the poet uses a metaphor of pearls. He equates the drops of rain to beautiful pearls. These are plucked from the crown of Ishtar (the goddess of fertility, love, war and sex) by the daughter of Dawn to decorate gardens.

In other words, the drops of rain look like pearls when dim light of the dawn-time gets reflected in them .

Stanza 3: “ When I cry……….are elated.”

Word-meanings: 1. Cry: loud voice (here it means the loud sound created by the falling of rain on natural objects.) 2. Humble myself: slows myself, reduces the intensity of myself (rain) 3. Bow: to bend (here it means to stop, but to fall in the form of very tiny/small drops as if someone sprinkles/showers water) 4. Elated: overjoyed/thrilled 5. Rejoice: celebrate, express joy

Explanation: When the rain pours in heavily, the hills laugh. In a way, the hills are made up of stones and hard rocks. They have no adverse effect of heavy rain falling on them. The poet imagines that the hills laugh at heavy downpour.

But when the rain becomes mild or slow, the flowers rejoice express their joy by moving gently in light rain. They do not feel happy in heavy rain as it shakes them wildly and sometimes even harms them. The poet imagines that the flowers feel happy at light rain.

Similarly, when the rain bows (reduces to sprinkling), everything seems overjoyed.

When the rain changes into very small drops falling on the earth, all things on the earth become thrilled and overjoyed.

Stanza 4: “The field and the cloud are lovers…………………….…ailment of the other.”

Word-meanings: 1. mercy: compassion, pity, kindness 2. Quench: to satisfy the thirst 3. Cure: to treat, to remove the illness 4. Ailment: illness

Explanation: The rain says that the field and the cloud are like lovers and the rain acts like a messenger of mercy between them. It quenches the thirst of the fields and cures the sickness of the clouds.

The field needs to have a meeting with the rain when it gets dry (thirsty). The rain quenches its thirst by its showers on the field. The clouds are heavy with water-vapours and they swell due to them. They are ill and unable to carry with them the burden of water. They want to burst and the rain cures the sickness of the clouds by making the vapours condensed and fall down in the form of water. It cures the clouds by making them light in burden. Thus the rain serves as a messenger of mercy between the field and the clouds. It makes their meeting possible.

Stanza 5: “The voice of thunder……..wings of death.”

Word-meanings: 1. Declares: announces 2. Earthly: belonging to the earth, mortal, perishable, sure to die and decay 3. Upraised: uplifted

Explanation: The voice of thunder declares the rain’s arrival. This thunder is created by the clouds. The rainbow declares the end of the rain.  The rain also says that, like the things on the earth, it also has to go through the process of life and death. It takes its birth from the natural elements on the earth and it dies under the sky.(the upraised wings of death).

Stanza 6: “I emerge from the heart of the sea………………..a million little ways.”

Word-meanings: 1. Emerges: comes out, 2. Soar: fly

3. breeze: a light wind 4. Descend: come down 5. Embrace: to hug 6. gently: softly

Explanation: The process of evaporation is at its peak in the sea. So the rain emerges from the sea in the form of large quantity of vapours and goes up (soars) towards the sky with the help of the breeze to become clouds. When the rain sees a field in need (means dry), it descends (pours in) on it and embraces (wets/touches) flowers and trees in million little ways (it is an example of hyperbole).

Stanza 7:

“ I touch gently at the windows…………the tears of heaven”

Word-meanings: 1. Sensitive: we call a person sensitive if he/she is responsive & aware. He/she has also deep feelings and insight 2. Sigh: long and deep breath

Explanation:

It also touches gently at the windows with her soft fingers. It means that it does so with the help of wind to sprinkle its drops on the window also.

The rain says that its announcement (thunder) is the welcome song sung by the cloud at its arrival. All can hear the thunder of the cloud. But only sensitive people can understand that the cloud is announcing the arrival of the rain and it is also the welcome song by it. Very few people have deep insight to view rain in its different moods.

The rain also calls itself the sigh of the sea, the laughter of the field and the tears of the heaven. As the poets says that the rain emerges from the sea. It means it takes its birth from it. But when the water vapours (rain in baby form) goes up into the atmosphere to become mature in the form of cloud, the sea takes a long deep breath to express its sadness over the departure of the water-vapours.

 It seems  to be sad, so the word ‘sigh’ has been used by the poet.

 Since the field becomes happy at the arrival of the rain, so it has been called the laughter of the field.

The rain goes up in the form of water vapours and make cloud in the heaven (sky). But at last, it has to fall down on the earth to complete its cycle of birth, life and death. As it pours in and departs from the cloud, the heaven feels sad and sheds tears in the form of drops of the rain.

Stanza 8: “So with love-………….heaven of memories.”

In the end, the poet describes the rain as ‘the sighs of the deep sea of affection’.

It means the sea takes a long deep breath to express its sadness over the departure of the water-vapours its heart. It seems  to be sad, so the word ‘sigh’ has been used by the poet.

The poet also calls it ‘a laughter of the field’ because when it rains on the field, it gets nourishment for the plants and other vegetation to grow. Thus the rain causes laughter of the field.

It has also been called ‘the tears of heaven.’ As the rain falls down in drops on the earth, the heaven cries, so the drops have been called ‘tears of heaven’.

The Poem: The Miller of the Dee (by Charles Mackay)

Class VII: The Miller of the Dee (by Charles Mackay)Explanation stanza-wise:

Stanza 1: There dwelt a miller, hale and bold,
                 Beside the River Dee;
                 He worked and sang from morn till night,
                 ........envies me"

Word meaning:

1.Dwelt: lived 2.Hale: healthy & strong 3. lark: a bird that sings

4.Blithe: बलाईद: very happy, showing you are not anxious about anything, 5. beside: near, by the side of 6. Miller: the person who owns a flour mill 6. the burden of the song: the theme of the song

Paraphrase: There lived a miller near a river called Dee. He was very happy and had no worry about anything. He remained busy from morning to night in his work of grinding grains for making flour. While working, he was habitual of singing songs for his own amusement. He sang that he was not envious of anyone and the people were also not envious of him. The poet also says that his song was more soothing even than that of the sweet-singing bird lark.

Stanza 2: “Thou’rt wrong………..beside the river Dee.”

1.  Gladly: happily  

Paraphrase: Once a king named Hal happened to reach there. He told the miller that he was absolutely wrong in what he sang about. The king was envious of the miller's happiness.So he wished to exchange his own heart with that of the miller. He wished to make his own heart free from tensions. The king’s heart has the load of worries while the miller’s heart was light and free from worries of life.

After that the king asked to tell him the reason as to what made him sing so loudly and as to how he could manage to feel free from worries of life. The king also admitted that he was very much sad although he was a king.

Stanza 3.

“The miller smiled and smiled….,,,,,,,,,my babes and me.”

1.  Doffed: took off the hat 2. Quoth: said

3.grinds: makes flour out of the corn/grain

Paraphrase:

The miller took off his cap from his head smilingly. He said that he worked to earn his livelihood. He loved his wife and three children He also loved his friends. He did not have any loan to pay. He further told the king that he was very thankful to the river Dee that ran his floor-mill by the current of its water and made flour by crushing the grains. Thus he fed his family.

Stanza 4.

“Good friend…….O miller of the Dee.”

Paraphrase:

In the end, the king took a long breath and bade the miller good bye giving him blessings. He also advised him never to say that no one was envious of him. He also added that his cap covered with flour was more valuable than his crown. Similarly his floor-mill was more precious than his kingdom and England was proud of such men like the miller, who were the backbones of a country.