English X - Chapter No.7 - Words/Meaning, About Poet, Central Idea and Summary

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FROM A RAILWAY CARRIAGE

Words/Meaning

S.No	Words	Meaning
1.	All by himself	All alone
2.	Brambles	Thorny bushes which bear the fruit called black berries
3.	Charging	To attack, Here it means to rush forward, move fast
4.	To Clamber	To climb with some difficulty
5.	Daisy	It is one of the commonest wild flowers in Britain (U.K)
6.	Ditch	a narrow channel dug in or between fields, or at the side of a road, to hold or carry off water
7.	Driving rain	Hard, Slanting rain, Heavy rain
8.	Fairies	Beautiful imaginary beings who have magical power
9.	Fly as thick	Pass so quickly as there was no distance between them
10.	Gaze	To look steadily
11.	Glimpse	A brief look
12.	The Green	A grassy common land in a village
13.	Hedge	A row of bushes or tall plants, forming a boundary
14.	In the wink of an eye	The time it takes to shut one eye for a very short time
15.	To lump	To move heavily and awkwardly
16.	Meadow	A Grassy field
17.	To scramble	To move with difficulty over rough or steep ground
18.	To string	To make a garland of
19.	Sight	Seen
20.	To gather	To collect
21.	Tramp	A homeless person
22.	Troop	Army
23.	Witches	Wicked old women who could work magic and fly through the air
24.	Whistle by	When fast train goes pass a station, a whistling sound is produced

About Poet
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894).

This poem is written by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894). He is a Scottish novelist, poet, and essayist He was born in Edinburgh. His formal education was greatly interrupted by illness, and was frequently taken for holidays. He tried to study engineering, then law. But in 1873, he decided to embark upon a literary career. His novels "Treasure Island" and "Kidnapped" are well known. In another one, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," he shows how every individual has tendencies to do both good and evil He really loved children and understood them. This poem shows his skill as a poet.

Central Idea

Reference
This poem is written by Robert Louis Stevenson, a Scottish poet. In this poem, he shows both the sides of picture i.e. good and evil. He loved the children and understood them.
Central Idea
This poem tells that one decides upon on objectives suiting one’s natural aptitudes and capacities, one should not waste time and should use all the energies in the effort to attain it and not to be distracted by anything, however beautiful it may be.
Theme
Nature is gift of God, and it gives happiness and pleasure to a man because a thing of beauty is a joy forever.

Summary

In this poem poet shares his experience of his first railway journey. He has been amazed by the speed of the train. He says that speed of train is faster then the speed of fairies and witches. It runs so fast that the bridges, houses, rows of thorny plants and ditches pass by in a moment.
It goes forward as quickly as army soldiers attack the enemy in the battle field. The train runs through common grassy lands where horses and cattle are grazing. All the sights pass as quickly as drop of train follows another drop. Many colorful buildings of stations appear and disappear in a glance due to the speed of train.
Poet sees a child climbing up steeply ground. He moves with difficulty and gathers black berries. He also sees a homeless person looking at the train with amazement. He sees some ladies making garlands of daisies in a common grassy village land. In the middle of road there was cart with load. Due to heavy load it was moving awkwardly. The cart man was sitting on the load. He also sees a river and a floor mill. All these scenes appeared and disappeared in a very short moment.