Unit-6 - Character Building - Reading Comprehension - Speak Gently (Poem) - Words/Meaning, Central Idea and Summary

Go To Index
Unit-6 - Character Building
Reading Comprehension
Speak Gently (Poem)

Words Meaning

S.NO.	Words	Meanings
1.	Accents	Tone of voice, Way of talking
2.	Achieve	Attain
3.	Aged	Elderly
4.	Anonymous	Unknown
5.	Careworn	Worried, Anxious, Tired
6.	Depart	Leave
7.	Eternity	The life after death, Endless future, Perpetual life
8.	Fear	Threat
9.	Gently	Softly, Kindly
10.	To Grieve	To cause unhappiness to, Give sorrow, To be sad
11.	Harsh	Cruel, Angry, Hard, Rude, Stern
12.	To Mar	To spoil
13.	Mild	Soft
14.	Nearly Run	Almost spent
15.	Rule	Rein
16.	Whose sand of life is nearly run	Whose years of life are nearly spent. This is a metaphor taken from an old fashioned way of telling the time. Sand was dripped through a glass container called an hourglass. When the sand had passed through, it showed an hour had passed.

About Poet

The writer of this poem is David Bates (1809 - 1870).

Central Idea

Reference
The writer of this poem is David Bates. The tone of the poetry represents the poem is a part of Moorish poetry.
Central Idea
Speaking gently to everyone is a good trait in our character. By being gentle we are likely to loose nothing and gain much in terms of friendship. Good will and even material rewards. It places our character and personality in a very good light and creates an everlasting impression in the minds of others.

OR

The central idea or message of the beautiful and heart touching poem "Speak Gently" is that speaking harshly hurts the feelings of our fellowmen and make them unhappy. While speaking gently  and using soft word them make happy. Speaking gently is a great virtue. We will be rewarded for speaking gently in the  life near-after.

Theme
“Kindness is more important than wisdom and recognition of it is the beginning of wisdom.”

Summary

This Moorish poem is written by an poet David Bates. This poem emphasis upon speaking gently.
By speaking gently we can attain the spiritual power of rule. Treating someone harshly is a kind of moral sin which can devastate our good deeds.
Speak gently is the best way to train a child and win over his love and trust. If you don’t adopt the mild attitude your teachings will not persist for a prolong period.
Our attitude should be soft to the aged and old people in order to create such an atmosphere in which they can pass their remaining days peacefully.
Speak mildly does not cause and burden to you. These soft words create a forever impression on the other’s hearts. The reward of adopting this habit is that in this mortal world is the good deeds and the everlasting pleasure. It also brings reward in the eternal life.

OR

Poet advises us to use kind words. He thinks that obedience secured by love is better than that which is result of fear. He further says that one should win hearts of others by sweet and kind words. King words cost nothing but lead to good results. We should treat little ones kindly. Again we should treat senior citizens kindly because they may leave us soon. Kind, words though they seem insignificant have a great effect on the heart of others. The reward of this will be gained during the life after death in the next world.

OR

This is a beautiful poem by an anonymous poet who give us a very important advice. He tells us to speak gently to everybody.  One can rule over others only through love.  Harsh and cruel words can spoil our good deeds. If we want to win the love of children, we must speak to them gently, we should speak gently to the old ones also because they are going to leave this world very soon. They should be allowed to die peacefully. We should be kind and gentle in our dealing with all. God will be pleased and will reward us in the eternal world.

" Gentle words unlock the iron gates."

OR

In the world we do some good deeds and some bad deeds. Talking is not bad but sometime our way of talking and the words we use are bad and harsh. Pointing on the same, the poet of the beautiful poem, " Speak Gently" says that we should speak gently while we talk and that we should avoid using harsh words as they hurt the feelings of our fellowmen. Speaking gently and using soft words we can please the others and can win their hearts.
While we talk to a little child, our accent should be soft and mild. Teaching or telling something to him, we should not forget that he is just a child so our attitude should be so polite, slow and friendly. This attitude will win his heart and he will feel love for the speaker.
If we talk to an aged person we should think of his old age. As he is weak, broken hearted and near to death so we should have love for him and speak gently. Our good attitude and good way of talking will reduce his grief and he will feel good and happy.
Speak gently is a little thing but its impact is great. Our bad and rough way of talking and harsh words can hurt the feeling of anyone and can  make him sad and unhappy. Our good way of talking  can make anyone  smile and happy. What and how we speak  and behave, its result we will seen life hereafter.