Special Highlights of the Poem

➡ The poem is inspirational. It contains very rich ideas for personality traits and circumstances that help one to get success.
➡ The poem ignites our brain. It motivates us that if you have the fervent desire to get anything, no one can stop you.

➡ The poem also tells us what we shall do or avoid in order to achieve success.

➡ The poem is full of powerful words such as fight capacity, strength, sagacity, faith, hope, and confidence, stern pertinacity, dogged

➡ The poem states that we have to give up so many things if we want our desires to come true.

➡ This poem inspires to keep on striving for success. If you have a will to achieve something incredible you will achieve it by your sincere efforts.

➡Above all, the poem is not beating around the bush. It is written in simple words that every can anyone. It doesn’t need to be examining and re-examining.

➡The poet has repeated that pronoun ‘it’ in most of the lines and in all instances at the end of the line. The repetition has been used at some other places also such as “Give up your time and your peace and your sleep for it,”.

Read Also: The Road Not Taken

Analysis of the poem

This poem gives us the formula for success. The poem provokes us to build up a battling spirit so as to fight negative forces coming in the way of success. The poem spurs us to work ceaselessly in order to acquire sure success.

The poem has no rhyme scheme but rhymes are used randomly all through the poem. The most common type is in lines ending with the word “it”, for example, “for it, of it, without it, about it, beget it, sweat for it, fret for it and so on”. Other examples are ” capacity, pertinacity, sagacity, and pain, brain”.

The main figure of speech used in the poem is repetition. There is an abundance of “for it” phrases throughout the poem.

This is a motivational poem. It motivates one to target and achieve goals. The poem is rich in ideas for personality traits and circumstances that aid to achieve success. All the lines of the poem are very forceful encouraging us to be persistent and to keep on striving for success. My favourite line of the poem is:

If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it,
You’ll get it!

This line is very powerful alliteration. It motivates to resist forcefully with our efforts in order to achieve success.

Questions and Answers

1. Complete the following sentences by choosing the correct alternatives.

i. When you want something badly, you must go out and _______.

A. search for it B. purchase it

C. think about it D. fight for it.

Ans. D. Fight for it

ii. When you want something badly, life without it seems _______.

A. cheap and inexpensive B. useless and worthless. C. sad and pathetic D. dull and unattractive

Ans. B. useless and worthless.

2. Find lines from the poem as proof for the following:

i. toil hard happily

ii. get rid of all fears

Answers

i. “If you gladly sweat for, fret for and plan for it”
ii. “Lose all your terror of the opposition for it.”

3. Pick out an example of Antithesis from the extract.

Ans. An example of Antithesis from the extract is,

“work day and night for it”

4. Give the antonyms of the following words from the extract:

i. weakness
ii. despair
Ans. i. strength ii. hope