The Fountain by James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell was a famous writer and wrote ‘A Year of Life’ and ‘Poems’. His Poetry is full of nature and emotions. But other poems are full of patriotism and love for democracy. He is known as a suggestive literary critic and a lecturer on English poetry.
INTRODUCTION
‘The Fountain’ is an inspirational poem. The poet explains the fountain in three separate ways. It’s cheerful and vibrant all the time. It seems to be aspiring higher and higher all the time. The poet wants to master these qualities of constancy and freshness.
SUMMARY
The poet begins his poem by explaining how the fountain is filled with light in the presence of sunlight, and the light reflects and leaps and flashes from morning tonight.
He explains the fountain in the moonlight. The fountain is whiter than the snow, and waves just like the flower waves as the wind flows.
Below the starlight, the fountains tilt and drop like a shower. It’s happy at midnight and happy throughout the day, too.
It’s still in motion, it’s still joyful, it’s always rising to the sky, and it’s never tired.
The poet wants to become like a fountain, and he wants his heart to be young, changeful, constant, and upward just like a fountain.
LITERARY DEVICES
Imagery: The poet brings an image of an endless fountain of beauty in the minds of the readers.
Hyperbole: the poet exaggerates the thing of beauty as endless and immortal.
Reading is Fun | Textual Questions
Q. 1. How is the fountain described in the first stanza?
Answer: The first stanza describes the fountain as a beautiful display of water that lets the sunshine through it, and lets light rays play in it. The lighted water leaps and flashes and that makes the entire phenomenon so full of light from morning till night. The fountain can help to change the heart of the speaker, as he believes.
Q. 2. How does the fountain look in the moonlight?
Ans. In the moonlight, the fountain appears snowy white and sways rhythmically like flowers when the wind rushes. Under the starlight, it rises and falls like spray.
Q. 3. How does the poet describe the happy mood of the fountain?
Ans. The poet describes the happy mood of the fountain in three different aspects. In the sunshine, it is bright and upward leaping and glittering. In the moonlight, it appears snowy white and sways rhythmically like flowers when the wind rushes. Under the starlight, it rises and falls like spray. It looks happy day and night.
Q. 4. What is the poet’s wish in the end?
And.The speaker wishes that he should be like the fountain always fresh, full of energy, forever climbing and changing yet remaining constant.
Extra Questions
Question-1a) How does the fountain look during the day & at night?
Answer: The fountain is full of light during the day and waving like a flower in the moonlight at night.
Question-2b) What does the fountain do?
Answer: The fountain leaps and flashes from morning till night.
Question-2) In what mood do you find the fountain throughout the?
Answer: The fountain is happy throughout the day.
Question-3) In the fourth stanza, what sort of nature the speaker says the fountain has?
Answer: The fountain is always active, happy by nature and always climbing upwards The fountain is never tired.
Question-4a) What does ‘ ceaseless aspiring’ mean?
Answer: ‘ceaseless aspiring’ means that the fountain is rising and falling continuously.
Question-4b) How does the fountain aspire?
Answer: The fountain is forever climbing upwards.
Question-5) What according, to the speaker, are the inherent qualities of the fountain?
Answer: The fountain never seems to stop. It pursues it’s wish ceaselessly irrespective of the time of the day.
Question-6) What does the speaker wish for in the last stanza?
Answer: The speaker wishes that he should be like the fountain always fresh, full of energy, forever climbing and changing yet remaining constant.
Important Questions With Answers
Q. Who is the writer of the poem “The Fountain”?
Answer: The author of the poem is James Russell Lowell.
Q. What is the central idea of the poem The Fountain?
Answer: The poet describes the motion of the fountain during sunlight and moonshine that inspires him to achieve his highest goals in life. He wishes to be happy and cheerful in all situations of life just like the fountain.
Q. What does the poem The Fountain teach?
Answer: We learn from the fountain to keep ourselves always fresh and changing but steady. We should always look towards higher things. We should work hard from morning till night and should never feel tired.
Q. How is the fountain described in the first stanza?
Answer: The first stanza describes the fountain as a beautiful source of water that lets the sunshine through it, and let the light rays play in it. The lighted water leaps and flashes and that make the whole phenomenon so full of light. The fountain can help change the heart of the speaker as he believes.
Q. What do the leaping and flashing of the fountain suggest about it?
Answer: Full of the light, Leaping and flashing “ and he describes the moment of waterfall “Full of a nature nothing changed every moment, ever the same”. Finely, the speaker describes his emotions when he sees the fountain “Let my heart be Fresh, changeful, constant, Upward, like thee!”.
Q. How does the fountain look in the moonlight?
Answer: The poet describes the fountain in three different aspects. In the sunshine, it is bright and upward leaping and glittering. In the moonlight, it appears snowy white and sways rhythmically like flowers when the wind rushes. Under the starlight, it rises and falls like spray.
Q. What is the effect of moonlight wind on the fountain?
Answer: Moonlight makes the fountain whiter than snow. When the winds blow, the fountain waves like a flower.
Q. How do you know that the fountain is always happy?
Answer: The fountain is joyfully busy moving up and up all the whole day and night. It indicates that it is always happy. ‘Spray suggests that the fountain spreads its happiness in all directions.
Q. Why has the Fountain been called glorious?
Answer: The fountain looks very beautiful when it goes up. So the poet calls it glorious. The poet wishes to be fresh changeful constant and upward like the fountain.
Q. How does the fountain look during the day & at night?
Answer: The fountain is full of light during the day and waving like a flower in the moonlight at night.
Q. What is the quality of the fountain?
Answer: The Fountain is all the time cheerful and lively. The poet wishes to learn these qualities of freshness, change fitness, constancy and aspiring from the fountain.
Q. Does the fountain ever stop flowing?
Answer: The fountain has been called ‘ever in motion’ because it never stops and always moves upward.
Language Work
A. Pick out the adjectives used for the fountain in the poem?
Ans. Flower-like, whiter, blithesome, cheery, ceaseless, aspiring, glorious, etc.
B. Pick out the verbs that show the movement of the fountain?
Ans. Leap, flash, wave, rush, motion, etc.
C. Pick out the sets of rhyming words from the poem:
Answer:
Light = Night
Snow = Blow
Spray = Day
Cheery = Aweary
Best = Rest
Tame = Same
Content = Element
Let’s Talk
How does the moonlight make the night beautiful? Share your ideas with the class.
Answer: The moon shines our nights with beauty and makes our world bright at night. It is a symbol of joy and beauty. A lover anticipates the night’s natural beauty. It has a major effect on the human mind. It revitalises our minds and transforms them into poetic ones. The poets are inspired to write a poem by the beauty of a moonlit night. In the autumn, the sky is cloudless and the moon appears as a large silver disc. The moon’s silvery rays flood the world, reflecting in the oceans, rivers, ponds, and hills. When the moon shines her light on the water’s waves, it sparkles like a gem. People are overjoyed, and children are playing in the open air. Grandparents relate frail stories to their grandchildren. Women sing the songs of the stars and moon to their babies to put them to sleep. It is truly a blessing of nature and God.
Let’s Write
Make a list of things used to make a fountain.
Answer: The list of things used to make a fountain is as follows:
- Pump. Available at home or garden centres.
- ½-Inch Copper Pipe. to carry the water from the pump to the top of the fountain.
- ½-inch-by-½-inch Compression Female Adapter. …
