The cock is crowing,
The stream is flowing,
The small birds twitter,
The lake doth glitter,
The green field sleeps in the sun; 5
The oldest and the youngest
Are at work with the strongest;
The cattle are grazing,
Their heads never raising;
There are forty feeding like one! 10
Like an army defeated
The snow hath retreated,
And now doth fare ill
On the top of the bare hill;
The ploughboy is whooping – anon – anon. 15
There’s joy in the mountains;
There’s life in the fountains;
Small clouds are sailing,
Blue sky prevailing;
The rain is over and gone! 20
-William Wordsworth

Exercise

1. Complete these sentences with the best choice given
   a. The poet is watching the scene from a place
   i) near a lake iii) near a field
   ii) near a stream iv) on the top of a hill

Ans:ii) near a stream

b. In the first five lines of the poem the poet is speaking
to
i) himself iii) two friends
ii) a companion iv) a group of people

Ans:i) himself

c. The ploughboy is making loud cries
i) to talk to the horses
ii) to call out to other workers
iii) just to shout with joy
iv) to give signals to the plough man.

Ans:iii) just to shout with joy

2. Talk to your partner about the points raised in the questions below. Write down what you say :

a. Who are at work?

Ans:The oldest and the youngest Are at work with the strongest.

b. Why are the cows not raising their heads?

Ans:The cattle are grazing, So the cows heads are never raising.

c. What is the ploughboy doing?

Ans: On the top of the mountain the ploughboy is whooping – anon – anon.

d. Why does the poet say that the snow is only on the top of the bare hill?

Ans:It was the spring season so the snow is only on the top of the bare hill,most of the snow has melted in the warm spring season.

e. Why is the poem called “March”?

Ans:The poet describe the nature as seen in the month of march so it is called march and it is a spring.

f. Pick out the rhyming words in the poem and write them down.

Ans:

a)crowing, flowing

b)twitter,glitter

c)youngest, strongest

d)grazing, raising

e)defeated, retrated

f)mountains; mountain

a) Do the exercise given below working with your partner.

As we read this poem we see beautiful scenes of Nature and rural land . Wordsworth makes us hear sounds of birds and voices of men, women, boys and girls busy at
farm work. One can imagine even the heavy breathing of cows as they graze ravenously. Wordsworth stands above and wonders on the change March has brought with it.