Choose the correct option from those given below
1. The poem ‘The Blue
Horse’ is composed by……………
a) Kamala
Das
b) Arun Kolatkar
c) Nissim
Ezekiel
d) R.
Tagore
2. The poem ‘The Blue
Horse’ is set at……………
a) Pandharpur
b) Jejuri
c) Pune
d) Varanasi
3. The poem ‘The Blue
Horse’ ridicules at……………in Indian society.
a) God
b) religion
c) sincerity
d) hypocrisy
4. The poem ‘The Blue
Horse’ depicts……………
a) a group of singers
b) a
group of dancers
c) a
group of players
d) a
temple
5. The toothless singer
depicted in the first stanza of the poem, ‘The Blue Horse’ is……….
a) a
small boy
b) a
small girl
c) a
man
d) a woman
6. The toothless singer
depicted in the first stanza of the poem, ‘The Blue Horse’ has……….
a) half burnt tongue
b) half
burnt face
c) very
clean face
d) very
sweet voice
7. The drummer depicted
in the second stanza of the poem, ‘The Blue Horse’ goes……….in the face.
a) red
b) pink
c) black
d) blue
8. The drummer depicted
in the second stanza of the poem, ‘The Blue Horse’ has……….skin
a) fair
b) black
c) white
d) red
9. The drummer depicted
in the second stanza of the poem, ‘The Blue Horse’ has blacker skin due to………..
a) the sun
b) the
moon
c) the
hunger
d) the
thirst
10. The drummer depicted in the second
stanza of the poem, ‘The Blue Horse’
joins the chorus in a/an…………
a) enthusiastic
passion
b) enthusiastic
zeal
c) keyless passion
d) tremendous
passion
11. The drummer depicted in the second
stanza of the poem, ‘The Blue Horse’
joins has a……………brother.
a) pockmarked
b) loving
c) fair
skinned
d) black
skinned
12. The speaker in the poem, ‘The Blue
Horse’ calls the act of the singers a………………
a) passionless
act
b) passionate
act
c) cabaret act
d) cheerful
act
13. The priest in the poem, ‘The Blue
Horse’ has arranged the programme of the singers at/in……….
a) his own house
b) a
temple
c) an
open place
d) a
large hall
14. The singers in the poem, ‘The Blue
Horse’ sang of the……………
a) red
horse
b) black
horse
c) dark
horse
d) blue horse
15. The horse painted on the wall in the
poem, ‘The Blue Horse’ was………..
a) black
b) red
c) blue
d) dark
16. The priest in the poem, ‘The Blue
Horse’ chews …………..
a) a betel nut
b) chewing
gum
c) a
chocolate
d) tobacco
17. …………..in the poem, ‘The Blue Horse’
points out the speaker that the horse painted on the wall is blue.
a) The
old singer
b) The
pockmarked half brother
c) The
drummer
d) The prist
18. The poem, ‘The Blue Horse’ is…………..in
tone.
a) humorous
b) ironical
c) both a and b
d) none
of the above
19. The condition of the singers in the
poem, ‘The Blue Horse’ is……….
a) sound
b) pathetic
c) very
good
d) comfortable
20. The rhyme scheme in the poem, ‘The Blue
Horse’ is………….
a) perfect
b) irregular
c) harmonious
d) regular
21. The lines in the poem, ‘The Blue Horse’
are…………
a) uneven
b) even
c) short
d) long
22. The poem, ‘The Blue Horse’ is composed
in/with…………
a) free verse
b) blank
verse
c) perfect
rhyme scheme
d) none
of the above
23. The images in the poem, ‘The Blue
Horse’ are…………
a) vivid
b) concrete
c) unclear
d) both a and b
24. The diction in the poem, ‘The Blue
Horse’ is…………
a) obscure
b) simple
c) complicated
d) all
of the above
25. The poem, ‘The Blue Horse’ depicts…………..
a) foreign
culture
b) rural
culture
c) European
culture
d) Indian culture
26. The singers in the poem, ‘The Blue
Horse’ sing…………
a) the story of Khandoba
b) the
story of Lord Krishna
c) Indian
folksong
d) Indian
glory
27. The phrase ‘Shorts the circuits’ in the beginning part of the poem, ‘The
Blue Horse’ drives home to us that the singer has……….
a) melodious voice
b) not melodious voice
c) sweet voice
d) none of the above
28. The
terms – ‘half-burnt tongue’, ‘black skin’ and ‘pockmarked’ throw light
on……….
a)
good
condition of the singers
b)
pathetic
condition of the singers
c)
all
of the above
d) none of the above
29. The poem, ‘The Blue Horse’ is taken from a collection of poetry…………by Arun Kolatkar.
a) The Boatride and Other Poems
b) Jejuri
c) Time to Change
d) Says Tuka
30. Arun Kolatkar was a………poet.
a) Hindi
b) bilingual
c) Tamil
d) Bengali
Critical Analysis :
Q.1. Write Critical analysis of the poem, “The Blue Horse ”.
OR
Q.2. How does the speaker expose the hypocrisy of the priest in the poem “The Blue Horse”?
OR
Q.3. ‘The Blue Horse is a perfect Indian poem.’ Explain.
Ans. Arun Kolatkar was a well known Indian English poet. He was a bilingual poet. He has composed his poems in Marathi and English also. He is well-known for collection of poetry – “Jejuri” (1976). He won Commonwealth Writers Prize in 1977 for “Jejuri ”. It is a collection of 31 poems. It depicts the speaker’s (who is the poet himself) visit to the pilgrimage “Jejuri” in Maharashtra. The poems in “Jejuri” depict the superstitious middle class society in India. We find a deep impression of Marathi poetry on Kolatkar’s English poetry and vice versa. There is a profound use of humour in everyday matters in his poetry. However, his poetry has left a deep impression on other Marathi poets also.
“The Blue Horse” is a poem by Arun Kolatkar. It is one of the poems in the collection of poetry, “Jejuri”. It attacks the superstitious nature of Indian society. It reveals the hypocrisy of the priests in the temple of Lord Khandoba. It is humorous too. It humorously depicts the singers and musicians in the group who sing in praise of the God Khandoba on behalf of the devotees.
There is a toothless singer who opens her mouth to sing. Her voice sounds like short circuits. The poet calls her throat ‘haywire throat’. She has a half-burnt tongue also. A shower of sparks are generated from her half-burnt tongue. There is a drummer also in the group. The poet also describes him quite humorously. His face has fallen. His black skin looks burnt due to the scorching sun. He seems to be without any passion. Still he thumps and whacks his tambourine. His another companion has a pockmarked face. The poet calls him ‘half-brother’ of the drummer. The poet ironically calls them ‘God’s own children’. In this way, the first stanza in the poem depicts the humorous picture of a group of singers who praise the lord Khandoba in their song. It creates sympathy for the singers in the minds of the readers although the picture is humorous. Thus, there is fine blending of humour and pathos in the poem.
In the second stanza, the poet reveals the hypocrisy of the priest. The priest arranges the programme of singing at his own house. The poet ironically calls it ‘sacred cabaret act’. The speaker looks at it ridiculously. He asks the priest that they are singing of a blue horse, but the horse painted on the wall is white. How is it? The character of the priest is also depicted humorously. He is shown chewing a betel nut. With the betel nut in the mouth, he replies that the horse looks blue to him. He shifts the betel nut from left side to right in his mouth. He draws the end of the nutcracker along the underbelly of the horse to show its blue shade of colour. The poet, humorously and ironically too, calls the horse ‘the noble animal’.
In this way, the poem, “The Blue Horse ” is humorous and ironic too. It exposes the hypocrisy of the priests who loot the innocent devotees in the name of God and religion. The poem throws light on superstitious nature of Indian society. It throws light on the pathetic condition of the singers to whom the poet calls ‘God’s own children’. It also throws light on the Indian custom of offering the first-borns to Lord Khandoba by middle-class families. They are called ‘Waghya (boy) and Murli (girl)’. They devote their whole life in the service of Lord Khandoba.
There is an abundant use of vivid images in the poem. The images of – ‘toothless woman singer’, ‘the drummer with black skin’, ‘man with pockmarked face’ ‘the priest with betel nut in the mouth’, etc. are humorous, vivid and concrete.
The poem is composed in free verse. It has no perfect rhyme scheme. The lines in the poem are uneven. Perhaps, they are symbolic of Indian middle class society. They stand for the psychological trauma of Indian middle class society. The poem is a perfect Indian poem. It is set in Jejuri which is a sacred pilgrimage in Maharashtra, India.
