Pupils are requested to provide their answers according to the instructions.
Attempt all the questions.

1. Read the following poem and answer the given questions. [5x1=5]

The Voice of the Rain
Walt Whitman
"And who art thou? said I to the soft-falling shower,
Which, strange to tell, gave me an answer, as here translated:
I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain,
Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless sea,
Upward to heaven, whence, vaguely form'd, altogether changed, and yet the same,
I descend to lave the droughts, atomies, dust-layers of the globe,
And all that in them without me were seeds only, latent, unborn;
And forever, by day and night, I give back life to my own origin, and make pure and beautify it;
(For song, issuing from its birthplace, after fulfillment, wandering,
Reck'd or unreck'd, duly with love returns.)"

Questions
a. What does the rain identify itself as?
b. What impact does the rain have on its own origin?
c. What is the origin of the rain?
d. Who is the speaker in the poem?
e. List two things the rain does when it descends to earth.

Read the following text and do the tasks.