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NCERT Solutions for Class 5th English Chapter 3 A. Answer the following — Let us Think

Book page 28 Updated on2026-09-19

Q1.
Explain the meaning of the word ‘bow’ used in the poem.
Answer

In this poem, ‘bow’ means the rainbow.

The poet writes, “But the bow that bridges heaven, / And overtops the trees, / And builds a road from earth to sky”. Only one thing does all that — a rainbow.

The word bow means anything bent into a curve. A rainbow is a big curve of seven colours in the sky, so the poet simply calls it a bow.

Why this is a good word for it: Look at the word rainbow itself. It is made of two smaller words — rain + bow. It means “the bow that comes with rain”. So the poet has not invented anything. She has only taken the second half of the word rainbow and used it on its own.
Careful — bow has other meanings too:
  • the curved stick used to shoot arrows — a bow and arrow;
  • the ribbon tied in loops on a gift — a pretty bow;
  • to bend the body forward to greet someone — we bow to our elders;
  • the front end of a ship.
The first three are all curved or bent things. In our poem it is the rainbow.
Q2.
Which bridge does the poet like more and why?
Answer

The poet likes the rainbow bridge more.

The second stanza names two bridges. The first is an ordinary bridge on a river, and the poet agrees it is “as pretty as you please”. The second is “the bow that bridges heaven” — the rainbow. About that one she says, “Is prettier far than these.” Prettier far means very much more beautiful.

She likes the rainbow bridge more for three reasons, and the poem gives all three:

  1. It is much bigger. A river bridge crosses only a river. The rainbow “bridges heaven” — it crosses the whole sky.
  2. It is much higher. It “overtops the trees”. Overtops means it rises above them.
  3. It joins two places nothing else can join. It “builds a road from earth to sky”.
The deeper reason: A river bridge is built by people out of stone and iron. The rainbow is made by sunlight and rain, and nobody builds it. It appears on its own, for everybody, free of cost — and then it goes. That is what the poet finds beautiful.
Q3.
The word ‘these’ is used for different things in stanzas one and two. What are the things for which ‘these’ has been used in each stanza?
Answer

In stanza one, ‘these’ means the boats and the ships. In stanza two, ‘these’ means the bridges on the rivers.

StanzaThe lineWhat ‘these’ stands for
One“Are prettier far than these.”The boats on the rivers and the ships on the seas
Two“Is prettier far than these.”The bridges on the rivers

How to work it out. The word these points backwards. So read the lines just above it.

  • Above the first “these” we are told about boats and ships. So the clouds are prettier than the boats and the ships.
  • Above the second “these” we are told about bridges on the rivers. So the rainbow is prettier than those bridges.
Why the poet does this: A word like these saves her from repeating a whole list. Instead of writing “prettier far than the boats on the rivers and the ships on the seas”, she can write four short words. Poems like short lines.
Tip: Whenever you meet this, that, these, those, it or they, stop and ask yourself, “Standing for what?” The answer is almost always a few words earlier.
Q4.
State whether the following are True or False. a. Ships sail on the river.
Answer

False.

The poem says, “And ships sail on the seas.” It is the boats that sail on the rivers — “Boats sail on the rivers”.

The corrected sentence: Ships sail on the sea.

Why it makes sense: A ship is very big and very heavy, so it needs deep water. The sea is deep, so ships can sail there. A river is usually shallow, so only smaller boats can move on it.
Q5.
b. Boats sail on the sea.
Answer

False.

The very first line of the poem says, “Boats sail on the rivers.” The sea belongs to the ships in this poem.

The corrected sentence: Boats sail on the river.

A fair question: Fishing boats do go out to sea in real life. But this question asks what the poem says, and the poem puts boats on rivers and ships on seas. In an exam, answer from the text.
Q6.
c. Bridges are built on the river.
Answer

True.

Stanza two opens with the line, “There are bridges on the rivers, / As pretty as you please.” So the poem does tell us that bridges are built on rivers.

Think about it: We build a bridge exactly where we cannot walk — over water, over a valley, over a busy railway line. A bridge turns a place you cannot cross into a place you can.
Q7.
d. A road is built from earth to the sky.
Answer

True.

The poem says the bow “builds a road from earth to sky”. The rainbow looks like a wide coloured road going up from the ground and over into the sky.

But remember what kind of road it is: It is a road you can only see, not a road you can walk on. The poet is painting a picture with words. She is asking you to imagine the rainbow as a road, because that is what it looks like. Nobody can really climb it.
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