NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 4 The Winner — Let us discuss
Book page 116 & 117 Updated on2026-09-05
Q1.
Read the given lines from the poem. Write the meaning of the lines by identifying the words/expressions in them. Line: ‘next to the creek’ (Clue: a small body of water)
Answer
Meaning: The children play right beside a small, narrow stream of water.
A creek is a small, narrow body of water — a little stream or inlet, smaller than a river. So the playground is not a marked field or a stadium; it is an ordinary patch of ground beside a stream in the neighbour’s land.
Why the poet mentions it: The creek fixes the place in our minds and makes it feel real and rural. It also adds a sound and a coolness to the scene, and it is a natural boundary of their playing field — like the touchline of a real ground, but made by nature.
Q2.
Write the meaning of: ‘I can’t even catch my breath’ (Clue: the child has been running)
Answer
Meaning: The child has run so fast and so long that she is completely out of breath — panting, unable to breathe normally.
‘To catch your breath’ means to get your normal breathing back after hard exercise. Saying she cannot even do that shows just how hard they have been running: the game is fast, wild and thoroughly enjoyed.
Look at how it is printed: the words are set one below the other — I / can’t / even / catch / my / breath. The line itself pants. You will study this in ‘Let us learn’ on page 118.
Q3.
Write the meaning of: ‘When blue dark turns to black’ (Clue: the colour of the sky changes from blue to black. What does it mean?)
Answer
Meaning: Night is falling. The deep blue of the evening sky is deepening into the total black of night — in other words, it has become dark.
‘Blue dark’ is that half-lit hour just after sunset when the sky is dark but still blue. When even that blue is gone and the sky is black, the day is truly over.
What the poet is really doing: she never says “it grew late”. She tells the time by colour, and lets us work it out. This is called using an image — showing instead of telling.
Q4.
Write the meaning of: ‘trees creep close’ (Clue: it is evening time. Why do you think the trees seem close?)
Answer
Meaning: In the growing darkness the trees seem to move quietly nearer, as though they were creeping in around the children.
The trees, of course, do not move at all. It is the darkness that changes what the children can see. As the light goes, the open field they could see across shrinks to a small circle around them, and the shadowy trees at its edge feel much nearer than they were in daylight. A little fear at being out in the dark makes them feel nearer still.
Name the device: giving a human action (creeping) to lifeless things is personification. It is the same device as “Night wins!” in the last line — and it prepares us for it. First the trees close in, then Night takes the field.
Q5.
Read the poem. Complete the following based on the poem. The children play ______ in the ______ in the neighbour’s ______. They run so ______ that they run out of breath. They continue to play till the evening when the blue sky turns ______, and the trees are not clearly visible. They can feel their feet ______, now that it is cold. Finally, they stop ______ and go home as it is night.
Answer
The completed paragraph:
The children play ball in the evening in the neighbour’s field. They run so fast that they run out of breath. They continue to play till the evening when the blue sky turns black, and the trees are not clearly visible. They can feel their feet aching, now that it is cold. Finally, they stop playing and go home as it is night.