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NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 4 The Winner — Let us think and reflect

Book page 117 & 118 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.
Complete the sentence given below with the correct option. The speaker needs to catch her breath because ____________. A. everyone decides to walk B. all the friends wish to go home C. running fast results in being breathless D. they need to do breathing exercises
Answer

Answer: C. running fast results in being breathless.

The reason is given in the very line before: “We run so fast / I / can’t / even / catch / my / breath.” Hard running uses up oxygen quickly, so the body gasps for air — that is breathlessness.

Why not the others? Nobody walks (A) and nobody wants to go home (B) — in fact the children play on until the darkness drives them away. And there are no breathing exercises anywhere in this poem (D); those belong to the yoga text later in the unit.
Q1.
Is the speaker alone? Why do you say so?
Answer

No, the speaker is not alone. She is playing with a group of friends.

The proof is in the pronouns. The poem says “we play ball”, “in our neighbour’s field”, “We run so fast” and “cold grass aches our feet”. Only once does the poet switch to ‘I’ — “I can’t even catch my breath” — and that is because breathlessness is felt by one body at a time, even when the running is shared.

Notice how cleverly this is done: the ‘we’ carries the game and the ‘I’ carries the feeling. Also, you cannot play ball alone — the game itself tells us there are others.
Q1.
What does the pattern in the lines tell us?
Answer

The pattern — one word to a line, dropping down the page like steps — makes the reader breathe the way the child is breathing.

Read it aloud: I … can’t … even … catch … my … breath. You are forced to stop after every single word. Those pauses are the child’s gasps. The poet could have written the line normally, but then it would only have told us she was out of breath; printed like this, it makes us feel it.

  • Each broken word = one short, snatched breath.
  • The slow downward drop = the tiredness after a fast run.
  • The word breath alone at the bottom = the last gasp, and a full stop.
The technique has a name: when the shape and sound of the words imitate their meaning, we call it form matching meaning (a poem shaped like its subject is also called a shape poem or concrete poem). The book gives you a second example on page 119 — “The leaves are falling, / falling, / falling.”, where the word itself drifts down the page like a leaf.
Q2.
Give one reason why the grass is cold.
Answer

The grass is cold because the sun has set and night has come.

All through the day the sunshine warms the ground; once the sun goes down, the earth and the grass quickly lose that heat, and the cool evening air and the dew that begins to settle make the grass colder still. The children, who have been running barefoot, feel this at once.

Another acceptable reason: the field is right “next to the creek”, and the damp air near a stream keeps the grass cooler than dry open ground.
Q2.
Complete the sentence suitably. The children’s feet are aching because ____________.
Answer

The children’s feet are aching because they have been running hard, barefoot, on grass that has now turned cold.

The poem gives both halves of the reason. The running comes from “We run so fast / I can’t even catch my breath”, and the cold comes from “cold grass aches our feet”. Tired feet plus cold ground equals a real ache.

Also acceptable: “…because they have played for a long time and the cold grass has numbed their feet.”
Q2.
Why does ‘Night’ win? Night wins because the ____________. A. time for play has ended B. children are tired C. time to play at home begins D. night follows day
Answer

Answer: A. time for play has ended.

Night ‘wins’ because darkness, not any player, is what finally stops the game — “trees creep close— / game’s over. / Night wins!” In a match, the winner is the one still standing at the end. Here neither team wins; the darkness clears the field, so the poet cheerfully hands the victory to Night.

Why the other options are weaker: the children are tired (B) and night certainly does follow day (D), but neither of those is the joke the poet is making. Option C is simply not in the poem. The whole point is that the game is over — and that is why the poem is called ‘The Winner’.
Name the device: calling Night a winner gives a human quality to something lifeless. That is personification — and it is also written with a capital N and an exclamation mark, as though a name were being announced at a prize-giving.
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