NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 4 Harvest Hymn (Sarojini Naidu) — Let us do these activities before we read

Book page 173 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.

I. 1. India celebrates many harvest festivals. When is the harvest festival celebrated in your region and how is it celebrated?

Answer

Answer for your own region, but notice first that almost every Indian harvest festival falls in one of two windows — mid-January, when the winter crop is cut in the south and the sun turns north, and spring or autumn, when the region's own main crop ripens.

Festival	Region	When	How it is celebrated
Pongal	Tamil Nadu	mid-January (four days)	New rice, jaggery and milk are boiled in a clay pot until they spill over — the spilling is the blessing. Cattle are bathed, painted and garlanded on Mattu Pongal.
Makar Sankranti	much of north and west India	14 or 15 January	Til-gud sweets, kite-flying, bathing in rivers.
Lohri	Punjab, Haryana	13 January	A bonfire at night; groundnuts, popcorn and rewri are thrown into it; bhangra and gidda are danced round it.
Bihu (Bohag/Rongali)	Assam	mid-April	Bihu dance and dhol; new clothes; cattle honoured on the first day.
Baisakhi	Punjab	13 or 14 April	The rabi harvest is cut; fairs, processions and dancing in the fields.
Onam	Kerala	August–September	Pookalam flower carpets, the Onasadya feast on a banana leaf, snake-boat races.
Nuakhai	western Odisha	August–September	The first grain of the new rice is offered to the deity before anyone eats it.

The common thread — and why it matters for this poem: In every one of these festivals, the first share of the harvest is offered before it is eaten. That is precisely what Harvest Hymn does in words: 'We bring thee our songs and our garlands for tribute, / The gold of our fields and the gold of our fruit.' Sarojini Naidu is not inventing a ritual; she is writing one down.

Q2.

I. 2. A hymn refers to a song of praise. (i) To whom do we offer a hymn? (ii) When and where do we sing a hymn? (iii) Why do we offer it?

Answer

(i) To whom? A hymn is offered to a god, a goddess or some power greater than ourselves. In this poem four are addressed in turn — Surya (the sun), Varuna (rain and waters), Prithvi (the earth) and finally Brahma, the 'Lord of the Universe'. A hymn may also be offered to a nation or an ideal, as a national anthem is.

(ii) When and where? At times set aside for worship and thanksgiving — at prayer in a temple, church, gurdwara or mosque; at a festival; at morning and evening prayer; at school assembly. Hymns are usually sung together, aloud, often with instruments. The poem names its instruments: 'with cymbal and flute… with cymbal and pipe… with cymbal and drum… with cymbal and prayer.'

(iii) Why? For three reasons, and this poem shows all three:

Gratitude — to thank the giver: 'We bring thee our thanks and our garlands for tribute.'
Reverence — to acknowledge a power we depend on and cannot control: 'Thine is the bounty that prospered our sowing.'
Request — to ask for continued care: 'Grant us thy succour, thy counsel, thy care.'

Did you know? The oldest hymns in India are the suktas of the Rigveda, and several of them are addressed to exactly the deities in this poem — Surya, Varuna and Prithvi. Sarojini Naidu is writing an English poem in a very old Indian form.

Q3.

II. Some poets and authors use words that are no longer a part of common usage. Such words are called archaic words. Work in pairs. Read the sentences given below. Match the underlined archaic words in Column 1 with their meanings in Column 2. — 'Thou art my friend, and I trust thee. Thy kindness is great, and everything that is mine is thine.' Column 1: 1. thou 2. art 3. thee 4. thy 5. thine. Column 2: (i) yours (ii) you (object) (iii) you (subject) (iv) are (v) your

Answer

Column 1	Column 2	Modern equivalent	Line in the sentence
1. thou	(iii) you (subject)	you	'Thou art my friend'
2. art	(iv) are	are	'Thou art my friend'
3. thee	(ii) you (object)	you	'I trust thee'
4. thy	(v) your	your	'Thy kindness is great'
5. thine	(i) yours	yours	'everything that is mine is thine'

How to work these out without memorising: Old English had two forms of 'you' where we now have one. Line them up against 'I' and the pattern is obvious:

I → me → my → mine
thou → thee → thy → thine
Thou does the action; thee receives it; thy comes before a noun; thine stands alone.

Tip: 'Art' is simply the old verb form that went with 'thou', just as 'am' goes with 'I'. Every 'Thine is the bounty…' in the poem could be rewritten 'Yours is the bounty…' — try it, and you will hear at once how much the archaic form adds.

Q4.

III. Work in pairs. Read the paragraph and select the correct meaning for each underlined word from the options given below. — 'Under the golden 1. radiance of the evening sun, the villagers gathered to pay 2. tribute to their 3. cherished elder, who had dedicated his life to their well-being. His wise 4. counsel had guided generations, steering them through challenges. Known for his 5. munificent spirit, he never hesitated to share his resources generously.' 1. radiance : (i) glow (ii) brilliance 2. tribute : (i) respect (ii) gratitude 3. cherished : (i) preserved (ii) loved 4. counsel : (i) advice (ii) decision 5. munificent : (i) rich (ii) generous

Answer

Word	Answer	The clue in the paragraph
1. radiance	(i) glow	'the golden radiance of the evening sun' — evening light is soft and warm, a glow. 'Brilliance' means dazzling, harsh light, which suits noon, not evening.
2. tribute	(i) respect	the villagers 'gathered to pay tribute' — to pay tribute is to show honour and respect publicly.
3. cherished	(ii) loved	'their cherished elder' — a person is cherished because he is dear. 'Preserved' is used of objects, not of people.
4. counsel	(i) advice	'His wise counsel had guided generations, steering them through challenges' — guiding and steering is what advice does; a decision does not guide over generations.
5. munificent	(ii) generous	'he never hesitated to share his resources generously' — the sentence practically defines the word for you.

The method: In every one of these, the answer is decided by a word standing next to the underlined word — evening, pay, elder, guided, generously. When two options both look plausible, do not choose the one you like better; find the neighbouring word that rules one of them out. This is called reading from context, and it is the single most useful vocabulary skill you can build.

Why this exercise comes before the poem: Four of these five words appear in Harvest Hymn — 'O giver of mellowing radiance', 'our garlands for tribute', 'the mercy that cherished our furrows', 'thy counsel', and 'Bright and munificent lord of the morn'. You are being handed the poem's vocabulary a page early.

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