Complete Summary and Solutions for Poems by Milton – NCERT Class XII KALEIDOSCOPE English Elective, Chapter 2 – Poetry Summary, Explanation, Questions, Answers

Introduction to Poetry - Kaleidoscope

A poem is a composition in verse, usually characterised by concentrated and heightened language in which words are chosen for their sound and suggestive power as well as for their meaning, and using techniques such as rhythm and metre. To read and hear good poetry is to appreciate the subtleties of cadence and rhythm, the variety of pace and pattern and all that goes to make up the music of poetry.

Every poem that we read adds to, in some degree, our total conception of poetry.

Of the eight poets in this selection, four are from the classical tradition: Donne, Milton, Blake and Coleridge. The other four are closer to contemporary times: Yeats, A.K. Ramanujan, Emily Dickinson and Kamala Das.

Key Elements of Poetry

Language: Concentrated, heightened, sound-focused for evocative effect.
Techniques: Rhythm, metre, suggestive power to create musicality.
Appreciation: Cadence, pattern, and the 'music' that elevates emotion and intellect.
Traditions: Classical (e.g., Milton's epic grandeur) vs. Contemporary (e.g., Das's confessional intimacy).

Points to Ponder

How does reading Milton alter your 'total conception of poetry' through its sublime vision?
Compare classical and contemporary voices: What unites them in the 'music of poetry'?

Reprint 2025-26

Poet: John Milton (1608-1674)

John Milton began writing poetry at the age of ten. After finishing his formal education at Cambridge, he read almost everything available in Latin, Greek, Italian and English. He was appointed Latin Secretary where he worked so hard that eyestrain, from years of late night reading, caused him to become totally blind at the age of forty-five. In the final years of his life he wrote (through dictation) Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained.

Key Style: Epic & Sublime

Grand, elevated diction blending classical learning with Christian theology.
Startling imagery of time, eternity, and human aspiration.

Life Highlights

Polyglot scholar; blinded by devotion to republican cause and study.
Dictated masterpieces post-blindness, embodying resilience.

Influence & Legacy

Shaped Romantic poets; embodies moral grandeur, influencing literature on time, fame, and divinity.

Milton's Worldview

Milton's Puritan zeal and classical humanism infuse poems with triumphant faith—Time as devourer yields to Eternity's embrace, mirroring his own trials of blindness and loss.

Reprint 2025-26

On Time: Full Text & Summary

Detailed Stanza-by-Stanza Summary

Stanza 1: Time is urged to hasten its destructive course, devouring vanities and mortal dross with leaden slowness, yet gaining little as humanity loses trifles.

Stanza 2: Once Time entombs all evil and consumes itself, Eternity greets the blessed with intimate joy, flooding souls with divine truths that eternally shine.

Stanza 3: Souls, guided heavenward, ascend to God's throne, shedding earthly grossness, arrayed in stars, triumphing over death, chance, and Time itself.

Overall, the poem personifies Time as a greedy devourer defeated by eternal bliss, celebrating transcendence.

विस्तृत छंद-दर-छंद हिंदी सारांश

छंद 1: समय को अपनी विनाशकारी दौड़ तेज करने का आग्रह किया जाता है, व्यर्थताओं और मरणशील मैल को सीसे जैसी सुस्ती से निगलते हुए, फिर भी थोड़ा ही लाभ पाते हुए क्योंकि मानवता तुच्छ खोती है।

छंद 2: एक बार समय सभी बुराई को दफनाकर स्वयं को नष्ट कर ले, अनंत काल धन्यवादियों का स्वागत व्यक्तिगत आनंद से करता है, आत्माओं को दिव्य सत्यों से भरता है जो शाश्वत चमकते हैं।

छंद 3: आत्माएँ, स्वर्गीय मार्गदर्शन में, ईश्वर के सिंहासन पर चढ़ती हैं, पृथ्वी की मोटाई त्यागती हैं, तारों से सजकर, मृत्यु, संयोग और समय पर विजयी होकर बैठती हैं।

कुल मिलाकर, कविता समय को लालची निगलने वाले के रूप में व्यक्त करती है जो अनंत आनंद से पराजित होता है, उत्कृष्टता का उत्सव मनाती है।

Fly envious Time, till thou run out thy race,

Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours,

Whose speed is but the heavy Plummets pace;

And glut thy self with what thy womb devours,

Which is no more than what is false and vain,

And merely mortal dross;

So little is our loss,

So little is thy gain.

For when as each thing bad thou hast entomb’d,

And last of all, thy greedy self consum’d,

Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss

With an individual kiss;

And Joy shall overtake us as a flood,

When every thing that is sincerely good

And perfectly divine,

With Truth, and Peace, and Love shall ever shine

About the supreme Throne

Of him, t’whose happy-making sight alone,

When once our heav’nly guided soul shall clime,

Then all this Earthy grossnes quit,

Attir’d with Stars, we shall for ever sit,

Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee O Time.

Reprint 2025-26

On Shakespear: Full Text & Summary

Detailed Stanza-by-Stanza Summary

Stanza 1: No need for stone monuments or pyramids to honor Shakespeare's bones; his fame requires no weak testament.

Stanza 2: In wonder, he builds a living monument through effortless verse that imprints profound lines on hearts.

Stanza 3: His poetry bereaves fancy, turning readers to marble in awe, entombing him in royal pomp that kings envy.

Overall, Shakespeare's immortality lies in his inspirational legacy, surpassing physical tombs.

विस्तृत छंद-दर-छंद हिंदी सारांश

छंद 1: शेक्सपियर की हड्डियों को सम्मानित करने के लिए पत्थर के स्मारकों या पिरामिडों की कोई आवश्यकता नहीं; उनकी प्रसिद्धि को कमजोर प्रमाण की जरूरत नहीं।

छंद 2: आश्चर्य में, वह सहज कविता के माध्यम से जीवंत स्मारक बनाता है जो हृदयों पर गहन पंक्तियाँ अंकित करता है।

छंद 3: उनकी कविता कल्पना को हर लेती है, पाठकों को आश्चर्य से संगमरमर बना देती है, उन्हें राजसी वैभव में दफन करती है जिसकी राजा ईर्ष्या करें।

कुल मिलाकर, शेक्सपियर की अमरता उनकी प्रेरणादायक विरासत में निहित है, जो भौतिक समाधियों से ऊपर है।

What needs my Shakespear for his honour’d Bones,

The labour of an age in piled Stones,

Or that his hallow’d reliques should be hid

Under a Star-ypointing Pyramid?

Dear son of memory, great heir of Fame,

What need’st thou such weak witness of thy name?

Thou in our wonder and astonishment

Hast built thy self a live-long Monument.

For whilst to th’shame of slow endeavouring art,

Thy easie numbers flow, and that each heart

Hath from the leaves of thy unvalu’d Book,

Those Delphic lines with deep impression took,

Then thou our fancy of it self bereaving

Dost make us Marble with too much conceaving;

And so Sepulcher’d in such pomp dost lie,

That Kings for such a Tomb would wish to die.

Reprint 2025-26 | Notice the spelling of ‘Shakespear’ and of the words ‘easie’, ‘conceaving’.

Themes & Critical Analysis

Central Theme: Triumph over Time (On Time)

Temporal decay vs. Eternal bliss: Time devours vanity, but divine truths endure.
Personification: Envious Time as Cronos-like devourer, defeated by soul's ascent.

Central Theme: Immortality through Art (On Shakespear)

Physical monuments pale against living legacy; Shakespeare's verse inspires awe, outshining kings' tombs.

Milton's Grand Vision

Classical allusions (Cronos, Delphic oracle) blend with Christian eschatology.
Sublime diction evokes moral elevation and intellectual awe.

Critical Appreciation

Milton's poems exalt transcendence: 'On Time' envisions Eternity's kiss as antidote to mortality's dross, while 'On Shakespear' deifies art's enduring monument. Both employ elevated rhetoric to startle with divine possibility, reflecting Milton's blind yet visionary faith—timeless hymns to human potential.

Discussion Prompts

How does Milton's blindness inform his defiant gaze toward Eternity?
Does Shakespeare's 'live-long Monument' still hold in the digital age?

Understanding the Poems

On Time

1. Why has the poet pitted the flight of Time against the ‘lazy leaden-stepping hours’ and ‘the heavy Plummets pace’?

Answer:

To contrast Time's illusory haste with its sluggish reality, mocking its envy and ultimate futility against eternity.

2. What are the things associated with the temporal and what are associated with the eternal?

Answer:

Temporal: Falsehood, vanity, mortal dross, greed, envy.
Eternal: Bliss, joy, truth, peace, love, divine goodness.

3. What guides human souls towards divinity? Who is the final winner in the race against Time?

Answer:

Heavenly guidance; Eternity triumphs, consuming Time itself.

On Shakespear

1. Why does Milton feel it is not necessary to put up a monument in stone for Shakespeare?

Answer:

Shakespeare's verse creates an eternal, living monument in readers' hearts, surpassing stone.

2. What does the ‘weak witness of thy name’ refer to?

Answer:

Physical monuments like pyramids—fragile compared to Shakespeare's fame.

3. How does Milton describe Shakespeare as the source of inspiration for all succeeding generations of poets?

Answer:

As a 'dear son of memory' whose 'Delphic lines' imprint deeply, bereaving fancy and inspiring awe.

4. What is the best tribute that posterity has bestowed on Shakespeare?

Answer:

The living monument of wonder and imitation in every heart that reads him.

Language Work

1. Archaic Spelling Variations

Milton's 17th-century English features flexible orthography, with 'e' for vowel length and contractions.

Word	Modern Spelling	Milton's Era	Example
Time	time	Time	envious Time
Entombed	entombed	entomb’d	hast entomb’d
Climb	climb	clime	soul shall clime
Easy	easy	easie	easie numbers
Conceiving	conceiving	conceaving	too much conceaving
Shakespeare	Shakespeare	Shakespear	my Shakespear

2. Etymology Study

Etymology traces word origins. For ‘entomb’d’: [late ME entoumbe(n) MF entombe(r)].

Late Middle English origin.
French roots from 1578; ~30% English words French-derived post-Norman Conquest (1066–1250/1400).

Try This Out: Imagery in Context

Phrases: ‘heavy Plummets pace’ and ‘live-long Monument’

Phrase	(i) Literal	(ii) Figurative
Heavy Plummets pace	Clock weight's slow drop	Time's dragging inevitability
Live-long Monument	Eternal structure	Shakespeare's enduring inspiration

Task: Analyze 'individual kiss'—personal divine union vs. collective eternity.

Interactive Quiz - Test Your Understanding

10 MCQs on both poems, poet, themes, and language. Aim for 80%+ for mastery!

Complete Summary and Solutions for Poems by Milton – NCERT Class XII KALEIDOSCOPE English Elective, Chapter 2 – Poetry Summary, Explanation, Questions, Answers

Poems by Milton

Introduction to Poetry - Kaleidoscope

Key Elements of Poetry

Points to Ponder

Poet: John Milton (1608-1674)

Key Style: Epic & Sublime

Life Highlights

Influence & Legacy

Milton's Worldview

On Time: Full Text & Summary

Detailed Stanza-by-Stanza Summary

विस्तृत छंद-दर-छंद हिंदी सारांश

On Shakespear: Full Text & Summary

Detailed Stanza-by-Stanza Summary

विस्तृत छंद-दर-छंद हिंदी सारांश

Themes & Critical Analysis

Central Theme: Triumph over Time (On Time)

Central Theme: Immortality through Art (On Shakespear)

Milton's Grand Vision

Critical Appreciation

Discussion Prompts

Understanding the Poems

On Time

1. Why has the poet pitted the flight of Time against the ‘lazy leaden-stepping hours’ and ‘the heavy Plummets pace’?

2. What are the things associated with the temporal and what are associated with the eternal?

3. What guides human souls towards divinity? Who is the final winner in the race against Time?

On Shakespear

1. Why does Milton feel it is not necessary to put up a monument in stone for Shakespeare?

2. What does the ‘weak witness of thy name’ refer to?

3. How does Milton describe Shakespeare as the source of inspiration for all succeeding generations of poets?

4. What is the best tribute that posterity has bestowed on Shakespeare?

Language Work

1. Archaic Spelling Variations

2. Etymology Study

Try This Out: Imagery in Context

Interactive Quiz - Test Your Understanding

Suggested Reading

Core Milton Works

Further Exploration

Group Discussions