A Slumber did my Spirit Seal Important Questions and

Answers
Short answer type question
Q1. What happened to the poet’s beloved?
Ans. The beloved of the poet was gone. She was no longer a living person. Through the
poetry, the poet honours her sweetheart. Her spirit is now tranquil or sealed by death. All
human fears were put to rest by her death. She had passed away and was no longer
susceptible to human mortality.

Q2. How does she become an inseparable part of nature?

Ans. The poet’s beloved merges with nature and becomes a part of it. She gets rolled
around in the earth’s course by rocks, stones, and trees while stuck beneath the earth’s
surface. She is moving in the daily course of the planet. In actuality, she has merged with
nature or has become an inseparable component of it.

Q3. Is she visible? If not, why not?

Ans. No, she is not visible because she no longer exists. She is invisible to the sight. She can
be seen by the poet in his soul. She now moves with the planetary diurnal cycle. She has
merged with the trees, rocks, and other elements of nature.

Q4. How will time not affect the poet’s beloved?

Ans. The poet’s beloved is dead and a dead thing becomes immortal. The fact that
immortality is unaffected by time or the physical world is a commonly acknowledged truth.
The poet’s beloved can neither see nor hear. She has left the physical world behind. She has
reached the end of her earthly years. She was absorbed into the daily cycle of nature and
became a part of nature’s diurnal course.

Q5. How does the poet react to his beloved’s death?

Ans. The death of the poet’s beloved is so sudden and unexpected that his mind as well as
his body seems to be closed off. A deep slumber has taken hold over him. His spirit seems
to be sealed. He has lost touch of earthly consciousness. Her death has cut him off from all
earthly fears. A deep slumber has engulfed all his worldly feelings.

Q6. How does the poet imagine her beloved after her sudden and untimely death?
Ans. The poet’s beloved is no longer a living being in this mortal world. She would be
beyond the touch of earthly years. She is beyond the action and reaction of all five senses
and the earthly body. She will, however, merge completely with nature. She will be moving
with the daily rotation of the planet. She will merge with the trees, rocks, and other
elements of nature.

Question 7. “A slumber did my spirit seal”, says the poet. That is, a deep sleep ‘closed off’
his soul (or mind). How does the poet react to his loved one’s death? Does he feel a deep
sense of grief? Or does he feel great peace?
Answer: The poet is shocked and surprised at the death of his loved one. It feels painful.
Death does not make anyone feel good. It is always associated with misery.

Question 8. The passing of time will no longer affect her, says the poet. Which lines of the
poem say this?
Answer: “She seemed a thing that could not feel the touch of earthly years”.

Question 9. How does the poet imagine her to be, after death? Does he think of her as a
person living in a very happy state (a ‘heaven’)? Or does he see her now as a part of
nature? In which lines of the poem do you find your answer?
Answer: The poet imagines her to be an inseparable part of nature. No, he does not think
so because ‘heaven’ is not a dead thing. It is shown in the line ‘Rolled round in earth’s
diurnal course/With rocks and stones and trees’.

Question 10. Explain the line: “The touch of earthly years”. Who would not feel the touch
of earthly years?
Answer: The expression “The touch of earthly years,” refers to the ravages of old age faced
by human beings – the depletion of energy, diseases, senility and death which a person has
to suffer as one grows old during life on this earth. The poet’s beloved Lucy will not face
the problems of old age as she is no more alive.

Question 11. The poet does not refer to the death of Lucy. How does he reveal that she is no
more?
Answer: The poet does not refer to Lucy as being dead directly. However, he makes it
obvious that she is no longer alive by stating that she has become completely still,
motionless, inactive and inert. Moreover, she has lost her senses of hearing and seeing.

Question 12. How does the poet imagine “her” to be after death?
Answer: The poet imagines her to be at peace after death. She is in a deep sleep, no longer
affected by worldly affairs or by the passage of time. She is now part of nature. ‘No motion
has she now, no force She neither hears nor sees,’

Question 13. What does the poet mean by “earth’s diurnal course”? How has “she” become
a part of Earth’s diurnal course?
Answer: The phrase “earth’s diurnal course” refers to the daily rotation of the earth on its
axis that causes day and night. According to the poet Lucy has become an inseparable part
of the earth after her death. As she has mingled with the earth, she naturally participates in
its daily course just like the stones, the rocks, and the trees.

Question 14. What is the relation of Lucy with rocks, stones, and trees?
Answer: Lucy, after her death, has part of Nature as she has mingled with the soil. As such
she is a part of the other things on the earth like rocks, stones or trees. She has now become
a part of Nature.
Question 15. Give a brief summary of the poem ‘A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal’ in your
own words.
Answer: In the poem A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal the poet says that grief over the death
of his beloved has left him numb and that human fears no longer affect him. But he realises
the reality of life after her death and through this realisation he has now attained peace. He
is content as the passing of time will no longer affect her. She is in her grave, covered with
soil and has thus become the part of Nature and of the earth. She is rolling with the earth
as it turns from day to night and vice versa.

Long Answer Questions

Q1. Give a brief analysis of the poem ‘A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal’ in your own words.
Ans. The poet of “A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal” confesses his love (and sorrow over) an
enigmatic, idealised woman in this poem. The poet of this poem is struck by the strangeness
of his beloved’s passing since he has always imagined her as young and vibrant and finds it
difficult to comprehend that her body is now as inert as the “rocks, and stones, and trees.”
The poem serves as a reminder to readers that despite death’s certainty, the majority of
people live deeply delusional lives, seldom recognising their mortality.
The poet claims in the first stanza that the loss of his beloved left him feeling extremely
unhappy. He claims that his beloved has changed into a thing that is no longer alive and
cannot be touched by anything on earth. He claims that his beloved is motionless in the
second stanza. She can neither hear any sound nor can she see anything. She is imprisoned
beneath the ground and rotates around trees, rocks, and other objects.

Q2. How does the poet react to the untimely, sudden and shocking death of his beloved?
What does he imagine her to be after her death?
Ans. The poet is devastated by the abrupt and untimely death of his beloved. The poet’s
emotions are difficult to put into words. The poet’s body and spirit appeared to have been
sealed off by slumber (sound sleep). She is no more and will not be affected by the earthly
years as well as by the touch of five physical senses. She won’t experience any force,
motion, or movement. She won’t be able to hear or see either. Nevertheless, she will merge
completely with nature.
The speaker appears to awaken after losing his beloved and realises that his belief in his
loved one’s immortality was only a delusion. This alteration implies that grief compels
people to face a truth they’d prefer not acknowledge.
In the reality the speaker awakens to, his beloved is certainly past “the touch of earthly
years,” but only because she’s become an object, just like the “rocks, and stones, and
trees.” According to this natural imagery, dying is as normal as “earth’s diurnal course”
(the earth’s daily rotation).

Question 3. All of us know that nothing is ours permanently, then why do we suffer so
much to have more and more?(YEAR 2010)
Answer: It is true that nothing belongs to us permanently because one day we have to leave
all the things on the earth. Nevertheless, people crave more wealth, fame, knowledge,
beauty, and even crime because this is human nature. We cannot separate ourselves from
such things. If we give up our greed to have more and more, the world would be a much
better place to live in. People would not go to extremes to achieve something.

Question 4. How does the poet imagine her beloved after her sudden and untimely death?
(YEAR 2007)
Answer: Now his beloved is no more a part of this mortal world. She would be beyond the
touch of earthly years. She is beyond the action and reaction of all five senses and the
earthly body. However, she will become an inseparable part of nature. She will be rolling
round in earth’s diurnal course. She will become one with rocks, stones, and trees.