Multiple choice

What is the theme of the poem, ‘On the Grasshopper and the Cricket’?

Directions: Read the following poem carefully and answer the given question:

On the Grasshopper and the Cricket
                                 By John Keats
The poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
That is the Grasshopper's -- he takes the lead
In summer luxury, he has never done
With his delights; for when tired out with fun
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought silence, from the stove there shrills
The Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,
The Grasshopper's among some grassy hills.

  1. To depict the beauty of nature

  2. To depict the life cycle of a grasshopper

  3. To depict the life cycle of a cricket

  4. To tell that sounds of nature don’t end even after the birds go to sleep
Reveal answer Fill a bubble to check yourself
D Correct answer
Explanation

The poem's central theme is 'The poetry of earth is never dead' and 'The poetry of earth is ceasing never'. Keats shows that when birds stop singing in summer heat, the grasshopper continues the 'poetry of earth'. When winter brings frost and silence, the cricket takes over. Nature's music never ends - different creatures sing in different seasons. Option D captures this continuous nature theme.

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