a) From the lines the river is described as sparkling, dancing over pebbles and glancing through flowers and leaves — i.e. a lively, playful flow. b) 'Foliage' is a collective term for leaves and leafy growth on plants and trees.
a) The river flows sparkling and dancing over the yellow pebbles and glancing through flowers and foliage, moving playfully. b) 'Foliage' means the leaves and leafy parts of plants.
a) 'Swelling' conveys increased volume and force of the river, giving it momentum. b) The poem contrasts rough (rocks, uneven places) and smooth (calmer stretches, pebbly banks) patches the river rushes through.
a) 'Swelling' suggests the river is full, powerful and surging (often after rain) — growing in volume and strength. b) It flows through rough and smooth surfaces — e.g. over rocks and along rose-banks.
a) 'By rose-banks' indicates roses grow along the river banks. b) 'Impetuous youth' identifies the stage as youth (young, reckless stage).
a) The rose grows on the rose-banks (i.e. the river's banks). b) The river is compared to impetuous youth — the youthful stage of life.
a) The description 'broad and deep' refers to the river. b) The expression is a simile/metaphor: the river seems as unchanging as time, but time is not literally still — it stresses the river's calm surface despite ongoing motion.
a) The river is broad and deep. b) No — 'still as time' is a poetic comparison; time itself is not still, the river only appears calm though it continues moving.
a) 'Tending onward to the ocean' clearly states the river's destination — the sea. b) 'Mortal prime' refers to the prime (best/most vigorous) phase of human life; the poet compares this phase to the river's mature, steady stage.
a) The river is flowing to the ocean (the sea). b) 'Mortal prime' means the prime or mature stage of a human life — the period of strength and productivity in a mortal (human) life.
Lines 1 and 4 rhyme (way / play). Lines 2 and 3 rhyme (dancing / glancing).
The rhyming pairs are: 'way' — 'play' and 'dancing' — 'glancing'.
In the first stanza lines 1 and 4 rhyme (A), lines 2 and 3 rhyme (B) giving ABBA. The poem maintains the same pattern in other quatrains.
Each stanza follows the rhyme scheme ABBA.
The phrase 'Like a child at play' uses 'like' to compare the river to a child — a simile. Similar comparisons in the poem use 'like' or 'just like' to compare the river to youth and to the prime of life.
Figure of speech: Simile. Other examples: 'Like impetuous youth', 'Just like mortal prime' — both are similes.
Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds: 'Seeming still' (s), 'flowers and foliage' (f), 'rocks...rose-banks' (r). These create a musical effect in the poem.
a) Alliteration: 'still...still' (repetition of 's' sound). b) Other examples: 'flowers and foliage' (f), 'yellow pebbles' (p sound repeated in 'pebbles'/'play'), 'rocks...rose-banks' (r).
An epithet is an adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a characteristic. The poem uses adjectives like 'yellow' (pebbles), 'swelling' (river), 'impetuous' (youth), and phrases like 'broad and deep' to describe the river.
Examples of epithets: 'yellow pebbles', 'swelling river', 'impetuous youth', 'broad and deep', 'mortal prime'.
These phrases create vivid visual images (sparkling water, yellow pebbles, flowers, rose-banks) and tactile/motion images (sweeping, rushing), helping readers picture the river and its movements.
Imagery examples: 'Bright you sparkle', 'yellow pebbles dancing', 'flowers and foliage glancing', 'over rocks, by rose-banks sweeping', 'broad and deep, and still as time'.
The answer ties each stanza to a life stage using the poem’s similes ('like a child', 'impetuous youth', 'mortal prime') and images (sparkling, rushing, broad/deep, tending to ocean), showing how the river’s changing character represents childhood, youth, maturity and the life’s final journey.
The poet likens the river's stages to stages of human life. In the opening stanza the river sparkles and plays over pebbles and flowers 'like a child at play', suggesting childhood’s innocence. The second stanza portrays the river as 'impetuous youth' rushing over rocks and through rough and smooth patches, sweeping and reckless like adolescence. The third stanza shows the river broad, deep and steady, 'just like mortal prime' — representing mature adulthood: calm on the surface but still moving toward purpose. Finally, the river's long journey to the sea mirrors life’s ultimate progression toward eternity. Through similes, vivid imagery and changing actions (playful, impetuous, steady, onward journey), the poet makes the river a striking metaphor for human life’s phases.
The paragraph draws on descriptive phrases (sparkle, sweeping, broad and deep), the poem’s personification (youth, prime) and action words (rush, sweeping) to explain how the river nurtures and also has force capable of destruction.
The poem presents the river's features: it sparkles and dances (clear, lively surface), runs over 'yellow pebbles', sweeps 'over rocks' and runs 'broad and deep'. Its functions are suggested through lines that show the river moving with purpose and carrying 'stores' (nourishment, implied support for life) and being 'dear to all' in different places — it sustains both low and high. Its destructive power is indicated by the 'impetuous youth' image and the verb 'sweeping', implying the river can rush and uproot as it grows fierce in rough stretches or floods. Thus the poem balances gentle, life-giving imagery with hints of forceful energy that can sweep away obstacles, showing the river as both nurturing and potentially destructive.
Completed text: In the poem 'The River', the poet compares the flow of the river with different stages of human life. The first stanza explains how the sparkling river goes dancing over the yellow pebbles and glancing through the flowers and leaves. These acts of the river is compared to a curious and innocent child at play. The second stanza compares the river to a reckless youth who goes through rough and smooth patches of life. Like a youth, here the river becomes louder, faster and sweeping everything all along the way. In the third stanza, the river becomes like a hard working man who is at the prime phase of the life. Here the deep and broad river seems motionless but it keeps moving towards the sea like a matured man who silently marches towards the goal. In the last stanza the long journey of the river reaches the endless sea like a human life attains eternity.
Filled summary: 1) stages of human life 2) the yellow pebbles 3) child 4) reckless youth 5) sweeping 6) prime phase 7) motionless 8) journey