Words Questions & Answers | Class 9 English | CBSE NCERT

(b) summer birds

(b) ABAB (heart/care/depart/air)

(b) vanish, leaving nothing substantial behind

Simile — words are directly compared to summer birds using the word 'like'.

Less care — the heart would be freer of worry and sorrow.

Summer birds appear for a season and then fly away, leaving nothing behind. Similarly, words sound pleasing for a moment but soon depart, leaving only empty air.

(b) a pilgrim upon earth

(c) weeds

(b) metaphor

A pilgrim is a traveller on a long, searching journey. The heart, too, journeys through life seeking comfort and love, often finding that words cannot give what it needs.

'earth' rhymes with 'worth', and 'needs' rhymes with 'weeds' (rhyme scheme ABAB).

Value — the heart finds that words have as little value as weeds when it truly needs comfort.

(b) deeper joy

(c) touch the heart

(b) give or convey

Between few sincere words and hosts of empty words: the few, truly said, impart deeper joy, while many words only reach the head and never touch the heart.

A large number or great multitude of.

Many words are only intellectually understood — heard and admired — but they do not move the emotions; only sincere words truly touch the heart.

(b) the fewest words to say

(b) admiration and tenderness

(a) has

A warm, cheerful, sincere voice that brightens a lonely home; it says little, but its few words are very dear.

To comfort, brighten or gladden — the voice brings sunshine into a lonely home.

The voice is pictured as sunshine entering a lonely home — 'sunny' suggests warmth and brightness, showing how a few warm words light up a cheerless house.

(b) hold a feast

(b) oft satisfy the least

(c) often

"The world might hold a feast" — an exaggeration showing how completely content humanity would be if words could truly satisfy.

Called upon at the moment of real need — when we actually depend on words for comfort, they usually fail us.

To express the poet's disillusionment — words, when truly needed, satisfy the least!

(a) gaudy show

(c) one particle of fruit

(b) simile

Empty, showy words — impressive to look at, like plants covered in blossom, but unable to produce anything of real value for the heart.

Showy, bright and over-decorated in a tasteless way.

Blossom is outward show; fruit is real substance. Empty words are all blossom — show without substance — and cannot grow even one particle of fruit.

The poet says words are like summer birds that depart, leaving behind only empty air. However sweet they sound, words vanish quickly and fill no real space — they cannot nourish or satisfy the heart's deeper hunger.

Summer birds appear for a season and then fly away, leaving nothing behind. Similarly, words sound pleasing for the moment but soon depart, leaving only empty air — they cannot satisfy the heart's real needs.

A pilgrim is a traveller on a long, searching journey, dependent on others for comfort. The heart, too, journeys through life seeking love and comfort, and often discovers that words are as worthless as weeds.

The heart, like a pilgrim on earth, needs real comfort in moments of sorrow, loneliness or longing. It is precisely then that it discovers words to be of as little worth as weeds — plentiful, yet useless when truly needed.

A few words spoken with sincerity bring greater and deeper happiness than a flood of words. Truthful, heartfelt speech reaches the heart, while "hosts of words" are merely heard by the head and soon forgotten.

Many words merely "reach the head" — they are heard and intellectually understood, but leave the emotions untouched, like an impressive speech that we admire and instantly forget. Words that "touch the heart" move us deeply because they are sincere.

That voice has "the fewest words to say", yet its few words succeed in brightening a lonely home. Because they are sincere, warm and well-chosen, they are precious — "But, oh! those few, how dear!"

The world might hold a feast — everyone would be fully content and would celebrate, because the longing of every heart would be met by mere words. But words, when summoned to the test, oft satisfy the least.

They "oft satisfy the least" — when we actually depend on words in a moment of real need, they usually fail us and give almost no comfort at all, like showy plants without fruit.

Showy flowering plants look impressive, covered in blossom from top to root, yet their poor nature cannot grow a single particle of fruit. Likewise, empty words look brilliant outside but produce nothing of value.

We should speak less but mean what we say — "a little said, and truly said". Words should be weighed and chosen with care, so that whatever is spoken is sincere and touches the heart rather than impressing the head.

Every stanza follows the ABAB rhyme scheme — for example, in the first stanza 'heart' rhymes with 'depart', and 'care' rhymes with 'air'. The pattern gives the poem a song-like quality.

The words 'words', 'heart' and 'satisfy' recur throughout. The repetition keeps returning to the poem's central question — can words ever satisfy the heart? — and hammers home the answer that they cannot.

It is a metaphor — the heart is implicitly called a pilgrim, a lonely traveller on earth searching for comfort. The comparison conveys the heart's endless, often unfulfilled, search for true solace.

Admiration and tenderness. The poet marvels at how precious a few sincere words are — the voice that cheers a lonely home says little, but each of its few words is deeply valued.

The heart, a pilgrim on earth, finds in its moment of need that words are of as little worth as just so many weeds. Weeds are plentiful but useless, just like words that cannot comfort.

It suggests a voice that is warm, cheerful and bright like sunshine, which finds its way into hearts and cheers a lonely home, even though it has the fewest words to say.

The heart is "a pilgrim upon earth" — a solitary traveller — and the fourth stanza speaks of "a lonely home" needing cheer. The poem implies the lonely heart is nourished only by a few sincere words.

They express strong feeling — admiration for the few dear words that cheer a lonely home, and disillusionment at words that satisfy the least and cannot grow one particle of fruit.

Words, however plentiful, cannot truly satisfy the heart; like summer birds they depart and like gaudy plants they bear no fruit. Only a few sincere, truly meant words touch the heart and give real joy.

The poem argues that words, however many, cannot truly satisfy the heart. Like summer birds they vanish; like weeds they are worthless; like showy plants they are all blossom and no fruit. Only a few words, honestly and lovingly said, touch the heart and give real joy.

The words 'words', 'heart' and 'satisfy' recur throughout the poem. The repetition hammers home the central question — can words ever satisfy the heart? Each return of these words deepens the poet's argument that they cannot, and that only sincere words have true worth.

Through a chain of images: words are summer birds that leave empty air; they are weeds of little worth; "hosts of words" reach only the head; and they are like gaudy plants, all blossom but unable to grow one particle of fruit. Each image stresses outward show without substance.

The poem repeatedly sets many words against few. "Hosts of words" only reach the head, while "a little said, and truly said" imparts deeper joy. The voice that cheers a lonely home "hath oft the fewest words to say", yet those few are dear. Quality, not quantity, matters.

The lines suggest that real communication must reach the heart, not merely the head. The heart journeys through life like a pilgrim, needing genuine comfort; words, plentiful as weeds, cannot supply it. True communication lies in sincerity, not in the number of words spoken.

The heart needs words most in moments of sorrow, loneliness or longing, when it seeks comfort and sympathy. It is precisely then that it finds words of as little worth as just so many weeds — plentiful, yet powerless to give real solace.

Every image is abundant but worthless: summer birds appear and depart; weeds grow everywhere yet have no value; gaudy plants are all blossom but grow no fruit. The natural images show that words, too, are plentiful and showy, yet cannot satisfy the heart's true hunger.

Yes. Words are first futile — like departing birds and worthless weeds — then precious when few and truly said. The contrast between "hosts of words" that never touch the heart and the few dear words that cheer a lonely home runs through the poem.

The final image of gaudy plants — all blossom to the root, yet unable to grow one particle of fruit — captures everything said before: words make an impressive outward show but cannot satisfy the heart. Substance, not show, is what the heart truly needs.

The poem teaches us to weigh our words and speak with sincerity. Rather than pouring out "hosts of words" that reach only the head, we should say a little, and truly say it — for only sincere words touch hearts, comfort the lonely and impart deeper joy.

The poem consistently sets two kinds of words against each other. On one side stand the many and the empty: words "like summer birds" that depart leaving empty air; words as worthless "as just so many weeds"; "hosts of words, which reach the head, / But never touch the heart"; and gaudy plants, all blossom and no fruit. On the other side stands the few and the true: "A little said, and truly said" can impart deeper joy, and the voice that cheers a lonely home "hath oft the fewest words to say" — but those few are dear. The contrast teaches that quantity of speech is worthless without sincerity, and that the heart, a pilgrim upon earth, is nourished only by words that are truly meant.

The poet builds the theme almost entirely through imagery and comparison. Similes present words as "summer birds" that depart leaving "empty air", as worthless as "just so many weeds", and as plants that make "a gaudy show" but cannot grow "one particle of fruit". A metaphor makes the heart "a pilgrim upon earth", forever searching for comfort it rarely finds. Hyperbole — "If words could satisfy the chest, / The world might hold a feast" — exaggerates to show how impossible that satisfaction is, since the heart's hunger cannot be filled by speech. The ABAB rhyme scheme and musical rhythm give the reflective tone a gentle, song-like quality, while the repeated words 'words', 'heart' and 'satisfy' bind all six stanzas around one central question.

Loneliness runs quietly beneath the poem. The heart itself is "a pilgrim upon earth" — a solitary traveller searching for comfort in an indifferent world. The fourth stanza is built around "a lonely home" that needs cheering, and the voice that cheers it wins its "sunny way" precisely because the home is sunk in loneliness; its few words are dear because they answer that isolation. Even the opening picture — words departing like summer birds and leaving "but empty air" — suggests a person left alone after fair-weather comforters have gone. The poet implies that the lonely heart needs more than the usual currency of speech: only sincere words, few but true, can reach across that solitude and touch the heart.

The central idea of Charles Swain's poem "Words" is that words, however plentiful, cannot truly satisfy the heart; only a few sincere words have real worth. The poet builds this idea step by step. First, words are compared to summer birds that depart, leaving but empty air. Then the heart is shown as a pilgrim upon earth that finds words as worthless as weeds in its hour of need. The third stanza states the positive side: "A little said, and truly said" gives deeper joy than hosts of words that reach the head but never touch the heart. The fourth stanza points to the cheering voice that has the fewest, yet dearest, words. The last two stanzas complete the argument: if words could satisfy, the world would hold a feast — but words satisfy the least, for they are like gaudy plants, all blossom and no fruit.

"Words" is a sustained critique of empty talk. The poet lists the failings of mere words one after another: they "depart" like summer birds and leave "but empty air"; when the heart truly needs comfort, words prove "of as little worth / As just so many weeds"; and "hosts of words" only "reach the head" but "never touch the heart". The final image is the most damaging — empty words are like plants that make "a gaudy show", covered in blossom to the root, yet whose "poor nature cannot grow / One particle of fruit". They look impressive but produce nothing. Against this show the poet places the alternative: a little, truly said, imparts deeper joy, and the voice that cheers a lonely home has the fewest words — but those few are dear. The poem warns us against hollow eloquence and values sincerity above abundance.

The poem is highly relevant in the age of instant messaging and social media, where we are surrounded by more words than ever before — chats, posts, comments and forwards arrive all day long. Yet, like the "summer birds" that "depart, / And leave but empty air", most of these words vanish without touching anyone's heart. The poem reminds us that "hosts of words, which reach the head, / But never touch the heart" cannot comfort a lonely friend or a troubled relative. What reaches people is "a little said, and truly said" — a few sincere words of congratulations, sympathy or love. The voice that cheers a lonely home has the fewest words, but they are dear. In a world of endless but empty communication, Swain's advice to prefer quality over quantity is more valuable than ever.

The poet's argument develops logically across the six stanzas. Stanza 1 states the problem: if words could satisfy the heart, it would find less care — but words, like summer birds, depart, leaving empty air. Stanza 2 deepens it: the heart, a pilgrim upon earth, discovers in its moment of need that words are as worthless as weeds. Stanza 3 turns to the positive alternative: a little, truly said, gives deeper joy than hosts of words that never touch the heart. Stanza 4 illustrates this with the cheering voice that has the fewest, dearest words. Stanzas 5 and 6 deliver the verdict: even if words could satisfy, the world would hold a feast — but put to the test, they satisfy the least, for they are gaudy plants that cannot grow one particle of fruit. The poem thus moves from complaint to conclusion in a balanced way.

B. Charles Swain

C. only empty air

A. pilgrim

B. weeds

B. reach the head but never touch the heart

B. the fewest words to say

B. ABAB

C. simile

D. one particle of fruit

C. a few sincere words are worth more than many empty ones

B. words (along with 'heart', it anchors the poem's central concern)

C. often

The two texts approach words from opposite directions but meet on common ground. The poem "Words" is sceptical of plenty: words, like summer birds, depart and leave empty air; hosts of them reach the head but never touch the heart. What matters, says Charles Swain, is "a little said, and truly said". The prose shows exactly this truth in action: Khetaram, the Carrier of Words, speaks little, yet the few words he carries — a letter read out twice, a reply drafted in a shaky hand — comfort, connect and sustain the oases of humanity near the border. A birth announcement earns jaggery; a letter of condolence is handled with the greatest care. Together the texts teach that words are powerful not when they are many, but when they are sincere, and that even a single, faithfully delivered word can be a lifeline.

Both texts agree that words deeply affect the human heart, for better or worse. Khetaram knows a letter bearing Ashubh Samachar can wound a household, so he shields families by reading it outside and tearing it to bits. The poem warns that careless, empty words leave the heart untouched and unsatisfied, while a few true words cheer even a lonely home. Both suggest we should treat words with care and sincerity.

Khetaram is closer to the poet's ideal. He is a man of few words himself — brief, sincere statements like "Main tayyar hoon" and "Bad news must be destroyed" — yet each of his words and deeds truly touches hearts: reading letters to villagers, drafting replies, sharing joys and griefs. He embodies "a little said, and truly said", unlike those who use hosts of empty words. End of Question Bank — Unit 7, NCERT Kaveri, Grade 9 English.