Unit 15 Poem OPPORTUNITY Walter Malone

Unit 15 Poem OPPORTUNITY Walter Malone Class 10 English Notes up to date.

OPPORTUNITY Walter Malone

A. Answer the following questions.

Q1: Who is the speaker of the poem?
Ans: Opportunity is the speaker of the poem.

Q2: It is a commonly held belief that opportunity knocks once at the door, but this belief is rejected outright by opportunity herself. Why?
Ans: Opportunity knocks once at the door; but this belief is rejected by opportunity herself and says that she comes at the door each day and gives the man a chance of waking, rising, and fighting for getting a successful life.

Q3: What is the advice of “Opportunity” to those who have failed or lost opportunities in the past?
Ans: The advice of opportunity to those who have lost or failed opportunity in the past is not to show grief over past failures rather continue your struggles and do not be discouraged because opportunity comes in life again and again. So, forget your past and have a new start.

Q4: What was the effect of the poem “Opportunity” on you?
Ans: This poem has a good effect on us. It gives us courage, hope, and satisfaction.

Q5: What is the key theme of the poem “Opportunity” explain.
Ans: The key theme of the poem “Opportunity” is that opportunity knock at the door daily and gives the man a chance of waking, rising, and fighting to get success. Opportunity taught us to continue your struggles and do not be discouraged because it comes again and again in life. So, forget your past failure and have a new start.

Q6: Point out some of the devices used by the poet in this poem?
Ans: The poet has used many poetic devices in this poem. In the 3rd line of 1st stanza, the poet has personified the opportunity who stands before our home door, calls us to wake and fight. The poet says in stanza 3 “White as snow” it is a simile.

B. Choose the correct option.
1. (c) Personification 2. (a) Upset about 3. (a) Alliteration
4. (a) Simile 5. (a) Hopeful

Who is the speaker in this poem?

Opportunity is the speaker in this poem.

It is a commonly held belief that opportunity knocks once at the door, but this belief is rejected outright by opportunity herself. Why?

Opportunity herself has rejected the commonly held belief that opportunity comes once in a person’s life because she herself is saying that it is not true. She (opportunity) keeps on standing outside the door of the person to wake him up to fight and win his battle i.e. to grab the opportunity and get success through hard work.

What is the advice of opportunity to those who have failed or lost the opportunity in the past?

Opportunity is giving advice to all those who have faced failure or lost something in the past that they must not lose courage. Every night she (opportunity) burns the records of the day and with the rising of the sun, everything starts all again for the person from the scratch meaning that it might be possible that the opportunity comes again in that person’s life who has a desire to achieve something in life.

Q.4) What was the effect of this poem, ‘opportunity’ on you? Describe your own response in your own words.

Answer:
Walter Malone’s poem ‘opportunity’ has the potential to cast a positive effect on the mind of the reader. Similarly, I feel myself quite enthusiastic and optimistic towards life after reading this poem. The reason is that opportunity herself gives the assurance that if someone misses her once she keeps on coming to the door of that person only if he is ambitious enough to carry out his plans in order to get success.

Q.5) What is the key theme of the poem, “opportunity”? Explain the various themes discussed in the poem.

Answer:
The key theme of the poem ‘opportunity’ is about holding an optimistic approach to life. It happens many a time that a person faces any failure or loss, he becomes a dishearted person. But the opportunity comes in the life of a person, again and again, to raise his morale and give him the courage to start his life all over again with full zeal and zest forgetting about the past bitter experiences.

Q.6) Point out some of the poetic devices used by the poet in the poem ‘Opportunity’ and identify the line/lines.

Answer:
Some of the poetic devices used by the poet are:
Personification:
Opportunity is personified as a human figure of a female in the poem.
Imagery:
Visual, olfactory and auditory imagery is used by the poet. The words that explain imagery are wail, weep, burn, laugh, hands, arm, feet, hell, and heaven.
Alliteration:
Alliteration is used by the poet in the following lines
They do me wrong who say I come no more
When once I knock and fail to find you in
And bid you wake, and rise to fight and win
Weep not for golden ages on the wane
At sunrise, every soul is born again
Dost reel from righteous Retribution’s blow?
And find the future’s pages white as snow
Art thou a sinner? Sins may be forgiven
Laugh like a boy at splendours that have sped
To vanished joys be blind and deaf and dumb
Though deep in mire, wring not your hands and weep
No shame-faced outcast ever sank so deep
But yet might rise and be again a man
Simile:
A simile is used by the poet in the line
And find the future’s pages as white as snow
Rhyme:
The rhyme pattern of ACBD is observed throughout the poem.

Vocabulary

A. Look at these words in the table below, besides its surface meaning these words have been purposely used to give depth to the meaning of the poem. Consult a dictionary for its literal sense and try to find out its conceivable connotations.

Word	Dictionary/denotative meaning	Conceivable Connotations
Knock	strike a surface noisily to attract attention, especially when waiting to be let in through a door.	someone’s arrival
Wake	emerge or cause to emerge from sleep	create awareness
Fight	take part in a violent struggle involving the exchange of physical blows or the use of weapons.	play a specific role
Win	be successful or victorious in (a contest or conflict).	become successful
Born	existing as a result of birth.	revival of soemthing
Hell	in some religions, the place where some people are believed to go after death to be punished forever for the bad things they have done during their lives	difficult situation/unavoidable circumstance
Heaven	paradise	favorable condition
Mire	an unpleasant situation that is difficult to escape	unpreventable
Rise	move from a lower position to a higher one	stand up for your right

B. Scan the poem, “Opportunity” for poetic words and make a list of them. Substitute these words with simple everyday words.

Answer:
Some of the poetic words that are used by the poet in the poem ‘opportunity’ are:
dost, thou, thy, thee
These words can be substituted with the following simple everyday words as:

Poetic Words	Simple Everyday Words
dost	do
thou	you
thy	your
thee	you

Writing

A. Write an expository paragraph on the message of the poem ‘Opportunity’. Explain in your own writing how effective or not the message of the poem is.

Answer:
The message of the poem is very strong as it has something that evokes a sense of optimism, passion, and courage among the readers. The message is quite effective as after reading this the reader erase the word of disappointment, failure, and loss from the dictionary of his life.

B. Paraphrase the first and last stanza of the poem “Opportunity”.

Answer:
Paraphrase of First Stanza:
They (people) hold a wrong perception about me (opportunity) that if I come once at the door of a person, I will not come again there. But it is not true. If I knock at the door of someone and couldn’t find anyone, I do come there almost every day and stand and wait for him outside the door. I ask the person to wake up from his sound sleep to fight and win the battle in your life.

Paraphrase of Last Stanza:
Though there come difficult times and situations in the life of a person when he starts feeling dejected and helpless. He tries hard to get out of that situation and some times weep too when unable to cope up with that. Even for such harsh moments, the opportunity is lighting a torch of hope in the mind of the distressed beings that they must not lose hope, she is there to help and lend her arm to only that person who is passionate and ambitious enough to stand and be the man again. According to her, if a person is shameful on his wrong act then he cannot sink deep in the muddy realm of human thoughts rather than he shows courage to rise and behave in a gentleman like impressive manner.

C. “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work”. Develop a mind map on this quote and write a detailed persuasive essay with help of this mind map.

Answer:
‘Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity.’
(H. Jackson Brown Jr.)
Opportunity is not only a word but it can be referred more to the time that comes in the life of an individual bringing chances, hopes, aspiration, and positivity. Every human is blessed by Allah Almighty with a brain that makes or breaks the life of a person. It is true to some extent that opportunity comes in the life of an individual at once.

It comes and knocks at the door if a person is wise enough only then he would be able to make the best of his abilities and talents and thus become a successful being. Our life is an opportunity given to us by Allah. Now it is up to us how we are going to utilize this opportunity either in a positive or a negative way.
Keeping in view the inspirational and thought-provoking quote by Thomas Edison,

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work”

I consider it true as many times opportunity comes and even waits for us at our doors but we intentionally or unintentionally ignore it because we are unaware of its presence due to its hidden identity. This refers to the fact that when the opportunity makes its appearance in the life of the individuals, it comes usually in the form of work and most of the people ignore it as they want to run away from doing hard work or to shoulder the responsibilities of life. In this way, the opportunity is missed by several people as they consider opportunity only a form of work.

For instance, at the student level, if a child is fortunate enough to get a good education, he does not bother and consider it a burden although it is the opportunity that he is having that would ultimately mark his destiny.
In a real sense, the opportunity is nothing else but it is the ‘Time’ that plays different roles in the life of various people. It is the most powerful deciding factor that makes millions of people think and work differently at the same time. We all have got an opportunity to lead our life and the same twenty-four hours has been allotted to all of us. But some fortunate people flourish and prosper while some suffer and remain in poverty due to their intentional or intentional ‘No’ to opportunity.

In the nutshell, we must understand the importance of opportunity in our life as it is something that changes the shape of our life constructively or destructively depending upon how we treat it at the appropriate time.

Grammar

A. Use appropriate punctuation marks (full stop, colon, semicolon, a hyphen, quotation marks, and question mark) in the following sentences.

i) We had a great time in Peshawar the kids really enjoyed it.
ii) Some people work best in the morning’s others do better in the evenings.
iii) What are you doing next weekend?
iv) Mother had to go to the hospital she had heart problems
v) It is a fine idea let us hope that it is going to work
vi) Sorry to disturb you could I speak to you for a moment
vii) We will be arriving on Monday morning at least I think so
viii) In the words of Murphy’s Law Anything that can go wrong will go wrong

Answer:
i) We had a great time in Peshawar. The kids really enjoyed it.
ii) Some people work best in the morning’s; others do better in the evenings.
iii) What are you doing next weekend?
iv) Mother had to go to the hospital, she had heart problems.
v) It is a fine idea. Let us hope that it is going to work.
vi) Sorry to disturb you. Could I speak to you for a moment?
vii) We will be arriving on Monday morning at least I think so.
viii) In the words of Murphy’s Law, “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

B. Place the appropriate mark (selecting from the dash, ellipses or brackets) where needed in the following sentences. If the sentence is correct as written, indicate with a “C”.

i) “I’m excited about the party, yet.”
ii) “I had never met him before last night when he come to my house,” Aslam explained.
iii) I remember a time when everyone used to quote famous appeal, “Ask not what your country can but what you can do for your country.”
iv) Tariq hesitated at first, but then he said, “well, you are welcome to stay in the guest room.”
v) All the children six sisters two half-sisters and four full sisters and two brothers were at their parents’ home for the celebration.

Answer:
i) “I’m excited about the party, yet.” (C)
ii) “I had never met him before last night when he comes to my house,” Aslam explained. (C)
iii) I remember a time when everyone used to quote a famous appeal, “Ask not what your country can but what you can do for your country.”
iv) Tariq hesitated at first, but then he said, “Well, you are welcome to stay in the guest room.”
v) All the children six sisters, two half-sisters, and four full sisters and two brothers were at their parents’ home for the celebration.