TARTARY
Poem 6
Std X – Chapter 14 English
Author Name: Walter de Ia Mare
Pre-reading task
• a) Dreaming is a unique ability of human beings. Find out how
many in the class dream in their sleep. Let them recall their
dreams and tell you the wonderful places they visited and the
wonderful feelings/experience they had in their dreams.
SUMMARY OF THE POEM
• Dreaming is a unique ability of human beings. In our
dreams we visit many strange places and we indulge
in wonderful activities, which are really impossible in
our real life.
• ‘Tartary’ is a beautiful poem by Walter de la Mare in
which he describes himself as the Lord of Tartary.
About the Author
• Walter is the author of many
poems in which dreams and
reality, fairies and humble natural
creatures, are delightfully
blended.
• Educated at St. Paul’s Cathedral
School, Walter de la Mare was
engaged in business in London for
some years.
• His early books were published
under the name of Walter Ramal.
His work includes the Listeners,
Peacock Pie, the Veil, The burning
Glass, and Winged Chariot.
• He has also written some novels
and stories for children.
• Walter de la Mare
(1873 - 1956)
For Memorization
If I were Lord of Tartary,
Myself and me alone,
My bed should be of Ivory,
Of beaten gold my throne;
And in my court should peacocks flaunt,
And in my forests tigers haunt,
And in my pools great fishes slant
their fins athwart the sun.
If I were Lord of Tartary,
Trumpeters every day
To every meal summon me,
And in my courtyard bray;
And in the evening lamps would shine,
Yellow as honey, red as wine,
While harp1, and flute, and mandoline,
Made music sweet and gay.
If I were Lord of Tartary,
I’d wear a robe of beads,
White, and Gold, and green they’d be
And cluttered thick as seeds:
And ere should wane3 the morning star,
I’d don4 my robe and scimitar.
And zebras seven should draw my car
through Tartary’s dark glade.
Lord of the fruits of Tartary,
Her rivers silver-pale!
Lord of the hills of Tartary,
Glen, thicket, wood and dale
Her flashing stars, her scented breeze,
Her trembling lakes,like foamless seas,
Her bird-delighting citron-trees
In every purple vale!
Glossary
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1. flaunt: show of public admiration.
2. haunt: visit a place often.
3. slant: go quietly.
4. fin: a thin flat part of the body of a fish, used for swimming.
5. athwart: in a sloping direction.
6. summon: call.
7. bray (v): make sound.
8. harp: a stringed musical instrument.
9. gay: happy.
10. wane: grow gradually smaller and less bright.
11. don: put on.
12. scimitar: a sword.
13. glade: an open space.
14. glen: valley.
15. thicket: a thick growth of bushes.
16. dale: valley.
17. vale: valley.
Exercises
(I.A Four answers are given below each statement.
Pick out the best answer)
• 1. In Tartary the Lord’s bed would be made of
a. gold, b. silver, c. ivory, d. wood
• 2. The Lord of Taratary would be summoned to meal by
a) peacocks, b) trumpeters, c) harp and mandoline,
d) flute
• 3. The car of the Lord of Tartary would be drawn by
a. peacocks, b. musicians, c. horses, d. zebras
• 4. ‘I’d wear a robe of beads white, and gold, and green
they’d be - and clustered thick as seeds’. The figure of
speech employed here is
a. simile, b. metaphor, c. personification, d. irony
Exercises
(Answer the following questions in a sentence or two each)
• 1. What does the poet say about his bed and
throne in Tartary?
• 2. What animals and birds would there be in
Tartary?
• 3. How would the evenings be in Tartary?
• 4. What does the poet say about the robe of
the Lord of Tartary?
• 5. What does the poet say about the rivers in
Tartary?
Exercises
(C. Read the following extracts and answer the questions
that follow)
•
1. ‘And in my court should peacocks flaunt’.
a. Which poem is the line taken from?
b. Who does the word ‘my’ refer to?
c. What does ‘flaunt’ mean?
•
2. ‘And ere should wane the morning star, I’d don my robe and scimitar’
a. Who does the ‘I’ refer to?
b. What time of the day does this line refer to?
c. What does ‘ere’ mean?
•
3. ‘Her flashing stars, her scented breeze, Her trembling lakes, like foamless seas’
a. Which poem is the line taken from?
b. Who does ‘her’ refer to?
c. What does ‘flashing stars’ mean?
II Activities
• 1) Pick out the pairs of rhyming words from
the poem.
• 2) Pick out the word from the poem, which
means ‘valley.’
• 3) Make a list of birds and animals mentioned
in the poem.
• 4) There are many word-pictures in the poem.
They bring beautiful pictures to our mind.
• Silver-pale rivers
• Trembling Lakes