NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Kaveri Poem 7 – Words

If words could truly satisfy the heart, the heart would carry far less care — but words, like summer birds, depart and leave only empty air behind. The heart, a pilgrim journeying through life, often discovers in its hour of need that words are worth as little as so many weeds: abundant everywhere, nourishing nowhere.

The poet now states his positive truth: a little said, and truly said, imparts deeper joy than hosts of words that reach the head but never touch the heart. The voice that wins its sunny way into a lonely home to cheer it often has the fewest words to say — but oh, how dear those few words are!

If words could satisfy the chest — the feelings within — the whole world might hold a feast; but when summoned to the test, words usually satisfy the least. Empty words are like gaudy plants that are all blossom down to the root: a fine show, but their poor nature cannot grow one particle of fruit.

Words are our chief means of sharing ideas, feelings, knowledge and needs — they teach, comfort, persuade and connect us. Yet we can also communicate without words: through gestures, facial expressions, postures and eye contact (body language), through sign language, through symbols and pictures, and even through silence, a smile or a hug, which sometimes say more than speech.

Horizontal: 1. We eat food to satisfy our hunger.  2. The train will depart from the station at 5.00 p.m.  3. The gardener was removing the weeds to clean the flower beds.
Vertical: 4. The view from the top of the hill was worth the difficult climb.  5. The herbs and spices add flavour to food.  6. Flowers blossom in spring.  7. We enjoyed a delicious feast after the ceremony.

1. depart  2. pilgrim  3. weeds  4. joy  5. lonely  6. world  7. fruit

1. Four sets of rhyming words and the rhyme scheme: heart–depart; care–air; needs–weeds; earth–worth (also said–head, impart–heart, way–say, cheer–dear, chest–test, feast–least, show–grow, root–fruit). The rhyme scheme of each stanza is abab.

2. Poetic devices in the given phrases:
(i) “But words, like summer birds, depart…” — simile: just as summer birds fly away when the season turns, words vanish quickly, leaving nothing behind.
(ii) “heart, a pilgrim upon earth…” — metaphor: the heart journeys through life like a pilgrim, ever seeking comfort and truth.
(iii) “words are of as little worth / As just so many weeds” — simile: hollow words are as common and as useless as weeds.
(iv) “If words could satisfy the chest … Oft satisfy the least!” — irony/contrast (with metonymy): ‘chest’ stands for the feelings within; the poet shows that words, when tested, usually fail exactly where they are most needed.
(v) “The world might hold a feast…” — hyperbole: the whole world celebrating exaggerates what truly satisfying words could achieve.
(vi) “Like plants that make a gaudy show, / All blossom to the root” — simile: showy, insincere words are like flashy plants that are nothing but blossom.
(vii) “But whose poor nature cannot grow / One particle of fruit!” — metaphor (with hyperbole): such words can produce nothing of real value — not even a tiny particle of fruit.

3. Which words are repeated, and why?
‘Words’ and ‘heart’ are repeated throughout. The repetition keeps the poem’s central contrast — speech versus feeling — constantly before the reader and gives the poem the insistence of a moral lesson.

4. Emotions expressed by the exclamation marks in stanzas 4, 5 and 6:
(iii) 4. admiration; 5. frustration; and 6. disillusionment.

The hyperbole in the given lines is “The world might hold a feast” — the entire world feasting is an impossible exaggeration used for effect.
1. I have tonnes of things to do on this weekend.  2. The player missed the basket by a mile.  3. My mother is so tired that she can sleep for a decade.  4. I will be back in two seconds.

The poem moves in alternating unstressed–stressed beats (iambic rhythm), as the book shows for the first four lines. Listen to your teacher read the poem and underline the stressed syllables in the remaining lines — they fall on the important words (heart, find, words, birds, leave, air…), four beats in the longer lines and three in the shorter.

(i) Why has the poet referred to the heart as ‘a pilgrim’?
Because, like a pilgrim on a long sacred journey, the heart travels through life ceaselessly seeking comfort, love and truth — often weary, often in need of shelter and kindness along the way.

(ii) When would a heart ‘need’ words?
In its hours of sorrow, loneliness or distress — when it longs for genuine comfort, sympathy and encouragement from others.

(iii) The words are like weeds because ______.
…they grow everywhere in plenty yet give no nourishment or beauty — hollow words are just as abundant and just as worthless to a heart in need.

(iv) Mention two emotions the heart might be experiencing when it finds words to be of ‘little worth’.
Disappointment and loneliness (a sense of being let down and uncomforted).

(v) What do these lines suggest about the nature of communication?
That communication is measured not by the quantity of words but by their sincerity: words without heartfelt feeling fail precisely when they are needed most, so true communication must come from the heart.

(i) How can words ‘satisfy the chest’?
By carrying genuine feeling — words of true sympathy, love or encouragement that comfort the heart beating within the chest, not merely inform the mind.

(ii) How can words be ‘summoned to the test’?
They are put on trial in real moments of need — when someone grieving, lonely or troubled depends on them for comfort. That is when words must prove whether they hold substance or are only sound.

(iii) What does ‘the world’ holding ‘a feast’ imply?
It implies universal celebration — if words could truly satisfy human hearts, the whole world would be permanently joyful, feasting on mere talk.

(iv) The poet mentions that words satisfy the least because ______.
…they are so often spoken without sincerity — reaching the head but never touching the heart — that in the moment of real need they prove empty.

(v) Select the word that does not mean the same as ‘oft’.
A. always

1. What is the comparison that the poet draws between words and ’empty air’?
Words are compared to summer birds which depart with the season: when they fly away, all that remains is empty air. Likewise, hollow words vanish as soon as they are spoken, leaving behind no comfort, no substance — only the emptiness they pretended to fill.

2. According to the poet, meaningful words are more precious than a lot of them. Explain.
The poet declares that “a little said, and truly said” imparts deeper joy than hosts of words that only reach the head. A single sincere sentence to a lonely home is dearer than a flood of eloquence, because its worth lies in truth and feeling, not volume — quality of heart outweighs quantity of speech.

3. Do you agree that the poet presents contrasting ideas related to ‘words’ in the poem?
Yes. The whole poem is built on contrasts: many hollow words versus few true ones; words that reach the head versus words that touch the heart; the gaudy blossom of showy speech versus the fruit it cannot bear; the feast words promise versus the little they deliver. Through these oppositions the poet separates words as noise from words as nourishment.

4. The theme of loneliness hovers over the poem. Support this statement with examples.
The heart is pictured as a solitary pilgrim journeying upon earth; it ‘needs’ words in moments when no comfort comes, finding only empty air left behind by departing words; and the poem’s tenderest image is of “a lonely home” waiting to be cheered by a kind voice. Throughout, the listener is someone alone, longing for the few dear words of true care.

5. How does the poet convey the superficial nature of words? What ought to be done to address this?
He conveys it through images of emptiness and show: words flit away like summer birds, multiply like worthless weeds, and bloom like gaudy plants that cannot grow one particle of fruit. The remedy the poem offers is simple — speak little, speak truly, and let every word carry the heart’s sincerity, for only such words bring deep joy and cheer the lonely.

1. satisfy the heart — (iv) makes one happy  |  2. depart and leave but empty air — (iii) there is no outcome  |  3. hosts of words — (i) many words  |  4. never touch the heart — (v) does not appeal to our emotions  |  5. wins its sunny way — (ii) cheers up a person  |  6. plants that cannot grow fruit — (vi) makes no impact

Sentences: A handwritten letter from a friend truly satisfies the heart. • His grand promises departed and left but empty air. • The minister’s hosts of words bored the village. • Flattering speeches never touch the heart. • Grandmother’s gentle voice always wins its sunny way into our home. • Boastful lectures are plants that cannot grow fruit.

(Similarly map: cheer — joy/encouragement; sunny — bright/cheerful; satisfy — content/fulfil; heart — centre of feeling; word — unit of speech.)

True statements: 1 (the girl was excited — she was among the first few to register for the declamation contest), 2 (the boy wondered whether the topic could lead to an engaging talk), 4 (the boy was unaware of body language’s role — “Body language? How?”) and 6 (the girl knew the body-language books well, directing him to the reference section to have one issued).
False: 3 (she said we want to share experiences, not keep them to ourselves) and 5 (she called body language an important part of communication, not insignificant).

I chose Gautama Buddha’s saying — that whatever words we utter should be chosen with care, for people will hear them and be influenced for good or ill — because it states our poem’s lesson as a duty. Words are seeds: a teacher’s one encouraging sentence made me love mathematics, while a careless taunt once made a classmate stop singing for a year. Since words can heal or wound long after they are spoken, choosing them with care is not mere politeness — it is responsibility. That is why, of all the quotations, this one feels like advice I can practise every single day.

I. The ‘Non-verbal’ game: play it like Dumb Charades — write expressions and gestures on slips, enact each in 30 seconds, award 10 points per correct guess and crown the Non-verbal Champion after two rounds. The game proves the poem’s point: communication can happen powerfully without a single word.

II. Did you know? The French priest Charles-Michel de l’Épée (1712–89) is recognised as ‘The Father of Sign Language and Deaf Education’.

III. Read and enjoy ‘Weigh Your Words’ by E.F. Hayward — a perfect companion poem: it advises us to weigh our words and speak only what we mean, for an idle word can start pain we can never erase, and weighed sentences, though fewer, mean a whole lot more.

Q1. What would happen ‘if words could satisfy the heart’? (30–40 words)
The heart would find less care — its burdens of worry and sorrow would lighten. But since words usually depart like summer birds leaving empty air, the heart’s cares remain.

Q2. Which voice does the poet praise in the poem? (30–40 words)
The voice that wins its sunny way into a lonely home to cheer it — a voice with the fewest words to say, whose few sincere words are precious beyond measure.

Q3. Explain the image of the gaudy plant in the last stanza. (30–40 words)
Insincere words are like flashy plants that are all blossom from root to tip — impressive to look at — but whose poor nature cannot grow even one particle of fruit: all show, no substance.

Q4. How do the chapter ‘Carrier of Words’ and the poem ‘Words’ complement each other? (100–120 words)
The pairing is deliberate and beautiful. The chapter celebrates words at their most precious: in the Thar’s remoteness, Khetaram carries letters whose few lines hold a family’s love, livelihood and grief — words so weighty that good news earns jaggery and death news must be read at the threshold and destroyed. The poem then supplies the philosophy: words matter only when they carry the heart. Khetaram’s villagers prove Swain right — they treasure “a little said, and truly said” in a letter over any flood of talk, and a single message can cheer the loneliest desert home. Together, prose and poem teach that the worth of words lies not in their number but in the love they carry and the distance — physical or emotional — they faithfully cross.