Welcome to “Why I Like The Hospital Workbook Answer : ISC Rhapsody (Evergreen),” where we delve into the intriguing verses of the ISC English Literature Rhapsody by Evergreen Publications. In this post, we explore the poetic essence of “Why I Like The Hospital” through meticulous workbook solutions. We provide comprehensive answers to multiple-choice and contextual questions, deepening your understanding of this thought-provoking poem. Discover the nuanced perspectives and emotions conveyed in the poem, and delve into the intricate layers of thematic exploration. Each question serves as a gateway to dissecting the text, urging readers to analyze subtle nuances and extract deeper meanings. Contextual inquiries broaden our scope for exploration, encouraging critical engagement with the poem’s reflection on life, illness, and the human condition. Through this examination, readers sharpen analytical skills and cultivate a profound appreciation for poetic craftsmanship. Whether you are a student navigating ISC English Literature or an avid reader fascinated by introspective poetry, “ISC Rhapsody: Why I Like The Hospital Workbook Solutions” promises valuable insights. Join us on this literary journey as we illuminate the path to understanding, one workbook solution at a time.
Table of Contents
Poem In Details :
The poem opens abruptly with a wry humorous comment: it is right to be in bad mood in the hospital (nowhere else). The very entry through the underground garage and the elevator with other ‘customers’ who stare at the yellowish-brown closed doors as if it were a prison evokes the appropriate mood of sullenness, unexpected and undesirable at all other places except the hospital.
The poet observes that the hospital is the only place which allows the free expression of passions. You can feel the air of pain and suffering of various patients here a mother with cancer does not know as to how to reveal her fatal ailment; a bald girl in depressed mood looking at the shunt (a small tube) above her missing breast; an ugly old woman walking with an intravenous pole.
The poet says that he does not like the smell of antiseptics, the excess cold of air conditioners working on high all the night, and fresh flowers thrown in the basket. In other words, the whole atmosphere in the hospital reeks of carelessness and hard – heartedness. However, the poet likes seeing in the hospital some people counting in their notebooks good and bad deeds done by them in life. He also likes the way each sick person wonders at his or her loneliness and an endless wait for some near and dear one for a few consolitary words.
The poet particularly refers to a terminal patient sobbing without shame in the open, expressing his helplessness and rage, actually consoling himself (‘holding his own hand in sympathy’) and talking to himself. This is a disturbing Image of an Impersonal society which has no sympathy for the dying.
Stanza Wise Explanation :
Stanza 1
The opening lines of this poem sets the appropriate mood. The poet, moves slowly with bent-head and shoulders through the underground garage and then silently shares an elevator with other ‘customers’ (a dig at the present-day medical system in which patients are just ‘customers’). He stares at closed doors as if he were entering a prison.
No one can be in good mood here, and no one minds it. The streak of humour and satire involved in this stanza is obvious.
Stanza 2
This stanza opens on a wry statement: the poet likes the hospital simply because it allows the open display of emotions. If you are crying, you can weep; if you are in a bad mood, you can sulk or shout. Nowhere else, the poet says with tongue in cheek, you can do it without being stared at in annoyance or being booked as a nuisance.
The poet likes to watch scenes of misery though he does not like to see the scenes of utter carelessness and hard-heartedness. He does not mind seeing the mother with cancer hesitating to reveal her ailment to her kids, the bald girl gazing in depression at the tube installed above her missing breast, or the old woman walking with her intravenous pole. The smell of antiseptic, the excessive AC-induced coldness and the fresh flowers in wastebasket-signs of carelessness and antipathy-repel him.
Stanza 3
The image depicted here is both amusing and thought-provoking. The poet watches some people sitting on plastic chairs bringing out notebooks and calculating their foolish and saintly deeds written in two different columns: Times I Acted like a Fool and Times I Acted Like a Saint’.
The poet likes the scene. This is perhaps possible only in the hospital where you are forced to reflect over your good and bad actions.
Stanza 4
The poet here presents the plight of the lonely, alienated sick persons in an indirect way through concrete images. The poet says that he likes to see how some sick persons in the hospital keep on waiting for someone to come to see them their wait is wide and open (‘the long prairie of the waiting’), and are forced into loneliness. Each sick person, the poet says, is like a lone tree in the middle of the field wondering what has happened to the forest. This is the most disturbing image of the contemporary life.
Stanza 5 to 7
The three stanzas, 5-7 are continuous, as the sense moves from one to the other (a good example of enjambment). In stanza 5, the poet recalls seeing a patient in a yellow-green gown bent over in a chair. He was not shouting in anger or despair at the doctors. He was not pretending to be strong. He was not making a phone call to his wife in a slow, indistinct manner.
In stanza 6, the poet reveals as to what the man was actually doing. He was sobbing openly, giving vent to his innermost feelings the nonsense of despair and anger. He was a man who, afflicted with some deadly disease, could not be saved.
In stanza 7, the poet addresses the reader directly to convey the actual condition of the terminal patient. The poet stays that if we see him closely he was consoling himself, listening every word uttered and was actually telling himself everything. He was speaking to none but himself, for there was no one to listen to him and no one to console him by holding his hand fondly. This is the stark reality of our times. We are left alone in our direst need.
Workbook MCQs :
(i) Liking for the hospital is something
(a) bad
(b) normal
(c) unusual
(d) sickening
Answer :- (c) unusual
(iI) It is in hospital that you
(a) feel you can also fall sick.
(b) are afraid of loneliness.
(c) can feel sympathy for the sick.
(d) can see some persons expressing their passions openly
Answer :- (d) can see some persons expressing their passions openly
(iII) Where is the poet staring at closed yellowish brown doors like a prison wall?
(a) in his home
(b) in the hospital garage
(c) on the road
(d) in an elevator
Answer :- (d) in an elevator
(iV) Which of these statements is NOT true?
(a) The bald girl had lost one of her breasts.
(b) Some people were counting their days on earth.
(c) The old woman walking with her IV pole was happy.
(d) A sick man was sobbing without shame
Answer :- (c) The old woman walking with her IV pole was happy.
(v) What kind of society is the object of satire in the poem ?
(a) the society that is primitive
(b) the society that is very open.
(c) the society which views the open expression of sentiments disdainfully.
(d) the society which promotes human intimacy.
Answer :- (c) the society which views the open expression of sentiments disdainfully.
(vI) In what mood were some people in the hospital counting their days on earth?
(a) angry
(b) scared
(c) sullen
(d) sad
Answer :- [ For Full Workbook Answers , Get The Full E-Book Access – View ]
(vII) Which of these does the poet like?
(a) the smell of antiseptic
(b) visiting a hospital
(c) sight of fresh flowers in a waste basket
(d) running of ACs all night on high speed
Answer :- [ For Full Workbook Answers , Get The Full E-Book Access – View ]
(vIII) Which dress was worn by the terminal patient sobbing openly?
(a) lime-green dressing gown
(b) blue dressing gown
(c) yellow pajamas
(d) none of the above
Answer :- [ For Full Workbook Answers , Get The Full E-Book Access – View ]
(iX) Which figure of speech is used in the line:
‘each sick person standing in the middle of a field’ ?
(a) simile
(b) irony
(c) metaphor
(d) alliteration
Answer :- [ For Full Workbook Answers , Get The Full E-Book Access – View ]
(x) What does the poet want to convey through the poem ‘Why I Like the Hospital’?
(a) that the visit to the hospital is always rewarding.
(b) that the hospital scenes are always disturbing.
(c) that expressing one’s sentiments openly should not be viewed as a sign of weakness
(d) that we should be sympathetic towards the sick
Answer :- [ For Full Workbook Answers , Get The Full E-Book Access – View ]
Logic Based Questions :
(i) The poet likes the hospital because there you can express your feelings freely and unashamedly.
(iI) The poet does not like one to stifle his or her feelings because stifled feelings prove to be harmful to one’s body and mind.
(iII) The bold girl seems to be depressed because she has lost one of her breasts.
(iV) Some people in the hospital bring out their notebooks because they want to calculate their good and bad deeds before they die.
(v) The poet dislikes the smell of antiseptic because it is unpleasant.
(vI) The poet does not like ACs to be run on high speed all night in the hospital because [ For Full Workbook Answers , Get The Full E-Book Access – View ]
(vII) Fresh flowers in a wastebasket is a bad sight because [ For Full Workbook Answers , Get The Full E-Book Access – View ]
(vIII) The man in the lime-green dressing gown was in an extremely sorrowful mood because [ For Full Workbook Answers , Get The Full E-Book Access – View ]
(iX) The terminal patient continued crying openly because [ For Full Workbook Answers , Get The Full E-Book Access – View ]
(x) Each sick person feels lonely like a tree in the field because [ For Full Workbook Answers , Get The Full E-Book Access – View ]
Short Answer Questions :
(i) Comment on the title of the poem ‘Why I Like the Hospital’.
Answer :- The title of the poem is quite catchy and startling. Normally no one likes a place where only the sick people go, where you see only horrible scenes of pain and suffering. Then why does the poet like the hospital ? In the very opening line, the poet answer this question. It is only the hospital where ‘to be in a bad mood” is all right, that is, acceptable. No where else are you permitted by this modern society to express your inner feelings openly and freely. In the civilized, modern world, especially in the West, you are supposed not to weep or cry or sulk before others. Expressing your agony in the public is looked upon as a sign of weakness, which is luckily not so in our country. It is in this context that the poet likes visiting the hospital where it is normal to cry and weep.
Thus, the title of the poem is appropriate.
(iI) Why does the poet like the hospitial ?
Answer :- The poet believes that if a man is in grief or pain, he must give vent to his feelings. If he stifles his feelings, it is something abnormal. Suppressed feelings trouble the mind and the body both. However, people especially in the so-called cultured world, are prevailed upon not to express their feelings openly and freely.
The poet finds that the hospital is the place where no one looks down upon a person who sobs or cries in the open. That is why, he declares :
I like the hospital for the way it grants permission for pathos.
He saw in the hospital patients sobbing and crying without shame. No one was there to console them. They were lonely and alienated, but at least they could express what they felt.
(iII) What scenes of human suffering are depicted in the poem ?
Answer :- The poet depicts some scenes of human suffering in the poem. During his visit to the hospital he is moved to see a mother afflicted with cancer. The mother does not know how to reveal her fatal ailment to her children. Then there is another patient, a bald girl (she might have lost her hair due to chemotherapy) who is in a depressed mood, looking at the shunt above her missing breast. He also sees an old ugly woman walking with an intravenous pole. He remembers once he saw a terminal patient sobbing without shame in the open, expressing his helplessness and rage. He seems to console himself as no one is there to calm him down with comforting words.
(iV) Describe the state of mind of the terminal patient. How does he conduct himself?
Answer :- [ For Full Workbook Answers , Get The Full E-Book Access – View ]
(v) The poet satirises the tendency among most of us to pretend to be strong comment.
Answer :- [ For Full Workbook Answers , Get The Full E-Book Access – View ]
Long Answer Questions :
(i) There is nothing to be likeable about the hospital. Then why does the poet say that he likes the hospital. Discuss with close reference to the text.
Answer :- The hospital is a place where people only go under compulsion. It is a place where you are horrified to see the spectacle of human suffering. It is here that some people realize how tenacious their relationships with others were. Some are here abandoned. No one comes to console or comfort them.
Even then the poet says that he likes the hospital. It is so because it is ‘all right to be in a bad mood there’. It means that there is hardly any other place where your ‘unpleasant’ mood is acceptable. You have to pretend to be ‘all right’ even when you are not. In the hospital there is no shame in sobbing and crying openly. The poet recalls how once he saw a terminal patient giving expression to her suffering openly.
‘but one sobbing without shame,
pumping it all out from the bottom of the self,
the overflowing bilge of helplessness and rage,
a man no longer expecting to be saved.
It is ironic that in our civilized world such an act is looked upon as a sign of weakness. You are expected to pose to be strong. You cannot cry or sob in front of others, at least in the West.
It is in the hospital that people get scared of death, and they begin to calculate their good and bad deeds. The poet watches these people consulting their notebooks, on the left columns of which appear their acts done foolishly or badly – “Times I Acted Like a Fool’, and on the right columns of which appear their good deeds – ‘Times I acted like a Saint’.
The poet, thus, finds the hospital not a place to be disliked. He declares : ‘I like the hospital for the way it grants permission for pathos’.
(iI) Describe the scenes of human sorrow and suffering as depicted in the hospital.
Answer :- The hospital is a place where one can witness many scenes of human suffering. The poet sees many scenes of human suffering on his visit to the hospital. He watches a mother who is stricken with cancer. She does not know the way to tell her ‘kids’ about it. She is more concerned with their feelings than with hers. Then the poet watches another dismal scene. There is a young girl who has gone bald, possibly due to the side-effect of chemotherapy. One of her breasts has been removed, and in its place is fitted a shunt – a small tube to carry blood. Her gazing downward at it reveals her despair and sorrow. She will have to lead a miserable life. Then there is a an old, ugly woman. She is seen walking with an intravenous pole (IV pole).
There are then scenes of human apathy and carelessness. The air conditioning is set on high all night without bothering about the old and the weak patients. Nobody thinks that it might be troublesome to some sick people. Then there is a scene of human insensitivity – fresh flowers thrown into the wastebasket.
The poet recalls having seen a terminal patient sobbing without shame. He lets out all his sorrows from his innermost heart. He talks to himself as if consoling himself, as there is none of console or comfort him. His plight is revealed by the poet tellingly.
[ For Full Workbook Answers , Get The Full E-Book Access – View ]
(iII) Write a note on the use of humour and satire in the poem.
Answer :- [ For Full Workbook Answers , Get The Full E-Book Access – View ]
