Border Guards

Objective Type Questions

 

Q1. Who is the poet of the poem ‘Border guards’?

Shiv k. Kumar

 

Q2. Who are the Warlords?

Political leaders or Military Commanders.

 

Q3. Who are the counterparts?

Soldiers sitting on the either side of border-fence

 

Q4. What type of relationship is between the two soldiers?

Brotherly relationship.

 

Q5. Why is soldier on the other side is weeping?

Perhaps his wife is ill or his son is dead.

 

Q6. Why did not the soldier go and comfort his counterpart?

He cannot cross the barbed fence. He trembles at the sharp and pointed spikes of the fence.

 

Q7. What idea does the poem contain?

Inhumanity of power hungry politicians.

Q8. Who is this ‘My’ in the poem

The soldier sitting on one side of the fence.

 

Q. Write in your own words, a summary / development of thought / substance of the poem ‘border guards’

Ans Through the poem ‘Border Guards’, the poet Shiv K. Kumar tells the thoughts of two enemy-soldiers sitting across the border-fence of two countries. They have been positioned there as enemies by the power hungry politicians and leaders of their respective countries. Otherwise, they have no personal enmity between them. The soldier, on this side of the fence is thinking about his counterpart sitting on the other side of the fence. The soldier sitting on the other side of the fence is probably weeping, as he is reading a letter, which he might have received from his home. The soldier, on this side of the fence, imagines that the letter may be having the news of his wife’s illness or his son’s death.

The soldier is extremely moved by the sorrow of the counterpart. He is full of love and sympathy for his counterpart. He wants to comfort and console him in his grief. He wants to run over to the other side of the fence to share his fellow-soldier’s woes. But, he cannot do so. He feels as if the soldier on the other side of the border is his brother, but he is helpless and cannot do anything for him. So, in this way, the poet brings out the inhumanity of the power-hungry leaders and politicians through this poem that how they make simple soldiers each other’s enemies.

 

Short Answer Type Question

 

Q1. It is a poem about two soldiers belonging to two different countries. Who gives threats and couter-threats and to whom?

Ans. The leaders and politicians of modern era are hungry for power. The politicians of these countries give threats and counter-threats to one another.

 

Q2. How does the soldier know that his counterpart is whimpering over a letter from home? Is it a mere guess work?

Ans. The soldier sees that his counterpart on the other side is reading a letter and appears to be lost in serious thoughts, as his gun is placed carelessly between his knees. The soldier guesses that he must be whimpering because of some sad news from his home. He imagines that the news may be about the illness of his wife or death of his son. So, it appears to be a mere guess work.

 

Q3. Who is ‘my’ in the poem? Can you write a few lines about him?

Ans. The word ‘my’ refers to the soldier, who is sitting on one side of the fence. His counterpart is sitting of the other side of the fence. He is weeping while reading a letter from home. The soldier has very kind and sympathetic feelings for his counterpart. He feels himself like a brother to him in his grief. He calls him his ‘soul-brother’. There seems no cause of enmity between the two soldiers. But the power-hungry politicians have made them each other’s enemies by positioning them against each other at the border.

 

Q4. How does the narrator react to the sadness of his counterpart?

Ans. The narrator feels deep sympathy for his counterpart’s sadness and grief. He feels as if he is his brother. He wants to console and comfort him. But he feels helpless because there stands border-fence between them.

 

Q5. Why does the narrator use the word ‘alleged’ when he talks of the enemy soldier?

Ans. The narrator uses the word ‘alleged’ when he talks of enemy soldier, because their enmity is alleged only, as they have no real enmity. The soldier feels as if his counterpart was a brother to him. These are only power- hungry politicians, who have made them enemies of each other.

 

Q 6. How are the two soldiers related?

Ans. The two soldiers are human-beings and in this way, they are related to one another as human-beings. They have the same human-feelings in their hearts such as a love, sympathy, sadness, grief etc. They are like brothers to each-other. They have no personal enmity. They want to share each other’s sorrows.

 

Shiv k. kumar was a poet, novelist, short-story writer playwright, translator, critic and educationist. He was elected a fellow of Royal Society of literature (London) in 1978 and he received the Sahitya Academy Award in 1988 for his collection of poems (English): Trapfalls in the Sky. He has a rich variety of poetical collections, novels, short-stories, play and critical writing to his credit. Amongst his well-known collections of poems are Articulate Silences, (Writers Workshop, 1970), Cobwebs in the Sun (Tata McGraw Hill, Delhi 1974), Subterfuges (Oxford University Press, 1975), Woodpeckers (Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1979) and Trapfalls in the Sky (Macmillian, 1986) Learning Objectives: By the end of the session you will be able to understand the complete poem, meaning of difficult words, explanation of the poem, Objective type questions, central idea and development of thought in the poem Border Guards.

 

Border Guards is one of Shiv k. Kumar’s well known poems in which he sensitively talks of the inborn instinct of love and sympathy animating the two ‘enemy soldiers’. It is a thought provoking poem that shakes the reader into seriously thinking over the uselessness of manmade political boundaries or borders that create artificial divisions between man and man. The two soldiers sitting on the opposite sides of the fence are human beings with the same human heart in them. They are brothers to each other but political divisions make them into enemies without any reason.

 

Poem with explanation

 

On the other side

of the impregnable fence

Enmeshed with warlord’s gory

Threats and counterthreats.

 

whimpers my counterpart

over a letter from home

(his wife’s illness? His son’s death?)

his recoilless gun sitting negligently

between his knees. 9

 

Glossary

 

1. Impregnable: Very strong and well-constructed that it cannot be entered or captured.

2. Enmeshed: Involve in a difficult situation.

3. Warlord: Military commanders or power-hungry politicians.

4. Gory: Full of violence and bloodshed.

5. Whimpers: Cries softly.

6. Counterpart: The soldier on the other side of the fence.

7. Recoilless: When a gun is silent, it has been described as recoilless.

8. Negligently: Carelessly.

 

• Reference to the Context: These lines have been taken from Shiv K.

Kumar’s poem, ‘Border Guards’. This poem brings out the inhumanity of war-lords who raise political barriers between man and man.

• Explanation: Two soldiers of two enemy countries are posted as border guards. They are sitting on the opposite sides of the border- fence. The soldier on one side of the border is the narrator. He is thinking about his counterpart sitting on the other side of the border-fence. He feels as if his counterpart is weeping, while reading a letter from home. Probably, the letter is having the sad news of the illness of his wife or his son’s death. He appears to be lost in deep grief. He is careless about his gun. The narrator’s heart is filled with love, pity and sympathy for the other soldier across the border-fence.

 

My fingers bleed to think

Of the fence’s spikes

That will not let me caress

The anguished face

of the this other man-

my country’s alleged enemy

but my soul’s brother

In loneliness. 16

 

Glossary

1. Spikes: Sharp pointed pieces of iron used as a border railing.

2. Caress: Touch lovingly, comfort.

3. Anguished: In severe physical or mental pain.

4. Alleged: Stated as fact but without proof or bases.

 

• Reference to the Context: These lines have been taken from Shiv K. Kumar’s poem, ‘Border Guards’. This poem brings out the inhumanity of war-lords who raise political barriers between man and man.

• Explanation: Two soldiers of neighbouring countries are positioned against each other across the border-fence. They are thought to be each-other’s enemies, but actually, they have no personal enmity. The narrator is filled with love, pity and sympathy for his counterpart, who is sitting across the border and weeping, while reading a letter. He wishes to go across the border-fence to comfort his counterpart. But he cannot do so. He is afraid of the sharp and pointed spikes of the fence. He feels as if the soldier on the other side of the fence is his brother, but he is unable to do anything for him.