Read the poem and answer the questions given below it.
The Banyan at the Bus Stand
Where our village road ends at the bus stand,
the old banyan lets its grey roots fall.
I sit on the cement ring round its trunk
with a tin of laddoos and my woollen shawl.
The air smells of diesel and roasted gram,
of jasmine strings on a flower-seller’s tray,
of figs gone ripe and sweet among the roots,
of the wet road, sprinkled at the close of day.
Brides have climbed on buses here and cried,
boys with tin trunks have left for the town,
and soldiers home on leave have jumped down
to mothers waiting at the banyan’s side.
Old tree, you saw my son leave in June
with his father’s watch and a new black bag.
Now the six o’clock bus is late again,
I pull my shawl close and the minutes drag.
Then lights swing in through your hanging roots,
a horn, a cloud of dust, and a tall
young man steps down, looking round for me,
while your old leaves hold still above us all.
What is the rhyme scheme of the third stanza of the poem?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → ABBA
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming words at the ends of the lines: each new end sound gets a new letter, and a line that rhymes with an earlier line gets the same letter again.
| Line | Last word | Letter |
|---|---|---|
| Brides have climbed on buses here and cried, | cried | A |
| boys with tin trunks have left for the town, | town | B |
| and soldiers home on leave have jumped down | down | B |
| to mothers waiting at the banyan’s side. | side | A |
“cried” and “side” rhyme, and “town” and “down” rhyme, so the pattern is ABBA.