Read the poem and answer the questions given below it.
The Last Bus
At ten our shop pulls down its iron shutter,
and I run for the bus stand through the crowd.
The last bus out of the city is waiting,
its engine coughing, its old horn too loud.
A watchman sleeps, his cap upon his knees.
Two nurses share a samosa from one bag.
A mason holds his trowel in his lap
and wipes his hands on a cement-grey rag.
The city’s lights fall back behind the glass,
and then there are only the fields and the night.
Our bus is a lamp carried through the dark,
with sleepy faces in its yellow light.
I hear the windows rattle in their frames,
the brakes that hiss at every sleeping town,
the coins that clink in the conductor’s pouch,
his short, sharp whistle when someone gets down.
At the canal bridge I ring the bell and rise,
and step into the cool and quiet air.
A bulb is burning at our gate far off,
and Amma, still awake, is sitting there.
What is the rhyme scheme of the second stanza of the poem?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → ABCB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A watchman sleeps, his cap upon his knees. | knees | A |
| Two nurses share a samosa from one bag. | bag | B |
| A mason holds his trowel in his lap | lap | C |
| and wipes his hands on a cement-grey rag. | rag | B |
Only “bag” and “rag” rhyme, so the pattern is ABCB.