Read the poem given below and answer the questions that follow.
O gift of God! O perfect day:
Whereon shall no man work, but play;
Whereon it is enough for me,
Not to be doing, but to be!
Through every fibre of my brain,
Through every nerve, through every vein,
I feel the electric thrill, the touch
Of life, that seems almost too much.
I hear the wind among the trees
Playing celestial symphonies;
I see the branches downward bent,
Like keys of some great instrument.
And over me unrolls on high
The splendid scenery of the sky,
Where through a sapphire sea the sun
Sails like a golden galleon,
Towards yonder cloud-land in the West,
Towards yonder Islands of the Blest,
Whose steep sierra far uplifts
Its craggy summits white with drifts.
Blow, winds! and waft through all the rooms
The snow-flakes of the cherry-blooms!
Blow, winds! and bend within my reach
The fiery blossoms of the peach!
O Life and Love! O happy throng
Of thoughts, whose only speech is song!
O heart of man! canst thou not be
Blithe as the air is, and as free?
In the poem, the “sapphire sea” through which the sun sails refers to
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → the clear blue sky
The poet looks up at “The splendid scenery of the sky”.
- The next line begins with “Where”, so it is still about the sky.
- A sapphire is a deep blue precious stone. The sky is blue and wide like a sea.
- The sun moves across it like a ship. So the “sapphire sea” is the clear blue sky.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 1: the ocean seen from the mountains — Incorrect. Misread: This reads “sea” as a real sea. The poet is looking up at the sky. The sun does not sail through a real ocean.
Option 3: a lake among the cloud-land — Incorrect. Wrong part of the passage: The cloud-land in the West is where the sun is going. The poem shows no lake there.
Option 4: the poet’s dream of a voyage — Incorrect. Not mentioned: A voyage is a long journey by sea. The poet describes what he sees above him. He does not dream of a journey.