Poem No Men Are Foreign
Class 9 Sub - English
Date - 12/11/24
2. What should we remember about countries?
Answer: We should remember that no countries are foreign.
3. Where do we all walk upon?
Answer: We all walk on the same earth.
4. Where shall we all lie in the end?
Answer: In the end, we all shall lie on the earth.
5. What are all men fed by?
Answer: All men are fed by peaceful harvests.
6. What do you mean by peaceful harvest?
Answer: By peaceful harvests, we mean the crops grown during the period of peace.
7. What do you mean ‘wars’ long winter?
Answer: It means the painful days of the war when we are kept indoors.
8. What are we doing to the human earth?
Answer: We are polluting the earth.
9. Why should we not hate others?
Answer: We should not hate others because they all are our brothers.
10. What do you mean by ‘hells of fire and dust’?
Answer: ‘Hells of fire and dust’ means the wars that cause a lot of destruction.
Short Answer Type Questions
1. “Beneath all uniforms…” What uniforms do you think the poet is speaking about?
Answer: The poet is speaking about the dresses or uniforms that armies of different countries
wear. Though these ‘uniforms’ are absolutely different in appearance the bodies under them are
the same. The poet tries to convey that the differences among the people of different countries
are superficial. Essentially, all human beings are the same.
2. Whom does the poet refer to as ‘our brothers’ and why?
Answer: The poet refers to the people living in other countries as ‘our brothers’. He says so
because the superficial dissimilarities of complexion, language, dress, culture and nationality do
not, and must not, segregate us as human beings. Human wants, human needs, human hopes,
human emotions are the same anywhere in the world.
3. How does the poet suggest (in the first stanza) that all people on earth are the same?
Answer: In the first stanza, the poet suggests that no human being is strange or different.
Beneath the superficial surface of our bodies, we all have similar hearts, minds and souls. We all
breathe and live in a similar manner. The earth is our common asset and one day we all shall die
and be buried in the same way.
4. What does the poet mean when he says, ‘in which we all shall lie’?
Answer: The poet means that we all shall lie under the same earth. Here ‘lie’ means to be buried
after death. This is to highlight that all of us have to meet the same fate, sooner or later, hence
there is no point in hating each other.
5. In stanza 1, find five ways in which we are alike. Pick out the words phrases suggesting these
similarities.
Answer: Following are the five phrases that suggest that we are all alike.
(1) No men are strange
(2) No countries foreign
(3) a single body breathes like ours
(4) the land our brothers walk upon is earth like this
(5) in which we all shall lie
6. Why does the poet call harvests ‘peaceful’ and war as ‘winter’?
Answer: Harvests are called ‘peaceful’ because they bring abundance and prosperity and they
thrive in peaceful times only. War, on the other hand, is like the severe and harsh ‘winter’ that
ruins the crops and starves people. It is only the peaceful times that bring harmony and
contentment. War destroys everything and forces people to face hunger, poverty, disease and
death.
7. How many common features can you find in stanza 2? Pick out the words.
Answer: The common features listed in stanza 2 are:
Like us, the people in other countries too enjoy
(i) sun (ii) air (iii) water (iv) peaceful harvests
Like us, they too hate starvation caused by long drawn wars
Like us, they too work hard for their livelihood by using their hands.
8. ‘They have eyes like ours’. What similarity does the poet find in the eyes of people all over the
world?
Answer: The poet finds that eyes of men all over the world have similar sights and scenes to
see and experience the phenomena of waking up and sleeping in a similar way. Hence, the so-
called strange and foreign people to have eyes just like us. Even though the colour and shape of
their eyes are different from ours, they bring us identical experiences and perform a similar
function.
9. “…whenever we are told to hate our brothers….” When do you think this happens and why?
Answer: Whenever their own importance or existence is in danger, politicians and religious
leaders make us believe that our existence and our interests are in danger and provoke us to
hate our fellow human beings. This happens when we allow our reason to be swayed by our
fears and hatred.
10. In one of the stanzas, the poet finds similarity in human hands. What is it?
Answer: The poet feels that people of all countries have to work hard in a similar fashion to earn
their livelihood. This is done by them with the help of their hands. It is the hands that do all the
work in the world and it is the hands that are a source of all creativity.
11. Who tells us ‘to hate our brothers’? Should we do as we are told at such times? What does
the poet say?
Answer: The politically motivated and power-hungry people tell us to hate our brothers during
wartime. The poet says that we should not get swayed by such provocation. If we do so, it
would result in our own dispossession, betrayal and condemnation.
12. How does man pollute this earth by going to war?
Answer: Man pollutes the earth by causing death and destruction and by spreading hatred and
enmity through wars. The war also causes irreparable damage to the earth’s environment by
polluting it with dust, debris and smoke caused by war weapons.
13. What does the poet say about ‘hating our brothers’?
Answer: The poet strongly condemns ‘hating our brothers’. He feels that when we indulge in
such negativity, we actually harm ourselves. We deprive ourselves of the love of our brothers
and earn condemnation for such depravity.
14. Why does the poet say that people of the world should live in peace and not go to war?
Answer: The poet advocates living in peace because peace brings progress, prosperity and
cheer in this world. He advises mankind to shun wars because wars bring death, exploitation,
want, poverty and starvation. They also defile the earth and pollute the very air we all breathe.
15. How does the poet propose to win over other countries?
Answer: The poet proposes to win over other countries through the divine force of love. It is a
universal fact that this world responds positively to love and kindness. So the poet plans to use
it to end all hatred and war and create peaceful heaven on earth.
