ENGLISH-WS-The Village Blacksmith

The Village Blacksmith

I. Circle the correct meaning of the following words with reference to the text:
1. crisp: crunchy soggy hard firm


2. forge: smithy copy build create

3. rejoice: triumph celebrate sorrow joyful

4. owe: repay indebted credit promise

5. preach: urge ask sermonize request


II. Choose the correct option:
1. Which statement best expresses the comparison made in the following lines?


You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,

With measure beat and slow,

Like a sexton ringing the village bell,

When the evening sun is low.
a. The blacksmith is a holy man like the sexton.

b. The blacksmith’s steady pounding matches the sexton’s steady bell ringing.

c. The blacksmith and the sexton both work as late afternoon turns to evening.

d. The blacksmith and the sexton are both very strong and brawny.

2. What comparison is made in the final stanza?

a. Life, like the work of the blacksmith, can be difficult.

b. A blacksmith is like a teacher who molds human lives.

c. Life is like the fire of the blacksmith’s forge; it may strengthen us or burn us.

d. We must shape our lives with actions and ideas like the blacksmith shapes


metal by heating and pounding it.
3. The daughter’s voice sounds to the smith like…

a. her mother’s voice

b. his own voice

c. chirping of birds

d. angels of paradise


III. Read the following extracts and answer the questions that follow.
1. The smith, a mighty man is he,


With large and sinewy hands;

And the muscles of his brawny arms

Are strong as iron bands.
a. Who does ‘smith’ refer to?


‘Smith’ refers to the village blacksmith.




b. Where does the smith have his workshop?


The smith has his workshop under the spreading chestnut tree.
c. Name and explain the figure of speech in the following line:


With large and sinewy hands;
Tautology: Same ideas are expressed through ‘large’ and ‘sinewy’.
2. He goes on Sunday to the church,


And sits among his boys;

He hears the parson pray and preach,

He hears his daughter’s voice,

Singing in the choir,

And it makes his heart rejoice.
a. How do you know that the village smith is a religious person?


The village smith is a religious person because he visits the church every Sunday

and hears the parson preach and pray.
b. Of what does the smith's daughter's voice remind him?


The smith’s daughter’s voice reminds him of his dead wife.
c. What is the rhyme scheme of the above stanza? Give the rhyming words.


The rhyme scheme is abacdc.

Rhyming words are church – preach, voice – rejoice.

IV. Answer the following questions:
1. Why is the blacksmith able to look at the whole world ‘in the face’?


The blacksmith is able to look the whole world in the face, because he is a honest

man, so he doesn’t owe anything to anyone.
2. Why does his daughter’s voice make his heart rejoice?


His daughter’s voice makes his heart rejoice, because it sounds like her mother’s

voice, who is now dead, so her voice makes him remember her.

V. Answer briefly:

2. President Theodore Roosevelt once said in a Labour Day address: "Far and away

the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."

Do you think the village blacksmith would agree or disagree with this sentiment?

Explain your answer.


I think that the blacksmith would agree. I think this because he works so much

and so hard to maintain his family. I think that he enjoys working at this because I

know that if you don’t like a job you wouldn’t work s o hard. I also think that he

enjoys his work because when kids come out from school they see all the sparks,

and he can amuse them, and that is a good thing.






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