Chapter: 05. Foreign Lands
Comprehension Exercises
A. Answer these questions.
What specific type of tree did the poet climb in the poem?
* According to the poet, what time do all the children dine in fairy land?
* Besides the next-door garden, what other real-world landscape features did the poet observe from the tree?
* What type of transportation is suggested by “tramping in to town”?
* What magical event happens to playthings in the fairy land the poet envisions?
* B. Answer these questions with reference to the context.
“I held the trunk with both my hands / And looked abroad on foreign lands.”
a. What does the phrase “abroad on foreign lands” tell us about the poet’s immediate feeling or perception from the tree?
b. What does holding the trunk “with both my hands” suggest about the poet’s position or age? “To where the grown-up river slips / Into the sea among the ships,”
a. What does “grown-up river” suggest about the river’s journey or size at this point?
b. What might the mention of “ships” add to the sense of adventure or distant lands? C. Think and answer.
How does the poem suggest that you don’t always need to travel far to have an adventure or discover new things? Use examples from the poem in your answer. Imagine you climbed a tree or a tall building in your own neighborhood. What “foreign lands” or new perspectives might you discover from that height that you don’t usually notice? Describe at least two. The poem speaks of imagination transforming the ordinary. What are some ways you use your imagination in daily life to make things more interesting or to explore new ideas? 
Comprehension