English Literature - Poetry and Poetic Devices

English Literature
English Literature - Poetry and Poetic Devices

Find out the synonym of the word 'pilgrim' from the given options :


Read the following poem and answer the question:

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

Options:

  1. Wayfarer
  2. Saint
  3. Place of worship
  4. Idolator

Right Answer: Wayfarer

A pilgrim is a person who journeys to a sacred place, and by extension any traveller on a long and purposeful journey. ‘Wayfarer’, meaning one who travels on foot, is therefore the closest synonym among the options. When Yeats speaks of the ‘pilgrim soul’ he means the restless, questing, spiritually adventurous nature of the woman, which is what the speaker loved rather than her looks. A saint is a holy person rather than a traveller, a place of worship is a location and not a person, and an idolator is one who worships images.

This question is part of English Literature - Poetry and Poetic Devices, which has 17 practice questions with answers.

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