The Secret of Machines - Rudyard Kipling

NEW PATHWAYS - LITERATURE READER - 8

Answer the following questions.

a. The poem highlights many things that machines can do for us. Mention four tasks which machines can perform for humans.

According to the poem 'The Secret of Machines', machines can perform several tasks for humans. They are pulling, hauling, pushing, lifting and driving. Machines can print, plough, weave, heat and light. They can also count, read and write.

b. Compare the last two stanzas of the poem. What difference do you see in the attitude of the machines towards humans?

In the last but one stanza of the poem, machines say that they are very powerful. They say that they have no feelings. They see no difference between people and kings. Machines suggest that humans should be humble with them. 

In the last stanza of the poem, machines admit that they are 'nothing but children of human intelligence'. Without humans all their power is useless.

c. Is this poem a warning to humans or does it highlight the superior power of humans? Support your answer with evidence from the text.

This poem is both a warning to humans and it also highlights the superior power of humans.

The poem gives warning to humans in the following lines:

'We are not built to comprehend a lie,

We can neither love, nor pity, nor forgive,

If you can make a slip in handling us you die!

The poem highlights the superior power of humans in the following lines:

'for all our power and weight and size,

We are nothing more than children of your brain!'

d. Poems make use of imagery to appeal to the reader's sense of sight, hearing, touch, etc. Images make poetry powerful. Given below are two examples of images from the poem. Read the poem again and find other examples of imagery in it. Fill the table accordingly.

Visual Images	Aural Images
Iron ore being dug out of mines	Iron being hammered
being cut and filed and tooled and gauged to fit	hearing the crackling sound on the phone
pulling, hauling, pushing, lifting	dynamite and drills
mountains baring their heads	has he answered?