Class 11 English (Elective) Essay Chapter 3- Patterns of Creativity Important Question Answers from Woven Words Book
Class 11 English (Elective) Patterns of Creativity Important Question Answers – Looking for questions and answers for CBSE Class 11 English (Elective) Essay Chapter 3 – Patterns of Creativity? Look no further! Our comprehensive compilation of important questions will help you brush up on your subject knowledge. Practising Class 11 English question answers can significantly improve your performance in the exam. Improve your chances of scoring high marks by exploring Essay Chapter 3 – Patterns of Creativity now. The questions listed below are based on the latest CBSE exam pattern, wherein we have given NCERT solutions to the chapter’s extract-based questions, multiple choice questions and Extra Question Answers
Also, practising with different kinds of questions can help students learn new ways to solve problems that they may not have seen before. This can ultimately lead to a deeper understanding of the subject matter and better performance on exams.
- Patterns of Creativity NCERT Solutions
- Patterns of Creativity Extract Based Questions
- Patterns of Creativity Multiple Choice Questions
- Patterns of Creativity Extra Question Answers
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Patterns of Creativity Textbook Questions (NCERT Solutions)
Look for these expressions and guess the meaning from the context
cold philosophy:
mutually sustaining endeavours:
picaresque tale:
cenotaph:
atrophy:
looked askance:
prophetic discernment:
apposite:
hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration:
interlunations of life:
Ans.
cold philosophy: scientific or purely rational, analytical thought that lacks emotion or appreciation for beauty. “Philosophy” here stands for scientific inquiry and explanation.
mutually sustaining endeavours: Supporting each other to achieve a goal.
picaresque tale: A lively, adventurous, wandering story.
cenotaph: A symbolic tomb or empty monument.
atrophy: A wasting away or decline.
looked askance: Viewed with suspicion or disapproval.
prophetic discernment: An insightful ability to see what will be important or true in the future.
apposite: Very appropriate or suitable.
hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration: Priests or interpreters of an inspiration that is not yet fully understood.
interlunations of life: The gaps or darker periods in life.
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT
1. How does Shelley’s attitude to science differ from that of Wordsworth and Keats?
Ans. Shelley’s attitude towards science was very positive and loving, almost the opposite to that of Wordsworth and Keats. Wordsworth and Keats saw science as something that destroyed beauty and wonder, turning fascinating things into dull facts. They felt science took away the magic. Shelley, however, loved science and found joy, peace, and understanding in it. He even described natural processes in his poetry with great scientific precision, showing how he embraced both art and scientific knowledge.
2. ‘It is not an accident that the most discriminating literary criticism of Shelley’s thought and work is by a distinguished scientist, Desmond King-Hele.’ How does this statement bring out the meeting point of poetry and science?
Ans. This statement shows that poetry and science can meet or connect in an important way. It’s not just a coincidence that a scientist deeply understood and appreciated a poet like Shelley. It suggests that Shelley’s poetry itself contained scientific ideas or a scientific way of looking at the world, which a scientist could recognize and value. This highlights that these two fields, often seen as separate, can actually share common ground, especially in how they observe and interpret the universe.
3. What do you infer from Darwin’s comment on his indifference to literature as he advanced in years?
Ans. From Darwin’s comment, we can guess that intense, focused specialization in one area, like science, might sometimes come at a cost to other parts of a person’s life, especially their appreciation for arts and humanities. Darwin focused so much on facts and general laws that he felt a part of his brain, responsible for enjoying poetry and music, had “atrophied” (withered away). This suggests that extreme intellectual focus might narrow one’s capacity for broader aesthetic or emotional experiences.
4. How do the patterns of creativity displayed by scientists differ from those displayed by poets?
Ans. Scientists often display creativity by “grinding general laws out of large collections of facts.” Their creativity might involve forming new concepts (like Faraday’s “lines of force”) to explain the external world and its mechanisms, often with a focus on utility or practical application. Poets, on the other hand, are described as expressing “unapprehended inspiration,” reflecting the “gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present,” and making “immortal all that is best and most beautiful.” Their creativity often deals with the “internal world,” emotions, and abstract beauty, acting as “unacknowledged legislators” of human thought and values.
5. What is the central argument of the speaker?
Ans. The speaker’s central argument isn’t a direct answer to his initial question, but rather an exploration of the complex, often misunderstood, relationship between artistic and scientific creativity. He argues against the simplistic view that science and art are always in opposition. By highlighting Shelley, he suggests that a harmonious integration of scientific understanding and poetic imagination is possible and perhaps ideal. He also implies that while science excels at mastering the external world, it risks diminishing the internal human experience if it lacks the “poetical faculty,” hinting that science might need its own “Defence” to articulate its deeper, less utilitarian, and more profound aspects of creativity.
TALKING ABOUT THE TEXT
Discuss in small groups
1. ‘Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world’.
Ans. This famous line means that poets, through their words and ideas, have a powerful, unseen influence on how people think, feel, and behave in the world. They shape our values, beliefs, and understanding of life, even though they don’t make actual laws or hold official political power. Their impact is often deeper and more lasting because they touch the human spirit and imagination, guiding society’s moral and cultural direction without formal recognition.
2. Poetry and science are incompatible.
Ans. This statement suggests that poetry and science cannot go together because they are too different. Poetry deals with feelings, beauty, and imagination, while science deals with facts, logic, and observation. However, the essay argues against this idea, especially by showing Shelley’s positive view of science. While their methods are different, both aim to understand the world and human experience. Science explains how things work, and poetry explores what it means for them to work that way or how we feel about them. So, they might not be incompatible, but rather two different, yet valuable, ways of looking at reality.
3. ‘On reading Shelley’s A Defence of Poetry, the question insistently occurs why there is no similar A Defence of Science written by a scientist of equal endowment.’
Ans. This means that after reading Shelley’s strong and beautiful essay defending the importance of poetry, the author (and readers) can’t help but wonder why no equally talented scientist has written a similarly great defense of science. Shelley wrote about the deep, essential value of poetry beyond just being entertaining. The question implies that perhaps science, too, has a profound, non-utilitarian (not just about practical use) value that needs to be explained and celebrated in a powerful way, but scientists might not typically focus on articulating it in such a broad, philosophical manner.
APPRECIATION
1. How does the ‘assortment of remarks’ compiled by the author give us an understanding of the ways of science and poetry?
Ans. The author’s collection of remarks gives us a good understanding of science and poetry by showing their different approaches and how they are often seen in conflict. He starts by highlighting poets like Keats and Wordsworth, who saw science as destroying beauty by analyzing it too much. This shows poetry’s way of focusing on wonder and emotion. Then, he brings in Peter Medawar, who suggests literature also pushes science away, showing a competitive side. However, the author then uses Shelley as a key example to show a different way: a poet who loved science and accurately described natural processes. This reveals that science focuses on precision and mechanisms. By contrasting Darwin’s loss of artistic taste due to his scientific focus with Faraday’s practical view of science (taxation), the remarks illustrate science’s tendency towards pure logic and utility. Finally, Shelley’s idea that poetry connects us to our “internal world” fills a gap that science might leave. Together, these different views show that poetry often seeks emotional and aesthetic truth, while science seeks factual and logical truth, and sometimes they clash, but sometimes, as with Shelley, they can blend beautifully.
2. Considering that this is an excerpt from a lecture, how does the commentary provided by the speaker string the arguments together?
Ans. As an excerpt from a lecture, the speaker uses clear commentary to connect different ideas and build his argument step by step. He starts by stating his main question but says he won’t answer it directly, setting up an exploratory approach. He then uses phrases like “First, I should like to consider,” and “It is to be expected that one should find scientists countering these views” to introduce different perspectives. When he wants to shift focus, he uses lines like “So, let me only say” or “Let me turn to a slightly different aspect of the matter.” He also directly introduces examples, such as “Or consider this: Faraday discovered…” and “I should like to read two examples from Shelley’s poetry.” By quoting experts and then explaining their relevance (“It seems to me that to Darwin’s confession and to Faraday’s response… what Shelley has said… is apposite”), he smoothly links historical figures and literary works to his ongoing discussion about creativity. This allows him to present a complex web of arguments in an organized, easy-to-follow manner, guiding the audience through his thought process.
3. The Cloud ‘fuses together a creative myth, a scientific monograph, and a gay picaresque tale of cloud adventure’— explain.
Ans. This description of Shelley’s “The Cloud” means that the poem combines three very different elements seamlessly. “Creative myth” refers to the poem creating its own imaginative, almost magical story about the cloud’s nature, giving it a powerful, almost divine, voice (“I am the daughter of Earth and Water”). “Scientific monograph” means the poem accurately describes the scientific processes of a cloud, such as evaporation, condensation, and rain cycles (“I pass through the pores of the ocean and the shores,” “For after the rain… I arise”). It shows a detailed, factual understanding, much like a scientific paper would. A “gay picaresque tale of cloud adventure” suggests the poem is lively, lighthearted (“I silently laugh”), and describes the cloud’s movements and transformations as a series of exciting, wandering journeys (“I pass through… I arise and unbuild it again”), almost like a mischievous hero moving through different scenes. So, the poem blends imaginative storytelling, scientific accuracy, and a sense of joyful, wandering exploration.
LANGUAGE WORK ______________________
1. How do the words in bold, in the lines below, illustrate the poet’s ability to convey criticism cryptically?
Our meddling intellect
Misshapes the beauteous forms of things:
We murder to dissect.
Ans. The words “meddling intellect” and “murder to dissect” show criticism in a hidden, powerful way. “Meddling intellect” doesn’t directly say “science is bad,” but it implies that our intellectual curiosity, when it interferes too much, can spoil natural beauty. “Meddling” suggests unwanted interference. “Murder to dissect” is an even stronger, yet indirect, criticism. It compares the scientific act of taking something apart to understand it (dissecting) to killing (murdering). Instead of directly stating that scientific analysis destroys beauty, it uses a shocking image of violence (“murder”) to convey that the act of breaking things down for study can kill their natural charm and wholeness. This way, the poet shares his strong negative feeling about science without saying it in a plain, obvious way.
2. Explain the contradiction in the similies, ‘Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb’.
Ans. The contradiction in these two similes comes from the very different ideas of birth and death they represent. “Like a child from the womb” refers to a new beginning, life, innocence, and natural emergence into the world. It’s a symbol of hope and purity. In contrast, “like a ghost from the tomb” refers to something coming back from death, a spirit from a grave. This simile usually suggests something eerie, unnatural, or even frightening. The contradiction lies in how these two very different ideas – a vibrant start to life and a return from death – are used together to describe the same event (the cloud forming again). It creates a powerful and surprising image of the cloud’s rebirth, showing it as both a natural, life-giving process and something mysterious and almost supernatural in its ability to reappear.
3. Explain the metaphor in the line: ‘Poets are … the mirrors of gigantic shadows that futurity casts on the present’.
Ans. This line uses a metaphor to explain the special role of poets. It compares poets to “mirrors” or “gigantic shadows” that show us what “futurity” (the future) is hinting at in the “present.” Poets don’t literally hold up mirrors to shadows. Instead, it means that poets have a unique ability to sense or reflect ideas, feelings, and changes that are not yet fully clear or widely understood in society. These ideas are like shadows cast by the future onto today. Poets, through their creative work, somehow pick up on these vague but important future developments and reflect them back to us, allowing us to see or feel what is coming before it fully arrives. They are like sensitive instruments that capture the hidden influences and trends that will shape the future.
CBSE Class 11 English (Elective) Essay Chapter 3 Patterns of Creativity Extract-Based Questions and Answers
Answer the following extract-based questions.
A.
…why is there a difference in the patterns of creativity among the practitioners in the arts and the practitioners in the sciences? I shall not attempt to answer this question directly; but I shall make an assortment of remarks which may bear on the answer. First, I should like to consider how scientists and poets view one another. When one thinks of the attitude of poets to science, one almost always thinks of Wordsworth and Keats and their off-quoted lines
A fingering slave,
One that would peep and botanises
Upon his mother’s grave?
A reasoning self-suffering thing.
An intellectual AlI-in-AIl!
Sweet is the lore which Nature brings:
Our meddling intellect
Misshapes the beauteous forms of things:
We murder to dissect.
(Wordsworth)
Q1. What main question does the author ask at the beginning?
Ans. He asks why there is a difference in creativity patterns between artists (poets) and scientists.
Q2. Does the author answer this question directly in the text?
Ans. No, he says he will not attempt to answer it directly.
Q3. Whose attitudes does the author first consider when discussing poets’ views on science?
Ans. He considers the attitudes of Wordsworth and Keats.
Q4. What does the poet mean by ‘fingering slave’?
Ans. Fingering slave is someone who is overly focused on small, minute details, almost enslaved by the need to meticulously touch and examine everything.
Q5. What does Wordsworth mean by the lines “We murder to dissect”?
Ans. He uses a strong image, saying, “We murder to dissect,” meaning that by analyzing things too closely, we destroy their natural charm and life.
B.
It is not an accident that the most discriminating literary criticism of Shelley’s thought and work is by a distinguished scientist, Desmond King-Hele. As King-Hele has pointed out, “Shelley’s attitude to science emphasises the surprising modern climate of thoughts in which he chose to live and Shelley describes the mechanisms of nature with a precision and a wealth of detail unparalleled in English poetry”. And here is A.N. Whitehead’s testimony: Shelley’s attitude to Science was at the opposite pole to that of Wordsworth. He loved it, and is never tired of expressing in poetry the thoughts which it suggests. It symbolises to him joy, and peace, and illumination…
Q1. Who wrote discriminating literary criticism of Shelley’s work?
Ans. A distinguished scientist named Desmond King-Hele wrote it.
Q2. What does King-Hele say about Shelley’s attitude towards science?
Ans. He says Shelley’s attitude to science emphasizes a surprisingly modern climate of thoughts.
Q3. How does Shelley describe the mechanisms of nature in his poetry?
Ans. He describes them with a precision and a wealth of detail unparalleled in English poetry.
Q4. According to A.N. Whitehead, how did Shelley’s attitude to science compare to Wordsworth’s?
Ans. Shelley’s attitude was at the opposite pole to Wordsworth’s.
Q5. What did science symbolize to Shelley, according to Whitehead?
Ans. It symbolized joy, peace, and illumination.
C.
What are we to make of the following confession of Charles Darwin? Up to the age of thirty, or beyond it, poetry of many kinds… gave me great pleasure… I have also said that formerly pictures gave me considerable, and music very great, delight. But now, for many years, I cannot endure to read a line of poetry; I have tried lately to read Shakespeare and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. I have almost lost my taste for pictures or music… My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts but why this should have caused the atrophy of that part of the brain alone on which the higher tastes depend, I cannot conceive.
Q1. What did Charles Darwin enjoy greatly before the age of thirty?
Ans. He enjoyed poetry, pictures, and music.
Q2. How did Darwin feel about reading poetry later in his life?
Ans. He could not endure reading a line of poetry.
Q3. What did Darwin find Shakespeare to be later in his life?
Ans. He found it intolerably dull and it nauseated him.
Q4. What had made Darwin’s mind become “a kind of machine for grinding”?
Ans. His mind became a machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts.
Q5. What did Darwin say he could not conceive regarding his loss of taste for art?
Ans. He could not conceive why his scientific focus caused the atrophy (wasting away) of the part of the brain responsible for higher tastes.
D.
And yet when Gladstone, then the Chancellor of the Exchequer, interrupted Faraday in his description of his work on electricity by the impatient inquiry, “But after all, what use is it?” Faraday’s response was, “Why, Sir, there is every probability that you will soon be able to tax it”. And Faraday’s response has always been quoted most approvingly. It seems to me that to Darwin’s confession and to Faraday’s response, what Shelley has said about the cultivation of the sciences in his Defence of Poetry is apposite: The cultivation of those sciences which have enlarged the limits of the empire of man over the external world, has, for want of the poetical faculty, proportionally circumscribed those of the internal world; and man, having enslaved the elements, remains himself a slave.
Q1. Who asked Faraday, “But after all, what use is it?”
Ans. Gladstone, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, asked him “But after all, what use is it?”
Q2. How did Faraday famously respond to the question about the use of his work?
Ans. He responded by saying that there was a possibility that they could tax it which implied that it would be a useful invention.
Q3. What does Shelley say has happened to the “internal world” due to the cultivation of sciences, for want of the “poetical faculty”?
Ans. The internal world, which is the person’s thoughts, feelings, imagination, and spiritual life, has been proportionally circumscribed (limited).
Q4. According to Shelley, what does man remain, even after enslaving the elements through science?
Ans. Man remains himself a slave.
Q5. What work by Shelley does the author quote as being “apposite” (relevant) to Darwin’s confession and Faraday’s response?
Ans. He quotes from Shelley’s “Defence of Poetry.”
Class 11 Patterns of Creativity Multiple-Choice Questions
Q1. What is the main question Chandrasekhar asks at the beginning of the essay?
A. Why scientists are more creative than artists.
B. Why artists are more creative than scientists.
C. Why patterns of creativity differ between artists and scientists.
D. How to become a creative scientist.
Ans. C. Why patterns of creativity differ between artists and scientists.
Q2. Which poets are mentioned as viewing science negatively?
A. Shakespeare and Milton
B. Wordsworth and Keats
C. Shelley and Byron
D. Browning and Tennyson
Ans. B. Wordsworth and Keats
Q3. What does Keats suggest cold philosophy (science) does to the charms of nature?
A. It enhances them.
B. It preserves them.
C. It makes them fly away.
D. It brings them to life.
Ans. C. It makes them fly away.
Q4. Who wrote that “When Science arrives, it expels Literature”?
A. Peter Medawar
B. A.N. Whitehead
C. Desmond King-Hele
D. Lowes Dickinson
Ans. D. Lowes Dickinson
Q5. How does Peter Medawar counter the view that science expels literature?
A. He says literature expels science.
B. He says they are complementary.
C. He says they have the same goal.
D. He says they should cooperate.
Ans. A. He says literature expels science.
Q6. Which poet does Chandrasekhar suggest scientists should rather consider for their attitude towards science?
A. Wordsworth
B. Keats
C. Shelley
D. Byron
Ans. C. Shelley
Q7. Who is described as a “distinguished scientist” who wrote literary criticism of Shelley’s work?
A. A.N. Whitehead
B. Charles Darwin
C. Desmond King-Hele
D. Michael Faraday
Ans. C. Desmond King-Hele
Q8. According to King-Hele, how does Shelley describe the mechanisms of nature in his poetry?
A. With indifference and boredom.
B. With great precision and detail.
C. With fear and apprehension.
D. With only vague ideas.
Ans. B. With great precision and detail.
Q9. What does A.N. Whitehead say science symbolized Shelley?
A. Fear and confusion.
B. Joy, peace, and illumination.
C. Hard work and difficulty.
D. Money and power.
Ans. B. Joy, peace, and illumination.
Q10. Which of Shelley’s poems is mentioned for fusing a “creative myth, a scientific monograph, and a gay picaresque tale”?
A. Prometheus Unbound
B. Ozymandias
C. To a Skylark
D. The Cloud
Ans. D. The Cloud
Q11. What did Charles Darwin confess about his taste for poetry and art after age thirty?
A. It greatly increased.
B. He became a poet himself.
C. He lost his taste for them.
D. He started studying art history.
Ans. C. He lost his taste for them.
Q12. How did Darwin describe his mind becoming due to his scientific focus?
A. A source of endless imagination.
B. A machine for grinding general laws from facts.
C. A canvas for beautiful images.
D. A musical instrument.
Ans. B. A machine for grinding general laws from facts.
Q13. What concepts did Michael Faraday formulate that were initially considered foreign?
A. Lines of force and fields of force
B. Laws of motion.
C. Theory of relativity.
D. Principles of genetics.
Ans. A. Lines of force and fields of force.
Q14. Who was the Chancellor of the Exchequer who asked Faraday about the use of his work on electricity?
A. Charles Darwin
B. James Clerk Maxwell
C. Gladstone
D. Desmond King-Hele
Ans. C. Gladstone
Q15. How did Faraday famously respond to the question “what use is it?”
A. “It will save lives.”
B. “It will make you rich.”
C. “It’s for pure knowledge.”
D. “You will soon be able to tax it.”
Ans. D. “You will soon be able to tax it.”
Q16. What does Shelley suggest the “cultivation of those sciences” has done to the “internal world,” for want of the “poetical faculty”?
A. It has expanded it.
B. It has made it more precise.
C. It has illuminated it.
D. It has proportionally circumscribed it
Ans. D. It has proportionally circumscribed it
Q17. According to Shelley, what does man remain, even after enslaving the elements through science?
A. A master
B. A creator
C. A slave
D. A god
Ans. C. A slave
Q18. What does Shelley say about the “promoters of utility” (technologists) in society?
A. They are against poets
B. They follow poets and copy their creations into common life
C. They are the true creators
D. They are unnecessary
Ans. B. They follow poets and copy their creations into common life
Q19. What did W.B. Yeats call Shelley’s “A Defence of Poetry”?
A. A minor work
B. The profoundest essay on the foundation of poetry in English
C. A confusing document
D. A scientific treatise
Ans. B. The profoundest essay on the foundation of poetry in English
Q20. What question does Chandrasekhar insistently ask at the end, implying a possible answer to his initial question?
A. Why poets don’t understand science.
B. Why scientists are not good writers.
C. Why is there no similar “A Defence of Science” by a scientist of equal endowment.
D. Why creativity is so hard to define.
Ans. C. Why is there no similar “A Defence of Science” by a scientist of equal endowment.
CBSE Class 11 English (Elective) Essay Chapter 3 Patterns of Creativity Extra Question Answers
Answer the following questions.
Q1. What is the main question Chandrasekhar raises at the very beginning of his essay?
Ans. He asks why there is a difference in the patterns of creativity between practitioners in the arts (like poets) and practitioners in the sciences.
Q2. How do poets like Wordsworth and Keats typically view science, according to the essay?
Ans. They view science negatively, seeing it as something that destroys the beauty and charm of nature by dissecting it and reducing it to mere facts, essentially “clipping an Angel’s wings.”
Q3. What does Chandrasekhar present as a contrasting view of science from a poet’s perspective?
Ans. He highlights Shelley, who, unlike Wordsworth and Keats, loved science and expressed scientific thoughts and mechanisms with precision and illumination in his poetry.
Q4. What significant confession does Charles Darwin make regarding his appreciation for art later in his life?
Ans. Darwin confessed that after a certain age, he lost his taste for poetry, pictures, and music, finding them intolerably dull, and felt his mind had become a “machine for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts.”
Q5. What profound idea does Shelley’s “A Defence of Poetry” suggest about the effect of science without poetry?
Ans. Shelley suggests that while science expands humanity’s control over the external world, without the poetic faculty, it proportionally limits or circumscribes the internal world, leaving man a slave even after mastering elements.