Question and answers of the poem "Daybreak"

 

Q. Give an account of the activities of the wind in the sea and on land as described in the poem “Daybreak”. OR, Substance of the poem. OR, Critical estimate of the poem.

The main character in Long Fellow’s poem Daybreak is wind. The wind acts here as an alarm clock. In the poem the wind comes out of the sea and blows over the same and on the land actively. In course of its movement to the cemetery, it touches different objects of the living world. The wind appeals them to wake up.

The wind first addresses the mists and urges to make room for its movement. Then it welcomes the ship and asks the mariners to sail on as the night is gone.

From the sea, the wind moves to the distant land. It freely announces the beginning of the day as a wake up call. One by one, the wind visits the forest, the farms, the fields of corn, the belfry tower and church yard. Then it orders the forest to hang out its leaves. Then it touches the folded wing of the wood bird and urges to sing. After that, the wind moves over the farms and asks the chanticleer to crow as the day is breaking. Then it whispers to the fields of corn to welcome  the morning by bowing down. It also urges to the belfry tower to sing the morning bell.

But when the wind blows across the cemetery, total tone of the poem is changed. Then, the wind sighs for the dead persons who are buried there. It admits that the time has not come yet for the dead to come out of their earthly graves. So, they calm and quite in the grave. Thus, the poet has depicted the activities of the wind beautifully in the poem “Daybreak”.