Class 6 :: English Literature :: Habits by Carol Beachy Wenger
Habits
by Carol Beachy Wenger
The Poem :
"A habit is a stocky thing;
Much good or evil it can bring;
It binds a victim, holds him fast,
And keeps him in a vise-like grasp.
Bad habits grow with extra speed,
Much like a healthy, growing weed.
The roots grow deep, the stem grows stout;
How difficult to pull it out!
Good habits are a little slow;
They need a lot of care to grow;
If tended well, they grow more fair
Than any bloom a plant can bear.
Good habits help us all through life;
Bad habits bring us pain and strife;
Our habits, whether right or wrong,
each day will grow more firm and strong."
Summary of the poem :
A habit is a lingering thing which causes much good or bad to an individual. A habit holds him very firmly and make him a victim of it. Bad habits grow very fast like a weed. It is very difficult to uproot a bad habit as its roots grow deep down and the quantity becomes very stout to quit at once.
On the other hand, good habits grow little slowly. We need to raise good habits very carefully. If we nourish good habits well, they grow fairly and bloom like flowers. Good habits help us a lot in our entire life unlike bad habits which bring us pain and misery.
Our habits whether good or bad, grow more firm and strong with the passage of time.
Making Connections
1. Read these lines and answer the questions that follow.
a. "A habit is a sticky thing;
Much good or evil it can bring;
It binds a victim, holds him fast,
i. Why do you think habits are called 'sticky'?
= I think habits are called 'sticky' as once we procure a habit it does not leave us easily. It lingers in us and only goes till we try very hard.
ii. How can it bring 'good or evil'?
= Habits can be good or bad. The consequence will be the same whether we have procured good habit or bad ones. Good habits bring good and help us through our entire life. Bad habits bring pain and miseries.
iii. What do the words 'holds him fast' mean?
= The words 'holds him fast' means that the habits we procure, regulate our life and influence our every action and the results too.
b. "Good habits are a little slow;
They need a lot of care to grow;
If tended well, they grow more fair"
i. Why do you think 'good habits are a little slow'?
= It think 'good habits are little slow' because they are very systematic and rational. They are the way for making our lives good and blissful. Each good habit is an achievement to acquire. And we know it takes time to make an achievement.
ii. What 'care' do you think good habits need in order 'to grow'?
= I think we need to practice and nurture good habits on a daily basis to make it grow in our life.
2. Read the poem again. Notice that the poet has described both good and bad habits. Fill in the columns below with those characteristics.
=
Good habits | Bad habits |
|---|---|
Grow slowly | Grow fast |
Need a lot of care to grow | Grow without any care |
Help us all through life | Bring us pain and difficulty |
Like flowering plants | Like healthy weed |
We need to procure them in our life | We need to pull them out of our life |
3. How do good habits help us all through life? Give an example.
= Good habits are blessings to our life. They help us to be healthy, wealthy and wise. If we take an example of early going to bed and early rising in the morning, it makes us fit. It makes our day great. All the tasks are done in time and we manage to save time for our own self.
4. In the poem, habits are compared to plants. Draw up a comparison of your own to describe habits.
= In the poem, the bad habits are compared to the unwanted healthy weeds and the good habits to the blooming plants. Good habits are the flowering plants which need care and effort to grow. On the other hand, the bad habits grow rapidly of its own and need efforts to pull out.
I can compare the good habits with the sunrise which brings hope and new possibilities in our life. It is a new beginning after the waiting for the whole night. On the other hand bad habits can be compared with the sunset which brings darkness in our life. They gradually cover our life with darkness. We always like the sunrise rather than the sunset as like the good habits to the bad ones.
5. If you had to choose, which one good habit would you like to have cultivate? Give a reason for your choice.
= If I had to choose, I would like to have the good habit of keeping things properly in their proper places. I am little bit messy and my parents are very much offended for that. I forget to keep my books and copies back in the shelf after my study. I forget to keep my clothes back in the wardrobes after returning from school or any other place. This bad habit should be substituted with the good habit. And I truly want that.