Foundation first: how the poem makes its noise
Learn these tools, each with its example from the poem.
- Hyperbole: voice from Delhi to Burma; mansions tumbling; the sky weeping.
- Imagery: pictures for the eye, such as animals on their backs with their feet in the air, and birds flipping upside down in mid-flight.
- Personification: the sky weeps as a person would. (The old word for sky used in the poem is welkin.)
- Alliteration: repeated first sounds, as in "feathered fly turn turtle while they're winging" (f, t and w).
- Onomatopoeia: words that sound like their meaning, such as hum, whine, crash and bellow.
- Rhyme and rhythm: quick, bouncing, rhymed lines that sound as noisy and lively as the singer.
- Tone: playful and mocking, never cruel.
Worked examples
Example 1 (3 marks; ICSE 2026, Q7(i)). What is Bhisma Lochan Sharma known for? When can one hear him? Explain the words "You catch his strain".
Model answer. He is known for his loud, harsh singing, which carries over enormous distances. One hears him in summer. "You catch his strain" means that you hear his song or tune, wherever you are, from Delhi to Burma.
Why this scores: his singing (1 mark); the season (1 mark); the meaning of "strain" as song (1 mark).
Example 2 (MCQ with a trap; ICSE 2025 specimen, Q1(viii)). Which of these is NOT an effect of Bhishma Lochan Sharma's powerful singing? (a) The sky weeps tears (b) The trees shake and crash (c) The people retire amazed (d) The turtles whine and stare.
Solution. (d). In the poem it is the animals that whine and stare. The birds "turn turtle", which only means that they flip over. There are no turtles. Read each option against the poem before you choose.
Example 3 (devices with a twist; ICSE 2027 specimen, Q1(xi) and ICSE 2025 Improvement, Q1(xi)). Name the device in (i) "the feathered fly turn turtle while they're winging" and (ii) "the welkin weeps".
Solution. (i) Alliteration, because the same first sounds repeat. The matching option in the paper was "You're one month on in the middle of May" (the m sound), not "I wander'd lonely as a cloud", which is a simile. (ii) Personification (and hyperbole): the sky is made to weep like a person. The matching option was "When Truth broke in with all her matter-of-factness", where Truth acts like a woman.
Why this scores: matching the device and not the topic. Look at how the words work, not at what the line is about.
Example 4 (3 marks; ICSE 2025 Improvement, Q6(iii)). What is the effect of Bhishma's singing on horses, fish and birds?
Model answer. The horses stand stunned along the roadside. The fish dive to the bottom of the lake in search of silence. The birds flying in the sky turn turtle, that is, flip upside down in mid-flight.
Why this scores: one mark for each creature with its effect. Keep to the three named, and give the effect, not only the name.
Example 5 (4 marks; ICSE 2026, Q7(v)). Bring out the significance of the title. Do you feel sympathy for Bhisma Lochan Sharma or for those who listened to him? Give reasons.
Model answer. The title is ironic. Music is meant to delight and soothe, but the "power" of this music is to destroy. It frightens people, upsets nature and knocks down houses, and relief comes only with silence. I feel sympathy for the listeners. They suffer terribly, they beg him to stop, and they have no choice. Bhishma Lochan is so absorbed in himself that he never listens to them.
Why this scores: the irony explained with the poem's evidence (2 marks); a clear choice (1 mark); a reason from the poem (1 mark). Either view is accepted if it is supported.
Example 6 (long answer, about 120 words). How does the poet make the poem funny?
Model answer. Sukumar Ray makes us laugh through exaggeration. A voice heard from Delhi to Burma, birds flipping upside down, animals lying with their feet in the air, fish diving for silence and a weeping sky are impossible pictures, told in a serious voice. The sound of the poem adds to the joke, because rhyme, alliteration and words like crash and bellow make the lines noisy and lively. The grand name Bhishma is a mock-heroic joke for a bad singer. The best joke comes at the end, when the wisest creature turns out to be a billy goat. Humour and a gentle lesson about consideration go together.
Why this scores: it names the devices (exaggeration, sound, mock-heroic name, irony), gives an example for each and ends with a link to the lesson.
Doubts cleared
Q. Why do the fish dive to the bottom of the lake? To escape the noise. They are looking for silence, but the joke is that even deep water is not safe.
Q. Why is the goat called "sagacious"? Sagacious means wise. It is comic praise, because the wisest creature in the poem is a goat. It succeeds where all the people fail.
Q. What does "turn turtle" mean? To turn upside down, like a turtle on its back. It is an idiom for overturning.
Q. Why do the people not stop him themselves? They only beg. The poem makes the point that pleading does not work on a person who ignores everyone, and so the problem needs a stronger force.
Mistakes to avoid
- The turtle trap. Do not write that turtles whine and stare, or that birds become turtles.
- Listing only people. The poem shows the effect on people, animals, birds, fish, trees, buildings and the sky. Use the categories the question names.
- Naming a device with no example. "Alliteration" earns little unless you quote the words.
- Calling the sky's weeping real. It is personification and hyperbole.
Check yourself
- Name three effects of the singing on nature.
- Which device is shown by "the feathered fly turn turtle while they're winging"?
- What does "sagacious" mean?
Answers: 1. Any three: carts overturn; horses stand stunned; animals whine and stare; birds turn turtle; fish dive; trees crash; mansions tumble; the sky weeps. 2. Alliteration. 3. Wise, shrewd.
Part 1 — The singer and his voice
In the summer, Bhishma Lochan Sharma starts to sing. His voice is so powerful that it can be heard across vast distances — from Delhi to Burma. He is completely absorbed in his singing and pays no attention to anyone else.
Part 2 — The people suffer
The people who hear him are dazed. In the panic, some are trampled; others turn pale and sick. They beg him to stop, saying they cannot bear it — they feel they are near their end. But Bhishma Lochan goes on singing. (2025 specimen Q1(viii): the people retire amazed.)
Part 3 — Nature in chaos
The poet describes the effects of the singing in a series of wildly exaggerated pictures:
| Who or what | What happens |
|---|---|
| bullock-carts | overturn |
| horses | stand along the roadside, stunned |
| animals | collapse, whining and staring with their feet in the air |
| birds | flip over in mid-flight — "the feathered fly turn turtle while they're winging" |
| fish | dive to the bottom of the lake, searching for silence |
| trees | shake and crash down, with a noise heard far away |
| grand mansions | tumble down |
| the sky | weeps |
(2025 specimen Q1(viii): the sky weeps tears, the trees shake and crash, and the people retire amazed — but it is the animals, not "turtles", that whine and stare. 2027 specimen Q1(xi) quotes the line about the birds.)
Part 4 — The billy goat
Just when it seems nothing can stop the singer, a billy goat appears — described as a sagacious (wise) fellow. It lowers its horns and charges straight at Bhishma Lochan, meeting his bellowing with a bellow of its own. With this sudden, rough blow, the strains of the song are scattered and tossed aside.
Part 5 — Silence
Bhishma Lochan's song comes to an end, and the world receives the gift of silence — which, after such "music", seems as precious as gold. The goat, not any human being, has rescued everyone.