4.4 The Height of the Ridiculous
Complete textbook exercise solutions based on the poem "The Height of the Ridiculous" by Oliver Wendell Holmes — Maharashtra State Board (Balbharati).
ShareAdvertisement
Reference Note: The solutions provided below are based directly on the textbook chapter "The Height of the Ridiculous" by Oliver Wendell Holmes, as provided in the reference file Std-10_Eng-181-185[1].pdf.
English Workshop
Expressions indicating funny moments:
- I laughed as I would die.
- Was all upon the grin.
- The grin grew broad / And shot from ear to ear.
- A chuckling noise / I now began to hear.
- He broke into a roar.
- His waistband split.
- He burst five buttons.
- And tumbled in a fit.
Proper Order:
- (d) Was all upon the grin.
- (b) The grin grew broad.
- (e) He broke into a roar.
- (a) His waistband split.
- (f) He burst five buttons off.
- (c) Sleepless eye.
Advertisement
| Words | Rhyming words (From the poem) | More of your own |
|---|---|---|
| 1. ear | hear | near, fear |
| 2. within | grin | pin, bin |
| 3. man | can | ran, pan |
| 4. split | fit | sit, hit |
| 5. way | pay | day, say |
| 6. him | limb | dim, rim |
| 7. die | I | sky, fly |
| 8. mood | good | wood, stood |
| Lines | Figures of Speech |
|---|---|
| 1. In wondrous merry mood | Alliteration |
| 2. They were so queer, so very queer. | Repetition |
| 3. And saw him peep within | Tautology |
| 4. The grin grew broad. | Alliteration |
| 5. And shot from ear to ear. | Hyperbole |
| 6. He broke into a roar. | Onomatopoeia |
| 7. Ten days and nights with sleepless eye | Transferred Epithet |
Note: "peep within" features Tautology because "peeping" naturally implies looking inside or through an opening, matching the meaning of "within".
I wrote some lines once on a time
In won-drous mer-ry mood,
And thought, as u-sual, men would say
They were ex-ceed-ing good.
They were so queer, so ver-y queer,
I laughed as I would die;
Al-be-it, in the gen-eral way,
A so-ber man am I.
We returned home late, one night,
In the window, there glowed a light;
Burglars !! was our very first thought,
For defence, sticks 'n stones we sought.
"Let's grab the loot and run,"
was uttered soft, by someone;
The door we softly unlocked,
And then we were truly shocked;
Oops! Before, outside, we'd gone,
The television had been left on.
This is a group composition activity. A short model is provided below:
I tried to bake a chocolate cake,
But made a terrible mistake.
I added salt instead of sweet,
And baked a rock we couldn't eat!
Appreciation of "The Height of the Ridiculous"
The poem "The Height of the Ridiculous" is a highly humorous and exaggerated piece written by the poet Oliver Wendell Holmes. The central theme of the poem revolves around the creation of a poem so incredibly funny that reading it physically endangers the reader through uncontrollable laughter. The poet uses a simple, rhythmic pattern to drive the narrative forward. The rhyme scheme of the poem is 'abcb', which gives it a lively, story-like flow.
My favorite line from the poem is "Ten days and nights, with sleepless eye / I watched that wretched man," as it hilariously exaggerates the tragic yet comic aftermath of reading a funny poem. The poet heavily relies on figures of speech like Hyperbole and Onomatopoeia to create a comic effect. Lines such as "He broke into a roar" and "And shot from ear to ear" vividly illustrate the servant's extreme reaction. The special feature of this poem is its buildup—it starts as a simple anecdote about a poet writing verses and dramatically escalates into a near-fatal fit of laughter. I like this poem because it offers a lighthearted, entertaining escape and masterfully uses exaggeration to make the reader smile.