NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Moments Supplementary Reader Chapter 5

NCERT solutions for Class 9 English Chapter The Happy Prince – complete answers & explanations

This blog provides NCERT solutions for Class 9 English Chapter The Happy Prince. This chapter tells the touching story of a beautiful statue and a little swallow who work together to help the poor and suffering people of the city. It highlights themes of kindness, sacrifice, love, and compassion. The solutions shared below are completely based on the given worksheet and follow it strictly to help students prepare confidently and accurately.

What this NCERT chapter covers?

1. The story of the Happy Prince and the little swallow and their acts of kindness.
2. Themes like compassion, sacrifice, poverty, love, and true happiness.
3. Understanding characters such as the Prince, the swallow, the Mayor, and others.
4. Moral values about helping others and selflessness.
5. Reading comprehension and value-based questions for exam preparation.

How to use these NCERT solutions?

1. First, read the chapter carefully from your textbook.
2. Attempt all the questions on your own before checking the answers.
3. Use these NCERT solutions to match your responses with the worksheet answers.
4. Parents and teachers can guide students in understanding the values and themes.
5. Follow the answers in the exact order given, as they strictly match the worksheet.

Important tips & tricks for students

1. Read each question carefully before answering.
2. Write answers clearly and to the point.
3. Focus on the main events and moral of the story.
4. Avoid writing unnecessary details not asked in the question.
5. For open-ended or discussion-based questions, understand that answers may vary.

NCERT solutions – complete answer key

1. Why do the courtiers call the prince ‘the Happy Prince’? Is he really happy? What does he see all around him?

When he was alive and had a human heart, he did not know what tears were, for he lived in the Palace, where sorrow is not allowed to enter. His courtiers called him the Happy Prince, and happy indeed he was. So he lived, and so he died. And now that he is dead they have set him up so high that he can see the ugliness and all the misery of his city, and though his heart is made of lead yet he cannot choose but weep.

2. Why does the Happy Prince send a ruby for the seamstress? What does the swallow do in the seamstress’ house?

Far away in a little street there is a poor house. A woman is seated at a table. Her face is thin and worn, and she has coarse, red hands, all pricked by the needle, for she is a seamstress. She is embroidering flowers on a satin gown for the loveliest of the Queen’s maids of honour, to wear at the next Court ball. In a bed in the corner of the room her little boy is lying ill. He has a fever, and is asking his mother to give him oranges. His mother has nothing to give him but river water, so he is crying.

The swallow laid the great ruby on the table beside the woman’s thimble. Then he flew gently round the bed, fanning the boy’s forehead with his wings.

3. For whom does the prince send the sapphires and why?

The prince sends one sapphire to a young man in a garret. He is leaning over a desk covered with papers, and in the glass by his side there is a bunch of withered violets. He is trying to finish a play for the Director of the Theatre, but he is too cold to write any more. There is no fire in the grate, and hunger has made him faint. The prince ordered the swallow to pluck out one of his eyes made of rare sapphires and take it to the playwright. He will sell it to the jeweller, and buy firewood, and finish his play.

The prince sends the other sapphire to a little matchgirl. She has let her matches fall in the gutter, and they are all spoiled. Her father will beat her if she does not bring home some money, and she is crying. She has no shoes or stockings, and her little head is bare.

4. What does the swallow see when it flies over the city?

The swallow saw the rich making merry in their beautiful houses, while the beggars were sitting at the gates. He flew into dark lanes, and saw the white faces of starving children looking out listlessly at the black streets. Under the archway of a bridge two little boys were lying in each other’s arms to try and keep themselves warm. “How hungry we are!” they said. “You must not lie here,” shouted the watchman, and they wandered out into the rain.

5. Why did the swallow not leave the prince and go to Egypt?

The poor little swallow grew colder and colder, but he would not leave the Prince, he loved him too well.

6. What are the precious things mentioned in the story? Why are they precious?

“Bring me the two most precious things in the city,” said God to one of His Angels; and the Angel brought Him the leaden heart and the dead bird.

“You have rightly chosen,” said God, “for in my garden of Paradise this little bird shall sing for ever more and in my city of gold the Happy Prince shall praise me.”

The little swallow says, “It is curious, but I feel quite warm now, although it is so cold.” Have you ever had such a feeling? Share your experience with your friends.

Answers may vary.

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