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NCERT Solutions for Class 9th English Chapter 8 Believe in Yourself (poem by Robert Langley) — Check your Understanding

Book page 247–249 Updated on2026-09-08

Q1.
I. Based on your understanding of the poem, select the correct central idea for each stanza from the options given. Stanza 1 (i) Facing challenges requires personal responsibility and a clear focus on one’s future. (ii) Facing challenges is a journey best taken with support and guidance from others.
Answer

(i) Facing challenges requires personal responsibility and a clear focus on one’s future.

The stanza:

Step up to the challenge
There is no crowd to see,
It’s just you and the future
And where you want to be.

The evidence, phrase by phrase:

  • “Step up” — an imperative addressed to one person. Nobody is asked to help; you are told to move.
  • “There is no crowd to see” — no audience, and therefore no helpers either. Option (ii) is not merely unsupported by this line; it is directly denied by it.
  • “It’s just you and the future” — the word just reduces the cast to two, and one of them is not a person. That is personal responsibility stated as arithmetic.
  • “And where you want to be” — the clear focus. The future is not vague; it has a destination you have chosen.
Where option (ii) comes from — and why the poem rejects it. It is a perfectly sensible view of challenges, and it is the view of the other piece in this chapter: Irene Chua insists that “for one winner, there is a group of people who stood by him/her.” The paired options are testing whether you can read this poem rather than fall back on general good sense. Langley’s poem is deliberately about solitude, and the illustrator has understood it — the boy on page 246 stands at the foot of the stairs alone.
Q2.
I. Stanza 2 (i) Fear and uncertainty make it difficult to make choices as the future approaches. (ii) Facing the future with confidence makes choices easier and more straightforward.
Answer

(i) Fear and uncertainty make it difficult to make choices as the future approaches.

The stanza:

Will it pull you forward
Or push you back in fear?
Difficult are choices
When the future is getting near.

The evidence: the third and fourth lines say it outright — “Difficult are choices / When the future is getting near.” Difficulty and approach are both named. And the first two lines supply the reason: the future can pull or push, and you cannot tell in advance which it will do. That uncertainty is the whole content of the stanza.

Look at the inversion in line 3. Normal English would be “Choices are difficult”. Langley writes “Difficult are choices”, putting the adjective first. The effect is to make difficult the loudest word in the line, and to slow the reader down at exactly the moment the poem is describing hesitation. The word order performs the difficulty it describes. Notice also that the inversion helps the metre and lets near fall at the end of the line to rhyme with fear.
Why (ii) is wrong even though it sounds encouraging. Nowhere in this stanza is there confidence, and nothing is called easy. The whole stanza is one unanswered question followed by one flat statement of difficulty. Confidence arrives only in stanza 4 — and a poem that offered it here would have nothing left to build to.
Q3.
I. Stanza 3 (i) Personal growth involves finding balance between comfort and change. (ii) Personal growth requires leaving behind comfort and embracing change.
Answer

(ii) Personal growth requires leaving behind comfort and embracing change.

The stanza:

There is such ease in comfort
To maintain the status quo,
But this isn’t what we are made for
This isn’t how we grow.

The evidence turns on one word: but. The first two lines concede that comfort is easy; the last two reject it entirely. Langley does not say comfort has its place or should be balanced against effort — he says it “isn’t what we are made for” and “isn’t how we grow”. That is a rejection, twice repeated, not a balance.

Why option (i) is a trap worth understanding. ‘Finding balance’ is the sort of moderate, agreeable idea that sounds like a good answer to almost any question about life. But it is not this poem's idea. Test an option by asking which line would have to be deleted for it to be true — for (i) you would have to delete both negatives, and the negatives are the stanza. Langley is writing persuasion, not advice; persuasion takes a side.
Notice the repetition of “This isn’t”. The same two words open both closing lines — a device called anaphora. It gives the rejection the finality of a refrain and makes the two objections sound like one verdict.
Q4.
I. Stanza 4 (i) The first step towards change may feel easy if you place your trust in others to guide you and provide support. (ii) The first step towards change is difficult, but having self-belief and confidence helps you stay on track.
Answer

(ii) The first step towards change is difficult, but having self-belief and confidence helps you stay on track.

The stanza:

The first step is the hardest
There is no turning back,
You just need to believe in yourself
For your future to be on track.

Option (ii) matches the stanza almost word for word: difficult ← “the hardest”; self-belief ← “believe in yourself”; stay on track ← “to be on track”. When an option can be built out of the poem’s own vocabulary, it is almost always the right one.

Option (i) fails on a single word — yourself. It relocates the trust from the person to “others”, which contradicts not only this stanza but the poem’s title and its opening line, “There is no crowd to see.” Every one of these four paired options offers the same false alternative: reliance on other people. The examiner is testing one thing four times over, because it is the poem’s central claim — and, as Critical Reflection II.3 on page 250 invites you to argue, its most debatable one.
The four central ideas as a sequence: stanza 1 — you are alone with your future; stanza 2 — that makes choosing hard; stanza 3 — but comfort is not an option, because it is not growth; stanza 4 — so take the step, and trust yourself. Problem, difficulty, refusal of the easy way out, resolution. A four-stanza argument, in twenty-eight words a stanza.
Q5.
II. Rhyme Scheme Fill in the blank to complete the following sentence. The poem follows a simple, yet effective rhyme scheme _________ that flows steadily through each stanza.
Answer

abcb (also written ABCB)

Work it out stanza by stanza — give each new sound a new letter, and repeat a letter when the sound returns:

StanzaLine-end wordsScheme
1challenge / see / future / bea b c b
2forward / fear / choices / neara b c b
3comfort / quo / for / growa b c b
4hardest / back / yourself / tracka b c b
Why abcb and not abab — check before you answer. Lines 1 and 3 do not rhyme in any stanza: challenge and future share nothing; neither do forward and choices, comfort and for, hardest and yourself. Only the second and fourth lines chime. Since lines 1 and 3 are different from each other and from everything else, they must take different letters — a and c. This is the scheme of the ballad and of most hymns, which is why the poem sounds familiar the first time you read it.
What the scheme does for the poem — the ‘yet effective’ in the question. With only one rhyme per stanza, the reader waits through three lines and then gets the click on the fourth. That single delayed chime makes the last line of every stanza land like a conclusion: be, near, grow, track. Each stanza ends on its point, and the loose lines 1 and 3 keep the poem sounding like spoken advice rather than a jingle.
Q6.
III. Tone State whether the following statements are true or false. 1. The overall tone of the poem is motivational and encouraging.
Answer

True.

The evidence is in the poem’s grammar, not just its content. Langley writes almost entirely in the second person and in imperatives: “Step up to the challenge”, “You just need to believe in yourself.” He is not describing a situation; he is addressing a reader and telling that reader to act — which is the basic shape of motivational speech.

  • The poem ends on the promise: “For your future to be on track.”
  • It names the difficulty only to dismiss it: comfort “isn’t how we grow”; the first step is hardest, and you should take it anyway.
  • Its title is itself an instruction — Believe in Yourself, imperative mood.
Do not confuse tone with subject. The poem talks about fear, difficulty and irreversibility — dark material. But tone is the speaker’s attitude to the material, not the material itself, and Langley’s attitude throughout is “you can do this, so begin”. A poem can discuss fear in an encouraging tone, exactly as this one does.
Q7.
III. 2. The tone shifts from thoughtful in the beginning to one of determination by the end of the poem.
Answer

True. Track the sentence types across the four stanzas and the shift is unmistakable.

StanzaKey lineKind of sentenceTone
1“It’s just you and the future”Statement of the situationReflective — setting the scene
2“Will it pull you forward / Or push you back in fear?”A questionThoughtful, uncertain, weighing
3“But this isn’t what we are made for”A refusalFirm — the argument turns
4“You just need to believe in yourself”A direct assertion to ‘you’Determined, decided
The turning point is the word But at the start of stanza 3, line 3. Before it the poem asks and hesitates; after it the poem declares. The only question mark in the whole poem is in stanza 2 — once it has been asked, Langley never returns to uncertainty. Notice too the small word just in the last stanza (“You just need to believe in yourself”): it dismisses every complication the earlier stanzas raised, and its confidence is precisely what Critical Reflection II.3 will ask you to test.
Q8.
IV. Speaker Fill in the blanks with the correct options from those given in the brackets. The speaker in this poem is not distant; rather, he/she comes across as a _________ (stranger/guide) who understands the struggle and is encouraging the reader to take ____________ (interest in/control of) his/her own future. The use of direct address ‘You’ creates a close connection, as though the speaker is __________. (talking directly to the reader/addressing the reader from a distance)
Answer

The completed passage: The speaker in this poem is not distant; rather, he/she comes across as a guide who understands the struggle and is encouraging the reader to take control of his/her own future. The use of direct address ‘You’ creates a close connection, as though the speaker is talking directly to the reader.

BlankAnswerWhy
1guideThe sentence itself rules out the alternative — “is not distant” — and a stranger is by definition distant. A guide has been along the path: the speaker knows the first step is the hardest and that there is no turning back.
2control ofThe poem asks for action, not attention. “Step up”, “believe in yourself”, “For your future to be on track” — the future is handed over to the reader to steer. Taking an interest in your future is far weaker than what the poem demands.
3talking directly to the reader‘You’ appears in every stanza. Nothing separates speaker from reader — no story, no third person, no ‘one might say’.
What the second-person pronoun does to a poem. Had Langley written “The first step is the hardest for a person”, the poem would be an observation and you could agree with it comfortably from outside. Writing you puts the reader inside the poem and makes agreement into a commitment. The reader becomes the person standing at the bottom of the stairs — which is exactly what the Reflect and Respond question on page 245 asked you to imagine before you had even read the poem. The book’s sequence is deliberate.
One shift worth noticing. Stanza 3 slips into we — “this isn’t what we are made for / This isn’t how we grow.” For four lines the guide stands beside the reader instead of in front, and the claim becomes one about all human beings rather than about you alone. Then stanza 4 returns to you, and the responsibility comes back.
Q9.
V. Imagery Match the phrases from the poem in Column 1 with the imagery they represent in Column 2. An extra representation is given. Column 1 1. There is no crowd to see... 2. push you back in fear? Column 2 (i) Represents the difficulty of beginning a new challenge or change. (ii) Suggests a solitary journey, stressing individual effort. (iii) Evokes the mental barrier that prevents growth.
Answer
Column 1Column 2Why
1. “There is no crowd to see…”(ii) Suggests a solitary journey, stressing individual effort.An absent crowd means no spectators and no companions. The very next line confirms the reading: “It’s just you and the future.”
2. “push you back in fear?”(iii) Evokes the mental barrier that prevents growth.Nothing physical pushes anyone here. The pushing is done by fear — a force inside the mind that stops forward movement.

The extra representation is (i) — “Represents the difficulty of beginning a new challenge or change”. It is not left over by accident: it belongs to a line the exercise has withheld, “The first step is the hardest” in stanza 4. Being able to say where the spare option would have fitted is the surest sign that you have matched the other two correctly.

Why (iii) and not (i) for “push you back in fear”. Both concern difficulty, so the pairing has to be made on the exact word. (i) is about beginning — a difficulty of starting. (iii) is about being prevented — a barrier that keeps you where you are. The verb in the poem is push back, which is movement in the wrong direction, not hesitation at the start. And the whole phrase is half of an antithesis — “pull you forward / push you back” — where forward means growth; so what pushes back is precisely what prevents growth. That is (iii), word for word.
Method for any matching grid: do the certain pair first (here, the crowd and solitude), which removes one option from play. Then decide the remaining pair on a single distinguishing word rather than on general sense. Guessing on ‘feel’ is what the extra option is designed to punish.
Q10.
VI. Symbolism Select the words/phrases from the box below to complete the given sentences. [Box on page 248: unknown | self-improvement | courage | leap of faith | stagnation] 1. Comfort and the status quo represent ___________ and fear of change, symbolising the comfort zone that holds one back.
Answer

stagnation

Comfort and the status quo represent stagnation and fear of change, symbolising the comfort zone that holds one back.

Why stagnation is the exact word. Stagnant water is water that does not flow — it stands still, and standing still is what spoils it. The word therefore carries both halves of what the poem says about comfort: no movement, and harm caused by the absence of movement. Langley’s own lines make the second half explicit: “this isn’t what we are made for / This isn’t how we grow.” Comfort is not merely neutral in the poem; it is the opposite of growth.
Eliminate as you go. None of the other four box words could fit here — unknown, courage, leap of faith and self-improvement all belong to the side of change, and this sentence is about the side that refuses it. There are five words and five blanks in this exercise, so each word is used exactly once.
Q11.
VI. 2. The future symbolises the ____________, the potential for change and success that lies ahead but requires ___________to step into.
Answer

unknown; courage

The future symbolises the unknown, the potential for change and success that lies ahead but requires courage to step into.

BlankAnswerThe clue
firstunknownIt must be a noun for a thing — “The future symbolises the ___”. And the poem never tells you what the future holds; it only asks, “Will it pull you forward / Or push you back in fear?” The question is left unanswered, which is precisely what makes the future unknown.
secondcourageIt must be what a person supplies in order to act — “requires ___ to step into”. Facing something unknown without turning back is the definition of courage.
Why leap of faith does not fit the second blank, though it is tempting. Read the whole phrase: “requires ___ to step into”. A leap of faith is itself an action, and you cannot use one action to perform another — “requires a leap of faith to step into” makes the leap and the step compete for the same job. Courage is the quality; the leap is the deed. And the box holds a place for that deed in the very next sentence, where “the first step symbolises the initial ___”. Fitting words to a box is partly grammar, not only meaning.
Q12.
VI. 3. The first step symbolises the initial ___________ required to begin the journey of _____________ or personal development.
Answer

leap of faith; self-improvement

The first step symbolises the initial leap of faith required to begin the journey of self-improvement or personal development.

Why the poem’s first step is a leap of faith and not merely a decision. A leap of faith is an act taken before you have any proof that it will work. That is exactly the position Langley describes: the future is unknown, there is no crowd to reassure you, and — “There is no turning back” — you cannot test the step and then undo it. All you have to go on is “believe in yourself”, which is faith by definition: belief in advance of evidence.
Read the three symbolism sentences together and you have the poem in prose: comfort stands for stagnation; the future stands for the unknown, which takes courage to enter; and the first step is the leap of faith that begins self-improvement. The exercise is not a vocabulary drill — it is a summary of the poem, with the key words removed. That is worth noticing, because the same five words will serve you well in the Critical Reflection and the Writing Task.
Q13.
VII. Metaphor The poet uses a metaphor in the line, ‘The first step is the hardest’. Explain why this is metaphorical.
Answer

It is metaphorical because no walking is involved. Langley is not describing a staircase or a road. He borrows a physical action — taking a step — and uses it to stand for something that has no physical existence at all: the first act of commitment towards a goal. That silent substitution of one thing for another, without like or as, is what makes a metaphor.

The wordsWhat they literally meanWhat they stand for here
the first stepone movement of the footthe first real act — sending the application, saying yes to the audition, opening the book, telling your parents
hardestrequiring the most physical effortrequiring the most courage; the point where fear and self-doubt are strongest
“There is no turning back”the path behind you is gonethe change is irreversible — once you have begun, you have become someone who is attempting it

Why it is a good metaphor, and not merely a familiar one. Three things carry over from walking to acting, and all three are true of both:

  • A step is small. The metaphor quietly argues that beginning is a little act — which is encouraging, and which is why the poem can call it hardest without discouraging you.
  • The first is unlike the rest. In walking, the first step from standing takes more effort than any that follows, because you must overcome inertia. The same is true of starting anything, and that is the precise idea Langley wants.
  • Steps continue. The word carries a whole journey inside it, so “the first step” implies a second and a hundredth without needing to mention them.
The illustration on page 246 tests the metaphor. The artist has drawn an actual staircase with an actual boy at the bottom — that is, has turned the metaphor back into a picture. It works because the metaphor was well chosen; a metaphor you can draw is one whose image is doing real work. Note the difference between the two, though: on the page you can see the whole staircase, whereas in life you cannot. The metaphor is generous to the reader in a way the picture cannot be.
Q14.
VIII. The poem uses antithesis in a couple of lines. Antithesis is a rhetorical device that pairs contrasting or opposite ideas in a parallel grammatical structure to highlight differences or create emphasis. It simplifies complex ideas through contrast, making them easier for readers or listeners to understand. Consider the famous quote from Neil Armstrong when he stepped onto the moon: “Setting foot on the moon may be a small step for a man, but a giant leap for mankind.” Here, the antithesis lies in contrasting the ‘small step’ for an individual with the ‘giant leap’ for all humanity. The parallel structure of the two phrases highlights the incredible significance of this event, presenting it as both a personal and massive achievement. Other examples: • Speech is silver, but silence is gold. • Patience is bitter, but it has a sweet fruit. • Man proposes, God disposes. Identify the lines from the poem that show antithesis and explain why it is so.
Answer

The clearest antithesis is in stanza 2:

Will it pull you forward
Or push you back in fear?

Why it qualifies — test it against the book’s own definition.

The definition requiresThe lines supply
Contrasting or opposite ideasTwo opposite verbs (pull / push) and two opposite directions (forward / back) — a double opposition inside four words
A parallel grammatical structureIdentical patterns: verb + you + direction. “pull you forward” / “push you back”. Even the sounds are matched — pull and push share their opening consonant, so the ear hears the pairing before the mind does.
Highlighting a difference, creating emphasisThe whole future is reduced to two possibilities and no third, which is what makes the choice feel urgent

A second, looser antithesis runs through stanza 3:

There is such ease in comfort / To maintain the status quo,
But this isn’t what we are made for / This isn’t how we grow.

Here the contrast is comfort against growth, held in place by the pivot word But and by the repeated “This isn’t”. The structure is less tightly parallel than the pull/push pair, but the opposition is the same kind: two states set against each other so that choosing one means rejecting the other.

Why antithesis suits this poem particularly well. The poem is about a moment of decision, and a decision is by nature a choice between two things. Antithesis is the grammar of decision-making — it removes the middle ground and lays the alternatives side by side, which is exactly what a person standing at the foot of the stairs experiences. Compare Armstrong’s sentence: he too was describing a single step, and he too needed two opposed phrases to say what it meant.
One difference from the book’s examples. “Speech is silver, but silence is gold” and “Man proposes, God disposes” are statements — the contrast is settled, and the speaker tells you which side wins. Langley’s antithesis is a question: “Will it pull you forward / Or push you back in fear?” Nothing is settled, and no answer is given. The device is the same; the effect is opposite, because the choice is left with the reader.
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