Off to Outer Space Tomorrow Morning

Norman Nicholson


About Norman Nicholson

Norman Nicholson, OBE (1914-1987) was an English poet, novelist, playwright, essayist and critic. His poetry is noted for its local concerns and simplicity of language.

You can start the Count Down, you can take a last look,
You can pass me my helmet from its plastic hook;
You can cross out my name in the telephone book−
For I'm off to Outer Space tomorrow morning.

There won’t be any calendar, there won’t be any clock;
Daylight will be on the switch and winter under lock.
I'll doze when I’m sleepy and wake without a knock-
For I'm off to Outer Space tomorrow morning.

I'll be writing no letters; I‘ll be posting no mail.
For with nobody to visit me and not a friend in hail,
In solit'ry confinement as complete as any gaol
I'll be off to Outer Space tomorrow morning.

When my capsule door is sealed and my space-flight has begun,
With the teacups circling round me like the planets round the sun.
I'll be centre of my gravity, a universe of one,
Setting off to Outer Space tomorrow morning.

You can watch on television and follow from afar,
Tracking through your telescope my upward shooting star,
But you needn't think I‘ll not care for you or what you are
when I'm off to Outer Space tomorrow morning.

And when the rockets thrust me on my trans-galactic hop
With twenty hundred light-years before the first stop,
Then you and every soul on earth can go and blow your top
For I'm off to Outer Space tomorrow morning.

Available Answers

  1. 1.

    Select the correct option to answer the questions given below.

    a. Why does the speaker want you to ‘take a last look'?

    1. He is going for a holiday.
    2. He doesn't want to meet anyone.
    3. He is going into space.

    b. ‘With the teacups circling round me like the planets round the sun.' What is the figure of speech used?

    1. metaphor
    2. personification
    3. simile

    c. What is the mood of the speaker?

    1. sad
    2. delighted
    3. sarcastic
  2. 2.
    Name the one thing that the speaker wants to take with him.
  3. 3.
    Mention three things that tell you that the speaker will not be in touch with anybody.
  4. 4.
    Mention the three differences between the earth and space.
  5. 5.
    Mention his feelings for the people when he is in space.

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