Class 9 English · Original EZT practice
Believe in Yourself (Class 9 English Unit 8): poems on challenge and self-belief
There is no crowd to see a challenge - it is just you and the future. Unit 8 of Kaveri closes with two poems that answer each other. Robert Langley's Step up to the challenge names what must be left behind - comfort, fear and the status quo - and warns that the first step is the hardest. Dorothy Hewitt's Always Believe in Yourself answers with assurance: the intelligence and ability you need are already within you, so persist with courage and keep your hands and heart open. This page gives a summary, themes and practice questions. (Note: this is original practice, not a textbook exercise key.)
6 original worked examples, 6 fresh self-check questions and 4 mixed questions, with explained answers. These are not copied textbook exercises, an official chapter index or a full answer key. No affiliation with NCERT is claimed.
Official sources for topic and edition context, checked 24 October 2026:
1. Summary - Step up to the challenge
Robert Langley's poem tells the reader there is no crowd watching a challenge - it is just you and the future, and where you want to be. It asks whether the future will pull you forward or push you back in fear, warns that there is such ease in comfort and in maintaining the status quo but that this is not what we are made for and not how we grow, and closes on its heaviest truth: the first step is the hardest, there is no turning back, and you just need to believe in yourself for your future to be on track.
2. Summary - Always Believe in Yourself
Dorothy Hewitt's closing poem answers Langley's warning with assurance: do not limit yourself, for you already have all the intelligence and ability that you need. Believe in yourself when you are tested beyond your endurance - continue and persist, hold on to courage, and let laughter and encouragement surround you. The world has much to give: always think big, and keep your hands and heart open, for then you will receive all of life's gifts.
3. Themes and devices - status quo, metaphor and antithesis
The piece builds its message on contrasts. 'Status quo' - Latin for 'the state in which' - names the comfort zone that must be left. 'The first step is the hardest' is a metaphor for how heavy beginnings feel. And the poem uses antithesis, pairing opposite ideas in parallel lines, as in 'Will it pull you forward / Or push you back in fear?' - to make the choice between stagnation and growth unmistakable. The end-rhymes pair steadily through the stanzas (status quo with grow; back with track), keeping the poem's forward march. The textbook's Learning Beyond the Text section adds Indian examples of turning challenges into opportunities: Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.
Choose, solve, check, then try a fresh question.
Before calculating, read the method prompt and name the condition that makes it useful. Write your own attempt. Open the steps only when you need them, and use the check to catch a wrong sign, unit or interpretation. Finish with the fresh question before reading its answer.
Read the opening challenge
Choose the method: No crowd, only the future.
EZT practice question
What does Langley's poem say about who watches a challenge?
Show the worked solution
- There is no crowd to see.
- It is just you and the future, and where you want to be.
- So a challenge is faced alone - the only witness is the future you are trying to reach.
Answer: No one: the poem says there is no crowd to see a challenge - it is just you and the future, and where you want to be, so the only real witness is the future you are trying to reach.
Check: The poem removes the audience on purpose - self-belief cannot depend on spectators.
Watch for this: Do not read the missing crowd as loneliness - the poem uses it to make the challenge fully your own.
Now try it yourself
What question does the poem ask about the future getting near?
Check your answer
Will it pull you forward, or push you back in fear - difficult are choices when the future is getting near.
The question frames the poem's central choice between progress and retreat.
Define the status quo
Choose the method: Comfort has a Latin name.
EZT practice question
What does the poem say about comfort and the status quo?
Show the worked solution
- There is such ease in comfort - in maintaining the status quo.
- 'Status quo' is a Latin expression, 'the state in which' - the existing state of affairs, kept unchanged.
- But staying there is 'not what we are made for' and 'not how we grow'.
Answer: That there is ease in comfort and in maintaining the status quo - the Latin for the existing state of affairs - but staying there is not what we are made for and not how we grow; comfort symbolises stagnation and fear of change.
Check: The poem grants comfort's ease first, then denies its value - that concession makes the refusal stronger.
Watch for this: Do not treat the status quo as neutral - in the poem it is the enemy of growth.
Now try it yourself
Identify the antithesis in 'Will it pull you forward / Or push you back in fear?'.
Check your answer
'Pull you forward' and 'push you back in fear' are opposite ideas set in parallel structure - progress versus retreat, courage versus fear.
Antithesis makes the choice between stagnation and growth unmistakable.
Unpack the first step
Choose the method: A metaphor for beginning.
EZT practice question
Why is 'The first step is the hardest' a metaphor and not a literal statement?
Show the worked solution
- The line is not about walking - there is no physical step.
- 'First step' stands for the beginning of any change or challenge.
- 'Hardest' transfers the weight of a difficult physical effort onto a mental one - starting, not continuing, is where most people stall.
Answer: The line is not about walking - there is no physical step. 'First step' stands for the beginning of any change or challenge, and 'hardest' transfers the weight of a difficult physical effort onto a mental one: it captures why starting, not continuing, is where most people stall.
Check: Ask what the step stands for - if there is no walking, the word must be carrying an idea.
Watch for this: Do not explain the line as advice about hiking - the poem never leaves the realm of choices and beginnings.
Now try it yourself
What completes the stanza after 'The first step is the hardest'?
Check your answer
'There is no turning back, / You just need to believe in yourself / For your future to be on track.'
The rhyme of back with track ties commitment to self-belief.
Compare the two poems
Choose the method: One pushes, one pulls.
EZT practice question
How do Langley's and Hewitt's poems argue differently for self-belief?
Show the worked solution
- Langley's poem argues through challenge - it names fear, comfort and the status quo as what must be left behind, and warns that the first step is the hardest.
- Hewitt's poem argues through assurance - it tells the reader the needed intelligence and ability are already within, and asks them to persist with courage and openness.
- One pushes from the obstacle side; the other pulls from the capability side.
Answer: Langley's poem argues through challenge - it names fear, comfort and the status quo as what must be left behind, and warns that the first step is the hardest. Hewitt's poem argues through assurance - it tells the reader the needed intelligence and ability are already within, and asks them to persist with courage and openness. One pushes from the obstacle side; the other pulls from the capability side.
Check: Frame the difference as push versus pull - obstacle-side pressure against capability-side assurance.
Watch for this: Do not treat the two poems as repetitions - they approach the same message from opposite directions.
Now try it yourself
How are the two poems positioned within Unit 8?
Check your answer
Langley's Step up to the challenge comes first and Hewitt's Always Believe in Yourself closes the piece - warning first, assurance second.
The order moves the reader from the difficulty of starting to the promise of receiving.
Follow Hewitt's assurance
Choose the method: Within, then received.
EZT practice question
What is the message of Dorothy Hewitt's Always Believe in Yourself?
Show the worked solution
- Do not limit yourself - you already have all the intelligence and ability that you need.
- When tested beyond your endurance, continue and persist, and hold on to courage.
- Think big and keep your hands and heart open - for then you will receive all of life's gifts.
Answer: Do not limit yourself: you already have all the intelligence and ability you need; when tested beyond endurance, continue and persist, hold on to courage, think big, and keep your hands and heart open - for then you will receive all of life's gifts.
Check: Hewitt's logic runs within to without: ability is already inside; gifts arrive when hands and heart stay open.
Watch for this: Do not say the poem promises success without effort - 'continue and persist' and 'hold on to courage' are conditions, not decorations.
Now try it yourself
What should you do when 'tested beyond your endurance'?
Check your answer
Continue and persist, and hold on to courage.
Endurance is answered with persistence - the poem's most direct command.
Connect the Indian examples
Choose the method: Challenges into opportunities.
EZT practice question
Which Indian personalities does the textbook's Learning Beyond the Text section name as examples of turning challenges into opportunities?
Show the worked solution
- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, who suffered untold humiliations at school.
- Lal Bahadur Shastri, honoured with the title 'Shastri' at Varanasi and imprisoned multiple times.
- Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, whose family faced financial difficulties and who worked to help with his school expenses.
Answer: Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Lal Bahadur Shastri, and Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam - each turned hardship into opportunity, which is why the textbook places them alongside poems about challenge and self-belief.
Check: All three faced obstacles first - the section extends the poems' message into Indian lives.
Watch for this: Do not present the three as prizes or posts - the section cites the hardships they overcame, not the offices they held.
Now try it yourself
How does the Learning Beyond the Text section relate to the poems?
Check your answer
It gives Indian examples of the poems' message - real lives in which challenge became opportunity through persistence and self-belief.
The poems state the idea; the section proves it in lived examples.
Try a mixed set
Choose a method or explanation before opening each answer.
1. Who wrote Step up to the challenge?
Show answer and reason
Robert Langley.
Dorothy Hewitt wrote the closing Always Believe in Yourself.
2. Meaning of status quo?
Show answer and reason
Latin, 'the state in which' - the existing state of affairs, kept unchanged.
The poem calls staying there 'not what we are made for'.
3. What is 'the first step is the hardest'?
Show answer and reason
A metaphor: beginnings of any change feel heaviest.
There is no physical step in the poem.
4. Hewitt's closing promise?
Show answer and reason
Keep your hands and heart open and you will receive all of life's gifts.
Ability is already within; openness receives.
Try it yourself
Work these on paper before checking any notes. Answers are deliberately not shown here.
- Recite the final stanza of Langley's poem from 'The first step is the hardest'.
- Explain the push-pull difference between the two poems in one sentence.
- Name the three Indian personalities in Learning Beyond the Text and the hardship each overcame.
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Questions about this practice page
- What is Believe in Yourself about?
- It is the second piece of Unit 8 in the NCERT Class 9 English textbook Kaveri: Robert Langley's poem Step up to the challenge, about leaving comfort and taking the hardest first step, followed by Dorothy Hewitt's closing poem Always Believe in Yourself, about persisting with courage and openness.
- Who wrote Step up to the challenge?
- Robert Langley. The poem tells the reader there is no crowd watching a challenge - it is just you and the future - and that the first step is the hardest, but self-belief keeps your future on track.
- What does Langley's poem say about comfort and the status quo?
- That there is ease in comfort and in maintaining the status quo, but staying there is 'not what we are made for' and 'not how we grow' - comfort symbolises stagnation and fear of change.
- What is the message of Dorothy Hewitt's Always Believe in Yourself?
- Do not limit yourself: you already have all the intelligence and ability you need; when tested beyond endurance, continue and persist, hold on to courage, think big, and keep your hands and heart open to receive all of life's gifts.
- What is the theme of Believe in Yourself?
- Growth begins where comfort ends: the first step is the hardest, there is no turning back, and the difference between standing still and moving forward is believing in yourself.