What is the ‘sadness’ that the poet refers to in the poem?

What does the poet want for the children of the slums? How can their lives be made to change?

What is the kind of pain and ache that the poet feels?

Tick the item which best answers the following.

(a) The tall girl with her head weighed down means
     The girl
           (i) is ill and exhausted
           (ii) has her head bent with shame
           (iii) has untidy hair

(b) The paper-seeming boy with rat’s eyes means
     The boy is
           (i) sly and secretive
           (ii) thin, hungry and weak
           (iii) unpleasant looking

(c) The stunted, unlucky heir of twisted bones means
     The boy
           (i) has an inherited disability
           (ii) was short and bony

(d) His eyes live in a dream, A squirrel’s game, in the tree room other than this means
     The boy is
           (i) full of hope in the future
           (ii) mentally ill
           (iii) distracted from the lesson

(e) The children’s faces are compared to ‘rootless weeds’
     This means they
           (i) are insecure
           (ii) are ill-fed
           (iii) are wasters

Why has the mother been compared to the ‘late winter’s moon’?

Why do you think Aunt Jennifer created animals that are so different from her own character? What might the poet be suggesting, through this difference?

What do the parting words of the poet and her smile signify?

Do you think the poet advocates total inactivity and death?

What will counting upto twelve and keeping still help us achieve?

What pleasure does a beautiful thing give us? Are beautiful things worth treasuring?

The walls of the classroom are decorated with the pictures of ‘Shakespeare’, ‘buildings with  domes’, ‘world maps’ and beautiful valleys. How do these contrast with the world of these children?

What is the kind of pain and ache that the poet feels?

Do you think the poet advocates total inactivity and death?

What is suggested by the image ‘massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band’?

What will counting upto twelve and keeping still help us achieve?

Tick the item which best answers the following.

(a) The tall girl with her head weighed down means
     The girl
           (i) is ill and exhausted
           (ii) has her head bent with shame
           (iii) has untidy hair

(b) The paper-seeming boy with rat’s eyes means
     The boy is
           (i) sly and secretive
           (ii) thin, hungry and weak
           (iii) unpleasant looking

(c) The stunted, unlucky heir of twisted bones means
     The boy
           (i) has an inherited disability
           (ii) was short and bony

(d) His eyes live in a dream, A squirrel’s game, in the tree room other than this means
     The boy is
           (i) full of hope in the future
           (ii) mentally ill
           (iii) distracted from the lesson

(e) The children’s faces are compared to ‘rootless weeds’
     This means they
           (i) are insecure
           (ii) are ill-fed
           (iii) are wasters

Which lines tell us about the insufferable pain that the poet feels at the thought of the plight of the rural poor?

Interpret the symbols found in this poem.

Why do you think Aunt Jennifer’s hands are ‘fluttering through her wool’ in the second stanza? Why is she finding the needle so hard to pull?

Why do you think Aunt Jennifer created animals that are so different from her own character? What might the poet be suggesting, through this difference?

Of what or of whom is Aunt Jennifer terrified with in the third stanza?