Section (c) Literature
45 Marks
Prescribed Books: Flamingo (Text)
Vistas ( S. Reader)
(1) Poetry
10 Marks
(i) One out of two extracts based on poetry
4 Marks
(ii) Three out of four short questions.
(2x3 =6)
Poem .1. My Mother at Sixty Six
Poet: Kamala Das
Summary of the poem:
The poet is driving to the airport in Cochin from her p[parent’s home. Her mother is
accompanying her to the airport. The poet is distressed that her mother is ageing. She
compares her pale and lifeless face with that of a corpse. The thought of losing her upsets
the poet. She wishes to brush aside this painful thought and she looks at the energized
children and the sprinting trees that symbolize energy and life. At the airport, the poet
and her mother apart. The poet yet again compares her mother’s face with the dull late
winter moon. Her childhood fear of losing her mother – the inevitable pains her but she
tries to conceal her fear by smiling and optimistically saying, “See you soon, Amma.”
Important Extracts:
(i)
Driving from my parent's
home to Cochin last Friday
morning, I saw my mother,
beside me, doze, open mouthed,
her face ashen like that
of a corpse
Comprehension Questions
Answers
1. Where was the poet going & 1. The poetess, Kamala Das was going to Cochin
when?
2. What did she see beside her?
3. Who is ‘I' here?
4. How did her face look like?
(ii)
and realized with
pain
that she thought away, and
looked but soon
put that thought away, and
looked out at young
trees sprinting, the merry children
spilling out of their homes
Comprehension Questions:
1.What did the poetess realize?
2.How did she put away that
thought?
3.What did she look out?
4.What do the children signify?
(ii)
on Friday morning.
2. She saw her mother beside her on the seat. She
was dozing with open mouth.
3. The poetess, Kamala Das.
4. Her face looked colour of a corpse.
Answers
1.The poetess realized the deep pain in heart to see her
mother’s face like that of a corpse.
2.She put away that thought by looking at the outside
world.
3.She looks out at young trees running & the merry
children coming out of their homes.
4.The children signify life, vitality, movement and
happiness.
but after the airport's
security check, standing
a few yards away,
I looked again at her, wan, pale
as a late winter's moon and
felt that old familiar ache,
my childhood's fear,
Comprehension Questions
1. Who is ‘I’ here?
2. Who is ‘Amma’ in the lines?
3. What did the poetess say to her?
4. What did the poetess conduct herself
at that time?
Answers
1. The poetess.
2. Her mother.
3. The poetess said to her mother ‘see you
soon, Amma’.
4. She smiled, smiled & smiled.
Practice Task
Answer the following in 30-40 words:
Q.1. Why does the poet smile and what does she say while bidding goodbye to
her mother?
Ans. She could only keep smiling and tell her ‘see you soon’ knowing full well that
she might not see her.
Q.2. What does the poet’s mother look like?
Ans.The poet's mother looks wan and pale which the poet has tastefully compared to
a late winter's moon.
Q.3.What poetic devices has the poet used in the poem?
Ans.The most used poetic device by the author is simile. She uses it in both cases to
describe her mother’s wan look - "ashen like a corpse" & "pale as a late winter's
moon.
Poem: 2 An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum
Poet: Stephen Spender
Summary of the poem:
In this poem, Stephen Spender has brought out the miserable condition of the children
studying in an elementary school in a slum. The children in the classroom are pale and
unhealthy and some are even diseased. Their unkempt and dull hair has been compared to
rootless weeds. One of the girls is apparently burdened with the miseries of poverty. One
of the boys has inherited his father’s disease and has stunted growth. Another student is
sitting unnoticed and he is yearning to play outdoors. The donations given to the school
in the form of pictures, paintings and maps are meaningless for the children. They exhibit
the world of the elite and the privileged while the children in the slum have a future that
is sealed and confined to the slum. Their future is dark and limited. The donations on the
walls only add to the frustration of the children. They are tempted to attain what would be
unattainable for them. The only hope for them is the support from powerful people like
the governor, inspector or an influential visitor. The children in the slum can progress
only if they are given good education and the freedom to move into a world of
opportunities and progress. The poet also states that history is made only by those people
who have the power of knowledge. Hence, educating and letting the children into a free
world of opportunities would release them from the suffocating, wretched life in a slum.
Important Extracts
(i)
Far - far from gusty waves these children’s faces.
like rootless weeds, the hair torn round their pallor:
the tall girl with her weighed-down head. The paper-seeming boy, with rat’s eyes.
The stunted, unlucky heir.
Of twisted bones, reciting a father’s gnarled disease,
His lesson, from his desk. At back of the dim class
One unnoted, sweet and young. His eyes live in a dream,
Of squirrel’s game, in tree room, other than this.
Comprehension Questions
1. Who is the poet?
2. Where do these children live?
3. What is the condition of these
children?
4. Why is the boy unlucky heir?
(ii)
On sour cream walls, donations, Shakespeare’s head,
Cloudless at dawn, civilized dome riding all cities.
Belled, flowery, Tyrolese valley. Open-handed map
Awarding the world its world. And yet, for these
Children, these windows, not this map, their world,
Where all their future’s painted with a fog,
A narrow street sealed in with a lead sky
Far far from rivers, capes, and stars of words.
Comprehension questions
1. Who is being described in the
lines?
2. What is he doing?
3. What does he has in his eyes?
4. Why is the class room dim?
(iii)
Answers
1. The poet is Stephen Spender
2. They live in the slum at Tyrol valley far from the
gusty waves.
3. They have pale faces, torn hair scattered on faces,
paper seeming, having rat’s eyes with twisted bones.
4. The boy is unlucky heir because he is suffering
from the hereditary gnarled disease.
Answers
1. A young , sweet boy is described here.
2. He is dreaming the game of squirrel.
3. He has dreams of other places as well.
4. It is dim because there is no proper facility of
light.
Surely, Shakespeare is wicked, the map a bad example,
With ships and sun & love tempting them to stealFor lives that slyly turn in their cramped holes
From fog to endless night? On their slag heap, these children
Wear skins peeped through by bones & spectacles of steel
With mended glass, like bottle bits on stones.
All of their time and space are foggy slum.
So blot their maps with slums as big as doom.
Comprehension questions
1. What is the condition of the
classroom wall?
2. What are the two things mentioned
to show a civilized race?
3. What is the specialty of the
Tyrolese valley?
4. Explain: ‘Awarding the world its
world’.
(iv)
Answers.
1. The creaming layer of walls is falling down
2. The Shakespeare's statue & the high rising dome
point out that of a civilized race.
3. It is full of coloured flowers & resonated with
the bells.
4. The rich & the dictators award & divide this
world of rich & powerful people.
Unless, governor, inspector, visitor,
This map becomes their window &these windows
That shut upon their lives like catacombs,
Break O break open till they break the town
And show the children to green fields, & make their world
Run azure on gold sands, and let their tongues
Run naked into books the white & green leaves open
History theirs whose language is the sun.
Catacombs – a long underground gallery
Comprehension questions
1. What is the world of these
children?
2. How does the poet present their
future here?
3. How are these children sealed?
4. Explain: ‘For these children, these
windows-are world.
5. What does the map on the wall
signify?
Answers
1. Their classroom windows are their world.
2. The poet called that their future is painted with
fog.
3. The narrow lanes of the slum are sealed by the
lead sky which keeps them imprisoned here.
4. They have no access to the outer world of
wisdom. Their classroom is their world.
5. It signifies a limitless world of opportunities but
these are meant for the rich, educated & powerful
people rather than the slum children.
Practice Task
Answer the following in 30-40 words:
Q.1. Describe the condition of the slum children.
Q.2. Why is the future of the children a bleak one?
Q.3. Who are the who create history?
Poem: 3.Keeping Quiet
Poet: Pablo Neruda
Summary of the poem:
In this poem, the poet has emphasized the need to introspect and bring in the spirit of
brotherhood among the people of the world. He wants people to stop talking and stop all
movements symbolizing agitation and restlessness till he counts twelve, that is, a short
period of time. These moments of silence would be strange and exotic because in our
mundane life we are working towards selfish goals, regardless of the other’ requirements
and emotions. Hence, this sudden silence would give us an opportunity to introspect.
Since we would not speak for a while, barriers between communities would break and a
sense of brotherhood would prevail. Man would get an opportunity to realize how he is
destroying nature and how he is harming himself. Futile wars against men and nature
would be arrested and a new feeling of unity would be experienced. The poet does not
want his desire for inactivity to be misunderstood as a state of uselessness. He wants men
to learn a lesson from the Earth. The Earth appears to be inactive yet it is selflessly
productive. Men too could be productive and progressive without any aggression,
selfishness and the urge for destruction.
Important Extracts:
(i)
Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.
This one time upon the earth,
let's not speak any language,
let's stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much
Comprehension questions
1. Name the poem and the poet.
Answers
1. The poem is Keeping Quiet and the poet is
Pablo Neruda
2. What does the poet ask us to do?
2. The poet asks us to count to twelve and keep
still.
3. What should we not do on the earth 3. We should not speak in any language on the
for a second?
earth for a second.
4. What is his real purpose in saying 4.His real purpose in saying all this is that we
all this?
should stop all our activities for a while and have
a quiet introspection.
(ii)
it would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines,
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.
Comprehension Questions
1. Who is the poet of these lines?
Answers
1. The poet of these lines is Pablo Neruda
2. What kind of moment it will be?
2. When we will be silent and still, it would be
an exotic moment.
3. What all of us will feel at that 3. We feel and enjoy sudden strangeness and
moment?
unusual.
4. Give the meaning of ‘exotic’.
(ii)
Fishermen in the cold sea
would do not harm to the whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.
Comprehension Questions
1. What would the fishermen not do?
2. What would the man gathering salt do?
3. Which professions are mentioned in
these lines?
4. What transformation will come in the
people the poet is talking of?
(iii)
Answers
1. They would not harm whales.
2. He would look at his hurt hands.
3. One is ‘fishing’ and the other is ‘salt
gathering’.
4. They will come out of their greed,
selfishness and cruelty.
Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.
Comprehension Questions
1. What are the different wars
mentioned in these lines?
2. What do you think is meant by green
wars?
3. What advice does the poet impart on
the war-mongers?
(iv)
4. Enticing
What I want shouldn't be confused
with final inactivity:
life alone is what matters,
Answers
1. The wars mentioned are green wars, wars
with gas and wars with fire.
2. Green wars (bio-chemical) mean new and
fresh wars caused by men all over the world.
3. He advises the war-mongers to stop wars and
to put on clean clothes to be in the company of
their brothers.
I want nothing to do with death.
Comprehension Questions
1. Who does ‘I’ refer to?
2. What is it that should not be
confused with total inactivity?
3. With whom does the poet not want
to deal with?
4. Explain: ‘no truck with death’.
(v)
Answer
1. I’ refers to the poet, Pablo Neruda.
2. It is the moment of silence and stillness. It
should not be confused with total inactivity.
3. The poet does not want to have any dealing
with death.
4.By keeping quiet the poet doesn’t want us to
be like death, we are very much alive on that
moment and Earth can prove we are not dead
but alive.
Perhaps the earth is teaching us
when everything seems to be dead
and then everything is alive.
Now I will count to twelve
and you keep quiet and I'll go.
Comprehension Questions
1. What can earth teach us?
2. When everything seems dead, what
remains alive?
3. Why is the narrator willing to count
up to twelve?
4. Trace the word that means –‘living’.
Answers
1. The Earth can teach us how to live on it?
2. When everything seems to be dead, Earth
remains alive.
3. The narrator is willing to count up to twelve
as he is preparing to go. He asks us to keep
quiet.
4. Living – alive.
Practice Task
Answer the following in 30-40 words:
Q.1. How would man benefit by being still for a while?
Q.2. Why does the poet refer to the fishermen and the man gathering salt?
Q.3. How can war be brought to an end?
Poem :4. A Thing of Beauty
Poet: John Keats
Summary:
In this poem, the poet has brought out the unlimited joys attained from nature. He feels
that a beautiful thing of nature gives us unlimited joy and its beauty never decreases,
rather it is everlasting. Despite the paucity of noble people, the increasing number of evils
in the world and days of gloom, man finds relief and joy in the beauty of nature. He refers
to the sun, the moon, trees, flowers, shrubs and streams as a constant source of joy for
men and animals. We get joy by reading the tales of the brave and mighty people of the
past but the joy received from nature is limitless and incomparable.
Important Extracts:
(i)
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Comprehension Questions
1. What is being said by John Keats
to be ‘a joy forever’?
2. What is peculiar about a beautiful
thing?
3. What can a beautiful thing do for
the human beings?
Answers
1. The poet says that a thing of beauty is a joy
forever.
2. A beautiful thing is a source of joy forever. Its
loveliness goes on enhancing.
3. A beautiful thing gives us a sleep full of sweet
dreams, health and a peaceful breathing.
4. In what way does beauty keep a 4. When we tired, tensed, the thing of beauty
bower quiet for us?
heals our sorrows and restores happiness for us
again.
(ii)Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkn'd ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Comprehension Questions
1. Why are we weaving a flowery
band?
2. What dearth does the poet talk of?
Answers
1. We are weaving a flowery band that keeps us
binding to the earth.
2. It is the dearth of noble natures among the
human beings.
3. What are the evil things that one 3. We possess malice of disappointment, lack
possess?
of noble qualities and unhealthier ways.
(iii)
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep;
Comprehension Questions
Answers
1. What removes away the pall from our
evil spirits?
2. Who do germinate a shady boon and
for whom?
3. What is the common thing that the
poet points out?
(iv)
1. Some shape of beauty removes away the pall
from our evil spirits
2. The sun., the moon, the trees and the nature
germinate a shady boon for sheep and the
human beings.
3. The poet points out that nature have endless
things of beauty. They give us happiness.
and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
'Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
Comprehension Questions
Answers
1. Name the flowers described in these
lines?
2. What are the other natural ecosystems
named here and what do they do?
1. Daffodils and musk-rose are the flowers.
3. What makes the mid-forest brake rich?
4. Find out the word that means – ‘small
streams’.
(v)
2. The clear small streams, the green world are
the ecosystems mentioned here. They make for
themselves a cooling covert.
3. The mid-forest brake is made rich by the
blooming of beautiful musk roses.
4. Small streams – rills.
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink
Comprehension Questions
1. Who is ‘mighty dead’ here?
Answers
1. The mighty dead is the ancient powerful and
brave man who had noble deeds in his past. But
now he is dead.
2. What is lovelier than all lovely tales 2. The beauty of daffodils, rills and musk rose
that we have heard or read?
is lovelier than the tales we have read or heard.
3. What is the immortal drink? Where 3. Nectar is the immortal drink. It comes to us
does it come from to us?
from the heaven.
4. Explain: ‘Grandeur of the dooms’.
4. Grandeur of dooms’ means the magnificence
that we imagine for our mighty dead forefathers
on the Doom’s Day.
Practice Task
Answer the following in 30-40 words:
Q.1. How can we say that a thing of beauty is a joy forever?
Q.2.What is it that moves away the pall from our dark spirits? In what forms does it do
so?
Q.3.How do the daffodils and the clear rills make their attractive cooling cover the hot
season?
Poem:5 A Road Side Stand
Poet: Robert Frost
Summary:
In this poem Robert Frost has brought out the apathy of the rich, city dwellers towards
the poor, roadside shed owners. The owners have made a new shed with a hope of selling
his vegetables and fruits to the city dwellers who passes by in their cars. But
unfortunately, the rich and sophisticated people of the city are insensitive to the needs of
the shed owners, the latter’s desire is to sell their goods and earn an amount sufficient for
their survival. The powerful and influential people had promised them support but now
the shed owners feel let down and cheated. They have also heard that they would be
moved to villages, closer to the market area and theatre. Here, they are told that they will
not have to worry about their earnings and would sleep peacefully at night. In reality, the
so-called benefactors would benefit from this move and not the shed owners. They would
simply lose their hold on their land and would be dislodged, giving them sleepless nights
once again. The poet is unable to bear the pitiable plight of the shed owners who wait for
a car to stop. He car do stop occasionally but the passengers have their own selfish
motives to achieve. One of them stops to inquire the pieces of the vegetables, another
stops to reverse the car and yet another to merely ask where the road leads. The poet is
alarmed when someone stops at a shed to ask for a gallon of gas. The poet is agonized to
see the miseries of the shed owners and he hopes that one day someone would come to
their rescue.
Important Extracts:
(i)
The little old house was out with a little new shed
In front at the edge of the road where the traffic sped,
A road side stand that too pathetically pled,
It would not be fair to say for a dole of bread,
But for some of the money, the cash, whose flow supports
The flower of cities from sinking and withering faint.
Comprehension Questions
1. Where has the road side stand
been set up?
2. How does the road passing
through the village appear?
3. What would not be fair to say
and why?
Answers
1. The roadside stand has been set up in front of an
old house at the edge of the road.
2. The village road appears with a fats running of
traffic.
3. It would not be fair to say that the roadside stand
had been put up for a dole of bread. It was put up to
sell some cheap common things.
4. What is that supports ‘the 4. It is flow of money that supports the ‘flower of
flower of cities’?
cities’, i.e. all the best part of city life.
(ii)
The polished traffic passed with a mind ahead,
Or if ever aside a moment, then out of sorts
At having the landscape marred with the artless paint
Of signs that with N turned wrong and S turned wrong
Offered for sale wild berries in wooden quarts,
Or crook-necked golden squash with silver warts,
Or beauty rest in a beautiful mountain scene.
Comprehension Questions
1. What do you understand by the
polished traffic?
2.How did one who looked aside
a moment feel?
3. What was thought to mar the
landscape?
4. Which word in the stanza
means- ‘fading’?
(iii)
Answers
1. The fats moving refined traffic of cars is the
polished traffic.
2. He felt irritated that the beauty of the landscape
had been marred.
3. The artless paint of signs on the roadside stand
was thought to mar the beauty of the landscape.
4. Withering
The hurt to the scenery wouldn’t be my complaint
So much as the trusting sorrow of what is unsaid:
Here far from the city we make our roadside stand
And ask for some city money to feel in hand
To try if it will not make our being expand.
And to give us the life of the moving-pictures promise
That the party in power is said to be keeping from us.
Comprehension Questions
1. Who made a road side stand
and where?
2. Who wanted to feel the money
in hand?
3.Who hoped to be helped and by
whom?
4. What was the promise made
and who made it?
Answers
1. The poor rural people made a roadside stand in
their village that was far from city.
2. The rural folk wanted to feel money in hand from
the city folk.
3. The rural folk hoped to be helped by the city
people.
4. The promise was made to give a life a motion
picture to the poor people. It was made by the
government.
(iv)
It is in the news that all these pitiful kin
Are to be bought out and mercifully gathered in
To live in villages, next to the theatre and the store,
Where they won’t have to think for themselves anymore.
While greedy good-doers, beneficent beasts of prey,
Swarm over their lives enforcing benefits
That are calculated to soothe them out of their wits,
And by teaching them how to sleep they sleep all day,
Destroy their sleeping at night the ancient way.
Comprehension Questions
1. What was in the news?
2. Where were the people to be
settled?
3. Who are the ‘pitiful kin’ here?
4. Who will actually benefit from
this move?
(v)
Answers
1. The news was about the resettlement of the poor
and rural people.
2. The people were to be settled in villages next to
the theatre and the store. They would be closed to the
cities.
3. The poor rural folk and the farmers.
4. The benefactor would benefit from this move and
not the shed owners.
The sadness that lurks near the open window there,
That waits all day in almost open prayer
For the squeal of brakes, the sound of a stopping car,
Of all the thousand selfish cars that pass,
Just one to inquire what a farmer’s prices are,
And one did stop, but only to plow up grass
In using the yard to back and turn around.
Comprehension Questions
1. Who waits for whom?
2. Why have the cars been called
selfish?
3. When do the cars stop?
Answers
1. The rural people wait for customers.
2. The cars have been called selfish because they do
not stop for their own selfish motives to achieve not
to purchase anything..
3. One of them stops to inquire the prices of the
vegetables and other stops to reverse the car
(vi)
No, in country money, the country scale of gain,
The requisite lift of spirit has never been found ,
Or so the voice of the country seems to complain,
I can’t help owing the great relief it would be
To put these people at one stroke out of their pain.
And then next day as I come back into the sane,
I wonder how I should like you to come to me
And offer to put me gently out of my pain.
Comprehension Questions
1. Who is anguished at the plight
of the stand –owners? Why?
2. What does the poet expect one
day?
3. How will the poet feel a great
relief?
Answers
1. The poet, Robert Frost is anguished at the plight of
the stand owner because the cars do stop occasionally
but the passengers have their own selfish motives to
achieve.
2. He hopes that one day someone would come to
their rescue.
3. The poet will feel a great relief if the villagers are
freed out of their pain by the city people.
Practice Task
Answer the following in 30-40 words:
Q.1. What were the various things put up at the stand for sale?
Q.2. Why were the shed owners disappointed with the city dwellers?
Q.3. What was the plea of the folk who had put up the roadside stand?
Poem: 6.Aunt Jennifer's tigers
Poet: Adrienne Rich
Summary:
The poet has brought out the desire of a woman for freedom and strength. Aunt
Jennifer embroidered bright yellow tigers on a screen. They prance about freely,
fearlessly and confidently in the open spaces of a green forest. In contrast, Aunt
Jennifer is nervous and frail. She finds it difficult to even pull the ivory needle that
she uses to make her embroidery. The wedding ring around her finger is symbolic of
the burden of commitments and bindings of married life that take away her freedom
and confidence to live life the way she desires. When she dies, her wedding ring will
continue to exhibit her burdened life. Unlike her, the tigers have been immortalized
and will continue to prance about freely, confidently and fearlessly.
Important Extracts:
(i) Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen,
Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.
They do not fear the men beneath the tree;
They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.
Comprehension Questions
1. Name the poem & the poet.
Answers
2. The poem is’ Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers’ and the poet
Adrienne Rich.
2. They are jumping across a screen.
3. They look like shining topaz denizens.
2. What are Aunt’s tigers doing?
3. How do the prancing tigers
look like?
4. What do the tigers do on seeing 4. They don’t fear the men beneath the tree.
men?
(ii)
Aunt Jennifer's finger fluttering through her wool
Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.
The massive weight of Uncle's wedding band
Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer's hand.
Comprehension Questions
1. Why are the fingers fluttering?
2. What does ‘the massive weight
of uncle’s wedding band’ depict?
3. Why did she create animals
which were so different from her
own character?
(iii)
Answers
1. The fingers are fluttering because she is
underweight to fear from the dominance of her
husband as well as the family life.
2. It depicts Aunt’s suffering. The wedding band
refers to the engagement ring and also the metal
band that keeps her chained.
3. She bore all the suffering very meekly. So, she
created tigers that represent her silent revolt against
uncle’s marriage bands and her suffering.
When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie
Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.
The tigers in the panel that she made
Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.
Comprehension Questions
1. Who is Aunt referred to and what she
has mastered by?
2. Where were the tigers made and who did
so?
3. What will the tigers do when Aunt is
dead?
4. How do the tigers look?
Answers
1. She is Aunt Jennifer. She has mastered
by her ordeals.
2. The tigers were made in the panel by
aunt.
3. They will continue jumping across the
screen.
4. They look like proud and unafraid.