CHILDHOOD - BLOG 4

CHILDHOOD

-        Marcus Natten

Good morning gentlemen. We are blessed to see a new day in the tough times. So let us thank God.

Today we are continuing with the poem childhood. In this class we will discuss some short answer questions. Before that let us have look at the learning objectives.

Learning objectives

The students will be able to

Ø  understand, enjoy and appreciate different genre of English writings 

Ø   Know about the poet and his contributions

Ø  Enhance vocabulary

Ø   Have better understanding of rhyme scheme and other poetic devices

Ø   Know that Childhood is a bliss

Ø   Think when and where has the childhood gone

Ø  know how childhood is innocence while maturity leads to individuality, rationalism and gaining understanding of hypocrisy

SHORT ANSWERS

(TO BE COPIED TO YOUR ENGLISH NOTE BOOK)

1. What according to the poem is involved in the process of growing up?

According to the poem, the process of growing up involves attaining maturity and becoming a rational and logical thinker. When the poet became an adult, he was able to see the hypocrisy in other people. He could distinguish in the behaviour of double-standard preach and talk of love. A grown-up can tell a difference between reality and fantasy. A mature person stresses on his thoughts and is capable of having his own opinion.

2. What is the poet’s feeling towards childhood?

 The poet is disappointed and puzzled by the loss of his childhood. He wanted to know when was the moment he became a grown-up and loss the innocence of an infant. He expresses his confusion by asking that when and where did his childhood go.

3. What did the speaker learn about the existence of heaven and hell?

As the speaker grew to be mature, he acquired reasoning power. He realized that hell and heaven could not be found in geography books or atlas. Since they could not be located anywhere in the world map, he concluded that they did not exist. He would believe only what he could see and find.

4. How did the speaker realize the hypocrisy of the adults?

The speaker noticed a wide gulf between what adults appeared to be and what they actually were in real life. There was apparent contradiction between their words and deeds. They talked of love and advised others to love, but they never acted lovingly.

5. How does the poem expose man and presents him in true colours?

Childhood symbolizes innocence, purity, softness and love. As a child grows, these qualities start receding. Man becomes impure, cunning, shrewd and hypocrite. Grown-ups become blatant liars. They talk of love but practice hatred. They preach brotherhood of mankind but perpetuate hatred and killing. Simplicity and honesty evaporate into thin air; the moment man crosses the threshold of innocent childhood.

6. How does the poet repent on his loss of childhood?

 He expresses concern over his childhood’s disappearance. Childhood cannot be regained. It keeps our life aloof from the world of hypocrisy, bitter reality and materialism.

7.  The poet has asked two questions one is about the time and other is about the place. Why has he used these questions?

 He has used these two questions to interpret the time and place of going his childhood away. “When” points out the process of being rational at a particular time and “where” states the place where the innocent world of childhood resides.

8. What does the Hell and heaven stand for?

It stands for the world of imagination that fascinates only small children. These are nothing but the product of our imaginative mind that helps the person to escape from reality.

TRY THE MCQs GIVEN BELOW( NO NEED TO COPY)

1.       When the poet ceased to be eleven he realized that ------

A.      He had become old

B.      He had become a adult

C.      He was more than a boy now

D.      His childhood had gone

2.       Perhaps he lost his childhood when he realized that -----------

A.      Adults were cheats

B.      Adults talked of love and acted accordingly

C.      Adults talked and preached of love but acted quite differently.

D.      None of the above

3.       What is the theme of the poem?

A.      Old age

B.      Lost childhood

C.      Lost adulthood

D.      None of the above

4.       When he found that his mind was really his own it meant that------------

A.      He didn’t need any guidance

B.      Ha was under the influence of others

C.      He could guide others

D.      He could guide and act independently

5.       All that the poet knows that his childhood has gone and hidden -------------

A.      Itself in the past

B.      Where he can’t find it

C.      In an infant’s innocent face

D.      Itself in his youth

6.       What did the adults talk and preach?

A.      About love

B.      About truth

C.      About honesty

D.      About cruelty

7.       What did the poet cannot find in geography?

A.      Mountains

B.      Heaven and hell

C.      Plants

D.      Rocks

 

HAPPY LEARNING

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