MY MOTHER AT SIXTY - SIX ( BLOG - 4)

MY MOTHER AT SIXTY – SIX

KAMALA DAS

(BLOG – 4)

Good Morning Gentlemen
         Let us thank God for this new day and keeping us safe  and sound.

  Before we go further let us recall the learning objectives of this poem

Learning objectives

By the end of this poem, you will be able to:

•  paraphrase the poem

• ·    identify the poetic devices

• ·      explain the theme of the poem

• ·        relate the poet’s experience to their own.

    We come to an end of this lesson. Today we will deal with Reference to Context   questions.

Copy all these Reference to Context questions in your note book.

Reference to Context

1. 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 and realized with pain

that she was as old as she looked and

thought away…

a) Where was the poet driving to? Who was sitting beside her?

b) What did the poet notice about her mother?

c) Why did her mother’s face look like that of a corpse?

ANSWERS

(a) The poet was driving to the airport in Cochin. Her mother was sitting beside her.

(b) The poet noticed that her mother was looking old, pale and weak. She had dozed off.

(c) She was old, pale and ashen. Since she had dozed off, with mouth open the poet felt she looked like a corpse in that condition.

2. but soon

put that thought away, and

looked out at young

trees sprinting, the merry children spilling

out of their homes

a) What did the poet realize? How did she feel?

b) What did she do then?

c) What did she see outside?

ANSWERS

(a) The poet realized that her mother was very old and looked pale. Her mother slept with her mouth open which made her resemble a corpse and this thought pained her immensely.

(b) She started looking out in order to divert her own attention to something else as she wanted to dispel the sad and gloomy thoughts of her mother’s fast approaching death.

(c) She saw young trees moving fast as if they were sprinting and also young children happily running out of their homes to play.

3.  but all I said was, see you soon, Amma,

all I did was smile and smile and smile…’

a) Why did the poet say, ‘see you soon, Amma’?

b) Why did the poet smile and smile?

c) ‘Smile and smile and smile’ is a poetic device. Identify it.

ANSWERS

 (a) The poet says this to reassure her mother that she would see her soon.  Though she is aware that her mother is inching close to death, she does not want to show her pain and bids a cheerful farewell.

(b) The poet tries to put up a brave front in order to hide her fear of losing her mother who may not live for long.

(c) Repetition.  It is used to emphasize the effort made by the poet to conceal her pain and put up a brave front.

Kindly note that an online assessment will be conducted on 14 of this month. The assessment will be based on your reading skill. You will be marked for this assessment.

HAPPY LEARNING

STAY HOME STAY SAFE

See you on next working day