Understanding the Poet’s Emotions and Symbolism

Understanding the Poet’s Emotions and Symbolism

Questions & Answers on Poetic Extracts

Extract 1

(a) What has been compared to a late winter’s moon?

Ans. The narrator’s aging mother has been compared to the late winter’s moon.

(b) Why has the comparison been made?

Ans. The narrator’s mother looked old, frail, and very pale, like the moon in late winter. Hence, the comparison.

(c) Identify the poetic device in the lines.

Ans. The poetic device used in the line ‘as a late winter’s moon’ is a simile.

(d) What is the ‘familiar ache’ mentioned in these lines?

Ans. It refers to the narrator’s childhood fear of losing her parent or fear of separation from her.

Extract 2

5. but all I said was, see you soon, Amma, all I did was smile and smile and smile…’

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

Ans. The narrator said this to reassure her mother and herself that she would see her soon. After the pain of realizing that her mother had grown old, there is a mood of acceptance of reality.

(b) Why did the narrator smile and smile?

Ans. The narrator tries to put up a brave front before her mother in order to hide her true feelings of pain at seeing the old and weak condition of her mother.

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

Ans. It is repetition and has been used to emphasize the narrator’s acceptance of the fact that her mother had aged and wouldn’t be around much longer.

(d) Amma is the fond way of addressing someone. Who is being addressed here?

Ans. The narrator’s mother is being addressed as ‘Amma’.

Short Answer Type Questions

Question 1. What is the kind of pain and ache that the narrator feels?

Ans. The emotional pain and ache that the narrator feels is the realization that her mother has grown old and is frail and pale like a corpse.

Question 2. Why are the young trees described as sprinting?

Ans. The young trees are personified in the poem. They seem to be running in the opposite direction when seen through the window of the moving car. The movement is juxtaposed with the expression on the mother’s face, i.e., ashen like a corpse.

Question 3. Why has the narrator brought in the image of the merry children ‘spilling out of their homes’?

Ans. The narrator highlights the helplessness and frailty of old age with the help of contrasts. The listless mother dozes off open-mouthed, whereas the children spill out of their homes, signifying movement and energy, which the old people are bereft of. The image of the children spilling out of their homes and trees sprinting provides a contrast to the lack of vitality in the mother.

Question 4. Why has the mother been compared to ‘late winter’s moon’?

Ans. The mother has been compared to the late winter’s moon, which is dull and shrouded. It symbolizes the ebbing away of life. The moon brings to the narrator’s mind the night or the approaching end of life.

Question 5. What do the parting words of the narrator and her smile signify?

Ans. The parting words ‘see you soon Amma’ are used by the narrator to reassure the mother and to infuse optimism in the narrator herself. She accepts the reality of her mother’s approaching death, yet keeps up the facade of a smiling, happy face in order to put up a brave front. It requires a lot of effort, and hence the poet has used the poetic device of repetition to emphasize this.