UNDERSTAND THE POEM
1. The speaker in the poem does not call his grandmother ‘childish’. What else was she according to him? Why does he consider her to be so? {line 1-4}
Ans:- According to the speaker, the grandmother is a genius because she would climb the tree very quickly.
2. Grandma had been in the habit of climbing trees for a very long period. Identify the lines that suggest this.
Ans: Ever since childhood, she’d had this gift.
3. Look at the line 7 and 8 ‘She would be told……….’ Who do you think would tell her so?
Ans: The members of her family would tell her.
4. Do you find anything odd in the reply given by the grandma? If so, why do you think it is odd? {line 10-11}
Ans: We don’t find anything odd because it had been a gift for her. So she would laugh.
5. Others had feared that granny would fall from a tree one day or the other. Did this happen? Or did something else happen? {line 15-18}
Ans: She did not fall but something different happened. When all the members of the family were in town, she climbed a tree and couldn’t come down.
6. What had the doctor recommended? What was the reaction of the kids to this advice?
Ans: The doctor took temperature of the grandma and advised rest for a week. The kids were happy because they heaved sigh of relief.
7. Quote the lines which suggest how wholeheartedly granny enjoyed climbing a tree.
Ans: “That a house in a tree top was she what now wanted.”
8. ‘My dad knew his duties’. What did he think his duty was?
Ans: He wanted to fulfill the desire of the grandma. So he started his work on the same night and made her a tree house.
9. Look at the picture given below the title. Quote the lines that might have guided the artist to draw that.
Ans: “Made her a tree house with windows and a door” is a line that might have guided the artist to draw the picture.
READ AND APPRECIATE ..
A.1. Read the poem again. Does the behaviour of grandma strike you as unusual? If so, Support your view quoting her ways and responses to others. One is done for you.
Ans: Grandma climbing a tree (way 1)
* She climbed a tree when she was 62. (response)
* She had this gift. (response)
2. ‘Growing old gracefully’ is an expression used in the poem. Discuss with your partner whether what the grandma was doing was graceful or otherwise.
Ans: It was graceful because she had continued her habit of climbing a tree.
3. Both the narrator (speaker in the poem) and his father were very considerate towards Grandma. Substantiate the statement with textual support.
Ans: My dad knew his duties. He said, That’s all right. You will have what you want, dear. I’ll start work tonight. I climbed to her room with glasses and tray. These are the lines which show that the narrator and his father were considerate.
4. If you were to divide the entire poem into two parts which line would you pick up to be the beginning of the second part? Why?
Ans: “After the Rescue” is the line which starts to be the beginning of the second part because it is the later part of Grandma’s life.
B. 1. Have a close look at the rhyme- scheme. Write at least 5 pairs of the rhyming words. e.g. said – bed.
Ans: Gift-Lift, Told-Old, All-Fall, Town-Down, Well-Hell.
2. “It was like a brief season”. Name the figure of speech in the sentence. What are the two things compared? Explain.
Ans: The figure of speech is Simile. Her stay down is compared to a brief season in hell.
3. ‘For being happier in a tree than in a lift’. What is suggested through this line? Exchange your views with your partner.
Ans: Climbing a tree is natural but going to a tree in lift is artificial. So she wanted to climb a tree and fell happy.
4. “There was not a tree, she hadn’t been up” is an expression, Rewrite the above sentence without using ‘not’ (note: the meaning should be the same)
Give some more examples from outside the text to illustrate effective use of double negatives.
Ans: She had been up in every tree.
She never goes with nobody.
I can’t find my keys nowhere.
C. Read the line ‘she would be up in the branches in a trice’.
What picture do you get in your mind when you read this? May be it is the picture of grandma climbing a tree deftly even like a monkey.
Ans: No. She would climb naturally and carefully because she had this gift during her childhood.