ENGLISH- XII (LITERATURE)
SECTION- C : Flamingo (Poetry)
Poem 1
My Mother at Sixty –Six
By Kamala Das
Main Theme:
The poem, ‘My Mother at Sixty-Six’ rendered in blank verse, examines the
theme of advancing age and the fear of loss and separation.
The poetess on way to the airport at Cochin is suddenly struck by the thought
that her mother has grown old. This realization being sudden is alarming. Old
age seems to have crept up on her and it is a reality that she finds hard to
accept. Her corpse like and ashen face bring thoughts of her eventual death. Her
mother sleeping beside her in the car appears pale and worn out and the green
trees racing past and speeding car are a grim reminder that time has flown by.
The joyous children playing outside give her the respite that she is seeking
from her thoughts of old age and parting as they are representative of youth,
energy and life. Perhaps they take her back to the days of her idyllic youth
when her mother too was young and energetic or perhaps they bring to the fore
the fear of losing her mother that haunts every young child. Once again she
feels the insecurity of parting from her mother- who has lost the blush of youth
and middle age and in the twilight of her life has become as pale as lustreless
as the winter moon.
Beset with sorrow at this knowledge and with the insecurity
and pain of parting the poetess at the airport bids her old mother goodbye,
smiling all the time in a vain attempt to hide her real feelings.
STUDY MATERIAL – QUESTION BANK
CLASS XII – ENGLISH
MY MOTHER AT SIXTY SIX
IMPORTANT STANZAS FOR COMPREHENSION
Read the stanzas given below and answer the questions that
follow each:
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 but soon put that thought away, and looked out
at young trees sprinting, the merry children spilling out of their homes,
Questions:
A. Where was the poet driving to?
B. What did she notice while her mother sat beside her?
C. Why was her mother’s face like that of a corpse?
D. What did the poet do then?
E. Find words from the passage which mean:
i) felt
ii) sleep lightly
iii) dead body 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, but all said was, see you soon, Amma, all I
did was smile and smile…..
A) How were the young trees sprinting?
B) What did she see the children doing?
C) What is her childhood’s fear?
Short Answer Type Questions:
1. Where is the poet going and who is with her?
2. How does the poet’s mother look like? What kind of images has the poet used
to signify her ageing decay?
3. Why does the poet ‘put that thought away’ and looks outside?
4. What does the poet see happening outside?
5. Describe the contrast of the scene inside the car with the activities going
on outside. Describe the use of images that the poet employs to strike that
contrast.
6. What does the poet do after the security check-up? What does she notice?
7. Why does the poet feel her old familiar ache and what is her childhood fear?
8. With fear and ache inside her heart and words of assurance on lips and smile
on the face, the poet presents two opposite and contrasting experiences? Why
does the poet put on a smile?
9. Describe the poetic devices used by Kamala Das in ‘My Mother at Sixty Six’.
Chapter-1-THE THIRD LEVEL
By Jack Finney
Main Theme:
Charley, a thirty-one year old having worked late one night enters Grand
Central Station from Vanderbilt avenue, with the aim of boarding a train home.
As the station is large consisting of various corridors and two levels catering
for different trains, he loses his way.He finds himself in what he thinks is the
third level of the station. He realizes that something is different there as the
people are dressed differently and the area is lit not with the electric lights
of the modern times but with open gas fires. He suddenly makes the discovery
that he has somehow entered the yea
