Working with the poem (Page 110-111)
Question 1:
Your partner and you may now be able to answer these questions.
(i) Who is the speaker in the poem? Who are the people the speaker meets? What are they doing?
(ii) What wishes does the child in the poem make? Why does the child want to be a hawker, a gardener, or a watchman?
Pick out the lines in each stanza, which tell us this.
(iii) From the way the child envies the hawker, the gardener and the watchman, we can guess that there are many things the child has to do, or must not do.
Make a list of the dos and don’ts that the child doesn’t like.
The first line is done for you.
The child must The child must not
come home at a fixed time. get his clothes dirty in the dust.
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Now add to the list your own complaints about the things you have to do, or must not do.
(iv) Like the child in the poem, you perhaps have your own wishes for yourself. Talk to your friend, using “I wish I were…”
Answer:
- The speaker of the poem is a school-going child. Every day he happens to meet the hawker who sells bangles, the gardener who digs the garden and a watchman who keeps a close watch on the streets the whole night.
- The child in the poem has an innocent mind. He watches all the people around him keenly. He strongly wishes he could lead his life his own way and enjoy freedom just as a hawker, a gardener or a watchman.
Firstly, on his way to school every day, he notices a hawker selling bangles, and he wishes he could spend all his day on the road shouting, “Bangles, crystal bangles!”. He observes that the hawker has no reason to hurry; there is no fixed road he must take, no definite route he must go to and no allocated time to return home. Seeing this liberty, the young boy wishes he could become a hawker and enjoy all these things too.
Secondly, the boy meets a gardener who is busy digging away in the garden with his spade. He soils his clothes with dust and dirt, and nobody scolds him for performing this task, even if he gets baked in the sun or gets wet in rain or sweat. Seeing this, the young boy wishes that he could become a gardener so that nobody could scold him for digging the garden or for soiling his clothes in dust or even getting sweaty due to the sunshine.
Thirdly, the boy sees a watchman through his open window who walks up and down the lonely dark lane. The street lamp would stand like a giant with one red eye in its head. He observes how the watchman swings his lantern and walks with his shadow on his side, and he never goes to bed in his life. The young child wishes he could work like a watchman so that even he could walk the streets all night and chase the shadows with his lantern.
| The child must | The child must not |
| Go to school on time | Waste his time unnecessarily |
| Obey his parents and teachers | Be ill-mannered or rude in behaviour |
| Go to school every day | Get baked in the sun or wet in the rain |
| Wake up early in the morning | Walk on the dark and lonely streets at night |
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