NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English Chapter 6 – Childhood — Markus Natten
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Think it Out
Q. Identify the stanza that talks each of the following.
Individuality
rationalism
hypocrisy
Ans. Individuality- Stanza 3
When I found my mind was really mine,
To use whichever way I choose,
Producing thoughts that were not those of other people
But my own, and mine alone
Rationalism- Stanza 1
Was it the time I realised that Hell and Heaven,
Could not be found in Geography,
And therefore could not be,
Hypocrisy- Stanza 2
I realised that adults were not
All they seemed to be,
They talked of love and preached of love,
But did not act so lovingly,
Q. What according to the poem is involved in the process of growing up?
Ans. In the process of growing up, one becomes rational and starts distinguishing between real and fake, good and evil. Then comes the poet’s confusion about the hypocrisy of the adults. They say something and do something else. Their preachings are entirely different from their deeds. Then comes the stage when one begins to judge people and form opinions. They start thinking independently. Their thoughts are his own, nobody can impose his or her opinion. At last one realises that once the childhood is lost then it’s lost forever, and can never come back. Still it is eternal and can be found only in an infant’s face.
Q. What is the poet’s feeling towards childhood ?
Ans. The poet becomes nostalgic when he talks about his childhood. He laments on the loss of childhood innocence and starts thinking of different stages to know when he lost his childhood. Childhood is the period of innocence, when one is free from worries and contradictions and has no knowledge of unwieldy worldly affairs. The poet longs for his childhood and feels as if he has lost something very important, loss which can’t be retrieved.
Q. Which do you think are the most poetic lines? Why ?
Ans. The last lines of the poem are the most poetic lines
“Where did my childhood go ?
It went to some forgotten place,
That’s hidden in an infant’s face,
That’s all I know.”
These lines are the most poetic in the sense that after all the confusions and assumptions regarding the time of the loosing childhood, the poet finally sees the childhood in an infant’s face. Apart from this, the lines have a rhyming scheme too.
