POEM : MY MOTHER AT SIXTY SIX

Read the extracts given below and answer the questions that follow.

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”

a) Where was the poet coming from? Where was she going?

b) How does the poet describe her mother?

c) What did the poet realise with pain?

d) Choose the option that displays the same literary device as in the given lines

of the extract. her face ashen like that of a corpse…

i) Just as I had I had this thought, she appeared and…

ii) My thoughts were as heavy as lead that evening when …

iii) I think like everyone else who…

iv) I like to think aloud when …

e) The expression on ‘her face’ was one of

i) happiness ii)surprise iii) pain iv) listlessness

f) There is an element of …………. in the poet’s tone here.

i) Caution ii) worry iii) composure iv) denial

g) Explain : face ashen like that of a corpse

i) dull face covered with ash

ii) face as black as ash

iii) deadly face like that of a corpse

iv) lifeless face like that of a dead body

2. “ 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”
a) What was the poet ‘looking’ at? What did she notice?
b) What thoughts did the poet try to drive away?
c) Why did the poet start ‘looking out’? What does her gesture suggest?
d) What did the poet see from the window of the car?
e) What do the images of ‘young trees’ and ‘merry children’ symbolize?

Choose the option that applies correctly to the two statements given below.
Statement 1: The poet wards off the thought of her mother getting old.
Statement 2: The poet didn’t want to confront the inevitability of fate that was
to dawn upon her mother.
a) S 1 can be inferred but S 2 cannot be inferred.
b) S 1cannot be inferred but S 2 can be inferred.
c) Both S 1 and S 2 can be inferred.
d) Both S 1 and S 2 cannot be inferred.
3. “ but after the airport’s

3. “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”

a) Where was the poet standing?

b) Who does ‘her’ here refer to? How did she look like?
c) Why does the narrator ‘look at her again’?
d) Choose the option that completes the sentence given below.
Just as the brightness of the winter’s moon is veiled behind the haze and
mist, similarly, __________________.
i) the pain of separation has shaded mother’s expression.
ii) age has fogged mother’s youthful appearance.
iii) growing up has developed a seasoned maturity in the poet.
iv) memories warm the heart like the pale moon in winter.
e) Choose the correct option.

i) Option 1 ii) Option 2 iii) Option 3 iv) Option 4

f) Which of the following is NOT the correct meaning of ‘wan’?

g) The tone of the poet in the poem is primarily a combination of _________

and ________.
1. dauntlessness 2. apprehension 3. dejection 4. disappointment

i) 1, 2 ii) 2, 3 iii) 3, 4 iv) 1, 4

4. “ and felt that old

familiar ache, my childhood’s fear,

but all I said was, see you soon, Amma,

all I did was smile and smile and smile”

a) What ‘familiar ache’ did the poet feel?

b) What could have been the poet’s childhood fears?

c) Did the poet share her thoughts with her mother? Why/ Why not?

d) What do the parting words of the poet signify?

e) Why did the poet only smile and smile?