CLASS XII

ENGLISH
Poetic Devices & Chapter theme -

My Mother at Sixty – Six Kamala Das

Theme -inescapable Ageing, decay& ultimate end of human life, fear of losing near & dear ones,
1. Personification – Trees sprinting
2. Simile – Pale as a late winter’s moon, face like ashen as a corpse
3. Imagery – young children , trees sprinting backwards(symbol of youth,vigour,vitality & growth) winter's
moon - symbol of decay
4. Metaphor – Merry children spilling out of their homes,
5. Repetition – smile and smile and smile, word looked
6. Alliteration - But after the airport’s security check - Alliteration, Felt that old familiar ache, But all I said
was see you soon.
7. Tautology - wan, pale
8. Rhyme Scheme - free verse
9. Assonance - sound of O - Home to Cochin
10. Consonance - Sound of T- Put that thought away, S - Security check, standing
11. Contrast - poet's mother & children, in & out of car

An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum - Stephen Spender [Deleted portion , this year]
1. Simile – windows shut like catacombs, hair like rootless weeds, like bottle bits on stones, Like bottle bits
on stones, That shut upon their lives like catacombs
2. Metaphor – language is the sun, lead sky, Paper seeming boy, Rat’s eyes, Sealed in with lead a sky,
Narrow street, Stars of wisdom, Cramped holes, Endless night, As big as doom
3. Imagery – children weighed down by poverty
4. Repetition – break o break, far far, the world its world
5. Symbolism – sun (enlightenment), green fields (regeneration), windows (opportunities)
6. Alliteration - In tree room, other than this, at dawn, civilized dome, Ships and Sun, All of their time, Space
are foggy slums, That shut upon their lives like catacombs, And let their tongues

Keeping Quiet - Pablo Naruda

Theme - If speech is silver, silence is golden. The necessity of following the adage - Live & Let Live.
1. Anaphora – Let’s – to create a bond between listeners, without rush without engines, wars with gas, wars
with fire, Life is what it is about
2. Personification – earth can teach us
3. Symbolism – brothers (show harmony), man gathering salt, his hurt hands, Green wars, wars with gas,
wars with fire, Clean clothes , fisherman -oppressor, whale - oppressed
4. Pun – Arms
5. Metaphor - clean clothes (no enmity, peace), In the shade( protection)
6. Alliteration - we will count, we will all keep, not move our arms much, we would all be, Sudden
strangeness, would not harm whales, his hurt hands,
would put on clean clothes, walk about with their brothers, what I want, I want no truck with death, If we
were not so single minded
7. No rhyme scheme. Free verse, Blank verse
8. Transferred epithet - Cold sea

1
10 - Irony - victory with no survivors

A Thing of Beauty - John Keats

Theme - A beautiful object is treasured in our mind as it provides us eternal & everlasting joy. This happiness
never fades into nothingness but multiplies manifold whenever it flashes on our mind screen.
1. Metaphor- sweet dreams, flowery band, endless fountain of immortal drink, Bower quiet, pall,
2. Alliteration – noble natures, cooling covert, band to bind, are we wreathing, a flowery band to bind us,
some shape of beauty, Such the sun, the moon, sprouting a shady boon, sprouting a shady boon, That for
themselves,
3. Transferred epithet – gloomy days
4. Imagery – flowery wreath, shady boon, green world, clear rills, cooling covert, endless fountain
5. Repetition - and health and quiet breathing, Such the sun, the moon
6. Oxymoron - Mighty dead,
7. Hyperbole - Endless fountain
8. Rhyme Scheme - aabbcc
9. Symbol - simple sheep - mankind
10. Antithesis- old & young

A ROADSIDE STAND - Robert Frost

Theme - It is a sympathetic and humane outcry against the economic disparity that prevails in the city & the
countryside
Poetic Devices
1.Alliteration - The little old house was out with, A roadside stand that too pathetically pled, wild berries in
wooden quarts, golden squash with silver warts, Or beauty rest in a beautiful mountain scene, You have the
money, but if you want to be mean, party in power is said to be keeping, It is in the news that all these pitiful
kin, Greedy good doers, beneficent beasts of prey, That waits all day in almost open prayer, squeal of brakes,
the sound of a stopping car, one did stop, but only to plow up, And another to ask the way, ask the way to
where it was bound, to put me gently out of my pain
2.Personification - A roadside stand that too pathetically pled, The sadness that lurks near the open window
there
3.Metaphor - The flower of cities, voice of the country seems to complain, trusting sorrow
4.Repetition - The little old house was out with a little new shed, with N turned wrong and S turned wrong,
You have the money, but if you want to be mean, how to sleep they sleep all day, Sometimes I feel myself I can,
They couldn’t ; they had none, No, in country money, the country scale of gain, I wonder how I should like you
to come to me
5. Transferred epithet - polished traffic, selfish cars
6. Oxymoron - greedy good – doers , Beneficent beast of prey

Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers - Adrienne Rich

Theme - It revolves around male chauvinism & gender conflicts. The victimization of the women by their male
counterparts has been strongly brought out in the poem making it a forceful expression of the evil of
patriarchy.
1. Alliteration – fingers fluttering, prancing proud, weight of Uncle’s wedding band, her terrified hands
2. Irony –a. tigers drawn by aunt Jennifer are bold while the creator is weak,
b. brutal tigers are depicted as chivalric and the cultured man is depicted as an oppressor

2
c. Even when the creator dies, her work will continue to exist
3. Imagery – bright topaz
4. Symbolism – wedding band (oppression of marriage), tigers (freedom, symbol of terror and opression),
Aunt Jennifer (oppressed women), uncle (male chauvinism) fluttering wool - extensive oppression of the
women, Uncle's wedding band - suppression of women in matrimony. Embroidery - a symbol of creative
expression
5. Pun - ringed - Ring, surrounded
6. Metaphor - Bright topaz, Ivory needle
7. Synecdoche - her terrified hands
8. Transferred epithet - terrified hand
9. Rhyme Scheme - aabb ccdd eeff
10. Hyperbole - the weight of a husband's wedding ring

THE TIGER KING

1. Prediction of the astrologer 2. Tiger hunt 3. Steps to retain his kingdom 4. Hunting the
hundredth tiger 5. Conceit of those in power 6. Humour and satire 7. Dramatic Irony

THE ENEMY
1. Sadao in America 2. Wife, Hana 3. Sadao’s father 4. Harbouring enemy 5. Moral dilemma of Sadao
6. Reaction of servants 7. General Takima 8. Who is our enemy? 9. The American soldier

SHOULD WIZARD HIT MOMMY [Deleted portion , this year]

1. The common pattern of Jack’s stories 2. Other possible endings for the story 3. Jack feels in ugly middle
position-reason 4. Adult’s perspective Vs Child’s perspective

ON THE FACE OF IT
1. Character of Lamb, Derry 2.Title 3. Lamb’s garden 4. Derry’s change in perspective after the
association with Lamb

EVANS TRIES AN O-LEVEL [Deleted portion , this year]

1. Character of Evans, the governor(good- for- a giggle, gullible) 2. Preparations for the exam 3. Evans’
plot to escape-detail 4. Battle of wits

MEMORIES OF CHILDHOOD
The Cutting of My Long Hair-Zitkala Sa
1. The discipline at the Carlisle Indian School 2. Prejudice against Native American culture and women 3.
Judewin’s warning to the narrator 4. Cutting of the hair-the hardest trial 5. The narrator’s mother’s words
about shingled hair 6. Indignities faced by the narrator

We Too are Human Beings-Bama

1. The fun and games that held the attention of Bama way back from school
2. A man carrying vadai to landlord 3. Untouchability/Caste discrimination
4. Her elder brother’s(Annan) experience with landlord’s men
5. Her elder brother’s advice

3
FLAMINGO

THE LAST LESSON

1. Linguistic conquest 2. Changes in the school (Franz’s guilt and realization)
3. Bulletin board 4. M.Hamel and his inspiration 5.French language

LOST SPRING
1. Saheb’s story 2. Ragpickers of Seemapuri 3. story from Udipi
4. Garbage-meanings 5. Mukesh’s story 6. Bangle makers of Firozabad
7. Hurdles in becoming cooperative 8.Two distinct worlds.

DEEP WATER
1. Aversion to water-beginning 2. Experience at Y.M.C.A. pool
3. Steps to overcome fear 4. Narration of fear

THE RATTRAP
1. The idea of the world being a big rat trap 2. Crofter at Ramsjo Ironworks
3. Stealing of thirty kronor 4. Meeting with the Iron master 5. Mistaken identity-Captain Von Stahle
6. Edla Willmanson 7. Christmas Eve 8. Christmas present & the letter
9. Essential goodness in a human being can be awakened through understanding and love-Selma Lagerlof

INDIGO
1. RajKumar Shukla 2. Problems of Indigo sharecroppers/peasants of Champaran 3. Gandhiji’s arrival at
Champaran-measures adopted to help the peasants. 4. Cultural and social reform in Champaran

GOING PLACES
1. Adolescent hero worship 2. Character of Sophie, Jansie, Geoff 3.Title
4. Fantasy Vs Reality 5. Sophie’s family background