Ready Reckoner 3- Flamingo - Poetry Key Phrases and Explanations

Ready Reckoner 3- Flamingo - Poetry Key Phrases and Explanations

MY MOTHER AT SIXTY SIX

S. No.	Phrase	Explanation
1	Title of the poem	The poem revolves around the theme of advancing age, the fear associated with it, loss and separation.
2	Trees sprinting	Trees sprinting in contrast to the mother who is slow and old.
3	the merry children spilling out of their homes	The merry children are symbolic of the exuberance of youth. The energetic and lively children present a contrast to the poet’s mother who has grown old and pale.
4	late winter’s moon	looks too hazy and lacks brightness and lustre (simile)
5	that old familiar ache	the agony and pain of separation from her mother that the poet felt in her childhood,
6	my childhood’s fear	The fear of losing her mother, just as all young children often are.
7	See you soon, Amma”	suggestive of the hope that they will meet again.
8	all I did was smile and smile and smile	she was trying to hide her real feelings

AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASSROOM IN A SLUM

S. No.	Phrase	Explanation
1	Title of the poem	Poem talks about the miserable lives of children of an elementary school classroom in a slum
2	gusty waves	The beautiful sights of nature which are not visible in the slum.
3	Rootless weeds	Children are insecure-may wither away easily
4	tall girl with her weighed-down head	Because she is depressed due to abject poverty,  sad thoughts about her misfortune or shame.
5	The paper-seeming boy, with rat’s eyes	Thin, hungry and weak
6	unlucky heir	The boy with stunted growth and twisted bones is the ‘unlucky heir’.
7	Reciting a father’s gnarled disease.	The boy with stunted growth has inherited a disease from his father, which he often recounts
8	Sour cream walls	Dull and pale classrooms walls
9	their future’s painted with a fog	The future of these children is dark and uncertain. They are not well-educated, and there is no one to guide them.
10	Shakespeare is wicked	Because the children are not aware of his literary genius. They are just troubled by hunger, despair and failed aspirations.
11	the map a bad example,	Because it does not include their world of narrow and dirty lanes of the slum
12	From fog to endless night	From morning till night the poor children of the slum have a miserable existence; they suffer from morning to night every day.
13	slag heap	Slag heap means a hill or area of refuse from a mine or industrial site. Here, the bloodless bodies of the poor children are referred to as ‘slag heap’.
14	skins peeped through by bones	They are malnourished and hence very skinny.
15	mended glass	The glass of the spectacles is cracked and pieces of it have been stuck together.- indicates poverty
16	upon their lives like catacombs	They live in tiny houses like catacombs
17	their tongues run naked into books	To enable them to read and understand books and independently by providing them liberal education.
18	till they break their town	To break the shackles of the slum so that they can come out of their dirty surroundings into an open area of freedom.

KEEPING QUIET

S. No.	Phrase	Explanation
1	Title of the poem	The title of the poem suggests that we must keep quiet for a moment. The poem stresses the significance of mutual understanding and necessity for introspection.
2	significance of the number ‘twelve’	There are 12 hours in a clock and 12 months in a year
3	let’s not speak in any language	Nothing should be spoken in any language, so there are no disputes. Moreover language creates communication barriers.
4	not move our arms so much	We should not make any physical movement, as physical activity will interrupt our introspection. Arms’ has two meanings – hands and weapons
5	engines	Automobiles or machines.
6	sadness	The ‘sadness’ which arises due to the fact that people fail to understand themselves.
7	look at his hurt hands	Should look and realize the harm that he has inflicted on himself.

A THING OF BEAUTY

S. No.	Phrase	Explanation
1	Title of the poem	‘A Thing of Beauty’ tells us that beautiful things are a source of constant joy and inspiration. They give us eternal pleasure and leave an indelible mark on our minds and, therefore, every beautiful thing is worth being treasured.
2	Pass into nothingness	The joy that a thing of beauty gives us is eternal. It never loses its importance, but it only increases with time.
3	bower	A ‘bower” is a pleasant shady place.
4
5	inhuman dearth	Man’s self-centered nature and his inability to rise above pettiness is inhuman dearth
6	Some shape of beauty	Beauty is an abstract idea and has no specific shape. The poet here means beauty in some form or some beautiful object which pleases us.
7	mighty dead	Our ancestors, the heroes of the world who are worthy of respect.
8	Grandeur – mighty dead	Grandeur is associated to the mighty dead because of their great deeds and achievements.
9	endless fountain of immortal drink	Keats considers nature’s beauty as an endless fountain of immortal drink.

A ROADSIDE STAND

S. No.	Phrase	Explanation
1	Title of the poem	The Roadside Stand by Robert Frost tells the sad plight of economically underfed people who put up a roadside stand for a living. They are often fooled by the cunning people who are responsible for their pathetic existence.
2	dole of bread	A piece of bread
3	The flower of cities	Prosperity/growth is the flower of the cities. As the flower is the crowning glory of a plant, growth becomes the flower of a city.
4	polished traffic	Polished traffic portrays the insensitive attitude and gentlemanly appearances of the city-men.
5	passed with a mind ahead	minds of city people were restless with greed for money and ambitions for great profits in their business
6	of signs with S turned wrong and N turned wrong	The Roadside STAND has an S and an N in Stand. The owner of the stand is illiterate so he has erected the board with wrong spelling with S and N inverted.
7	landscape marred	The poor people mar/ruin the beauty of the landscape by putting up on the roadside
8	beauty rest in a mountain scene	No beauty in the scenic painting made by the inhabitants of the roadside stand meant for selling to the rich people
9	some city money to feel in hand	The poor people do not want promises. They want the promises fulfilled.
10	moving pictures’ promise	The movies the poor people have watched are full of promises for them
11	greedy good-doers	These good doers intend to make money out of the poor people by appearing beneficent to them. (irony)
12	beneficent beast of prey	The greedy people who make money in the name of social and political and charitable works.
13	enforce benefits	promises wrapped up in glossy appearances declaring to have great value, but looting them instead.
14	soothe the wits of the poor	These promises and offers are such a way calculated that the poor people cannot escape the traps of the rich.
15	Destroy their sleeping at night the ancient way	The rich people give the poor great promises and exploit them. This destroys the sleep of the poor people. This method of the rich and mighty is as old as the human civilizations.
16	childish longing in vain	The poor people’s uncertain and futile expectation for the city money is the childish longing. It is in vain as the rich city people do not have the generosity to help them
17	selfish cars	The cars are selfish because the people who travel in them are self centered.
18	Requisite lift of spirit	Money is the most important requirement for man in the modern world. If one has money at hand then he feels confident and a feeling of his spirit being lifted.

NB: there are endless such phrases to be learned in this lesson. Search and find more

S. No.	Phrase	Explanation
1	Title of the poem	“Aunt Jennifer's Tiger” is an appropriate title in that it refers to a tapestry Aunt Jennifer has made. It contains some ferocious tigers. The title also suggests the “tiger like terror” Aunt's husband was. She was in constant fear of him and felt trapped and suffocated in marriage.
	her terrified hands	Because she is threatened and burdened by a male dominated society
	sleek chivalric certainty	Sleek, chivalric and certainty are the three qualities of the tigers knitted by Aunt Jennifer. Sleek indicates the elegance of their movement while chivalric and certainty are fearlessness and confidence respectively.
	Wedding band	Marriage ring, a symbol of love and care but for Aunt Jennifer it was a symbol of slavery.
	the ordeals she was mastered by	The ordeals that Aunt Jennifer had been mastered by were her sufferings and difficulties that she had to suffer under her husband and the burden that society had imposed upon her because she was a woman.
	Prancing	Prancing is upward jumping. It suggests women’s ambition to get an equal  social status.
	Symbols	·         The tigers are symbols of liberated women of America. ·         Wedding band/ring is the symbol of male domination/chauvinism. ·         Aunt Jennifer is the symbol of the struggling feminists such as the poet. ·         Knitting is symbolic of the poet’s attempts to form a generation of free, liberated womanhood. ·         The tree  is symbolic of the social order where women used to occupy the lower branches in the past. ·         Prancing/jumping upward is symbolic of woman’s ambition to get an equal  social status.

Collected by Jineesh Sebastian, PGT English, KV Coimbatore