Important Questions: Poem - My Mother at Sixty-Six | English Class 12 PDF Download

Q1: What do the poet’s parting words to her mother signify?
Ans: The poet’s parting words of assurance and her smile provide a stark contrast to the old familiar fear of childhood. Her words and smiles are a deliberate attempt to hide her real feelings. She is trying to hide her fear about her mother’s frail and deteriorating health which might separate her from her mother.

Q2: What is the significance of the parting words of the poet and her smile in ‘My Mother at Sixty-six’?
Ans: The poet’s parting words convey the dilemma and confusion in her mind. Her superficial smile expresses her helplessness. She is anxious about her mother’s frail health and fears that anything can happen to her mother. But, on the other hand, she also nurtures a faint hope that her mother survives long enough so that they can meet again.

Q3: Why did Kamala Das add the image of merry children to her poem?
Ans: The merry children symbolise the spring of life, its energy, vigour and happiness. Their image presents a sharp contrast to the poet’s limp and ageing mother. This image is also imperative for the understanding of the process of old age which is associated with decay. The spontaneous outpouring of life symbolised by these children is in contrast to the poet’s mother’s passive and inactive life.

Q4: Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follows:
…but soon
put that thought away and
looked out at young
trees sprinting, the merry children spilling
out of their homes, …
(i) Which thought did the poet put away?
Ans: The poet put away the painful thought of her mother’s ageing and declining health and the possibility of losing her mother.

(ii) What do the ‘sprinting trees’ signify?
Ans: The trees appear to be racing past as their car moves towards the airport. The old, inactive mother is contrasted with the energetic and active trees.

(iii) What are ‘the merry children spilling out of their homes’, symbolic of?
Ans: The ‘merry children spilling out of their homes’ are symbolic of happiness, energy and playfulness. They are in stark contrast to the old, dozing mother. The sad thoughts of the poet are also contrasted with the merry children.

Q5: What were Kamala Das’ fears as a child? Why do they surface when she is going to the airport?
Ans: Since her childhood perhaps Kamala Das always feared that she would lose her mother or in some way be separated from her. Now that her mother is old and her health has deteriorated, the poet’s fear surface again when she is going to the airport.

Q6: Why are the young trees described as ‘sprinting’?
Ans: The young trees are ‘sprinting’ that is rushing past the poet as she is traveling in a very fast-moving car. While travelling in a speeding vehicle, the objects outside appear to be . rushing past us in the opposite direction. These sprinting trees are in stark contrast to the passive old lady sitting inside the car.

Q7: What childhood fear did Kamala Das refer to in her poem? How did she hide it?
Ans: Kamala Das childhood fear was that she would lose her mother to the cruel hands of death and thus would be separated from her forever. She attempts to hide her fear through her elongated and superficial smile.

Q8: Why has the poet’s mother been compared to the Tate winter’s moon’?
Ans: The winter season is a traditional symbol of death and the moon, especially, if it is pale, it enhances the image of decay. The mother’s pale and colourless face that has becomes rather wrinkled due to old age gives her a look that the poet compares with ‘the late winter’s moon’.

Q9: How does Kamala Das try to put away the thoughts of her ageing mother?
Ans: The poet (Kamala Das) started looking out of the car-window because she wanted to drive away the pain and agony she was experiencing on seeing her aged mother. She looked outside at the world which was full of life and activity. She saw young trees running past her and merry children sprinting out of their homes to play.

Q10: What were the poet’s feelings as she drove to Kochi airport?
Ans: The poet saw her mother dozing open-mouthed in the car. She was disturbed as she felt her mother looked old and withered. Her childhood fear started to haunt the poet. She feared if her mother would still be alive on her return.

Q11: Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
‘……..I looked at her, wan
pale
. as a late winter’s moon and felt that
old
familiar ache, my childhood’s fear,
…………….
(i) Name the poem and the poet.
Ans: The poem is ‘My Mother at Sixty-Six’ by Kamala Das.

(ii) How did the mother look?
Ans: The mother looked pale and dull like the winter moon. Like winter is the last season of the year so the mother to is in the last phase of her life.

(iii) What did the poet feel?
Ans: The poet felt sad and depressed as she experienced the old and familiar pain.

(iv) What was the poet’s childhood fear?
Ans: The poet’s childhood fear was that of losing her mother.

Q12: Why are the youngsters described as springing?
Ans: The springing of the youngsters signify the spring of life, their youth and vigour in contrast to the poet’s old mother who looks pale and lifeless. The springing youngsters are symbolic of the beginning of life as contrasted to the poet’s mother whose ashen face symbolizes imminent death.

Q13: What was Kamala Das’s childhood fear?
Ans: The poet’s childhood fear was that she would lose her mother to the cruel hands of death and would thus be separated from her forever. So she feared this separation from her mother.

Q14: What familiar ache and childhood fear did Kamala Das feel?
Ans: Since her childhood Kamala Das always feared that she would lose her mother or be separated from her. Now that her mother is old and frail and her health is deteriorating, the familiar ache resurfaces that she might not be able to see her mother again.

Q15: What did Kamala Das think when she looked at her mother?
Ans: Kamala Das saw her mother dozing open-mouthed, her face looking pale and colourless like that of a corpse. She then realized how old her mother was. She looked quite haggard and worn-out as the ravages of time had taken their toll on her.