This post ‘Amanda NCERT Solutions Class 10 English’ provides NCERT solutions for Class 10th English First Flight poem Amanda by Robin Klein. I recommend first read the summary of Amanda to understand the Thinking about the Poem Amanda questions better.
Amanda Thinking about the Poem Question Answer
Q.1. How old do you think Amanda is? How do you know this?
Ans. She seems to be a school-going girl of about twelve or thirteen. She is told to finish her homework, tidy her room and clean her shoes, and she is scolded for biting her nails, all suited to a young girl. At the same time she is warned about her acne, which shows she has just entered her teens.
Q.2. Who do you think is speaking to her?
Ans. Her mother (or another elder of the house), who keeps instructing and correcting her all the time.
Q.3. Why are Stanzas 2, 4 and 6 given in parenthesis?
Ans. Because these stanzas are not spoken aloud. They are Amanda’s own silent thoughts, her imaginary dream world. The brackets keep them apart from the nagging voice of the elder.
Q.4. Who is the speaker in Stanzas 2, 4 and 6? Is this speaker listening to the other?
Ans. The speaker is Amanda herself. No, she is not listening. She has escaped into her imagination and pays no attention to the scolding.
Q.5. What could Amanda do if she were a mermaid?
Ans. She would drift blissfully in a relaxed, emerald-green sea as its only inhabitant, completely free, peaceful and alone, with nobody to give her orders.
Q.6. Is Amanda an orphan? Why does she say so?
Ans. No, she is not an orphan; her mother is very much there, instructing her constantly. She imagines herself an orphan because an orphan has no one to nag her. She could roam the streets, make patterns in the soft dust with her bare feet, and enjoy the golden silence and sweet freedom.
Q.7. Do you know the story of Rapunzel? Why does she want to be Rapunzel?
Ans.Rapunzel was a girl with long golden hair who was kept shut in a high tower by a witch, and who let down her hair for others to climb up. Amanda wants to be Rapunzel so that she can live alone in a tower; calm, carefree and undisturbed. She adds that she would never let down her hair, meaning she would let no one come near her to disturb her peace.
Q.8. What does the girl yearn for? What does the poem tell you about Amanda?
Ans. She yearns for freedom, peace and solitude (to be left alone without endless instructions). The poem shows that Amanda is a sensitive, imaginative and lonely child. Constant nagging has driven her away from the real world into a world of dreams.
Q.9. Read the last stanza. Do you think Amanda is sulking and is moody?
Ans. No. She is not really sulking or moody; she is simply lost in her own thoughts, tired of being corrected all day long. Her silence is mistaken for sulking. The last line also shows that the elder half realises she is nagging, but blames the child instead.
Glossary in Textbook: languid — relaxed; drifting — moving slowly; pattern — make patterns; tranquil — calm.
