Read the extract given be1ow and answer the questions that follow:

Now we will count to twelve

and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the Earth

let’s not speak in any language, let’s

stop for one second,

and not move our arms so much.

(a) What is the significance of the number ‘twelve’?

(b) Which two activities does the poet want us to stop?

(c) What does the poet mean by ‘let’s not speak in any language’?

(d) Describe the pun on the word, ‘arms’.

OR

.......... I saw my mother, beside me, doze, open mouthed, her face ashen like that of a corpse and realised with pain ..........

(a) Who is ‘I?

(b) What did ‘I’ realise with pain?

(c) Why was the realisation painful?

(d) Identify and name the figure of speech used in these lines.

(a) The number ‘twelve’ symbolises time. It represents either the hours of the day or the months of a year.

(b) The poet wants us to stop two activities – first, he wants people of different nations to stop their own languages. Secondly, he wants us to stop moving our arms, either to signal, or fight and debate with each other.

(c) By ‘let’s not speak in any language’, the poet is urging people from different nations to stop speaking any language or dialect of their own, because it is different for different people. The poet is trying to stress, metaphorically, on giving up on our difference and to stop stressing on our personal gains or motives. He wants us all to speak the language of silence – a language of peace – which is common to all, understood by all and respected by all. Unity is what will keep us safe and happy, and not diversity.

(d) The word ‘arms’ is used as a pun here. It can refer to the ‘arms’ of a clock, which the poet doesn’t want to move, as he is demanding a pause in time for people to stay still and think over or listen to him. It could also refer to human ‘arms’, suggesting that he wants people to stop moving their arms so much, either as a means to signal or fight and argue with each other. Instead, it is time to stand still and remain silent in peace.

OR

(a) ‘I’ is the pronoun used by the poet to denote herself, as she recounts her tale of visiting her ageing mother.

(b) The poet realises with pain that her mother has aged, and is as old as she looks. She is struck with the horror and pain of losing her soon, for her mother is now at the crucial juncture of old age.

(c) The realisation was painful because it reminded the poet that she might soon have to lose her dear mother, as she has reached the threshold of the end of her days. Losing her own mother would certainly be very painful for a daughter.

(d) The phrase ‘her face ashen like that of a corpse’ uses the simile as a figure of speech. The dull and ashen face of her mother has been compared to a lifeless body’s to symbolize that her mother has reached the threshold of the end of her days.