CBSE Class 11 English Childhood Worksheet Set 01

HORNBILL: POETRY

Childhood — Markus Natten

About the Poet

Markus Natten is a Norwegian writer who wrote poems in English that deal with serious topics related to human emotions and complex psychological aspects. He raises important questions related to human life. He is known for his poem ‘Childhood’ which talks about the transition of the poet from his childhood to maturity.

Introduction

The poet is recalling his childhood with a great deal of remorse. He is not able to place the time during which he lost his childhood. He is disappointed that he was not able to enjoy the best period of his life the way he should have.

THEME

The poem, ‘Childhood’ focuses on the theme of loss of innocence. In this poem, the poet, Markus Natten wonders when and where he lost his childhood. In this quest to find the moment, he grew up. Markus highlights the innocence and faith he lost even as he gained rational individuality. Adolescence is usually a confusing time for a child who is unable to immediately come to terms with the physical, hormonal and psychological changes in his or her personality. He becomes a ‘young adult’; he neither wants to call himself a child nor an adult. Now, he finally finds the answer that he lost his childhood to some forgotten place and that his childhood has now become a memory. The poem also hints at the hypocrisy prevalent in our society, where people pretend to be nice to each other, but in reality, they do not like each other.

Summary

As the name suggests, this poem is about childhood and innocence. The poet, who is an adult now, misses his childhood days and his innocence. He finds the adults as hypocrites. Hence, he longs to find the innocence which he had in his childhood. The poem has been divided into four stanzas and is in the form of rhetorical questions which the poet is asking to himself. The tone seems to be sad because the poet is missing his innocence which he had during his childhood. In the poem, the poet wonders when he lost his childhood and the innocence he had. He gets conscious because he can no longer see the world as he did earlier and can now sense the hypocrisy in people. He recalls many instances in his life when he could have lost his childhood. He wonders if it was the day when he ceased to be eleven or when he realised that hell and heaven didn’t exist in this world and no one could find them in geography. Then, he talks about his realisation that adults are not what they seemed to be and that they are hypocrites. They talk and preach of love, but their actions don’t say so. He then wonders if it was the day when he realised that his mind was his own and capable of producing his own thoughts. No one could own his thoughts. He is an individual with a unique personality. In the last stanza, he talks about the whereabouts of his childhood. He concludes that it had gone to some forgotten place and it can only be found in the innocent face of an infant.

POETIC DEVICES

• Inversion: when we reverse (invert) the normal word order of a structure, most commonly the subject-verb order, it is known as inversion.
  “To use whichever way I choose.”
• Refrain: a group of phrase which is repeated in the poem
  “When did my childhood go?”
  “Was that the day!”
• Antithesis: when two opposite words are used together in a sentence
  Hell and Heaven
• Alliteration: the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of closely connected words
  “The time”; “My mind”; “Whichever way”; “Thoughts that”
• Personification: the attribution of human characteristics to non-human things and animals. In this poem, childhood is personified.
  “It went to some forgotten place.”
• Enjambment: the continuation of a sentence to multiple lines
• Rhyme Scheme: abbccd

Explanation of the Poem

1. When did my childhood go?
Was it the day I ceased to be eleven,
Was it the time I realised that Hell and Heaven,
Could not be found in Geography,
And therefore could not be,
Was that the day!

Exp- The poet begins his poem with a very poignant question that gets one thinking–“When did my childhood go?”. The poet is trying to decipher the course his life has taken, and the changes that happened in the course of time. He wonders if it was when he was eleven years old, or when he realized that “Hell and Heaven” had no geographical representations. These are just the components of a child’s bedtime story, which were probably told to teach moral values to children. Analysing his past has made it evident, that the poet has already begun to rationalise the various facts and myths that he was introduced to as a child. The poet uses the line, “And therefore could not be” for emphasizing the fact that hell and heaven are non-existent. They happen to be imaginary destinations that have been passed down through generations. However, he wonders, if it was on the day he had begun to rationalise that he lost his childhood. He uses the refrain to express to the reader that he has still not got an answer to his question.

2. When did my childhood go?
Was it the time I realised that adults were not
all they seemed to be,
They talked of love and preached of love,
But did not act so lovingly,
Was that the day!

Exp- In these verses, he is wondering if his upbringing had anything to do with the loss of his childhood. He wondered if it was the behaviour of adults, and their hypocrisy, that had snatched his childhood from him. He remembers that his elders used to preach about love and relationship, but in reality, they do not include love or acts of love in their individual lives. He asks himself, whether the day he realised this dual nature of adults was the day he had lost his childhood.

3. When did my childhood go?
Was it when I found my mind was really mine,
To use whichever way I choose,
Producing thoughts that were not those of other people
But my own, and mine alone
Was that the day!

Exp- The question still unanswered, he now wonders if he had lost his childhood when he realised that he was an individual with a mind of his own. He could think and act the way he chose to. There came a time when he had begun to stop thinking the thoughts that were planted in his mind by others. Thoughts began to get produced in his own mind which were his and sacred to him. Here, there is a concept of self-awareness that develops in the mind of a child after stepping into adolescence. According to the poet, it made him aware of his own body and thoughts. The poet could not think like a child, he had lost his innocence and the touch of purity which is always there in an infant’s soul. He tries to recall if that was the day when the change had happened.

4. Where did my childhood go?
It went to some forgotten place,
That’s hidden in an infant’s face,
That’s all I know.

Exp- In this stanza, the poet becomes practical. He accepts that he is an adult now. He can no longer think like a child and cry over the spilled milk. The past has long gone by, never to return. The question he asks himself has now changed from ‘when’ to ‘where’ his childhood had gone. He concludes that it has perhaps gone to a place that is way beyond his memories and is perhaps, hidden in the face of that infant, whose childhood he has no clue about. But he rests assured that it definitely did exist on the child’s face. Other than accepting this fact, neither he had any options to choose from nor he had any clues to help him locate his lost childhood.

 

THINK IT OUT

 

Question. Identify the stanza that talks of each of the following. individuality rationalism hypocrisy
Answer: 1. (a) Individuality – Third stanza
When did my childhood go?
Was it when I found my mind was really mine,
To use whichever way I choose,
Producing thoughts that were not those of other people
But my own, and mine alone
Was that the day!

(b) Rationalism – First stanza
When did my childhood go?
Was it the day I ceased to be eleven,
Was it the time I realised that Hell and Heaven,
Could not be found in Geography,
And therefore could not be,
Was that the day!

(c) Hypocrisy – Second stanza
When did my childhood go?
Was it the time I realised that adults were not
all they seemed to be,
They talked of love and preached of love,
But did not act so lovingly,
Was that the day!

 

Question. What according to the poem is involved in the process of growing up?
Answer: According to the poem, the process of growing up involves attaining maturity and becoming a rational and logical thinker. When the poet became an adult, he was able to see the hypocrisy of other people. He could distinguish the double standard preach and talk of love. A grown-up can tell the difference between reality and fantasy. A mature person stresses on his thoughts and is capable of having his own opinion.

 

Question. What is the poet’s feeling towards childhood?
Answer: The poet is disappointed and puzzled by the loss of his childhood. He wants to know the moment when he became a grown-up and lost his innocence. He expresses his confusion by asking — when and where did his childhood go.

 

Question. Which do you think are the most poetic lines? Why?
Answer: The following lines in the last stanza are the most poetic lines in the poem.
It went to some forgotten place,
That’s hidden in an infant’s face,
That’s all I know.
The poet beautifully describes the disappearance of his childhood. He talks about how one can find innocence in an infant’s face. It is a process of life that an individual grows and slowly starts understanding the concept of the world and the people around him. During childhood, a person believes in things that aren’t true or has a different mindset of reality. When the child grows up and is able to process his own thoughts, he realises that many things don’t exist the way he had thought them to be.

Additional Questions

Extract-based Questions 

Read the following extracts carefully and answer the questions that follow.

When did my childhood go?
Was it the day I ceased to be eleven,
Was it the time I realised that Hell and Heaven,
Could not be found in Geography,
And therefore could not be,
Was that the day!

 

Question. What does the use of the word ‘ceased’ suggest?
Answer: The use of the word ‘ceased’ suggests that the poet’s childhood ended abruptly and forcefully.

 

Question. Do you agree or disagree with the poet’s view that childhood is linked to innocence and ignorance? Give reasons for your answer. 
Answer: I agree with the poet’s view that childhood is linked to innocence and ignorance, because children are not exposed to the harsh realities and complexities of the world, and they have a simple and imaginative outlook on life.

 

Question. The poet realised that:
(a) hell and heaven are on the earth.
(b) hell and heaven are marked on the globe.
(c) hell and heaven do not exist.
(d) hell and heaven are not found in Geography.
Answer: (d) hell and heaven are not found in Geography.

 

When did my childhood go?
Was it the time I realised that adults were not
all they seemed to be,
They talked of love and preached of love,
But did not act so lovingly,
Was that the day!

 

Question. How did the poet feel when he realised that adults were not all they seemed to be?
Answer: The poet felt betrayed and disillusioned when he realised that adults were not all they seemed to be.

 

Question. Do you think the poet’s view of adults is fair or unfair? Give reasons for your answer. 
Answer: The poet’s view of adults is fair, especially when seen through the eyes of an innocent child who realises that the adults do not practise what they preach. They talk about love and unity but practise hatred and hypocrisy.

 

Question. Why is the poet confused?
(a) Because he does not seem to understand when he lost his childhood
(b) Because he could not find heaven and hell in geography
(c) Because he is getting a lot of negative thoughts
(d) Because he has lost his mind
Answer: (a) Because he does not seem to understand when he lost his childhood

 

When did my childhood go?
Was it when I found my mind was really mine,
To use whichever way I choose,
Producing thoughts that were not those of other people
But my own, and mine alone
Was that the day!

 

Question. What did the poet realise?
Answer: The poet realised that his mind could produce thoughts that were his.

 

Question. Identify the poetic device used in ‘Was it when I found my mind was really mine’.
Answer: Alliteration has been used in the line ‘Was it when I found my mind was really mine’.

 

Question. What did the poet sense about himself when he realised he could use his own mind the way he wants?
(a) He sensed that he was as intelligent as his friends.
(b) He sensed his own individuality and a separate personality.
(c) He sensed that he was very smart.
(d) He sensed that he could use his mind in creative work.
Answer: (b) He sensed his own individuality and a separate personality.

 

Where did my childhood go?
It went to some forgotten place,
That’s hidden in an infant’s face,
That’s all I know.

 

Question. What is the tone of the given stanza?
Answer: The tone of the given stanza is melancholic and nostalgic.

 

Question. How does the poet relate his childhood to an infant’s face?
Answer: The poet relates his childhood to an infant’s face because an infant represents innocence, purity, and joy which are the qualities that he associates with his childhood.

 

Question. What did the poet conclude about his lost childhood at the end of the poem?
(a) It went to another dimension.
(b) It went to some other forgotten place.
(c) It moved away with time.
(d) It shifted to his younger sibling.
Answer: (b) It went to some other forgotten place.

Short Answer Questions 

 

Question. What, according to the poet, is involved in the process of growing up?
Answer: As a person grows up, he becomes a rationalist, an egoist and a hypocrite. He accepts nothing that is not logical. He loses faith in God. He does not believe in hell or heaven. He becomes very conscious of his self. He wants to follow his own desires and ideas. He talks and preaches of love, but actually does not show love in his actions. In short, he loses all the innocence of his childhood in the process of growing up.

 

Question. How does the poem expose man and present him in his true colours?
Answer: According to the poet, childhood symbolises innocence, purity, softness and love. As a child grows up, these qualities start receding. Man adheres to lying, shrewdness, cunningness and hypocrisy. Adults preach about love and honesty, but they themselves practise hatred and lying. The simplicity and honesty of childhood evaporates the moment man crosses the threshold of innocent childhood.

 

Question. What is the poet’s feeling towards his childhood?
Answer: The poet regards childhood as a period of innocence. A child sincerely feels that he is free from all evils and that there is really a hell and a heaven. A child knows no hypocrisy. There is no difference between his thoughts and actions. In short, childhood is a state of innocence and purity of heart.

 

Question. According to Markus Natten, when does a child become an adult?
Answer: Becoming an adult is a complex process which is associated with physical, mental and social development. A child becomes an adult when he is able to live his own life and take care of his responsibilities individually. He also develops his own thought process, using which, he can form his own beliefs and opinions.

 

Question. What is the poet trying to convey when he says that childhood is hidden in an infant’s face?
Answer: The poet says that an infant is really innocent as it trusts everyone and does not try to fool others. The poet brings out this fact by contrasting it with the behaviour of adults, who are manipulative and hypocrites. As a person develops rational thoughts, his childlike innocence fades away.

 

Question. What did the poet notice about independent thinking? How important was this discovery?
Answer: The poet discovered that he was different from others and could think independently. He could have his own opinions without getting influenced by anyone else. This discovery was very important to him as it revealed to him his abilities for independent thinking and decision making.

 

Question. Bring out the hypocrisy that the adults exhibit with regard to love.
Answer: As the poet grew up, he could understand the double standards followed by adults. He realised that though adults preached and talked of love, their behaviour was totally different and full of manipulation. They were all hypocrites who behaved differently from the way they talked.

 

Question. What does the poem tell us about human beings and their nature?
Answer: According to the poet, childhood symbolises innocence, purity, softness and love. As a child grows up, these qualities start receding. Man adheres to lying, shrewdness, cunningness and hypocrisy. Adults preach about truth and honesty, but they themselves practise hatred and lying.

 

Question. What is the poet talking about in the poem ‘Childhood’?
Answer: In the poem ‘Childhood’, the poet is trying to pinpoint the age when he lost his childhood, and became mature enough to understand the worldly things. So he keeps saying, “When did my childhood go?”. He finally realises that his childhood has gone to some forgotten place, that is hidden in an infant’s face.

 

Question. What is the poem ‘Childhood’ about?
Answer: ‘Childhood’ is written by Markus Natten. In this poem, the poet thinks over his lost childhood. He wonders about the moment when he lost his innocence and realised that the world is not what it seemed to be. He recalls when his thoughts changed and also realises the hypocrisy of the people around him.

 

Question. What does the poet feel had happened after he ceased to be eleven years of age?
Answer: The poet was trying to find out when and where he had lost his childhood. While doing so, he wonders whether it was at the time he ceased to be eleven, that he had lost his childhood.

 

Question. How did the poet conclude that hell and heaven were imaginary places?
Answer: The poet would have at some point as a child, tried to locate hell and heaven on the globe or the atlas. When he realised that these places are not a part of the geography of the earth, he concluded that they are imaginary and created by man.

 

Question. How does the poet analyse the character of adults?
Answer: Our elders always teach us to be loving, kind, giving and caring of everybody around us. It was the same for the poet also. But, as he was growing older, he realised that none of these characteristics were displayed in the behaviour of the adults while they engaged with the people around them. He concluded that the adults never practised what they preached.

 

Question. What are the characteristics that form a part of childhood?
Answer: The poet regards childhood as a period of innocence. It is the time when one believes that every word that comes out of the mouths of the elders is the gospel truth. It is the time when one believes that there is a place called heaven and hell on earth, the time when one believes in the concept of loving every one, and the time when one processes only the thoughts that have been passed on from the minds of other people.

Long Answer Questions 

 

Question. How does the poem explain childhood? What is so special about childhood? How are children different from adults? 
Answer: The poet regards childhood as a period of heavenly innocence. A child sincerely feels that there is a God above. He is free from all earthly evils. He believes that there is really a heaven and a hell. He is truly religious in his soul. A child knows no hypocrisy. He always means what he says. There is no difference between his thoughts and actions. A child is free from any sense of ego. He does not think himself to be different from or superior to others. Childhood symbolises innocence, purity, softness and love. As a child grows, these qualities start receding. Man becomes impure, cunning, shrewd and hypocrite. Grown ups become blatant liars. They talk of love but practise hatred. They preach brotherhood of mankind but perpetuate hatred and killing. Simplicity and honesty evaporate into thin air the moment man crosses the threshold of innocent childhood.

 

Question. Write a brief summary of the poem ‘Childhood’.
Answer: The poet ponders deeply upon the spiritual questions of life and ultimately realises the fact that his childhood days have finally become a thing of the past and would never return. Childhood would now only remain in his memories. He wonders if the end of his childhood was the day he ceased to be eleven years old; the time when he realised that heaven and hell are not real places because they could not be located in any geography books and never could be. The poet also realises that adults were not all they seemed to be. They talk of love, but practise hatred. In the poem ‘Childhood’, the poet is trying to find out the age when he lost his childhood; when he became mature enough to understand the worldly things. So, he keeps asking, “When did my childhood go?”. He finally realises that his childhood has gone to some forgotten place that is hidden in an infant’s face.

 

Question. Markus Natten, though showing disapproval regarding the behaviour of adults, also raises a very important point, that of independent thinking and individuality. Do you agree that independent thinking and individuality make us what we are? Elaborate in the context of the poem ‘Childhood’. (Constructed Response Question)
Answer: Of course, independent thinking is a step towards adulthood. As a child, one is not able to make one’s own decisions and one’s thinking is always influenced and directed by adults. A child is so innocent that he cannot distinguish between truth and imagination. As a child’s thinking is influenced by others, it has no individuality. Moreover, it is prone to manipulations which lead to fickle-mindedness. Independent thinking makes us what we are. It shapes our personality and we are known among people through what our mind thinks and what decisions we take. Independent thinking helps us to stay away from evil people who try to influence our thoughts for their selfish purposes. We cannot claim to be an individual, if we cannot take decisions ourselves.

 

Question. What is the greatest loss for the poet?
Answer: The poet has discussed a lot about the different losses he faced while growing up. Through this poem, Markus Natten raises moral questions about education, immoral behaviour of adults and one’s individuality and independence. He confesses that the greatest loss is losing the innocence of childhood. The poet laments the loss of the innocence he had as a child. He regards childhood as an important stage in the process of growing up. When he turned twelve, he realised that contrary to what he had been told, hell and heaven did not exist. He reasoned through his ideas and came to his own conclusions. He lost confidence in people and began to be a bit more cynical. Towards the end, the poet has one hope that he could see his childhood being manifested in some other infant. He is happy that he could see his childhood, though he would not be able to experience it any more.

 

Question. Compare and contrast between childhood and adulthood, as mentioned in the poem.
Answer: Human life is full of experiences. It is divided into a number of phases. Markus Natten is a great philosophical poet who has tried to explore the philosophy of life. He has discussed about two of the most important phases of man – childhood and adulthood – in the poem. He has distinctly brought out the difference between the two. He says that childhood is the best part of one’s life. It is also the most important stage. Innocence is the most integral part of it. The child is dependent on his parents for everything. He believes in what is said or taught to him. He is irrational and unbiased. He does not follow philosophies of life. He is limited to his knowledge gained by books. The next stage discussed is adulthood. As the child enters into this stage, a number of changes creep into him. He becomes rational. He becomes free and self-dependent. He seeks for philosophical knowledge. He also becomes a hypocrite. There is discrepancy between his words and his actions. Thus, we can clearly see that there is a lot of difference between these two stages of human life i.e., childhood and adulthood.

 

Question. Analyse the central theme of the poem ‘Childhood’.
Answer: Childhood symbolises innocence, purity, beauty and love. As a child grows, these qualities are left somewhere in the past. Man becomes selfish, cunning, shrewd, and hypocrite. Lying is no longer a sin for an adult as he justifies it according to the circumstances. The adults preach love but practise hatred. They speak of brotherhood and unity, but propagate hatred and killing. Simplicity and honesty are left behind at the threshold of innocent childhood. The poet seems to be affected by such a turn of events. He laments the fact that elders teach children wrong things about hell and heaven, about loving and giving. It is unfortunate that what is practised is not preached. His thoughts, whether another’s or his own, should be chaste and pure. Perhaps, the poet wishes that all that is taught in childhood should be the way that man leads his life in reality. Then, there would be less hatred and more peace everywhere. The innocence and love with which we are created should stay with us till we depart. Life is a gift given to us by the Almighty; we should focus on leading it the right way.

 

Question. Write an article in about 150 words about childhood and the process of growing up. 
Answer: CHILDHOOD
By Manav Singh

When I was a child, the world seemed to be a place of joy and happiness to me. There was nothing worth worrying about. Whenever I cried, somebody consoled me. When I did not like to sit alone, I was always in somebody’s arms. My mother always looked after me. These are my most cherished memories and I believe that looking at a child playing and enjoying childhood makes me somewhat nostalgic.
Childhood is free from cares. There are no duties or responsibilities on the shoulders of a child. A child only eats, drinks, sleeps and plays. Thus, a child lives in the bliss of ignorance and innocence. As we grow in age, worries about studies, choice of profession, shouldering responsibilities, etc. keep haunting us. Tension, stress and worry become a part of adult life and the individual forgets to live a carefree life.