Childhood - Part 1

21st April, 2020

Day 1

Good morning gentlemen!

With a week passed by, I hope many of you must have become comfortable learning through this digital medium of teaching. Life is such, we should take it as it comes. 

We are already through with one chapter from your content and I hope that you all must have understood the chapter well. 

This week, we are going to start a new poem named 'Childhood' written by Markus Natten. 

In this poem, the poet thinks over his lost childhood. He wonders about the moment where he lost the innocence and realized that the world is not what he seemed it to be. He recalls when his thoughts changed and he realized the hypocrisy of the people around him.He finally settled down to the idea that his childhood went to some forgotten place and is hidden in the face of an innocent infant.

Before comprehending the poem, let us know something about the poet Markus Natten. 

 Markus Natten

Let us first understand the learning objectives of this poem. 

Learning Objectives

By the end of this poem, the students will be able to 

Ø  understand, enjoy and appreciate different genre of English writings 

Ø  know about the poet and his contributions

Ø  enhance vocabulary

Ø  have better understanding of rhyme scheme and other poetic devices

Ø  know that Childhood is a bliss

Ø  think when and where has the childhood gone

Ø  know how childhood is innocence while maturity leads to individuality, rationalism  and gaining understanding of hypocrisy 

Take few minutes to give a silent reading to this poem and analyse the poem.

Today, we will deal with ONLY TWO stanzas of this poem. 

Paraphrasing

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!


Word - Meaning

1) Ceased – come to an end

The poet wonders when he lost his childhood. He muses that perhaps it was the day he realised that the concepts of Heaven and Hell, he had been taught of since his youngest years, had no standing in the light of the day. Geography textbooks did not give the location of any such place. Education made the poet question his faith and look at the world much more rationally. The poet realises that he might have lost his childhood when he gained this rational outlook.

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! 

Word - Meaning

1) Preached – talked or spoken

In the second stanza, the poet recalls the time when he realised that the adults around him did not practice what they preached. They told the poet to be loving and caring, however, they were themselves argumentative, violent and discourteous. Their behaviour was a far cry from the love they sermonized about and advocated so reverently to the child.

Thus, the child lost his faith in the adults around him, whom he had so far, trusted without question. Their latent hypocrisy became evident to the growing child. Perhaps, says Natten, that broken trust was one of the major steps towards adulthood.

You can copy the paraphrasing along with question answers given above in your English registers. We will comprehend the next two stanzas in tomorrow's blog. Also, the poetic devices used will be given to you in tomorrow's blog. 

Do not forget to drop in your queries in the comment section. Having doubts mean you are learning. 

To get your today's attendance, write any one memory of your childhood in the comment box. 

Till then

Be safe

Stay home

God bless you all!