The Shed Poem: 7th Class CBSE Honeycomb English Ch 13

The Shed Poem: NCERT 7th CBSE Honeycomb English Chapter 13

Question: Answer the following questions

1. Who is the speaker in the poem?
2. Is she / he afraid or curious or both?
3. What is she / he planning to do soon?
4. “But not just yet…” suggests doubt, fear, hesitation, laziness or something else. Choose the word which seems right to you. Tell others why you chose it.

Answer:

1. It is not very clear who the Speaker is. Perhaps, the speaker is the poet himself.
2. The speaker seems to be both Curious as well as afraid to go inside the shed. He wants to find out what is inside the shed. At the same time, he is afraid because he thinks that strange voices could be heard from here and there is possibly a ghost who lives inside the Shed.
3. He / She plans to go inside the shed after some day soon.
4. “But not just yet…” seems to suggest lack of preparation. The speaker wants to be further certain and prepare himself for this endeavor. He has already overcome his fears, so there is no fear. However, waiting for the right time Could be a reason for postponing the act.

Question: Is there a room in your house or a house in your neighborhood / locality where you would rather not go alone, and never at night? If there is such a place and a story to go with it, let others hear all about it.

Answer: There is a store room in my house which is in the backyard of the house. It is a little away from the main structure. It is full of odd objects and not even lit properly. Thus, going to the store room, at night, calls for a lot of courage. My mother once asked me to fetch certain things from the store room. When I entered the store room, I felt as if I saw the movement of shadows. Screamed with terror, but later got to know that those shadows were nothing but my mind’s imagination.

The Shed Poem – Question: Why were the hinges of the door rusty?

Answer: Hardly anybody went inside the shed. Since the doors were not opened for a long time, its hinges had become rusty.

Question: What does the speaker usually do while lying in the bed?

Answer: The speaker generally contemplated the idea of going inside the shed.

Question: What does the broken glass window Suggest?

Answer: The broken glass panes of the dusty window suggested lack of maintenance. There was hardly anybody who went inside the shed, so cleaning the shed was a distant possibility.

Question: According to the speaker’s brother, where did the ghost hid himself?

Answer: According to the speaker’s brother, the ghost hid himself under the rotten floorboards of the shed.

Question: What did the speaker’s brother say about the Shed?

Answer: The speaker’s brother talked about the presence of a ghost inside the shed. He also warned the speaker that if he ever went inside the shed, the ghost might chop off his head. Saying so, the speaker’s brother frightened the speaker.

Question: Comment on the speaker’s resolve to go inside the shed.

Answer: From our reading of the poem, it becomes amply clear that the speaker is fully determined to go inside the shed. Even when his brother threatens him, he does not give up the idea of going inside to find for himself the truth. His desire to visit only gets postponed and delayed.

Question: What change occurs in the attitude of the speaker?

Answer: In the first three stanzas the speaker seems to be Scared of the shed. He thinks about the strange voices that come from the shed, somebody mysteriously staring at him, he believed in the ghost stories and so on. However, in the final stanza of the poem, there seems to be a major change in the Speaker’s attitude. He has understood that all these ghost stories were a lie told to him. And, therefore, his resolve to go inside the shed becomes further firm.

Question: Why do you think that the spider web hanging on the door was no longer there?

Answer: The first time when the speaker describes the shed, the speaker talks about a Spider web hanging across the door of the shed. However, the next time when the speaker describes the shed, the speaker shares that it had been a long time since the spider and the Web Were not to be Seen. Perhaps, the door of the shed had been opened by the speaker’s brother, thereby displacing the Spider’s web that covered the door.

Directions – 1 (Q. Nos. 1-6) Read the extract given below and answer the following questions.

There’s a dusty old window around at the side
With three creacked panes of glass,
I often think there’s someone staring at me
Each time that I pass,
I’ll peep through that window one day.

Question: What is the condition of the window described in the poem?

1. It is sparkling with its new glass panes
2. Three panes of it are cracked
3. All panes of it are broken off
4. The children playing cricket have broken the window completely

The Shed Poem – Answer: (b) Three panes of it are cracked.

Question: Why does the poet want to peep through the window as he passes it?

1. To see the ghost
2. To steal something
3. To find out if somebody is staring at him
4. To see his brother and his friends

The Shed Poem – Answer:

• 3. To find out if somebody is staring at him.

Question: What feeling of the poet is exhibited in his peeping through the window?

1. The poet is emotional
2. The poet is careless
3. The poet has a lot of time
4. The poet is curious

Answer:

• 4. The poet is curious.

Question: Does the poet get scared at the thought of peeping through the window?

Answer: No, the poet does not fear at all. It is his own bold decision.

Question: Who according to poet’s brother stares the poet?

Answer: There might be a ghost as has been told by the poet’s brother.

Question: Why is the window dusty?

Answer: Because the shed has not been used for long by anybody. Therefore it has become an abode of dust.

Directions – 2 (Q. Nos. 1-6) Read the extract given below and answer the following questions.

“My brother tells lies to keep the
shed for his den.
There isn’t anyone staring or
making strange noises.
And the spider has been gone from his web
Since I don’t know when.
I’ll go into that shed one day soon,
But not just yet.”

Question: Why does the speaker’s brother lie to him?

1. He wishes to mislead the speaker
2. He wishes to solely use the shed
3. He wishes to sell away the shed
4. He is afraid of the ghost

Answer:

• 2. He wishes to solely use the shed.

Question: “Since I don’t know when” suggests ……

1. passage of time
2. spider has been killed by the ghost
3. the Speaker being a foolish person
4. the brother being a liar

Answer:

• 1. passage of time

Question: Who wishes to go into the shed soon?

1. The speaker
2. The speaker’s brother
3. The ghost
4. The dog

Answer:

• 1. The speaker

Question: Why does the speaker say that “there isn’t anyone staring or making strange noises”?

Answer: He speaker has understood that his brother had been lying to him in order to keep him away from the shed.

Question: Identify the line that has been repeated often in the poem.

Answer: “I’ll go into that shed one day soon.”

Question: What does this passage say about the speaker?

Answer: The passage indicates a mature : understanding that the speaker has attained.