You are going to go through the Summary of FOR A FIVE-YEAR-OLD Chapter 4 Poem Karnataka Board Class 8. Understanding a story meticulously in its entirety is very important for a learner for scoring better in the exam. Experts made every effort to ensure a thorough and proper summary of the story. Let us find the Summary of FOR A FIVE-YEAR-OLD Chapter 4 Poem Karnataka Board Class 8.
Summary
“Practise what you preach” is an old saying. The poet, in this poem, brings out the contradictions in our behaviour. A mother is a speaker in the poem. She narrates an incident and points out the big difference between what we preach and what we practise.
A child sees a snail climbing up the windowsill into his room. It calls its mother to see it. The mother tells the child that it is unsafe for the snail to be left like that.
It might crawl to the floor and might get crushed under one foot. The child understands. It picks up the snail gently, carries it outside carefully and leaves it near a daffodil plant so that it could feed on a daffodil flower.
The mother is happy that still, the belief that gentleness and good character are learnt by words of advice prevails. Children develop such good qualities by listening to what parent and other elders say.
At the same time, she feels guilty. She has advised her child to be kind and compassionate towards the snail, but she had killed mice, wild birds, kittens and so on.
Summary of FOR A FIVE-YEAR-OLD Chapter 4 Poem Karnataka Board Class 8
She had not treated her relatives properly. Also, she had conveyed the harshest kind of truth to many others, without bothering how it would affect them. She had not practised what she wanted her child to learn.
She consoles herself at the end. And, she is practical-minded and knows that is how things are happening around her. People say one thing and do exactly the opposite. It reminds us of another saying “Do as I say, but don’t do as I do”. The mother consoles herself saying that she and her child are kind to snails.
About the Author:
Fleur Adcock was born in New Zealand in 1934. Later on, she migrated to England and became a British citizen. She worked as a librarian in London. Her poems mainly deal with the everyday experiences of a woman as a wife and a mother.
Background
This poem is a satire against the belief that we can mould our children rather by our words than by imitation of what we do.
Theme
Practice what u preach is the main theme if the poem. One should not be deceptive while preaching to others and must follow what they preach to others.
Summary of FOR A FIVE-YEAR-OLD Chapter 4 Poem Karnataka Board Class 8
Line by line analysis
The first stanza has a child-like innocence and curiosity for the snail that meanders in the room.
The mother also begins with a compassionate and nurturing tone but switched to a disenchanted one. The listing style in the middle of the second stanza is almost rushing or skimming over the shady parts of the mother’s life, almost like she’s hiding something or is ashamed. Then, the poem returns to the innocence of the snail which is hypocritical.
Summary of FOR A FIVE-YEAR-OLD Chapter 4 Poem Karnataka Board Class 8
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