Amanda! (Poem) Question Answer – Class 10 English

Before You Read

Write down some of the things you want to do, but your parents/elders do not allow you to.

Some things I would like to do but am not allowed to are:

• Watch television or play games on the mobile phone for as long as I like.
• Stay up late at night on holidays.
• Go out to the market or a fair with my friends on my own.
• Eat chocolates, ice cream and fast food whenever I want.
• Ride my bicycle on the main road.
• Play outside in the rain.

Thinking about the Poem

1. How old do you think Amanda is? How do you know this?

Amanda is probably about eleven to thirteen years old, a girl on the edge of her teens. She is old enough to have homework, tidy her own room and clean her own shoes, yet young enough to be scolded for biting her nails and slouching. The line "Remember your acne, Amanda!" shows that she has reached adolescence, when acne usually appears.

2. Who do you think is speaking to her?

The speaker is most likely Amanda's mother, though it could be another elder who looks after her, such as her father or a guardian. Only someone who lives with Amanda and is responsible for her would check her homework, her room, her shoes and her eating habits, and correct her posture so constantly.

3. Why are Stanzas 2, 4 and 6 given in parenthesis?

Stanzas 2, 4 and 6 are in parenthesis (brackets) because they are not spoken aloud. They are Amanda's private thoughts and daydreams, which go on in her mind while the adult is nagging her. The brackets separate this imaginary world of freedom from the real world of scolding in Stanzas 1, 3, 5 and 7. They also have a different, musical rhyme (sea/me/blissfully, street/feet/sweet, care/rare/hair).

4. Who is the speaker in Stanzas 2, 4 and 6? Do you think this speaker is listening to the speaker in Stanzas 1, 3, 5, and 7?

Amanda herself is the speaker in Stanzas 2, 4 and 6. No, she is not listening to the adult in Stanzas 1, 3, 5 and 7. While the elder keeps giving instructions, Amanda has drifted away into a world of her own, imagining herself as a mermaid, an orphan and Rapunzel. That is why the adult finally complains, "Will you please look at me when I'm speaking to you, Amanda!"

5. What could Amanda do if she were a mermaid?

If she were a mermaid, Amanda could drift "blissfully" in a "languid, emerald sea" where she would be "the sole inhabitant". She would be completely alone and relaxed, free from anyone telling her what to do. The mermaid image stands for her wish for peace, freedom and escape from constant instructions.

6. Is Amanda an orphan? Why does she say so?

No, Amanda is not an orphan; she has a parent who looks after her and keeps instructing her. She imagines being an orphan only because an orphan has no one to nag her. She pictures herself roaming the street, patterning the soft dust with her "hushed, bare feet", and says, "The silence is golden, the freedom is sweet." She longs for that silence and freedom.

7. Do you know the story of Rapunzel? Why does she want to be Rapunzel?

Yes. Rapunzel is a fairy-tale girl with very long golden hair who was locked in a lonely tower by a witch. The witch, and later a prince, climbed up to her by using her long hair as a rope when she let it down.

Amanda wants to be Rapunzel because life in a tower seems "tranquil and rare" to her, far away from people. Unlike the real Rapunzel, she says she will "never let down" her bright hair, so that no one can climb up and disturb her. She wants to be left alone in peace.

8. What does the girl yearn for? What does this poem tell you about Amanda?

Amanda yearns for freedom, peace and solitude, a life in which no one controls her or keeps telling her what to do and what not to do.

The poem shows that Amanda is a sensitive and imaginative girl. She feels hurt and suffocated by the endless nagging of her elder. Instead of arguing back, she quietly escapes into a dream world of the sea, the street and the tower. She is not really disobedient; she simply wants to be treated with understanding and given some space of her own.

9. Read the last stanza. Do you think Amanda is sulking and is moody?

Amanda may appear to be sulking and moody, but she is not really so by nature. Her silence and withdrawal are a reaction to the constant nagging she faces. The adult says, "Anyone would think that I nagged at you", without realising that she has done nothing else throughout the poem. This is the irony of the last stanza. Amanda's "moodiness" is really her way of escaping from too many restrictions; it is the elder's behaviour, not Amanda's nature, that makes her unhappy.