Amanda Poem conveys a sensitive and delicate message for parents to understand the freedom loving nature children. Every child feels that she/he is controlled and instructed not to do one thing or another. You (children) too may feel that your freedom is curtailed. To imagine being Amanda to understand the poem, write down some of the things you want to do, but your parents/ elders do not allow you to. To read the poem aloud, form pairs, each reading alternate stanzas. You are in for a surprise!

Amanda Poem Text

Amanda

Don’t bite your nails, Amanda!
Don’t hunch your shoulders, Amanda!
Stop that slouching and sit up straight,
Amanda!
(There is a languid, emerald sea,
where the sole inhabitant is me—
a mermaid, drifting blissfully.)
Did you finish your homework, Amanda?
Did you tidy your room, Amanda?
I thought I told you to clean your shoes,
Amanda!
(I am an orphan, roaming the street.
I pattern soft dust with my hushed, bare feet.
The silence is golden, the freedom is sweet.)
Don’t eat that chocolate, Amanda!
Remember your acne, Amanda!
Will you please look at me when I’m speaking to you,
Amanda!
(I am Rapunzel, I have not a care;
life in a tower is tranquil and rare;
I’ll certainly never let down my bright hair!)
Stop that sulking at once, Amanda!
You’re always so moody, Amanda!
Anyone would think that I nagged at you,
Amanda!

ROBIN KLEIN

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Amanda Poem Stanza – Explanations

Don’t bite your nails, Amanda!
Don’t hunch your shoulders, Amanda!
Stop that slouching and sit up straight,
Amanda!

Meanings: bite – कुतरना या चबाना, to use teeth to cut into or through something; hunch – आगे को झुकाना, lower down, raise one’s soldiers and bend the top of one’s body forward; slouching – आराम से नीचे आगे की तरफ सर ओर कंधे झुकाते हुए, to move or sit in a lazy way bending head and shoulders forward; straight – सीधे ओर तन के, erect and upright;

The speaker (Amanda’s mother) is instructing her to stop biting her nails. The speaker instructs Amanda not to bite her nails or hunch her shoulders. She is also asked to stop ‘slouching’, that is, drooping her shoulders, and to sit up straight.

अमांडा की मां अमांडा से कहती है टोकते हुए – अमांडा अपने नाखूनों को मत चबाओ । अपने कंधों को कूबड़ बनाए हुए झुकाओ मत अमांडा । इतने ढील-ढाल तरीके से आगे की तरफ आराम से झुको मत ओर सीधे तन कर बैठो ।

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(There is a languid, emerald sea,
where the sole inhabitant is me—
a mermaid, drifting blissfully.)

Meanings: languid – relaxed; emerald – like the bright green colour of the precious stone emerald; sole – alone and only; inhabitant – resident; mermaid – a mythical sea creature with the head and trunk of a beautiful woman and tail like a fish; drifting – floating lazily in a relaxed manner; blissfully – happily and joyfully.

Amanda’s mother is shown instructing in the first stanza but in this stanza, Amanda is shown sailing in an imaginary fancy world of her own. She fancies herself as a mermaid. She also imagines that she is sole habitant i.e. the only person there of the emerald i.e. the pleasant green sea. There in the sea she is drifting i.e. floating and sailing through water happily with blissful enjoyment.

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Did you finish your homework, Amanda?
Did you tidy your room, Amanda?
I thought I told you to clean your shoes,
Amanda!

Meanings: tidy – clean.

While Amanda is lost in her dream, her mother asks whether she has finished her homework and tidied her room. She reminds Amanda that she had asked her to clean her shoes which simply means asking if she had obeyed her not in doing these many works.

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(I am an orphan, roaming the street.
I pattern soft dust with my hushed, bare feet.
The silence is golden, the freedom is sweet.)

Meanings: orphan – a child whose parents are dead; roaming – moving about aimlessly; pattern soft dust – make patterns in the dust; hushed – not making any sound; bare feet – without shoes or chappals; silence is golden – silence is very valuable and precious; freedom sweet – freedom enjoyable.

Amanda is in another dream now – she imagines her as orphan roaming about streets and making or drawing patterns on the soft dust with her bare feet.

She is specific with the words ‘silence’ and ‘freedom’. She cherishes the ‘silence’ as valuable as gold and ‘freedom’ as tasty and sweet. Also, as an orphan there is no mentoring and instructing voices in her life to create any control or uproar. Silence and freedom accompany her life as a street orphan. Probably she wants her mother to stop talking to bring silence around.

Don’t eat that chocolate, Amanda!
Remember your acne, Amanda!
Will you please look at me when I’m speaking to you,
Amanda!

Meanings: acne – pimples on skin of the face.

Amanda’s mother is shown is as usual preachy. She wants Amanda to stop eating chocolates because she has acne on her face. The mother wants Amanda to come out of this daydream as well. The mother wants Amanda to come out of this daydream as well and wants Amanda to pay attention and look at her mother when she is speaking to her. But Amanda doesn’t seem to listen to her.

(I am Rapunzel, I have not a care;
life in a tower is tranquil and rare;
I’ll certainly never let down my bright hair!)

Meanings: Rapunzel – a character in a fairy tale with beautiful hair. She is imprisoned in a tower since her childhood by an enchantress. In the tale she lets down her hair for the enchantress to climb up.; tranquil – peaceful; rare – not done, seen, happening etc. very often.

Amanda is now imagining herself as Rapunzel. Rapunzel was a fairy-tale princess who was taken away by an enchantress who kept her in a high tower away from the world. She lives there in a peaceful and without any care. It was so because she was unaware of the struggles. woes and entangles of the world. Amanda wants to live like her in a peaceful atmosphere.

In the fairy tale Rapunzel helps a prince to climb up to her by letting down her long hair. He tries to save her. He is punished with blindness but Rapunzel brings back her eye sight.

Amanda imagines being Rapunzel but She intends never to ‘let down’ her hair or leave the tower with the price from the outside world. It is so because she can live a ‘tranquil’ or peaceful life there. Amanda seems to be fed up of the naggings at home demanding corrections in her behaviour.

Stop that sulking at once, Amanda!
You’re always so moody, Amanda!
Anyone would think that I nagged at you,
Amanda!

Meanings: sulking – showing deep unhappiness; nag – irritate someone by complaining, constantly finding faults or asking to do something.

Amanda’s mother now realises and criticises that Amanda is unhappy at her instructions. She asks her not to show this look as being sulky and moody i.e. upset. She realises herself and ironically confesses the same that Amanda’s behaviour may give others the wrong impression that she is being nagged.

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