Amanda Solutions Class 10 English: Amanda poem is about a girl who daydreams amid her mentor or mother constantly nagging her. Amanda poem solutions are comprehensive and would help understand the poem very well. You are advised to check other Amanda poem related study materials on this website.

Amanda NCERT Solutions CBSE Class 10

Thinking about the Poem (Page 62)

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

Ans: Amanda seems to a teenager school going girl. This is clear because she is asked to do her homework. That she is a teenager is also clear from the fact that she has acne on her face. It is generally during teenage that one suffers from this skin disease.

It is during teenage that a boy or girl does not like nagging and Amanda also doesn’t like it and even her mother confesses that others would get impression that she is nagging Amanda.

Moreover, she is shown fantasising in the world of dreams of her own. At this age’ young girls love reading fairy tales and go daydreaming that way as Amanda does by considering herself Rapunzel.

2. Who do you think is speaking to her?

Ans: Most probably it is her mother. In a patriarchal society it is mother who is held responsible for fostering child into good conduct and that too becomes more specific when the child is a girl child. Girls are mostly nagged by mothers than their fathers. Mothers remain at home while fathers are not there to monitor these minute chores and routines as Amanda is put to by the speaker. So, the speaker is her mother.

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

Ans: Stanzas 2, 4 and 6 are given in parenthesis these stanzas represent Amanda and her world of dreams. She imagines herself as mermaid in stanza 2, an orphan in stanza 4 and Rapunzel in stanza 6.

The stanzas mentioned also may be considered as reactions of Amanda to her mother’s nagging attitude.

Here, there is an alternate sequence of scolding of the mother in odd number stanzas 1, 3 and 5, and 7 and corresponding reaction in the form of daydreaming to it given by the child in the stanzas 2, 4 and 6.

Also, parenthesis is used here to make the reading of the poem strikingly meaningful with contrast as they represent a contrast between Amanda and the realties in the form of her mother.

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?

Ans:  Speaker of the stanzas 2, 4 and 6 is the child Amanda. No. she doesn’t seem to be properly listening to the speaker and instead she loses herself to fancy world to seek respite from nagging. These stanzas contain what she imagines herself to be. She is not listening to the speaker in stanzas 1, 3, 5, and 7.

This is clear from the line: ‘‘Will you please look at me when I’m speaking to you, Amanda!’’

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

Ans: First of all, it will be blissfully enjoying for Amanda. As a mermaid so she could freely and blissfully move along on a languid (relaxed) emerald sea. Since she would the only inhabitant there so, no nagging elements would be there to curtail her freedom.

She desires to be a mermaid because for a child, mermaid is a symbol of freedom and wonder. Also, she wants to be away from naggings of routine life in a normal world of children living wither parents who object to their freedom and try to control their every habit and actions.

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

Ans: No, Amanda is not an orphan, though she wishes to be one. She is so much stresses with the continuous nagging of her parents that she imagines herself to be better without them. The mere presence of her parents around her depresses her. Amanda is a little girl who seeks ‘golden’ silence and ‘sweet’ freedom. She wishes to roam around streets and draw patterns with her bare feet. Indeed, it is horribly depressing that Amanda expects being an orphan.

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

Ans: Rapunzel’s story revolves around her life on a tower. Rapunzel was made to live on a high tower by a witch. She eventually got used to living there. She was happy and satisfied with her life. Rapunzel had very long golden hair, using which the witch used to pay her a visit. The fate of Rapunzel took a turn when one day a prince came to meet her using her hair. The witch had punished both of them by separating them. Finally, they met after a couple of years only to be united forever this time.

Amanda wishes to live like Rapunzel on a high tower away from everyone. She seeks peace and harmony. That is the reason Amanda wishes to be like Rapunzel. However, she also makes a point that in order to avoid being disturbed she would never let her hair down for anyone to climb to her. She needs no one to make her life happy.

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

Ans: A girl like Amanda yearns for freedom and space for herself. She is incapable to fulfil the expectations of her parents. Amanda is no less than a symbol for all the children who face similar fate irrespective of class, colour or nationality. Traditional societies demand a certain type of behaviour from the individuals and the training to produce such begins at a very young age. Parents ignore the innocence and understanding level of their children and thereby the Youngs end up killing their imagination and thoughts.

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

Ans: It doesn’t seem so.

Amanda wants freedom which every one of her age yearns for. But her mother thinks that she is sulking and moody. In fact, she is neither sulking nor moody.

She only wants to be left alone. She does not like being nagged at by her mother. Even her mother is conscious that she is nagging at Amanda. This is clear from what she herself says, ‘‘Anyone would think that I nagged at you.’’