question_answer 1)

(i) Why does the poet want to know where the teachers go at four o’clock? (ii) What are the things normal people do that the poet talks about? (iii) What does he imagine about (a) where teachers live? (b) what they do at home? (c) the people with whom they live? (d) their activities when they were children in school? (iv) Why does the poet wonder if teachers also do things that other people do? v) How does the poet plan to find out? What will he do once he finds out?  

Answer:

(i) The poet wants to know where the teachers go at four o’clock because that was the time when the school got over. He watches the teachers till the time they are in school. However, he wonders where they go after school. (ii) The poet talks about things that normal people do such as washing socks, wearing pyjamas, watching TV, picking their noses, living with their parents, not spelling right, being bad, making mistakes, getting punished, losing books, scribbling on desk tops, wearing old dirty jeans, etc. (iii) (a) He wonders whether the teachers also lived in houses. (b) He imagines if the teachers also washed their socks, wore pyjamas, picked their noses, and watched TV. (c) He imagines if they lived with other people and if they also had mothers and fathers. (d) When the teachers were children themselves, he imagined if they were also bad, made mistakes, never spelled right, and were punished in the corner for pinching the chocolate flakes. He wondered if they ever lost their hymn books, scribbled on the desk tops, or wore old dirty jeans. (iv) The poet wonders if teachers also did the same things as others because he had always seen them as teachers. They were strict, well-behaved, and clean. They knew everything, did not make mistakes, and scolded the students when they made mistakes. For the poet, the teachers were perfect. That is why he wonders if the teachers were also like others because he had a certain perfect image of the teachers and it was hard for him to imagine his teachers doing the same things as others. (v) The poet plans to follow one of the teachers on the way back home that day to find out what they did. Once he succeeds in doing do, he would compose it into a poem, which then those teachers would read to their students.