Poem-3

A Thing of Beauty
(Flamingo)
A Thing of Beauty is a poem by John Keats about the essence and power of beauty in our lives. The
Class 12 CBSE Flamingo textbook contains a small excerpt from his poem ‘Endymion; A Poetic
Romance’. A Thing of Beauty Summary under CBSE Summary has been given here for better
comprehension of the poem and possible future analysis for poetic appreciation. A beautiful young
shepherd named Endymion resolves to seek out Goddess Cynthia. He goes through several places like
the forest and the sea for that. The short excerpt from this poem reflects how beauty can motivate
us in various ways. It talks about beauty being a part of the system around us. We can find beauty in
nature or man-made concepts/ideas like art or poetry.
A Thing of Beauty is about appreciating anything and everything around us. Anything that looks
beautiful is a source of joy for us. A beautiful thing becomes more attractive as we keep enjoying it.
The more we look closely at its beauty, the more we discover its stunning features. We never forget
a thing of beauty as its memory is etched into our minds due to the joy and loveliness received from
it. The after-effect of a beautiful thing is that it will always prove to be a source of happiness and
peace, just like a shade under a tree or a sleep full of sweet dreams. Our lives, as a consequence, will
be full of good health and peace.

Humans are connected to nature in a very close way. We participate in various earthly activities to
keep ourselves attached to mother nature. Bonding with nature around us has been compared to
wreathing flowery bands. There are many negative things in our lives, like dealing with hopelessness,
encountering people who are not kind or compassionate by nature and facing various immoral and
inhuman activities that lessen our belief in humanity. Despite acknowledging the presence of these
things, a beautiful thing never fails to uplift our moods. It makes us forget our worries and troubles
away.

We can find beauty anywhere if we want to see it. We can find it in ordinary things around us like
the sun, the moon, trees or something as simple as a shade for sheep. The poet gives more examples
to show the richness of beauty around us, like flowers, rills and the mid-forest brake. He also points
out that we can find beauty in places where we generally do not look, like the reasons and
circumstances behind the deaths of mighty heroes and warriors. Beauty exists in intangible things
like the stories that we read or hear.

The poet urges us to see the immense reserve of beauty around us. He calls it an ‘endless fountain of
immortal drink’: ‘endless’ because sources of beauty are limitless and ‘immortal’ to denote the effect
of beauty on our minds. The memory of a beautiful experience is forever. It never dies. We are
blessed to experience beauty in all forms around us. A direct reference to ‘heaven’ has been made to
show that God has provided us with many sources of beauty.
Conclusion of A Thing of Beauty
As discussed earlier, this is a poem about the role of beauty in our lives and how it can refresh our
perspective towards thinking. Life has negative and positive aspects, but we can achieve the best by
finding beauty in everything around us. The types of things we can find beauty in can range from
physical items to intangible things like feelings or ideas.
 Poem-4
A Roadside Stand
(Flamingo)
A Roadside Stand is a poem written by American poet Robert Frost to portray the miserable living
conditions of marginalised economic classes in the countryside. He puts the owners of road stalls in
the spotlight to talk about their plight. They set up their small-scale businesses near the roads to
sell their small produce of vegetables and fruits. The city people who pass by the roads in luxury cars
do not want to spend their money on the road vendors’ frugal products. The poor roadside stall sellers
desperately want to get a taste of some city money. But the ones who stop, only ask for directions
or some gas for their vehicles.The poet looks at this behaviour with disgust. A Roadside Stand poem
summary is a critical commentary on the social, economic and political conditions imposed upon the
country’s people that makes them stuck in the vicious circle of poverty.
The first line of the poem indicates efforts taken up by a roadside stall owner to renovate his stall.
The poet refers to it as a house to indicate its importance in the life of its owner. While the look of
the stall resembles that of a small house, it is also the sole means of earning for its owner. The stall
owner looks desperately for some earnings – some cash, not for some lowly donation of food that
would barely satisfy one meal. The poet says that the city money is mostly used for the growth and
development of cities, which in turn, helps the city people become richer. The traffic that passes in
front of the stall on the road is ‘polished’ – expensive vehicles that are owned by people from the
city. It is sad to see that they never bother to spare some money for the poor people in the
countryside.
Interestingly, the traffic does stop for a moment, but that is to frown upon the meaningless art and
haphazard graffiti drawn on the walls; to gaze upon the wild berries put up for sale in wooden quarts,
to watch the golden-coloured squash with silver warts on them; or just to admire the scenic beauty
of the place they have stopped by at momentarily. The poet talks in a tone that is sympathetic to the
miseries and cries of the poor road stallers or other road vendors. He curtly asks the traffic to
simply move along if they do not want to spend their money.

The poet points out that what is most hurting about this experience is the despondency related to
the lives of these poor people. They set up their stalls outside the city to earn some money – money
that might help them better their lives. They want to achieve that particular status of a comfortable
life that was promised to them by the movies. But, they are restricted from achieving their goals by
the politicians who rule the place.

The poet gives us a picture of how poor people are ill-treated by politicians. It is shown in the news
that these poor people will be brought out of their misery and relocated to good villages with the
assurance of economic development. They would be placed near theatres and stores where they would
live comfortable lives. But, none of this happens, as ironically, the politicians who promised them all
these things actually thrive on exploiting the poor rather than granting them the chance of a good
life, as promised. Instead, the politicians create comfort and luxury for themselves and laze around
doing nothing but sleeping during the day and staying awake at night – going completely against the
natural way of living. The poet is completely disgusted by the actions of these politicians, as can be
seen in the use of words like ‘greedy good-doers’ and ‘beneficent beasts of prey’ in the ways he
describes them.
The poet is deeply saddened by the innocent longings of the road vendors for some luck at earning
money. The long wait of the poor vendors for the sound of an approaching customer – a squeal of
brakes or the sound of a stopping car seem like a vain wish to the poet. Out of the thousand cars
that pass by, one might stop beside a stall to make a turn or to ask for directions. Sometimes cars
stop to ask if they could buy some gas. The poet interprets this action as an example of harsh
ignorance and lack of sympathy toward the road vendors. How could these people in cars possibly buy
gas from someone who has nothing?

The much-needed forms of development and fulfilment of aspirations have never been found in the
country. The poor people who stay here live with a constant lack of resources and necessities. They
are unable to reach the levels of comfort and sophistication of people in the cities. The poet draws
a sharp line of contrast between the people from the country and the people from the cities. The
poor simply are not able to turn their fate around.

The poet ponders if putting an end to the poor people’s lives would really take them out of their
misery. He considers the concept of mercy-killing desperately as a viable solution to this eternal
problem of poverty and pain. After an enraged moment of intense pain and agony for these people
from the country, the poet returns to a sane state. He wonders how he would feel if someone offered
to kill him to put him out of his misery.

Conclusion of A Roadside Stand

A Roadside Stand poem summary shows how a mindset for relentless development and higher
standards of living in cities impacts the poor people living in the country. The poor become victims of
the economic and political systems endorsed by the city administration. We can study this through
the poet’s strong sympathetic stand towards the country people and his offensive rebukes directed
towards the city people who pass by the road.
 Poem-5
Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers
(Flamingo)
‘Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers’ is a poem by American poet Adrienne Rich. It talks about the burden faced
by women in marital life, which she depicts through the character Aunt Jennifer, who is a housewife.
Summary of Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers given in BYJU’S CBSE Summary will give the readers an insight
into the kind of subjugation and compromise married women are subjected to – particularly in the
twentieth century, the era in which the poet wrote this poem. Aunt Jennifer has no one to share her
pain with. She tries to express it creatively – through a portrait of tigers she has made. The tigers
are in complete contrast to her personality and prance around fearlessly around the men under trees.
It shows a deeply ingrained desire of hers to live fearlessly and freely like those tigers.

The poet starts the poem by depicting the central character Aunt Jennifer. She is a married woman
doing embroidery for a wall hanging or some decorative piece of cloth which has tigers in it. The
tigers are prancing in this portrait. They are set against a forest as a background, and they look like
topaz stones — tigers of yellowish-brown colour set against the green of the forest. They are in
contrast to Aunt Jennifer’s character, who has suffered a lot under the dominance of her husband.
The tigers are fearless and are not scared of the men standing under the trees of the forest. This
is a representation of Aunt Jennifer’s deepest desire – to be fearless and free. The men in the forest
represent the kinds of restrictions imposed upon her by her husband.

Aunt Jennifer misses the youthful and carefree attitude she had before marriage that would make
her gracious and confident. It is depicted by how the poet uses the words ‘sleek, chivalric certainty’
for the tigers’ movement.

Living continuously under fear and torture has made Aunt Jennifer weak and jittery. She is not even
able to execute her daily activities with calmness and composure. The poet uses the imagery of
‘fluttering fingers’ to show her fear — she is not even able to handle the wool she is knitting. She
finds it difficult to pull the ivory needle during her embroidery work. Aunt Jennifer is shaken to her
core by the long exposure to being told what to do and what not to do. The experience of the marriage
is so brutal that everything related to it seems a burden that seems to remind her of the bondage.
As a result, she finds her wedding ring too heavy to carry. It is symbolic of the cumulative effect of
suffering and emotional toil she has gone through in the past years.

This bondage that Aunt Jennifer is suffering is not easy to escape from. She might be free from it
only when she dies. But the poet says that death might not bring an end to this situation of hers as,
even in her death, she will have the ring on her hand to remind her of all the difficulties and
unpleasant things she had to deal with throughout her married life. The poet is invoking Aunt
Jennifer’s experiences as a married woman, which were negative in nature. In spite of all this, she
had desires that were subdued – the desire to live without restrictions or bondage. The portrait of
tigers that she has created represents this desire – an alternative side of her personality.

Conclusion of Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers

The summary of Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers shows how it is to live under dominance as a married woman
– under constant fear and restrictions. The poem ends with the mention of her wedding ring, which
shows her connection to her husband. The poet mentions that she has no way of freeing herself from
this suffocating bondage in this lifetime — not even after her death, as she will still be wearing the
ring. Instead of dying peacefully, she would be dying with the weight of difficulties she had to endure
as a married woman.