AMANDA by ROBIN KLEIN

How old do you think Amanda is? How do you know this?
Ans: Amanda must be around 9−10 years old. She is a school going girl. The
things that her mother scolds her for, are all typical instructions given to a 9 or
10 year old girl.

Who do you think is speaking to her?

Ans: Her mother is speaking to her.

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

Ans: Stanzas 2, 4 and 6 are given in parenthesis because they are the thoughts
of the child in between the instructions that she is being given by her mother,
which are given in stanzas 1, 3 and 5. The scolding by the mother and the
child’s thoughts are placed in alternate stanzas by the poet.

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: In stanzas 2, 4 and 6, the speaker is the child, Amanda. No, she is not
listening to her mother who is the speaker in stanzas 1, 3, 5 and 7. She is lost
in her own thoughts and doesn't listen to what is being said to her. In fact, in
stanza 5, the mother asks Amanda to look at her when she was speaking with
her.

What could Amanda do if she were a mermaid?

Ans: If Amanda were a mermaid, then she would drift slowly on a languid
emerald sea. She would be the sole inhabitant of the relaxed green sea and
would move slowly on it.

Is Amanda an orphan? Why does she say so?

Ans: No, Amanda is not an orphan. She says so because she wants to be alone
and enjoy being herself. She is so fed up of being nagged that she feels she
would be better off as an orphan. She wants to roam around in the streets
alone and make patterns/designs on dust with her bare feet. She finds silence
‘golden’ and freedom ‘sweet’. It is for this reason that she calls herself an
orphan.

Do you know the story of Rapunzel? Why does she want to be Rapunzel?
Ans: Amanda wants to be Rapunzel because she wants to live alone. Rapunzel
lived alone in a tall tower and had long, beautiful golden hair. She was held
captive by a witch, who came up the tower by climbing her long hair. The girl
also wants to live alone in a tower as she would not have to care about
anything. Her life in a tower would be tranquil, peaceful and rare. However,
she also decided that she would never throw down her hair for anyone to come
up as she always wanted to live alone, all by herself.
What does the girl yearn for? What does this poem tell you about
Amanda?
Ans: The girl yearns for a life of freedom. The poem tells us that she is an
imaginative girl who is constantly nagged by her unimaginative mother.

Read the last stanza. Do you think Amanda is sulking and is moody?
Ans: No, Amanda is neither sulking, nor is she moody. She simply longs for
her freedom. She wants to go out and play wherever she likes.

REFERENCE TO CONTEXT

I)There is a languid, emerald sea,

where the sole inhabitant is me—
a mermaid, drifting blissfully.

Questions:
(a) Where does Amanda imagine herself to be?
(b) What is the sea compared with?
(c) What does she want to do at the island?
(d) What is a mermaid?
(e)Why are these lines put in brackets?

Answers:
(a) Amanda imagines herself on a lonely island surrounded by the sea.
(b) The sea is very calm and the water is greenish like an emerald.
(c) She wants to be on the waves of a calm sea drifting all alone blissfully like a
mermaid.
(d) A mermaid is a mythical character which has its upper part like a girl and the
lower part like a fish.
(e) These lines are about the thoughts and dreams of Amanda which are not openly
expressed by her. They are to be distinguished from the words of the other speaker.
That is why they are put within brackets.

II) (I am an orphan, roaming the street.

I pattern soft dust with my hushed, bare feet.
The silence is golden, the freedom is sweet.)

Questions:
(a) Who is the speaker of these lines?
(b) What does she imagine herself to be and why?
(c) What does she want to do?
(d) How are silence and freedom valued here?
Answers:
(a) Amanda is the speaker of these lines.
(b) She imagines herself to be an orphan. Her mother’s persistent nagging irritates her
and feels that life would be enjoyable if she were an orphan with no parent to curb her
freedom.
(c) She wants to roam about bare-footed in the streets freely. There would be no one
shouting at her and she would enjoy absolute freedom.
(d) The speaker Amanda feels fed up with the noisy, dominating commands of her
mother and feels stifled and suffocated. Therefore she craves for calmness and liberty
and regards silence to be ‘golden’ and ‘freedom’ to be sweet.

III) (I am Rapunzel, I have not care;

life in a tower is tranquil and rare;
I’ll certainly never let down my bright hair!)

Questions:

(a) Who imagines herself as Rapunzel?

(b) Why does ‘I’ wish to be Rapunzel? How would it help her?
(c) What decision does she take about her hair?
(d)Which poetic device has been used in the stanza? Explain.

Answers:
(a) Amanda, a young school going girl imagines herself to be Rapunzel, a golden
haired girl in a German Fairy tale.
(b) Amanda wishes to be Rapunzel who was locked up by a witch in a tower with a
single window. Her isolation in the tower would relieve her of the constant nagging by
her mother.
(c) It was Rapunzel’s bright hair which helped the Prince climb up into the tower
through its window to rescue the miserable girl from the clutches of the witch.
Amanda would never like to leave her life of peace and solitude. So she would never
let her hair down.
(d)The poetic device used in the given stanza is ‘Allusion’ as the poet alludes to
Rapunzel, a golden haired girl in a German fairy tale.

LONG ANSWER QUESTION

Why does Amanda escape into the dreamy world of mermaids, fairies and
orphans? Does she find any solace there?

Ans. Amanda is a teenager. Like all teenagers, she loves freedom. She wants to lead
her own kind of life. She doesn’t want to be an overprotected child. Nor does she want
that her parents should control and guide her activities. What she should do and what
not is her own choice. She should not be dictated by her mother. Mother’s constant
nagging leads her away from her. She creates a world of her own. Her world is not the
world of harsh realities but it is an imaginary world of fairies and mermaids. There she
finds solace as she can wander in a lonely island blissfully like a mermaid. She can
enjoy freedom by roaming around the streets like an orphan. She craves to live in a
lonely tower leading a peaceful life like Rapunzel. She avoids her mother as she
doesn’t like her constant nagging. She even doesn’t look at her while she is speaking
to her.

THEME

The poem deals with child psychology as well as the lack of insight on the part of
elders to understand children’s thought process. The poem seems to suggest that the
more children are suppressed, the more defiant they become. Such children start
finding reality to be harsh and find escape in day-dreaming or imagination, so much
so that they start wishing for a life without parents around them to curtail their liberty.
The poem also indirectly emphasizes the need for children to listen to the advice the
parents to have healthy and friendly relations with children which may be more
effective in grooming them properly.

However, the poem also indirectly emphasizes the need for children to listen to the
advice of their elders and not to escape reality. Children can learn to do so if they are
treated with affection and given some liberty, for suppression results in defiance.

TITLE

The poem centres around Amanda. Therefore, the poet has rightly titled this poem
after the chief character. The title is followed by a mark of exclamation which
indicates that Amanda is being addressed and commanded. The punctuation mark
reveals the authoritative, dominating, unsympathetic tone adopted by the mother in
addressing her daughter.

MESSAGE

The poem conveys the message that children need to be allowed more liberty.
Excessive nagging makes them defiant and they turn a deaf ear to the instructions of
the elders. They develop a kind of dislike for real life and start escaping into the world
of dreams and imagination. In fact, the poem indirectly emphasizes the need of a
healthy bond between parents and children. Parents should understand the psychology
of children, who in turn, should be respectful and responsible to their parents.

STYLE OF THE POEM

The poem has a conversational style where only one speaker, that is the mother, voices
her views. The thoughts of the child which are put in parenthesis are not uttered. The
chils seems to be listening in silence but in reality her imagination, which is fast at
work, transports her from her home, to sea, to the roadside, to an old castle and thus
she wishes to escape the perpetual nagging by her mother.
In the five stanzas uttered by the mother, Amanda’s name appears twelve times. Each
of these stanzas gives jolts and jerks to the child, hence the stanzas spoken by the
mother are written in free verse but the poet has used rhyme scheme (aaa) for the
thoughts of the child, who imagines a blissful life full of joy and liberty.

POETIC DEVICES

ALLITERATION

EXAMPLES

 Stop that slouching and sit up straight

 Stop that sulking at once, Amanda!

Here ‘s’ sound has been used repeatedly.

METAPHOR

The poet uses metaphor in stanzas 2, 4 and 6 as he compares Amanda to a mermaid,

an orphan and Rapunzel respectively. Amanda imagines herself to be gliding over the
sea like a mermaid. Then she dreams that she is an orphan roaming about freely
without any restraints and finally she imagines that she is Rapunzel living a solitary
life in a tower. Furthermore, ‘emrald sea’, ‘silence is golden’ and ‘freedom is sweet’
are also examples of metaphor.

ANAPHORA

Anaphora is a poetic device in which a word or a group of words is used repeatedly at

the beginning of sentences to emphasize something.

EXAMPLES

 Don’t bite your nails, Amanda!

 Don’t hunch your shoulders, Amanda!

Each sentence in this example starts with ‘Don’t’ which stresses the authoritative
tone of the mother.

 Did you finish your homework, Amanda?

 Did you tidy your room, Amanda?

Here, each line begins with ‘Did you’ and emphasizes the harsh treatment of Amanda
at the hands of her mother.

ALLUSION
It is a figure of speech in which a passing but a significant reference is made to a well-
known person, place, thing or idea of a historical, mythological, cultural, literary or
political significance. There are two allusions in the poem.

EXAMPLES

 A mermaid drifting blissfully

Here a reference is made to a mermaid who in folklore is presented as an acquatic

creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish.

 I am Rapunzel

Here the poet alludes to Rapunzel, a golden-haired young girl in a German fairy-tale.
Rapunzel was imprisoned in a tower by a witch. She let her long hair down through
the window of the tower. Her prince climbed up the hair, entered the tower and
rescued her.

REPETITION

In the poem the name of ‘Amanda’ has been repeatedly used to emphasize the
commanding manner in which the mother addresses the young girl.

ASSONANCE

It is the repetition of the same vowel sound in the words that are close together in a
line. They can be in the middle or in the last of the word.

 I thought I told you to clean your shoes (Para 3) Repetition of the vowel ‘o’.
 Will you please look at me when I’m speaking to you. (Para 5) Repetition of the
vowel ‘o’

CONSONANCE

It is the repetition of the same consonant sound in the words that are close together in
a line. They can either be in the middle or in the last of the word.

 I’ll certainly never let down my bright hair (Para 6) Repetition of the
consonant ‘r’.

Note: In Alliteration, we consider the words beginning with the same consonant
sound but in Consonance, the consonant can either be in the middle or at the end
of the word.