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NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 1 –20A Concrete Example (poem by Reginald Arkell) — Let us discuss

Book page 19 Updated on2026-09-05

Q1.
I. Complete the following summary with exact words from the poem. One example has been done for you. The poem describes Mrs. Jones, the speaker’s next-door neighbour, who has a unique garden filled with 1. _________. Her garden includes a peculiar 2. _________, a pond, and a rockery, along with an unusual 3. _________ that she finds charming. Mrs. Jones plants tiny, 4. _________ plants between the stones, which the speaker thinks must be so small that they are planted with a 5. _________. One day, Mrs. Jones invites the speaker to see her garden, and they discuss a 6. _________ that Mrs. Jones treasures. When the speaker asks where the 7. _________ flower is, Mrs. Jones says that the speaker has been 8. _________ on it all along.
Answer
BlankWordLine in the poem
1stones“has got a garden full of stones”
2path“A crazy path, a lily pond,”
3sundial“A sundial with a strange device,”
4delicate“They are so delicate and small,”
5pin“unless she plants them with a pin.”
6flower“We stood and talked about a flower”
7lovely“Where is this lovely thing?” I cried.
8standing“You’re standing on it,” she replied.
Tip: The instruction says exact words from the poem. For blank 2, the summary already supplies “peculiar”, which is the summary-writer’s word for the poem’s “crazy” — so the word you must copy is simply path, not “crazy path”. Watch for words the summary has already replaced.
Q2.
II. Select the correct option to fill in the blanks for the following sentences. 1. The tone of the poem is ____________. (i) mocking (ii) humorous (iii) mournful (iv) amusing (v) light-hearted A. (i), (ii), and (iii) B. (i), (ii), and (v) C. (ii), (iii), and (iv) D. (ii), (iv), and (v)
Answer

D. (ii), (iv), and (v) — humorous, amusing and light-hearted.

Why the two rejected words matter:
  • Mournful is plainly wrong — nothing in the poem is sad. Any option containing (iii) can be struck out at once, which removes A and C.
  • Mocking is the harder one, and it is what separates B from D. To mock is to laugh at someone with contempt. The speaker teases Mrs. Jones, but he never sneers — and the last line turns the joke onto himself, not her. A mocking poem would have ended with her looking foolish; this one ends with the speaker standing on a flower.
Q3.
2. The speaker in the poem is ____________. (i) Mrs. Jones (ii) the poet (iii) a gardener (iv) a child
Answer

(ii) the poet

The poem is in the first person — “I can’t think how she gets them in”, “‘Where is this lovely thing?’ I cried” — and the speaker calls Mrs. Jones “My next-door neighbour”. So the voice belongs to the adult neighbour who lives beside her, that is, the poet himself.

Why not the other three: Mrs. Jones is spoken about, not speaking. A gardener would not need to ask where the flower was — and would certainly not have stepped on it. And nothing marks the voice as a child’s; the tone is dry and adult, and the visit is a neighbourly one.
Q4.
3. The rhyme scheme of the poem is _________. (i) AABBCC (ii) ABABCC (iii) AABCAC (iv) ABBACC
Answer

(i) AABBCC

LineStanza 1Rhyme
1My next-door neighbour, Mrs. Jones,A
2has got a garden full of stones:A
3A crazy path, a lily pond,B
4a rockery and, just beyondB
5A sundial with a strange device,C
6which Mrs. Jones thinks rather nice.C

The other two stanzas follow the same plan: Jones/stones — small/all — in/pin, and Jones/stones — flower/hour — cried/replied.

Why the poet chose rhyming couplets: A couplet closes fast — two lines and the sound clicks shut. That neat, tidy click suits a poem about a woman with a neat, tidy, slightly absurd garden, and it makes the final couplet land like the punchline of a joke: cried … replied.
Q5.
III. Complete the following sentences by choosing the correct answer given in the brackets. 1. The poet uses the word ‘stones’ in all stanzas in order to emphasise her ________. (obsession with a stony garden/pride in gardening skills)
Answer

… in order to emphasise her obsession with a stony garden.

Why the repetition proves it: “Stones” closes the second line of every stanza — three times in eighteen lines, always in the rhyming position where the ear cannot miss it. Repetition of that kind is never accidental. Had the poet wanted to stress her gardening skills, he would have had to repeat something she does well; instead he repeats the material she has filled the garden with, which is the very thing a garden is not supposed to be made of.
Q6.
2. The poet uses imagery to describe the features of the garden that help readers _____________. (understand Mrs. Jones’ love for plants/visualise the garden’s peculiar nature)
Answer

… that help readers visualise the garden’s peculiar nature.

What the images actually show us: a crazy path, a lily pond, a rockery, a sundial with a strange device, plants small enough to be set with a pin. Every one of these is a picture of oddity — hard, small, ornamental, out of the ordinary. Not one of them tells us that Mrs. Jones loves plants; in fact the plants are the least noticeable thing in the garden, which is precisely the joke.
Tip: Imagery means language that appeals to the senses so that a reader can see, hear or feel what is described. Ask of any image, “What picture does this put in my head?” — and answer with the picture, not with the feeling behind it.
Q7.
IV. Pick examples of alliteration from the poem.
Answer
LineAlliterationRepeated sound
“My next-door neighbour, Mrs. Jones,”next-door neighbour/n/
“has got a garden full of stones”got a garden/g/
“puts little plants between the stones”puts … plants/p/
“unless she plants them with a pin”plants … pin/p/
“for quite a quarter of an hour”quite a quarter/kw/
How to spot alliteration correctly: It is the repetition of the same sound at the beginning of words that are close together — the sound, not the letter. “Quite a quarter” alliterates because both words open with /kw/. Repeating a sound slows the reader down for a moment, which is why the phrase you remember from the third stanza is the one that measures out the wasted quarter of an hour.
Q8.
V. A refrain is a repeated line or phrase that appears in each stanza. Identify the refrain from the poem.
Answer

The refrain is the opening line of every stanza:

“My next-door neighbour, Mrs. Jones,”

and it is followed each time by a second line ending in the same word, stones:

  • “has got a garden full of stones:”
  • “puts little plants between the stones”
  • “once asked me round to see her stones.”
What the refrain achieves: Three things at once. It gives the poem the swing of a song or nursery rhyme, which sets the light tone. It fixes Mrs. Jones in our minds as a type — the neighbour, always the same. And because the rhyme word stones returns every time, the poem keeps insisting on the one detail that matters, until the last stanza can spring its surprise on a reader who thinks he knows exactly what is coming.
Q9.
VI. Irony is a literary device that emphasises the difference between what is expected and what actually happens. It often involves a situation where the outcome is the opposite of what is expected, creating a surprising or a humorous effect. For example, Mrs. Jones’ excitement about her garden contrasts with the speaker’s disappointment on how ordinary it is. Identify the line(s) from the poem that display(s) situational irony.
Answer

The closing couplet:

“Where is this lovely thing?” I cried.
“You’re standing on it,” she replied.

Why this is situational irony: Everything in the stanza builds one expectation. The two of them have stood and talked about a flower “for quite a quarter of an hour”; after that much praise the speaker naturally looks up and around for something splendid. The reality is the exact opposite — the flower is not above him but under his shoe. He has been searching for the very thing he was destroying, and asking his question while he did it.
Also worth naming: the first two lines carry a milder irony of their own — “a garden full of stones” reverses what the word garden leads you to expect. The poem opens with a small ironic surprise and closes with a large one.
Q10.
VII. Complete the following sentences appropriately. 1. The word ‘concrete’ can refer to ______________ in Mrs. Jones’ garden.
Answer

The word ‘concrete’ can refer to the hard, stony materials that fill it — the crazy paving of the path, the rockery, the stone sundial and the stones between which she plants her tiny plants — rather than to earth and greenery.

Tip: This is the literal half of the title. Keep the answer physical: name the actual objects in the poem. The second half of the pun is dealt with in the next question.
Q11.
2. The title also has a symbolic meaning, as the poem provides a clear or ‘concrete’ example of Mrs. Jones’ ______________ gardening habits.
Answer

… a clear or ‘concrete’ example of Mrs. Jones’ peculiar (eccentric, unusual) gardening habits.

Why the last stanza is that example: The poem does not merely tell us her taste is odd; it demonstrates it. A flower so small that a visitor stands on it while asking where it is — that single incident proves the point better than any description could. The whole poem is an argument, and the last two lines are its evidence.
Q12.
VIII. The title ‘A Concrete Example’ carries both literal and symbolic (metaphorical) meaning. Such word play is called a pun. A pun is a figure of speech that uses words with multiple meanings or words that sound alike but have different meanings, creating a humorous effect. • I tried arguing with my pencil but it kept making sharp points. (suggests the idea of an actual sharp pencil point and strong argument points) • My pencil and I had a disagreement but we finally got to the point. (refers to solving an argument and the pencil’s tip)
Answer

How the pun in the title works. One phrase, read two ways, and both readings are true of the poem:

ReadingMeaning of ‘concrete’What it points to in the poem
literalstone, paving, hard materiala garden made of a crazy path, a rockery, pebbles and a stone sundial — a concrete example of a garden
symbolicdefinite, clear, particularthe closing incident, which is a concrete example of just how peculiar Mrs. Jones’ taste is

Two puns of your own, on the pattern of the examples given:

  • I asked the gardener why his plants were so short. He said he had no grounds for complaint. (grounds = garden land / reasons)
  • The sundial and I never quarrel — we simply have our time apart. (time = the hours it keeps / time spent away)
Why a pun is funny: The mind settles on one meaning of a word, and the sentence then forces it to accept a second. That small jolt of readjustment is the laugh. It is the same mechanism as the riddles on page 1, and the same mechanism Tenali Rama uses when he moves the word ‘yawn’ from a paddy field to a palace.
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