NCERT Solutions Poorvi Chapter 1 –21A Concrete Example (poem by Reginald Arkell) — Let us think and reflect (I)
Book page 20 Updated on2026-09-05
Q1.
I. Read the given extract and answer the questions that follow.
My next-door neighbour, Mrs. Jones,
has got a garden full of stones:
A crazy path, a lily pond,
a rockery and, just beyond
A sundial with a strange device,
which Mrs. Jones thinks rather nice.
(i) What can be inferred about Mrs. Jones’s taste in gardening from the description of her garden being ‘full of stones’?
Answer
That her taste runs to hard ornament rather than growing things — and that it is entirely her own.
“A garden full of stones” is close to a contradiction: a garden is the one place we expect to be full of plants. By choosing stone for the path, stone for the rockery and stone for the sundial, Mrs. Jones has made arrangement and design more important than greenery. What pleases her is the interesting object, not the healthy plant.
The last line of the extract adds the crucial point — “which Mrs. Jones thinks rather nice.” She is not apologising for any of it. Her taste may be unusual, but she is quite satisfied with it, and that self-possession is what makes her likeable rather than ridiculous.
Q2.
(ii) Identify whether the following statement is true or false.
The garden serves as a means to reveal more about Mrs. Jones herself.
Answer
True.
The poem never describes Mrs. Jones directly — we are told nothing about her age, face or manner. Everything we know about her, we learn from her garden:
the crazy path and rockery tell us she likes the unusual;
the sundial with a strange device tells us she collects curiosities;
the tiny plants set between stones tell us she is patient and attentive to what is small;
the quarter of an hour spent on one flower tells us she is unhurried and warmly attached to what she owns.
The technique: This is characterisation through setting — a writer showing us a person by showing us the place they have made. It is more convincing than a list of adjectives, because the reader draws the conclusion instead of being handed it.
Q3.
(iii) What does the poet mean by ‘crazy path’?
Answer
Literally: a path of “crazy paving” — flat stones of irregular shapes and sizes fitted together with no regular pattern, so that the joints run in every direction. It is a real and well-known style of paving, and “crazy” is its ordinary English name.
But the poet is also making the word do a second job. Placed in a poem that goes on to describe a strange sundial and plants no bigger than a pinhead, “crazy” quietly hands the reader the speaker’s private opinion — that the whole garden is a little mad. He has said nothing rude; he has merely used the correct technical term.
Tip: This double meaning is worth naming when you answer. It is the same kind of word play as the title, and noticing it shows you have read the poem, not just the line.
Q4.
(iv) What does the sundial with a ‘strange device’ suggest about Mrs. Jones’ personality?
A. She has a fascination with unusual items.
B. She prefers traditional garden decorations.
C. She is uninterested in her garden’s appearance.
D. She likes modern and expensive items.
Answer
A. She has a fascination with unusual items.
The proof is in the next line: the device is “strange”, and Mrs. Jones “thinks rather nice”. What another person would call odd is exactly what she has chosen to keep. That is a fascination with the unusual, stated in two words.
The others are ruled out by the poem itself: B — a sundial with a strange device is precisely not a traditional ornament; C — she cares so much about appearance that she has designed every surface of the garden and invites the neighbour “round to see her stones”; D — a sundial is old-fashioned, and nothing in the poem suggests expense.
Did you know? In older English a device can mean an emblem, motto or design engraved on an object — not a machine at all. So the “strange device” is most likely an unusual figure or inscription cut into the face of the sundial. That sense is picked up again in the vocabulary exercise on page 22.