Question

2. What picture of the grandmother do you get from the poem?​

Answer 1

The grandmother was very helpful and polite.

Answer 2

Answer:

The poem, My Grandmother’s House, which can be read in full here, shows Kamala Das’s intense love and attachment to it. She suffers from an acute sense of alienation after having left this place after her marriage.

The poet now lives in a big city after her marriage, a remote place from her grandmother’s house. She is reminded of her grandmother’s house where she spent her memorable childhood. Ironically, it is the only place where she received love from her grandmother. The death of the grandmother is even mourned by the house to which she was emotionally attached. A death-like silence reigned in the house after her exit from this world. It seems that the grandmother was the very soul of this house. Being deserted, the snakes cold be seen among books in the library of the house. At that point of time she was too young to read those books which looked quite horrible and repulsive like snakes. She was almost frozen with fear at the passing away of her grandmother and seemed cold like the moon.

The very opening lines of the poem capture alive the poet’s mood of nostalgia. She is reminded of the happiest days of her childhood which she spent in the company of her grandmother. She was deeply attached to her grandmother who was very caring and affectionate to her. She was emotionally destabilized after the death of her grandmother and felt almost heart-broken. The intensity of her grief is suggestively conveyed by the ellipse in the form of a few dots in this section of the poem. It was her disenchantment with her loveless marriage which reminded her of her grandmother’s pure and selfless love.

HOPE IT HELPED