My father’s hands are beautiful, they can fix this moth’s wing and make machines they can mend the fuse when the world goes dark can make light swimi Pick out the verbs that describe what the father’s hand do. 2 ii What do you usually fix? What is fixed in line 3? What does this tell us about the father? 3 iii What usually ‘goes dark’ (line 6)? What do you think the speaker means when she says ‘the world goes dark’? How can the father ‘mend the fuse’? 3 iv ‘can make light swim and walls jump in around me again’ (lines 7-8). What do you think this sentence means? What does it tell us about the father in the poem? 3 v What does the speaker mean when she says ‘I can see my mother’s face again’ (line 9)? What do you think has happened to the mother? 3 vi Many capital letters and full stops have not been used. What is the effect of leaving them out the poem? 2 vii What kind of a person is the father in the poem? Write a short passage on him. How does his daughter feel about him? 4 and walls jump in around me again I can see my mother’s face again. You must take good care of them with your finest creams never let the nails break or skin go dry, only those wise fingers know how to fix the thing that makes my doll cry and they make small animals out of clay. Never let blades or anything sharp and hurtful near them don’t let bees or nettles sting them don’t let fire or burning oil try them My father’s hands are beautiful, take good care of them. By Jeni Cowzyn
Answers
Q1.
Answer 1.
The verbs are fix, make and mend.
Answer 2.
The line 3 describes the father’s capability to do multiple task with efficiency. He can fix moth’s wing as well as can do other task with precision.
Answer3.
The world goes dark. The speaker mention the darkness after the sunset. The father mends the fuse with his talented hands.
Answer4.
Due to fuse bulb after sunset the daughter couldn’t see anything not even her mother’s picture. So, her father lit the candle which apparently looks like swimming in the air. Once the light is lit she can view her mother’s face too.
Answer5.
It looks like her mother doesn’t stay with her and her father takes care of his daughter.
Answer 6.
It’s because the poet wanted to make readers feel free and unconstrained as the daughter feeling about her father.
Answer 7.
As described in the passage, her father is a multi-talented person. Who does various jobs with accuracy?
Answer 8.
It means his father can manage electrical work too in case the bulb is fuse.