NCERT Solutions for Class 9 English Kaveri Poem 4 – I Cannot Remember My Mother

The child confesses he cannot remember his mother. Yet sometimes, in the middle of play, a tune seems to float over his toys — the very song she used to hum while rocking his cradle. Though her face is lost to memory, her voice survives in music, returning unbidden in his most carefree moments.

Again the refrain — and again a memory. On early autumn mornings, when the fragrance of shiuli flowers floats in the air, it brings him the scent of morning worship in the temple — and that sacred fragrance comes to him as the very scent of his mother. Her presence is fused with devotion, purity and the season’s first freshness.

Once more he cannot remember her — but when he looks out of his bedroom window and sends his eyes into the blue of the distant sky, he feels the stillness of his mother’s gaze spread across the whole sky. Her watchful love has become as vast, calm and constant as the heavens: she watches over him from everywhere.

My earliest memories include: the smell of rain on the first day of monsoon when grandmother made pakoras; my father teaching me to ride a bicycle in the park; the lullaby my mother sang, which I still hum without thinking; my first day at school, holding my sister’s finger; and Diwali evenings when we lit diyas on the terrace.

A mother is usually a child’s first teacher, comforter and companion, so her voice, touch and smell become the child’s earliest and deepest impressions. A loving bond gives the child lifelong security and warmth — ordinary things like a song, a dish or a fragrance can awaken her memory years later, as the poem shows. Children who feel that love grow up emotionally confident, and even those who lose their mothers early continue to feel her presence through such sense-memories.

1. hover — (v) linger or remain near a place  |  2. hum — (i) sing a tune with your lips closed  |  3. cradle — (vi) a small bed for a baby  |  4. shiuli — (ii) a type of flower (coral jasmine)  |  5. morning service — (iv) rituals conducted in a temple  |  6. gaze — (iii) look steadily for a long time

Stanza 1: 1. The poet remembers his mother while he plays (is in the midst of his play). 2. The poet remembers the tune (song) but not the mother. Setting: indoor.
Stanza 2: 1. The poet remembers his mother in the early autumn season. 2. The poet remembers his mother by the smell of the shiuli flowers (and the temple’s morning service). Setting: outdoor.
Stanza 3: 1. The poet feels that his mother gazes at him from the sky. Setting: indoor (he looks out from his bedroom window).

1. Two examples of alliteration: (i) “remember my mother” (repetition of the ‘m’ sound) and (ii) “the scent of the morning service” / “smell of the shiuli” (repetition of the ‘s’ sound).

2. An example of onomatopoeia: “hum” — the word imitates the very sound it describes.

3. The poem uses imagery extensively. Explain.
Each stanza is built around one sense. The first creates auditory imagery — a tune hovering over the toys; the second creates olfactory imagery — the fragrance of shiuli flowers and the temple’s morning worship floating in the autumn air; the third creates visual imagery — the still, blue expanse of the distant sky carrying the mother’s gaze. Through these sense-pictures the absent mother becomes vividly present.

4. Although the poem does not have a rhyme scheme, it is enjoyable because ______.
…its gentle rhythm, the haunting refrain, the vivid sensory imagery and the sincerity of its emotion give it a music deeper than rhyme — every line flows like soft speech from a child’s heart.

5. What is the tone of the poet? Why do you say so?
The tone is tender, nostalgic and serene. The poet speaks of a painful loss, yet without bitterness: each memory — the tune, the fragrance, the sky-wide gaze — brings comfort rather than grief, so longing and peace blend in every stanza.

6. What impact does the title have on the overall mood of the poem?
The title strikes the first note of loss and prepares us for sorrow — yet the poem gently contradicts it, as every stanza proves the mother is remembered through the senses. This tension between ‘cannot remember’ and unforgettable presence creates the poem’s bittersweet, deeply moving mood.

7. The poet uses ‘I cannot remember my mother’ as a refrain because ______.
…the repetition expresses the ache of his loss while binding the three memories together; and since each refrain is immediately followed by a memory that disproves it, the line deepens the irony that his mother is, in truth, present everywhere.

8. Identify the symbols used in the poem.
The tune/song symbolises the mother’s lullaby-love and tenderness; the shiuli fragrance and the temple’s morning service symbolise her purity, devotion and sacredness; the still, distant sky symbolises her eternal, watchful gaze — a love as vast and constant as the heavens.

(i) The poet is reminded of his mother during his ______.
playtime (play).

(ii) What is the primary emotion conveyed by the line ‘a tune seems to hover over my playthings’?
C. It activates memories of the mother.

(iii) What role does the hovering tune play during the speaker’s playtime?
It acts as a bridge between present and past: in the middle of carefree play, the tune quietly recreates the mother’s presence, carrying the child back to the cradle where she hummed that very song to him.

(iv) True or False: The poet experiences the tune lingering over playthings only occasionally during playtime.
True — he says it happens “only sometimes”.

(v) How could the poet feel his mother’s presence, even though she isn’t there?
Through his senses. Her hummed lullaby returns as a hovering tune, her scent returns in the shiuli flowers and temple fragrance, and her loving gaze seems spread across the sky — sense-memories keep her alive within him.

(i) What does the poet suggest about the stillness of his mother’s gaze spreading over the sky?
B. The sky is a symbolic extension of the mother’s presence.

(ii) What emotion does the poet associate with the ‘stillness’ of his mother’s gaze?
D. a sense of serenity

(iii) True or False: The poet suggests that the mother’s gaze has a tangible and visual effect on the sky.
False — the effect is felt in the poet’s heart and imagination, not physically visible.

(iv) What is the purpose of likening the mother’s gaze to the sky?
To show that her love is boundless, calm and ever-present. Like the sky, her gaze covers him wherever he goes — constant, protective and serene — turning all of nature into her embrace.

(v) The tone of the poet in the given extract is ______ because ______.
…serene and tender, because instead of grieving, the poet finds deep comfort in feeling his mother’s calm, loving gaze spread across the whole sky, watching over him.

1. What is the emotional impact of the refrain, ‘I cannot remember my mother’?
Each return of the line renews the ache of early loss — a child robbed even of memories. Yet because every refrain is followed by a vivid sense-memory of her, the line also builds a tender irony: the mother he ‘cannot remember’ is unforgettable. The refrain thus fills the poem with bittersweet longing — sorrow softened by the comfort of her felt presence.

2. Interpret the connection between the poet’s mother and (i) shiuli flowers (ii) humming tune.
(i) The shiuli blooms in early autumn and its fragrance fills the morning air during temple worship; that sacred, gentle scent has fused in the child’s memory with his mother’s own fragrance — her purity and devotion. (ii) The humming tune is the lullaby she sang while rocking his cradle; it was his first music and his first experience of love, so any stray melody during play brings her voice back to him.

3. What role does nature play in the poet’s description of the memory of his mother?
Nature is the keeper of his mother’s memory. The autumn season carries her scent in the shiuli flowers; the morning air carries her sacredness; the vast blue sky holds her gaze. Having lost her in person, the child finds her diffused throughout the natural world — nature becomes his mother’s living, lasting form.

4. What can be inferred about the poet’s perception of the mother–child relationship?
The poet sees it as the deepest of all human bonds — one written not in conscious memory but in the very senses of the child. A mother’s love, received in infancy, outlives her presence and even the child’s ability to recall her face; it remains a lifelong source of comfort, security and serenity, as constant as the sky itself.

1. scarlet  2. scents  3. sweetness  4. shrill  5. perfumes  6. essence  7. flaming  (Extra words: sizzle, smooth)

Match by sense: 1. “beats of music echo in air” — auditory (picture of drums/music)  2. “melody of soothing scent, dancing in the air” — olfactory + auditory (incense/agarbatti)  3. “fragrant breeze of blooming buds” — olfactory (flowers)  4. “gentle lullaby, a soft melody” — auditory (mother and baby/cradle)  5. “colourful sky, painting a lively sight” — visual (kites/balloons in sky)  6. “attractive canvas painting the horizon” — visual (sunset/landscape). Number the pictures in your book accordingly.

During my childhood, my grandmother’s old harmonium sat in the corner of our living room. Its keys were yellowed like old ivory, it smelt of wood polish and incense, and when she pressed the bellows it breathed before it sang. I have a clear memory of winter evenings when she played bhajans while I pumped the bellows, feeling terribly important. She is gone now, but whenever I hear a harmonium anywhere — at a temple, on television — her voice returns to me exactly as the tune returns to the child in our poem. That harmonium taught me that music can hold people we have lost; that is why this memory is meaningful to me even now.

This is a reading-for-pleasure activity. Hood’s poem also looks back at childhood — the house where he was born, the sun at the little window, the red and white roses, the laburnum his brother planted. Where Tagore’s poem mourns a mother yet finds her in the senses, Hood’s mourns lost childhood joy itself. Reading them together shows how memory and the senses keep our dearest past alive.

Q1. Why can the poet not remember his mother? (30–40 words)
The poet lost his mother when he was very young — too young to store conscious memories of her face or presence. Tagore himself lost his mother in boyhood, which lends the poem a personal, autobiographical sorrow.

Q2. When does the tune of his mother’s song return to the poet? (30–40 words)
It returns sometimes in the midst of his play, hovering over his playthings — the very tune his mother used to hum while rocking his cradle, bringing her presence back in his most carefree moments.

Q3. Which season and flower does the poet associate with his mother? (30–40 words)
Early autumn, when the fragrance of shiuli (coral jasmine) flowers floats in the morning air. That fragrance, mingled with the scent of the temple’s morning service, comes to him as the scent of his mother.

Q4. “The poem says ‘I cannot remember’ but proves ‘I can never forget’.” Discuss. (100–120 words)
This paradox is the soul of the poem. Three times the child states that he cannot remember his mother, and three times his own senses contradict him. A tune hovering over his toys restores her lullaby; the autumn fragrance of shiuli and temple worship restores her scent; the still blue sky restores her watching gaze. What he has lost is only surface memory — names, faces, dates; what he has kept is something deeper, a love imprinted on hearing, smell and sight. The refrain of forgetting thus becomes a litany of remembering, and the poem proves that a mother’s love is not stored in memory but woven into the child’s very being — impossible to recall, impossible to lose.