NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English (Hornbill) Poem 4: Childhood by Markus Natten (NCERT 2026–27)

Q: Where does the poet say his childhood has gone?

The poet says his childhood has gone to some forgotten place that is now hidden in an infant's face. He cannot bring it back and simply admits, That's all I know.

Complete solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Poem 4 – “Childhood” by Markus Natten: an original summary, the central theme and message, key word meanings, and every Think it out textbook question answered fully in exam-ready prose. The questions are reproduced exactly as in the NCERT Hornbill textbook, while all explanations and answers are written originally by ClearStudy.

Class: 11 Subject: English (Core) Book: Hornbill Type: Poem 4 Poet: Markus Natten Session: 2026–27

On this page

About the poet
Summary
Theme & message
Word meanings
Think it out (textbook questions)
Extra questions
MCQs & Assertion–Reason
Exam tips
FAQs

About the poet

Markus Natten is a poet whose short reflective poem “Childhood” appears in the NCERT Class 11 Hornbill anthology. The poem is presented from the point of view of a young person looking back on the recent loss of childhood innocence. Natten is known to readers mainly through this single, much-anthologised piece, in which the poetic voice is that of a thoughtful adolescent. The simplicity of his language, the honest, questioning tone and the absence of difficult diction make the poem especially accessible, while the ideas it raises – about reason, hypocrisy and the birth of an independent mind – give it a depth that rewards careful reading.

Summary

“Childhood” is a reflective poem in which the speaker repeatedly asks himself a single, haunting question: “When did my childhood go?” Unable to fix an exact moment, he explores several possibilities, each marked off in its own stanza, as he tries to understand the invisible boundary between being a child and growing up.

In the first attempt, he wonders whether childhood ended on the day he stopped being eleven – the day he realised that places like Hell and Heaven could not be located in any Geography book, and therefore, to his newly logical mind, could not really exist. This is the birth of rational thinking, when blind belief gives way to reason.

Next, he wonders whether childhood slipped away when he discovered that adults were not all they seemed to be – that they spoke of love and preached love, yet did not always behave lovingly. Here the child becomes aware of the hypocrisy of the grown-up world, a disappointing but important realisation.

In the third stanza, he considers whether childhood ended when he found that his mind was truly his own, free to think in whatever way he chose and to produce thoughts that belonged to him alone, not borrowed from others. This marks the awakening of individuality and independent thought.

Finally, the speaker stops searching for the exact day. He concludes that childhood has simply gone to “some forgotten place” – a lost world that now survives only in the innocent face of an infant. With gentle regret, he admits, “That’s all I know,” accepting that the precise moment of growing up can never be pinpointed, only felt as a loss.

Theme & message

The central theme of the poem is the transition from childhood innocence to adult awareness. Growing up, the poet suggests, is not a single event but a gradual process made of small realisations – the rise of reason, the discovery of adult hypocrisy and the birth of an independent mind. With these gains comes a loss: the simple, trusting innocence of childhood. The poem’s message is that this innocence, once gone, cannot be recovered; it lives on only in the faces of little children. The questioning, regretful tone invites readers to value the purity of childhood and to grow up without becoming cynical or hypocritical.

Word meanings

Word / Phrase	Meaning
childhood	the early period of life when one is a child; innocence
ceased	stopped (being)
realised	came to understand or know clearly
Hell and Heaven	imagined places of punishment and reward after death
Geography	(here) the school subject / map of real places on earth
could not be	could not exist (in reality)
adults	grown-up people
seemed to be	appeared to be (but were not)
preached	advised or talked about (love) in a moralising way
lovingly	in a loving, caring manner
hypocrisy	pretending to be good or to feel what one does not
rationalism	belief that opinions should be based on reason, not emotion or faith
individuality	the quality of being a separate, independent person with one’s own ideas
my own, and mine alone	belonging only to me; original thoughts
forgotten place	a lost, irretrievable world (childhood)
infant	a very young child or baby
That’s all I know	an admission of helplessness; the poet cannot say more

Think it out (NCERT textbook questions)

1. Identify the stanza that talks of each of the following. individuality rationalism hypocrisy

ANSWER Rationalism – the first stanza. The poet realises that Hell and Heaven cannot be found in Geography and therefore “could not be.” This is the moment reason replaces blind belief. Hypocrisy – the second stanza. He sees that adults “talked of love and preached of love, / But did not act so lovingly” – the gap between what they say and what they do. Individuality – the third stanza. He discovers that his mind is “really mine,” free to produce thoughts that are “my own, and mine alone” – the birth of an independent self.

2. What according to the poem is involved in the process of growing up?

ANSWER According to the poem, growing up involves three key realisations. First, the development of rational thinking: the child begins to question and rejects beliefs that cannot stand the test of reason, such as the idea that Hell and Heaven exist as real places. Second, the awareness of hypocrisy in the adult world: the child notices that grown-ups preach love but do not always behave lovingly. Third, the growth of individuality and independent thought: the child realises that his mind is his own and that he can produce original thoughts of his own. Growing up, then, means gaining reason, awareness and independence – but at the cost of losing childhood innocence.

3. What is the poet’s feeling towards childhood?

ANSWER The poet feels a deep sense of loss, longing and gentle regret towards his childhood. He treasures the innocence, trust and simple faith of those days and is sad that they have slipped away. His repeated, searching question “When did my childhood go?” shows how much he misses that lost world and how earnestly he wishes he could locate the exact moment it ended. By saying that childhood has gone to “some forgotten place” hidden in an infant’s face, he tenderly acknowledges that it can never return – it survives only in the faces of little children. Overall, his attitude is one of nostalgia and quiet sorrow at an irrecoverable loss.

4. Which do you think are the most poetic lines? Why?

ANSWER The closing lines are, in my view, the most poetic:
“It went to some forgotten place, / That’s hidden in an infant’s face, / That’s all I know.” These lines are the most beautiful and moving because they capture an abstract, almost untraceable idea – the disappearance of childhood – in a single, vivid image. The thought that lost childhood now lives “hidden in an infant’s face” is fresh, tender and deeply touching. The soft rhyme of “place” and “face,” the gentle rhythm, and the honest, helpless admission “That’s all I know” give the ending a quiet emotional power that lingers in the reader’s mind. (This is a personal-response question; you may justify a different choice of lines.)

Extra questions

Short answer (30–40 words)

1. What question does the poet repeatedly ask in the poem?

ANSWERThe poet repeatedly asks “When did my childhood go?” He is trying to identify the exact moment at which his childhood innocence ended and the awareness of the adult world began.

2. Why does the poet say Hell and Heaven “could not be”?

ANSWERWhen his mind turned rational, the poet realised that Hell and Heaven could not be located anywhere in Geography or on a real map. Since they could not be found, his reasoning mind concluded they could not actually exist.

3. What did the poet learn about adults?

ANSWERHe learnt that adults were not all they seemed to be. They constantly talked about love and preached love to others, yet they did not always behave lovingly – revealing their hypocrisy.

4. What sign of individuality does the poet describe?

ANSWERThe poet realised that his mind was truly his own, to use in whichever way he chose. He could produce thoughts that were not borrowed from others but were entirely his own – a clear sign of his growing individuality.

5. Where, according to the poet, has his childhood gone?

ANSWERAccording to the poet, his childhood has gone to “some forgotten place” that is now hidden in the innocent face of an infant. He cannot recover it and admits, “That’s all I know.”

Long answer (100–120 words)

6. How does the poem show that growing up is a gradual process and not a single event?

ANSWERThe poem shows that growing up happens slowly, through a series of small realisations rather than on one fixed day. The poet keeps asking “When did my childhood go?” but cannot point to a single moment. Instead, he offers several possibilities, each in its own stanza: the rise of rational thinking, the discovery of adult hypocrisy, and the awakening of independent thought. Each of these is a separate step on the path from innocence to awareness. By the end, he gives up trying to fix an exact date and simply accepts that childhood has gone to “some forgotten place.” This open, questioning structure proves that maturing is a gradual, almost invisible process.

7. Discuss the central theme of “Childhood” and its message for young readers.

ANSWERThe central theme of “Childhood” is the loss of innocence that accompanies the journey into adulthood. The poet shows that as a child grows, he gains reason, the ability to see through pretence, and an independent mind – but in gaining these, he loses the pure trust and simple faith of childhood. The poem’s nostalgic, regretful tone makes readers value those innocent years. Its message for young readers is twofold: cherish the purity of childhood while it lasts, and as you grow, embrace reason and independence without becoming cynical or hypocritical like the adults the poet criticises. In short, grow up wisely, but never let go of inner honesty and kindness.

MCQs & Assertion–Reason

1. Who is the poet of “Childhood”?

(a) Walt Whitman (b) Markus Natten (c) Robert Frost (d) Pablo Neruda

2. The question repeated throughout the poem is:

(a) Where is my childhood? (b) Why did I grow up? (c) When did my childhood go? (d) What is childhood?

3. At what age does the poet suspect his childhood ended?

(a) ten (b) eleven (c) twelve (d) thirteen

4. The first stanza of the poem deals with the idea of:

(a) hypocrisy (b) individuality (c) rationalism (d) friendship

5. According to the poet, Hell and Heaven could not be found in:

(a) History (b) Geography (c) Science (d) Mathematics

6. The second stanza reveals the poet’s awareness of the adults’:

(a) wisdom (b) hypocrisy (c) kindness (d) courage

7. “Producing thoughts that were not those of other people / But my own, and mine alone” refers to the poet’s:

(a) rationalism (b) hypocrisy (c) individuality (d) selfishness

8. According to the poet, his lost childhood is now hidden in:

(a) an old photograph (b) an infant’s face (c) a forgotten letter (d) a dream

9. The overall tone of the poem is:

(a) joyful (b) angry (c) nostalgic and regretful (d) humorous

10. The poem ends with the line:

(a) “That’s all I know.” (b) “Was that the day!” (c) “When did my childhood go?” (d) “But my own, and mine alone.”

Answer key: 1-(b) 2-(c) 3-(b) 4-(c) 5-(b) 6-(b) 7-(c) 8-(b) 9-(c) 10-(a)

Assertion–Reason – choose: (a) A and R true, R explains A; (b) A and R true, R does not explain A; (c) A true, R false; (d) A false, R true.

1. Assertion (A): The poet concludes that Hell and Heaven could not be.

Reason (R): His newly rational mind realised they could not be found anywhere in Geography.

2. Assertion (A): The poet was disappointed in adults.

Reason (R): Adults talked of love and preached love but did not act so lovingly.

3. Assertion (A): The poem celebrates the joy of growing up without any sense of loss.

Reason (R): The poet feels nostalgic and regretful about his lost childhood.

4. Assertion (A): The third stanza marks the birth of the poet’s individuality.

Reason (R): He realised his mind was his own and could produce original thoughts.

5. Assertion (A): The poet can name the exact day his childhood ended.

Reason (R): He says his childhood went to “some forgotten place” and admits, “That’s all I know.”

Answer key (A–R): 1-(a) 2-(a) 3-(d) 4-(a) 5-(d)

Exam tips

How to score full marks on “Childhood”

Link stanza to theme: remember the order – Stanza 1 = rationalism, Stanza 2 = hypocrisy, Stanza 3 = individuality, Stanza 4 = acceptance of loss. This is the most-asked question.
Quote precisely: use short, accurate phrases such as “could not be,” “did not act so lovingly,” and “my own, and mine alone” to support your points.
Name the tone: describe it as nostalgic, reflective and regretful – not happy.
Personal-response answers: for “most poetic lines,” state your choice, quote it, and clearly explain why (imagery, rhyme, emotion).
Avoid: retelling the whole poem; instead, answer to the point and use the marks as a length guide.

FAQs

What is the central theme of the poem “Childhood”?

The poem deals with the loss of childhood innocence and the gradual journey into adult awareness, marked by the growth of rational thinking, the discovery of adult hypocrisy and the birth of individuality.

What does each stanza of “Childhood” represent?

The first stanza shows rationalism (rejecting belief in Hell and Heaven), the second shows hypocrisy (adults who preach love but do not act lovingly), the third shows individuality (the poet’s own independent mind), and the fourth accepts that childhood has gone forever.

Where does the poet say his childhood has gone?

The poet says his childhood has gone to “some forgotten place” that is now hidden in an infant’s face. He cannot bring it back and simply admits, “That’s all I know.”

Questions are taken verbatim from the NCERT Hornbill textbook; the summary, explanations and answers are written originally by ClearStudy.