NCERT Solutions for Class 8 English Poorvi Poem 1 – A Concrete Example

The speaker introduces his next-door neighbour, Mrs. Jones, who has a garden “full of stones”. Instead of describing flowers and lawns, he lists stony features — a “crazy path” (a path made of irregular, crooked paving stones), a lily pond, a rockery (a small mound of rocks where plants grow), and a sundial fitted with a “strange device” that Mrs. Jones happens to find “rather nice”. From the very first lines, the speaker’s tone is amused and slightly mocking: to him the garden seems odd and far too stony, yet Mrs. Jones is clearly proud of it.

Now the speaker pokes fun at the plants. Mrs. Jones tucks “little plants between the stones”, but they are “so delicate and small” that, in the speaker’s opinion, “they don’t mean anything at all.” He cannot even understand how she manages to fit such tiny plants into the gaps — joking that she must plant them “with a pin”. This light exaggeration deepens the humour and shows that the speaker simply does not appreciate this kind of careful, miniature gardening.

One day Mrs. Jones invites the speaker over “to see her stones”. They stand and talk about a single flower “for quite a quarter of an hour” — fifteen whole minutes. The speaker, who has been searching for some grand, obvious bloom, finally cries out, “Where is this lovely thing?” Mrs. Jones quietly replies, “You’re standing on it.” This is the surprising, humorous twist: the precious flower was a tiny plant beneath the speaker’s own feet all along. The ending captures the poem’s gentle irony — what was insignificant to the speaker was treasured by Mrs. Jones.

The poem describes Mrs. Jones, the speaker’s next-door neighbour, who has a unique garden filled with 1. stones. Her garden includes a peculiar 2. (crazy) path, a pond, and a rockery, along with an unusual 3. sundial (with a strange device) that she finds charming. Mrs. Jones plants tiny, 4. delicate plants between the stones, which the speaker thinks must be so small that they are planted with a 5. pin. One day, Mrs. Jones invites the speaker to see her garden, and they discuss a 6. flower that Mrs. Jones treasures. When the speaker asks where the 7. lovely flower is, Mrs. Jones says that the speaker has been 8. standing on it all along.

1. The tone of the poem is — D. (ii), (iv), and (v) i.e. humorous, amusing and light-hearted. (The poem is gently funny and good-natured, not bitter or sad.)
2. The speaker in the poem is — (ii) the poet (the next-door neighbour who narrates the experience).
3. The rhyme scheme of the poem is — (i) AABBCC.

1. The poet uses the word ‘stones’ in all stanzas in order to emphasise her obsession with a stony garden.
2. The poet uses imagery to describe the features of the garden that help readers visualise the garden’s peculiar nature.

Examples of alliteration (repetition of the same beginning consonant sound) include: “puts little plants” and “plants them with a pin” (repeated ‘p’ sound); “sundial with a strange” / “strange… stones” (repeated ‘s’ sound); and “lily… lovely” (repeated ‘l’ sound).

The refrain is the line “My next-door neighbour, Mrs. Jones,” which begins each of the three stanzas. Its repetition gives the poem a song-like rhythm and keeps Mrs. Jones at the centre of the description.

The situational irony appears in the last two lines:
“Where is this lovely thing?” I cried.
“You’re standing on it,” she replied.
The speaker expects the “lovely” flower to be some large, obvious bloom and looks around for it, but the very flower he is searching for is the tiny plant beneath his own feet. The outcome is the opposite of what he expects, which creates a surprising and humorous effect.

1. The word ‘concrete’ can refer to the stones, paths and stony (concrete) features in Mrs. Jones’ garden.
2. The title also has a symbolic meaning, as the poem provides a clear or ‘concrete’ example of Mrs. Jones’ unusual / peculiar (stone-loving) gardening habits.

This is a note explaining what a pun is. The title is a pun because “concrete” has two meanings at once: (i) literal — the hard stones/concrete that fill Mrs. Jones’s garden, and (ii) symbolic — a “concrete example” means a clear, definite illustration. So the poem is literally about a stony garden and is also a clear example of how oddly Mrs. Jones gardens — the double meaning creates a humorous effect, just like the sample sentences given about the pencil “making sharp points” and “getting to the point”.

(i) What can be inferred about Mrs. Jones’s taste in gardening from the description of her garden being ‘full of stones’?
It can be inferred that Mrs. Jones has an unusual, individual taste in gardening. Unlike most people who fill a garden with flowers and lawns, she loves stony features — paths, a rockery and a sundial. This shows she is creative and fond of unconventional, decorative arrangements rather than ordinary ones.

(ii) Identify whether the following statement is true or false: “The garden serves as a means to reveal more about Mrs. Jones herself.”
True. The garden reflects Mrs. Jones’s personality — her love for unusual things, her attention to small details and her quiet pride in what others might overlook.

(iii) What does the poet mean by ‘crazy path’?
A “crazy path” means a path made of irregular, oddly shaped paving stones fitted together in a random, crooked pattern (also called “crazy paving”). It does not mean the path is mad — it simply describes its uneven, patchwork look.

(iv) What does the sundial with a ‘strange device’ suggest about Mrs. Jones’ personality?
A. She has a fascination with unusual items.

1. How does Mrs. Jones feel about her garden? Support your answer with evidence from the poem.
Mrs. Jones is proud of and fond of her garden. The poem tells us she “thinks rather nice” of her sundial with its strange device, she carefully “puts little plants between the stones”, and she happily invites the speaker “round to see her stones”. She is even willing to stand and talk about a single flower “for quite a quarter of an hour” — clear evidence of her love for her garden.

2. Why do you think the speaker describes the plants as being so small that they could be planted with a pin?
The speaker uses this exaggeration to gently mock the tininess of Mrs. Jones’s plants. By joking that they are so small they must be put in “with a pin”, he humorously suggests that they are almost too delicate and insignificant to notice — which is exactly why he later fails to see the flower at his feet.

3. What do we get to know about Mrs. Jones — based on her gardening style and her interaction with the speaker?
We learn that Mrs. Jones is patient, observant and individualistic. She values the small, delicate things others ignore, takes pride in her unusual stony garden, and is calm and good-humoured — she replies to the speaker’s question simply and without taking offence. She finds beauty and meaning where others see nothing special.

4. The poem portrays Mrs. Jones in a positive light. Support this statement.
Although the speaker pokes fun at her garden, Mrs. Jones herself is shown positively. She is creative and devoted to her garden, attentive to tiny plants, hospitable enough to invite her neighbour over, and gentle and unruffled in her final reply. She represents a person who quietly appreciates beauty in small things — a likeable, admirable quality.

5. What does the poem tell us about the way people think differently about the world around them?
The poem shows that people perceive and value the same things very differently. To the speaker, Mrs. Jones’s tiny plants “don’t mean anything at all”, but to Mrs. Jones they are precious enough to discuss for fifteen minutes. What is ordinary or worthless to one person may be a treasure to another. The poem gently reminds us to respect others’ points of view and the different ways they find beauty.

1. A sundial with a strange device — peculiar / unusual.
2. … which Mrs. Jones thinks rather nice — pleasant / agreeable / charming.
3. They are so delicate — fragile / dainty.
4. “Where is this lovely thing?” I cried — exclaimed.

“Strange” best matches unusual/peculiar; “nice” matches pleasant/agreeable/charming; “delicate” matches fragile/dainty; and “cried” here means called out, so it matches exclaimed.

Q1. Who is Mrs. Jones and what kind of garden does she have?
Mrs. Jones is the speaker’s next-door neighbour. She has an unusual garden “full of stones”, with a crazy paved path, a lily pond, a rockery and a sundial — plus tiny, delicate plants tucked between the stones.

Q2. Why does the speaker fail to see the flower?
The plants in Mrs. Jones’s garden are so small and delicate that the speaker ignores them. Expecting a large, obvious bloom, he searches around and never realises the prized flower is the tiny plant right beneath his feet.

Q3. What is meant by ‘a quarter of an hour’ in the poem?
“A quarter of an hour” means fifteen minutes. It shows that the speaker and Mrs. Jones stood and talked about a single small flower for quite a long time, highlighting how much she valued it.

Q4. What does Mrs. Jones’s reply “You’re standing on it” reveal?
Her calm reply reveals the situational irony of the poem. The flower the speaker was hunting for was the tiny plant under his feet. It also shows Mrs. Jones is gentle and unoffended, quietly valuing what others overlook.

Q5. Why is the title ‘A Concrete Example’ suitable for the poem?
The title is a pun. “Concrete” refers literally to the stony, concrete garden, and also means a clear, definite example. The poem is a “concrete example” of Mrs. Jones’s unusual, stone-loving gardening habits.

Q6. How does Reginald Arkell use humour and irony to convey the message of the poem?
Arkell builds the whole poem on light humour and a clever twist. He gently teases Mrs. Jones’s stony garden, exaggerating that her plants are so tiny she must put them in “with a pin”, and his amused, conversational tone keeps the mood playful. The real comedy lies in the situational irony of the ending: after searching for a grand flower, the speaker is told he is “standing on it.” The joke is on him, not on Mrs. Jones. Through this humour, the poet conveys a gentle message — people see beauty differently, and we should respect others’ tastes instead of dismissing what seems small or unimportant to us.

Q7. “The poem shows that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.” Discuss with reference to the poem.
The poem clearly proves that beauty depends on the person who is looking. The speaker sees only stones and “delicate and small” plants that “don’t mean anything at all”, so to him the garden is odd and unimpressive. To Mrs. Jones, however, the same garden is a source of joy and pride — she finds the sundial “rather nice” and can happily discuss one flower for a quarter of an hour. The tiny plant the speaker tramples on is, for her, a “lovely thing”. By contrasting these two viewpoints through gentle irony, Arkell shows that what is plain to one person may be precious to another, so we must value differing tastes.