QUESTION # 1: What are the children doing?

Answer: The children are playing a game.

QUESTION # 2: What is the question that is disturbing the poet?
Answer: The question that is disturbing the poet it is about his worries of life.
QUESTION # 3: How has this question been answered?
Answer: This question has been answered by the children when he hears
them at their play.
QUESTION # 4: What does the poet mean by saying that the children open
the windows that look to the east?
Answer: The poet means by saying that the children have world of light in
themselves which lightens the world.
QUESTION # 5: With what does the poet compare the thoughts?
Answer: The poet compares the thoughts with the singing swallows and with
the small streams.
QUESTION # 6: Why does he compare them so?
Answer: He compares them so because he feels like that.
QUESTION # 7: How can the birds and the sunshine be in the hearts of the
children? What does poet mean?
Answer: The birds and the sunshine are symbols of blooming life. The
children are the greatest lively objects so they have all the excitements of
life within them. This is what the poet means.
QUESTION # 8: The poet says that the children are thinking of the books
while he is thinking of autumn. What does this mean?
Answer: The poet means that children are young and fresh but the poet is a
grown up man. He has seen ups and downs of life and he is getting older.
QUESTION # 9: Is the poet using word autumn for old age? What other words
does the poet use to show the coming of old age upon him?
Answer: Ye, the poet using word autumn for old age besides this he uses the
words the first fall of the snow to show the coming of old age upon him.
QUESTION # 10: How are the children different from the poet?
Answer: The children are young and full with life while the poet is old and full
with the worries of life.
QUESTION # 11: What question does the poet ask?
Answer: The poet asks the question what the world would be to us if the
children were no more.

QUESTION # 12: What does poet mean by saying that if there were no
children, we would fear the desert behind us and more than that we would
fear the dark in front of us?
Answer: The poet means that if there were no children our past would be dull
and our future would be more dreadful.
QUESTION # 13: What happens to the trees if there were no leaves?
Answer: If there were no leaves to the trees, they would dry into wood.
QUESTION # 14: What would happen to us if there were no children?
Answer: If there were no children we would not feel the glow of a brighter
and sunnier environment.
QUESTION # 15: What does the poet ask the children to come to him?
Answer: The poet asks the children to come to him so that he may know
what the birds and winds are saying to them.
QUESTION # 16: What songs does the poet wish to be whispered in the car?
Answer: The poet wishes to listen from the children what the birds and winds
are singing in their clear hearts.
QUESTION # 17: The grown up people have wisdom and books. What do the
children have?
Answer: The children have their gentle love and pleasant look.
QUESTION # 18: With what does the poet compare children?
Answer. The poet compares children with the ballads and the poems.
QUESTION # 19: How can the children be like the ballads and the poems?
Answer: The children can be like the ballads and the poems in this manners
that as the ballads and the poems are the source of joy so the children are
the greatest source of joy and pleasant.
QUESTION # 20: The poet calls the children living and the rest all dead. Why
does he say this?
Answer: He says this because those were sung or said in the past while the
children are the source of joy and pleasure in the present.
Short Summary:
This lovely and touching poem about the children is written by Hennery
Longfellow. The poet feels that the children are the greatest sources of joy.
The children have a pleasant world full of joy and happiness. The children are
the source of light and life. Just as sunlight, air and food are necessary for
the growth of the trees and plants so the existence of children is must for
keeping the world alive. The poet compares the sweet thoughts and feeling
of the children with busy life of the grownups. The grownups are burdened

with problems of the life whereas the young ones are free of all such
struggles. They are lost in sweet pleasant world of their own. Their innocent
look and gentle love removes all pains. The world would stop to exist without
the existence of the children. They are the source of life and inspiration.
Word Meanings
1. Perplexed Complicated, Puzzled
2. Vanish Disappear
Question and Answers
Q.1 What are the children doing?
Ans. The children are playing.
Q.2 What is the question that is disturbing the poet?
Ans. The poet is disturbed by the problems and difficulties in life.
Q.3 How has this question been answered?
Ans. Seeing the children playing happily and innocently, the poet does not feel that the difficulties are a
burden any more and this thus the question that have perplexed him have disappeared.
Stanza No.2
Word Meanings
1. Ye You Ye is sometimes used in poetry for you.
2. Swallow A kind of small bird.
3. Brooks Small streams
Question and Answers
Q.1 What does the poet mean by saying that the children open the windows that look to the
east?
Ans. Just as a sun gives warmth and life to the earth so as a south of happiness is in the presence of
children.
Q.2 With what does the poet compare the thoughts?
Ans. The poet compares the thoughts to singing swallows and flowing brooks.
Q.3 Why does he compare them so?
Ans. Singing swallows and following brooks are objects of nature-happy and care free. In the same way
the children are untouched by the problems of modern living and are happy and care free.
Stanza No.3
Word Meanings
1. Autumn Season before winter when leaves turn yellow and fall.

Question and Answers

Q.1 How can the birds and the sunshine be in the hearts of the children? What does
the poet mean?
Ans. When the poet says that the birds and the sunshine are in the hearts of children he means that they
are happy and care free.
Q.2 The poet says that the children are thinking of the brooks while he is thinking of
autumn. What does it mean?
Ans. The poet says that children are thinking of brooks because they are young and free from worries and
troubles.
He is in the autumn of life for he is old and heavy and approaching the end of his life.
Q.3 Is the poet using the word autumn for old age?
Ans. Yes, he is using the word autumn for old age. Autumn is the season before winter when the leaves
turn yellow and fall. In the same way in old age the body becomes weak and less active and finally give
way.
Q.4 What other words does the poet use to show the coming of old age upon him?
Ans. The first fall of snow shows the coming of old age upon him.
Q.5 How are the children different from the poet?
Ans. The children are young and full of life and energy, without a care in the world. While the poet is old,
tired and full of worries.
Stanza No. 5-6
Word Meanings
1. Tender Delicate
2. Trunk Main stem or part of a tree, the thick bark of a tree.
Question and Answers
Q.1 What would happens to the trees if there were no leaves?
Ans. If there were no leaves, the trees would lose their beauty, colour and life.
Q.2 What would happen to us if there were no children?
Ans. If there are no children, our lives would be dull, barren and absolutely lifeless.
Stanza No. 7
Word Meanings
1. Whisper To speak slowly
2. Atmosphere Air

Question and Answers

Q.1 Why does the poet ask the children to come to him?
Ans. The poet asks the children to come to him so that h could get joy and happiness from their company
and for the time being forget about his worries and troubles.
Q.2 What songs does the poet wish to be whispered in the ear?
Ans. The poet loves to hear the innocent talk of the children and asks them to come to him so that he
could enjoy their natural sincere hatter.
Stanza No. 8
Word Meanings
1. Contriving Devices, invention
2. Wisdom Quality of being wise.
3. Caresses Love or affection, kiss, embrace
Question and Answers
Q.1 The grown up people have wisdom and books. What do the children have?
Ans. The children have innocent happy looks and are full of affection and warmth.
Stanza No. 9
Word Meanings
1. Ballads Simple songs with a story, poems containing old stories.
Question and Answers
Q.1 With what does the poet compare the children?
Ans. The poet compare the children with ballads.
Q.2 How can the children can be like the ballads and the poems?
Ans. Ballads and the poems give one phase and happiness. In the same way children are source of joy and
happiness.
Q.3 The poet call the children living and the rest all dead. Why does he say this?
Ans. Ballads and poems consist only of words, where as children are living human beings and are full of
life and energy.
Q.4 How are children important for elders?
Ans. Children are important for elders because without them life would be dull and their care free and
their happy ways help elders to forget there troubles, their caresses brings sun shine in to the life of the
old people.

0.1: What questions perplexed the poet? How has his questions been
answered?
Ans: The poet was perplexed by the thought of his old age and ultimate
death. Then the poet thought that children are the signs of life. The old
people depart from the world and the children replace them. He understands
the life cycle of man and is satisfied now.
Q.2: How are children different from the poet?
Ans: Children are young, fresh, lively and happy. The poet is old, worried and
unhappy. The chapter of life is opening to children and it is closing to the
poet. Q.3: How can the birds and the sunshine be in the hearts of children?
Karachi Board Scitme 2012 Ans: Birds are always happy. The sunshine is a
sign of life. The birds and the sunshine are in the hearts of children mean
that children are happy, energetic and full of life. Q.4: What would happen to
us if there were no children?
Ans: Children are a source of joy and brightness. The world would become a
dark desert without children. We would feel sad and fearful because the life
cycle of man would come to an end without children.
0.5: The poet calls the children living and the rest all dead. Why does he say
this?
Ans: Children and poems both gives us amusement and happiness, the
children are full of life and the poems, are without life. That is why the poet
calls the children living and the rest all dead.
Q.6: What Is the message/central idea of the poem. "Children"?
Ans: The message/central idea of the poem is that children are a great
source of happiness on earth. There will be no life on earth without children.
All the world will become a dark place and a desert without children.