READING COMPREHENSION (CLASS 11 AND 12)AMBULANCES (POEM)

SOLVED WORKSHEET 23

AMBULANCES (POEM)

ABOUT THE POET

Philip Larkin was born in Coventry, England in 1922. He earned his BA from St. Joseph’s College Oxford. He was one of post-war England's most famous poets, and was commonly referred to as “England's other Poet Laureate” until his death in 1985. After graduating, Larkin lived with his parents for a while, before being appointed Librarian at Wellington, Shropshire, in November of 1943. Here, he studied to qualify as a professional librarian, but continued to write and publish. In 1945, ten of his poems, which later that year would be included in The North Ship, appeared in Poetry from Oxford in Wartime.

READ THE FOLLOWING POEM AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS THAT FOLLOW:        

STANZA 1

Closed like confessionals, they thread
Loud noons of cities, giving back
None of the glances they absorb.
Light glossy grey, arms on a plaque,
They come to rest at any kerb:
All streets in time are visited.

1 With whom is the ambulance compare to?
The ambulance is compared to a box like chamber in the church where the Catholics go to confess their sins before the priest.
2. What is the colour of the ambulance and when does the ambulance pass through the city?
The colour of the ambulance is light grey and it passes through the city at noon.
3. What does kerb mean?
Kerb refers to the edge of the path (the pavement) along the sides of a road.
4. Where do the ambulance stop?
The ambulance stops at the kerb and takes the patients to the hospital passing through the road.
5. What does ‘arms on a plaque’ refer to ?
The reference to 'arms on a plaque' evokes the coat of arms inscribed on a gravestone or other memorial marker, again suggesting death. 'Ambulances' grapples with one of the key themes of Philip Larkin's poetry: death and our own sense of our mortality.

STANZA 2

Then children strewn on steps or road,
Or women coming from the shops
Past smells of different dinners, see
A wild white face that overtops
Red stretcher-blankets momently
As it is carried in and stowed,

6. What do women and children see in the ambulance?
The children playing, the women at shopping malls and the people taking lunch at hotels see a wild white faced person lying in the ambulance.
7. How the patient is covered in the ambulance?
The patient is covered by a red blanket when he is taken in the ambulance with help of a stretcher.

STANZA 3
And sense the solving emptiness
That lies just under all we do,
And for a second get it whole,
So permanent and blank and true.
The fastened doors recede. Poor soul,
They whisper at their own distress;

8. What does a patient signify?
A patient signifies the fact that life is mortal death can come any time.
9. What do people think about the patient in the ambulance?
Some people imagine that the patient to be themselves, they think that everyone in the world is suffering in some way or the other.

STANZA 4
For borne away in deadened air
May go the sudden shut of loss
Round something nearly at an end,
And what cohered in it across
The years, the unique random blend
Of families and fashions, there

10. What is the attitude of people at the patient in the ambulance?
People sympathise with the patient at the ambulance they feel the pain. But soon people forget as the ambulance passes away.
11. Why people forget everything related to the ambulance?
People forget because time overcomes everything.
12. What does the ambulance refer to ?
Ambulance in this poem refers to misery and death.
13. What does the poet say about the patient?
The poet says that the patient passes his time with his family and friends but at last he has to go alone because everyone has to pass away some day.

STANZA 5
At last begin to loosen. Far
From the exchange of love to lie
Unreachable inside a room
The traffic parts to let go by
Brings closer what is left to come,
And dulls to distance all we are.

14. What is the attitude of the people towards the ambulance on the road?
The people on the road give way to ambulance as a priority because they think that the patient should reach the hospital fast so that his gets attention at the right time.
15. What is the similarity between death and ambulance?
Ambulance is like death no one can stop their way. Both send their victim to the same destination.