THE SHED 

Summary

-by Frank Flynn

The poem “The Shed” by Frank Flynn deals with the speaker’s desire to visit the shed in his garden. The shed is not adequately maintained, and hence, is filled with spider’s web. The hinges of the door had become rusty, and as a result, it creaks as the wind passes. The speaker listens to the sound as he lay in his bed and expresses his desire to open the door one day.

In the second stanza, he talks about a window on one of its walls. It is, as expected, dusty and old. Moreover, three panes of its glass have cracked. Each time he passes by the window, he is overcome by a feeling that someone is watching him from the shed. The speaker then wishes that he could at least peep through the window and see what lies inside.

In the third stanza, the speaker reveals how his brother had scared him into believing that there is a ghost hiding under its floorboards. The speaker then hopes that he could, at the minimum, take a peek at the shed from a safer distance.

Later, in the fourth stanza, he convinces himself by rejecting all his above fears, such as the ghost, spider, and the noise as groundless. The speaker is determined to visit the shed; however, he concludes by stating that he is not ready to do so yet.

Conclusion

Explanation The shed has a dusty old window on its side. Three glass panes of the window are broken. Whenever, the poet passes through the shed, he gets the feeling as if someone was staring at him. To find out, the poet wishes to peep inside the shed

NCERT SOLUTIONS

Questions (Page No. 49)

(Working with the Poem)

Question 1. Answer the following questions:

1. Who is the speaker in the poem?
2. Is she/he afraid or curious, or both?
3. What is she/he planning to do soon?
4. “But not just yet…” suggests doubt, fear, hesitation, laziness or something else. Choose the word which seems right to you. Tell others why you chose it.

Answer:

1. The speaker of the poem is the poet.
2. He is both, afraid as well as curious. He is curious to enter the shed and at the same time he feels that someone is staring at him.
3. He is planning to open the door and enter the shed some day soon.
4. I think “But not just yet…” suggests hesitation. It shows that the speaker wants to take some more time to be sure of his thoughts about the shed. He currently fears that someone stares at him and at the same time also thinks that his brother saying that there’s a ‘ghost’ is just a lie. So, he is hesitating to take any further step for now.
5. Yes, there is a room in my house where I do not go alone and never at night. That room is the store room in the backyard. We keep the things that are not in use currently. We open that room very rarely and I feel scared to go alone there. Once I had gone there alone and there was a power cut. I screamed and started shivering with fear. I also heard some noise, which made me even more frightened. Due to my screams my family members came running towards the store room and calmed me down. After some time, power came back. Then, we saw a rat roaming around and I understood where the noise was coming from. But I still feel very scared to go there alone, especially at nights.

Question 2. Is there a room in your house or a house in your neighbourhood/locality where you would rather not go alone, and never at night? If there is such a place and a story to go with it, let others hear all about it.

Answer: Yes, there is a room in my house where I do not go alone and never at night. That room is the store room in the backyard. We keep the things that are not in use currently. We open that room very rarely and I feel scared to go alone there. Once I had gone there alone and there was a power cut. I screamed and started shivering with fear. I also heard some noise, which made me even more frightened. Due to my screams my family members came running towards the store room and calmed me down. After some time, power came back. Then, we saw a rat roaming around and I understood where the noise was coming from. But I still feel very scared to go there alone, especially at nights.