Have you ever seen ... ?Class 9 English Chapter 1 Notes – Maharashtra Board

Summary: Have you ever seen ... ?

The whole poem is a string of playful questions. Each question takes a common phrase, such as the bed of a river or the foot of a mountain, and pretends the word has its other, everyday meaning.

For example, a river bed is the bottom of a river, but the poet asks if it has a sheet on it, as a bed in a bedroom would.

In the same way he wonders whether a mountain's foot has toes, whether a needle can wink its eye, whether a building's wing can fly and whether a tree's trunk can be opened like a box.

The last questions ask whether a clock's hands are left and right, whether a garden plot can be deep and dark like an evil plan, and what sound a birch tree's bark makes, as if it were a dog barking.

The poem has no serious message. Its aim is to make us laugh and to show how much fun we can have with English words that are spelt the same but mean different things.

Key points to remember

• Poet: Anonymous (the name is not known)
• Type: a humorous nonsense poem made entirely of questions
• Homograph: a word with the same spelling but a different meaning in a different context (bed, foot, eye, bark)
• Pun: a play on words that makes one word give two meanings at once
• Interrogation: a question asked to make a point or create an effect, not to get an answer
• Personification: the needle winking its eye, a rake's teeth biting, a building's wing flying
• Alliteration: hair–hammer's–head, deep and dark, birch's bark
• Twelve lines in three stanzas of four lines; rhyme scheme aabb (rhyming couplets)
• Rhyming pairs: bed/head, toes/hose, eye/fly, parasol/all, bite/right, dark/bark

Have you ever seen ... ? – Notes

1. Meaning of each question

• River bed — the bottom of a river, but the poet asks about a bed sheet on it.
• Hammer's head — the heavy metal part of a hammer, but he asks if it has hair like a human head.
• Foot of a mountain — the bottom of a mountain; does it have toes like our foot?
• Garden hose — a pipe for watering; 'hose' also means stockings, which come in pairs.
• Eye of a needle — the hole for the thread; can it wink like a human eye?
• Wing of a building — one side part of a building; can it fly like a bird's wing?
• Ribs of a parasol — the thin rods of an umbrella; can they be tickled like our ribs?
• Trunk of a tree — the main stem; can it be opened like a trunk (big box)?
• Teeth of a rake — the pointed parts of a garden tool; will they bite like real teeth?
• Hands of a clock — the pointers; is there a left hand and a right hand?
• Garden plot — a piece of land; 'plot' also means an evil plan, which can be deep and dark.
• Birch's bark — the outer skin of a tree; 'bark' is also the sound a dog makes.

2. Homographs and puns

• Homographs are spelt the same but have different meanings: a fair (a mela) / fair (good, just); a rose (flower) / rose (past tense of rise).
• Some homographs are also pronounced differently, e.g. lead (to guide) and lead (a metal), but in this poem they sound the same.
• A pun uses a word so that both meanings come to mind together, usually for fun. Each line of the poem is a pun.
• Puns can also use words that only sound alike, e.g. 'two-tyred' and 'too tired'.

3. Other figures of speech

• Interrogation: every line is a question that expects no real answer, e.g. does the foot of a mountain have toes?
• Personification: objects get human or animal actions — a needle winking its eye, a rake's teeth biting, tickling a parasol's ribs.
• Alliteration: the same first sound repeated — 'hair… hammer's head', 'deep and dark', 'birch's bark'.
• Humour: the poem is funny because we picture impossible things, like a mountain wiggling its toes.

4. Form and how to add a stanza

• Three stanzas of four lines each; lines rhyme in pairs (aabb).
• Each line begins with a question word such as Have, Has, Does, Can, Are or Why.
• To write your own line, pick a phrase with a homograph (the face of a clock, the mouth of a river) and ask about its other meaning.

Homographs in the poem

Key terms

Have you ever seen ... ? – Flashcards

Read the question, answer it in your head, then tap the card to check. 20 cards.

Have you ever seen ... ? – MCQ Quiz

15 questions. Tap an option — you will see at once if it is right and why.

How to study Have you ever seen ... ?

⏱ About 20 minutes

1. Read (5 min)
   Read the poem aloud and, for each line, say the two meanings of the key word.
2. Learn (8 min)
   Learn the 12 homographs and the figures of speech: homograph, pun, interrogation, personification, alliteration.
3. Practise (7 min)
   Answer the 'Try it yourself' questions, take the quiz and play 🎮 Play.