NCERT Solutions for Class 6 English Poem Chapter 8: What if

There are times when our mind fills with fear. We start thinking thoughts such as "what if something perilous happens to my family or me?" Or "What if the sun does not shine in the morning?" The eight poems of honeysuckle by Shel Silverstein talks about such irrational fears we have. The poem is written from the perspective of a child using their voice and point of view. The narrator is worried about if his teeth will grow straight or crooked or whether green hair may grow on his chest instead of the normal hair colour. The wild imagination of the narrator is shown by the fact that he is still a child due to a very limited way of thinking. The poem also uses personification to highlight the 'what ifs' of the narrator like small creatures that plant wild ideas in his mind while he is fast asleep due to which he starts worrying about such situations and hence dislikes his imagination which is prevalent by the way the poem concludes.

• Children should be encouraged to compare their 'what ifs' with the phrases 'No I think' 'No buts' in 'what happened to the reptiles' contained in the supplementary reader and can discuss what they mean.
• 'What if' is a word that has been invented out of the phrase 'what if' which means 'suppose'; the other phrases echo each other speaker's words and are used to cut them short.
• The children can also be made to arrange the 'what ifs' in the poem as probable, less probable and improbable to encourage creativity and can even be told to write a short poem on the 'what ifs' listed by them which can be edited and put up on a wall.