Class 6 English Chapter 16: National War Memorial
- 3 topics
- 60 MCQs
- 18 short answers
- 9 long answers
- 45 flashcards
- 15 games
- ~90 min read
- English
The Poem: What the Memorial Holds
A short poem about a monument in New Delhi, and what it chooses to put in front of a reader: names in stone, a flame that never goes out, and a request.
What you will be able to do
- I can say what the National War Memorial is and when it was made
- I can explain what the poem means by names etched in stone
- I can name the three places the poem sends its soldiers to
- I can say what the poem asks of the reader at the end
Key points
The National War Memorial stands in New Delhi and was established in February 2019.
The Government of India had it built, to honour brave soldiers.
The poem says each name is etched, which means cut into stone rather than written on it.
Battlefields, skies and oceans stand for the three services, without naming any of them.
The eternal flame is a fire kept burning, and the poem gives it silence.
Amar Jawan Jyoti is the name of that flame, and it means the light of the immortal soldier.
The poem is about remembering, and it never once says the word war.
The last two lines stop describing and ask the reader to do something.
Full explanation
What this is
The National War Memorial is a monument in New Delhi. It was established in February 2019. A national monument, and a very recent one.
Who built it and why
The Government of India built it. The reason given is honour, and the people honoured are brave soldiers. February 2019 is recent, and most pupils reading this poem were already born by then. That is unusual for a national monument. February 2019 is recent. Most pupils reading this poem were already born, which is unusual for a national monument.
The first line
The poem places it in the heartland of Bharat. Heartland means the middle of a country, and the word carries heart in it as well. Both senses are doing work in the line.
What it says it does
It honours brave stories retold. Look closely at both of those words. Not deeds, but stories, and not told but retold, which means somebody keeps saying them. A story that stops being told is a story lost.
Then a detail
Each name etched, each stone, each story. Three things, and the same word begins all three parts. Each name, then each stone, then each story.
Why etched matters
Etching cuts into the stone. A written name sits on top and could be wiped off, and a cut one is part of the stone itself. Permanence is the whole point of a memorial, so the method matters. A name that could be removed would defeat the object.
Where the soldiers are
From battlefields to skies, and to oceans wide. Three places in a single line and a half.
What those three are
Land, sky and sea. Those are the three services, and the poem names none of them directly. The army, the navy and the air force are all there without a word.
Why that works
A reader fills the names in without being asked. That is work the reader does, and work a reader does is remembered better. Saying army, navy and air force would have made the line a list instead of a picture. A list of three departments is not a picture of anything.
The next line
They stand for Bharat, side by side. Read that line against the one before it. Different services, one row, and no rank given to any of them. Nobody is put first.
The flame
The eternal flame, in silence it glows. Eternal means it is never allowed to go out. It burns through every day and every night of the year.
Its name
Amar Jawan Jyoti. Amar means immortal, jawan is a soldier, and jyoti is light. Put together, the name says the soldier is not gone.
Somebody keeps it burning
A flame that never stops needs tending. That work goes on every day and every night, and it is remembering turned into a job. A stone needs nobody at all, and a flame does.
The turn at the end
With pride and respect, let us always remember. The poem stops describing here and starts asking. Ten lines of description come before it.
Who it is asking
Us. The word is let us, not let them, so the poet is standing with the reader and not instructing from outside. It is a request and not an order.
What it never says
The word war is in the memorial's name. It does not appear anywhere in the poem, and every line is about people rather than fighting. There is no battle in it, no enemy and no victory either. Every line looks at the people instead. The name remembers the war; the poem remembers the people who went to it.
Concepts and terms
A structure built so that people are remembered. It does no other work, and that is the whole point of it.
Etching cuts a name into the stone itself. Writing sits on the surface and can be wiped away, and cutting cannot.
Battlefields, skies and oceans wide. The poem never says army, air force or navy, and a reader knows anyway.
A fire that is never allowed to go out. Somebody has to keep it alight, which is itself a kind of remembering.
Watch out!
Common Misconceptions
One line, two readings
Scenario:
A teacher writes one line on the board, the line that runs from battlefields to the skies and on to oceans wide. She asks the class what it is doing. Priya says it is describing scenery, and that the poet is showing how big India is, from its land to its sea. Zaid says the line is not about places at all. He says land, sky and sea are the three services, and that the poem is naming the army, the navy and the air force without using any of those words. He adds that the very next line says they stand side by side, which would be an odd thing to say about scenery. The teacher asks the class which reading the next line supports.
Analysis:
Both pupils read the same words. One stopped at the surface and one asked what the words were standing in for.
Activity:
Find another line in the poem that names one thing and means another, and write down both.
What is remembered near you
Title:
What is remembered near you
Safety:
Go with an adult, and do not touch or climb on a memorial.
What You Notice:
Memorial writing is almost always short, and it almost always leaves out more than it says. A name, a date, a few words, and nothing about the person's ordinary life. That is not carelessness. The few words are chosen so that anybody passing can take them in without stopping, and the rest is meant to be supplied by the people who knew, or asked for, or came looking.
Did you know
Amar Jawan Jyoti means the flame of the immortal soldier. Jyoti is light, and the name says the soldier is not gone.
The memorial was established in February 2019, which makes it younger than most pupils reading this poem.
Memory tricks
The three places — Land, sky, sea — Battlefields, skies and oceans. Three lines of the poem, and three services of the armed forces.
What etched means — Cut in, not put on — An etched name is part of the stone. Nothing can rub it off.
Practice MCQs with answers (20)
- A February 2019
- B August 1947
- C January 1950
- D October 1999
Show answer
Why:
Which makes it very recent.
- A A trust set up by soldiers
- B The city of New Delhi
- C The Government of India
- D Families of the soldiers
Show answer
Why:
A national monument, nationally built.
- A It was built before Independence
- B Most pupils reading the poem were already born
- C It took a hundred whole years to finish building
- D Nobody agrees on the date
Show answer
Why:
Monuments are usually older than their readers.
- A a place near the sea
- B the border of a country
- C a place of great battles
- D the middle of a country
Show answer
Why:
And the word carries heart in it too.
- A painted on carefully
- B cut into the stone
- C written in gold ink
- D read aloud each year
Show answer
Why:
Part of the stone, not sitting on it.
- A Etching is cheaper than writing
- B Etched names can be read from further away
- C A written name could be wiped off, and a cut one cannot
- D Etching lets you fit a great many more names on one stone
Show answer
Why:
Permanence is the point of a memorial.
- A Villages, towns and cities
- B Forests, rivers and hills
- C Homes, schools and offices
- D Battlefields, skies and oceans
Show answer
Why:
A single line and a half.
- A three wars India has fought
- B the three armed services
- C three cities with memorials
- D three kinds of weather
Show answer
Why:
Land, sky and sea.
- A A reader supplies them anyway, and naming them would make a list
- B The poet did not know their names
- C Those words do not rhyme with anything
- D The three armed services had asked the poet not to name them at all
Show answer
Why:
A picture works harder than a list.
- A That one of them matters most
- B That they were built at different times
- C That they work in different countries
- D That no rank is given to any of them
Show answer
Why:
One row, and nobody first.
- A very bright
- B never allowed to go out
- C lit once a year
- D seen from a distance
Show answer
Why:
Day and night, without a break.
- A I and II only
- B II and III only
- C I and III only
- D I, II and III
Show answer
Why:
II and III are correct. I is not: the poem names none of the three. A reader supplies them anyway, and naming them would have made a list out of a line.
- A Brave, young and bright
- B Old, soldier and stone
- C Bharat, soldier and honour
- D Immortal, soldier and light
Show answer
Why:
The name says the soldier is not gone.
- A Somebody has to keep it alight, day and night
- B It was expensive to build
- C Soldiers take it in turns to light the flame again
- D It has to be moved each year
Show answer
Why:
Remembering, turned into a daily job.
- A The rhyme disappears completely
- B The poem names the three services
- C It stops describing and starts asking
- D It moves to a different monument
Show answer
Why:
A turn, right at the close.
- A Because us is a shorter word
- B Because it was written for soldiers only
- C Because the poet stands with the reader
- D Because them would not rhyme
Show answer
Why:
Not an instruction shouted from outside.
- A War
- B Memorial
- C Bharat
- D National
Show answer
Why:
Every line is about people, not fighting.
- A The stories were written down twice
- B The poet heard them from a friend
- C Because somebody keeps saying them
- D Retold rhymes better than told
Show answer
Why:
A story that stops being told is lost.
- A Both true, and the reason explains the assertion
- B Both true, but the reason does not explain it
- C The assertion is true and the reason is false
- D The assertion is false and the reason is true
Show answer
Why:
The assertion is false and the reason is the proof of it. Even the word war, which stands in the memorial's own name, is missing from the poem.
- A Silence is given to something that never speaks
- B A flame cannot glow at all
- C The flame is not really an eternal one after all
- D Nothing about it is odd
Show answer
Why:
You only say silent of a thing that might have spoken.
Important short questions (6)
A national monument in New Delhi, raised by the Government of India to honour brave soldiers. It was established in February 2019.
Cut into the stone. A written name sits on the surface and could be wiped away, while a cut one is part of the stone itself, which suits a memorial.
Battlefields, skies and oceans wide. They stand for the three services, on land, in the air and at sea.
A reader supplies army, navy and air force without being asked. Naming them would have turned a picture into a list.
Amar means immortal, jawan means soldier, and jyoti means light. Put together, the name says the soldier is not gone.
The poem stops describing the memorial and asks the reader to remember. It says let us, so the poet is standing with the reader rather than instructing from outside.
Long answer questions (3)
Three things, and they are worth listing. First the names, etched into stone, which means cut in and not written on. Second the three places, battlefields, skies and oceans, which stand for the services without naming a single one of them. Third the eternal flame, burning day and night, with the name Amar Jawan Jyoti. What the poem leaves out is as clear as what it puts in. There is no battle in it, no enemy and no victory, and the word war never appears although it is in the memorial's own name. Every line is about the people and about what is owed to them.
For ten lines the poem describes. It shows the memorial in the heartland of Bharat. It shows the names in the stone, the soldiers on land and in the sky and at sea, and the flame glowing in silence. Then the last two lines turn. With pride and respect, let us always remember. The poem has stopped telling the reader about a place and started asking the reader to do something. The word us matters here. It is not let them, so the poet is not standing outside giving orders, but standing with the reader and asking for something they will do together. Placed last, the request lands on everything the poem has just shown.
A flame that never goes out cannot look after itself. Somebody has to tend it, every day and every night, in every season and every year. That makes it different from a stone, which sits there whether anybody cares or not. The remembering is built into the daily work of keeping it alight, so it can never quietly stop happening. The poem adds something to this. It says the flame glows in silence, and you only call a thing silent when it might have spoken. The flame stands in for people who cannot speak for themselves any more, and the memorial speaks for them instead.
Flashcards (15)
Play this topic
- Word and meaning
- In the poem, or not?
- The shape of the poem
- Fact or myth?
- Quick round
How the Poem Is Built: Rhyme, Repetition and a Stone that Feels
Six pairs of rhyming lines, one pair that does not quite rhyme, a word repeated three times in a row, and a building given feelings it cannot have.
What you will be able to do
- I can mark the rhyming pairs in this poem
- I can spot where two pairs share the same rhyme sound
- I can explain why the last pair does not rhyme exactly
- I can find where a thing is given feelings it cannot have
Key points
The poem is made of six pairs of lines, and each pair rhymes.
Two of those pairs share the same sound, so four lines in a row end in the same way.
The final pair, remember and forever, is close but not an exact rhyme.
An almost-rhyme at the end leaves a poem sounding unfinished on purpose.
Each name, each stone, each story repeats one word at the start of three parts.
Repeating a word that way makes a list sound steady rather than hurried.
The memorial is said to stand with pride, and a building cannot feel proud.
Giving feelings to a thing that has none is a way of telling you how to look at it.
Full explanation
Start with the ends
Read only the last word of each line. Behold, retold, pride, confide, wide, side, glows, shows, mind, remind, remember, forever. Nothing else, and no lines in between. They come in pairs. Behold with retold. Pride with confide. Wide with side. Glows with shows. Mind with remind. And finally remember with forever.
The name for it
Two lines that rhyme together are a couplet. The word is worth having, because it names what you have just found. This poem is six couplets, stacked one on another with no gaps. Twelve lines in all, and every one of them belongs to a pair.
Why that is worth knowing
A couplet closes every two lines. You get a small finish, then another, then another, and the poem moves in steady steps. Nothing is left hanging for long, and a reader always knows where the next stop is.
Now look harder
Pride and confide rhyme. Wide and side rhyme. But pride, confide, wide and side all end the same way. So two of the six couplets share a rhyme sound, which gives the longest run anywhere in the poem. So two of the six couplets share a rhyme sound. That gives the longest unbroken run anywhere in the poem.
Where that run sits
Right in the middle, across the lines about standing with pride and about battlefields, skies and oceans. Four lines, and not one of them lets the sound go.
What it does there
The sound will not let go for four lines. The middle of the poem is held together more tightly than either end. A reader feels that without being able to name it.
Then the last pair
Remember and forever. Read them aloud, one after the other. Listen to the very last sound of each.
They do not quite match
They are close. They share an ending sound and they are clearly meant as a pair, and they are not an exact rhyme. Try any other pair in the poem and you will hear the difference at once.
Why a poet might do that
An exact rhyme snaps shut. An almost-rhyme leaves the ear slightly open, and a poem about remembering forever has good reason not to snap shut. Remembering is not a thing you finish.
A different tool
Each name etched, then each stone, and then each story. Read that line slowly. The same word starts all three parts. Each, and then each, and then each again.
What repeating does
It makes three items sound like a steady count rather than a hurried list. You are being asked to take each one separately. A name, a stone and a story are three different things, and the line does not let them blur.
Something stranger
It stands with pride. The memorial is a building, and a building has no feelings at all. Stone cannot be proud of anything, however grand it looks.
And again
The eternal flame, in silence it glows. You only call something silent if it might have spoken, and fire was never going to.
Why give feelings to a thing
Because the poem is telling you how to look at it. Pride and silence belong to the people being remembered, and the memorial is carrying them. That is exactly the work a memorial does.
One more repetition
Respect appears twice. Once near the beginning, with respect and grace, and once in the closing line, with pride and respect. Two appearances in twelve lines is not chance.
What that does
It ties the two ends of the poem together. Whatever happens in between, you leave with the same word you arrived with. Twelve lines is a short space for a word to appear twice.
Concepts and terms
Two lines whose last words sound alike. This poem is made of six such pairs, one after another, with no gaps between them.
Pride, confide, wide and side all end the same way. Two pairs joined, so four lines carry one sound.
Remember and forever share an ending but do not truly match. A reader hears the pairing and also hears that it is not exact.
The memorial stands with pride, and the flame glows in silence. Stone does not feel proud and fire was never going to speak.
Watch out!
Common Misconceptions
Counting the rhymes
Scenario:
A teacher asks the class to write down how many rhyming pairs the poem has. Arun reads the line endings and writes six. Leela reads them too and writes five. She has put pride, confide, wide and side together as one group, because all four end the same way, and counted the rest as four more. When the teacher asks her to read the poem aloud, Leela hears something she had missed on the page. Pride closes with confide, and then wide opens again and closes with side. Two separate closings, not one long stretch. She changes her answer, and says she now thinks the run of four is the most interesting thing in the poem.
Analysis:
Leela was not careless. She grouped by sound, which is a reasonable thing to do, and reading aloud showed her what the page had hidden.
Activity:
Read any poem you know aloud and mark the line endings, then check your marks against the page.
Write your own couplets
Title:
Write your own couplets
What You Notice:
Your partner will almost always point to the run of four, even without being told what to listen for. A sound repeated across four lines is heard as pressure, and the ear starts expecting the next line to end the same way. That is the effect the poem uses in its middle, and it is also why a writer cannot keep it up for long. Stretch the same sound over eight lines and the pressure turns into a drumbeat nobody can hear past.
Did you know
A pair of rhyming lines is called a couplet. This whole poem is six couplets stacked one on another.
Poets use an almost-rhyme deliberately. The ear notices the gap even when the reader cannot say what changed.
Memory tricks
The shape of the poem — Two, two, two, two, two, two — Twelve lines in six rhyming pairs. Nothing else to keep track of.
Spotting feelings given to things — Could it really? — Ask whether the thing could actually do what the line says. Stone cannot be proud, so something else is going on.
Practice MCQs with answers (20)
- A I and II only
- B II and III only
- C I and III only
- D I, II and III
Show answer
Why:
I and III are correct. II is not: the rhyme pairs ARE the pattern. A poem does not need verses in order to be shaped.
- A Four verses of three lines
- B Three verses of four lines
- C One block of twelve lines with no rhyme
- D Six couplets, one after another
Show answer
Why:
Twelve lines, six pairs.
- A confide
- B glows
- C retold
- D remind
Show answer
Why:
The first couplet.
- A It moves in steady, even steps
- B It speeds up towards the end
- C It makes the poem hard to read aloud
- D It has no effect on the pace
Show answer
Why:
A small finish every two lines.
- A behold, retold, glows, shows
- B pride, confide, wide, side
- C mind, remind, remember, forever
- D glows, shows, mind, remind
Show answer
Why:
Two couplets joined by a sound.
- A None of them rhymes properly
- B They are all in the last two lines
- C Two couplets carry the same sound
- D They are the only rhymes in the poem
Show answer
Why:
The longest run in the poem.
- A The first two lines of the poem are the strongest ones anyway
- B A poem must always be tightest at the start
- C Nothing depends on where a rhyme run falls
- D The middle is held together more tightly than either end
Show answer
Why:
A reader feels it without naming it.
- A remember and forever
- B wide and side
- C glows and shows
- D mind and remind
Show answer
Why:
Close, and not a true match.
- A Exact rhymes are simply not allowed at the end of a poem
- B The poet ran out of rhyming words
- C An exact rhyme snaps shut, and this poem should not
- D It makes the poem easier to memorise
Show answer
Why:
Remembering forever has no end.
- A The rhyme sound
- B The word at the start of each part
- C The whole of the previous line
- D The number of syllables
Show answer
Why:
Each, three times over.
- A Three items become a steady count, not a hurried list
- B The line becomes harder to understand
- C The rhyme scheme changes
- D It shows the poet could not think of other words
Show answer
Why:
You take each one separately.
- A Memorials do not stand upright
- B Pride is the wrong word for soldiers
- C The poem should have said stood
- D A building has no feelings of its own
Show answer
Why:
Stone cannot be proud of anything.
- A A flame is not silent at all
- B You only call a thing silent if it might have spoken
- C Glowing and silence mean very much the same thing here
- D The flame does not actually glow
Show answer
Why:
Fire was never going to speak.
- A Both true, and the reason explains the assertion
- B Both true, but the reason does not explain it
- C The assertion is true and the reason is false
- D The assertion is false and the reason is true
Show answer
Why:
Both are true, and the reason is what the device is for. A building has no pride of its own, so the pride being described is ours.
- A flame
- B stone
- C courage
- D respect
Show answer
Why:
Near the start and in the closing line.
- A It changes the rhyme scheme
- B It makes the poem a story
- C It ties the two ends together
- D It signals the middle of the poem
Show answer
Why:
You leave with the word you arrived with.
- A The rhyme pairs are the pattern
- B Poems do not need patterns at all
- C The poem is in fact grouped into verses
- D Patterns come only from the number of words
Show answer
Why:
A pattern is in the sound, not the layout.
- A less serious than it does
- B firmly finished and closed off
- C as though it had more to come
- D exactly the same as it does now
Show answer
Why:
Which is what the almost-rhyme avoids.
- A Four line endings sharing one sound
- B A pair of lines that rhyme
- C A word repeated at both ends of a poem
- D A building given the feeling of pride
Show answer
Why:
That one is a pattern of meaning.
- A side
- B shows
- C remind
- D forever
Show answer
Why:
The fourth couplet.
Important short questions (6)
Two lines that rhyme together. This poem has six of them, stacked one on another with no gaps between them.
Behold and retold, pride and confide, wide and side, glows and shows, mind and remind, remember and forever.
Pride, confide, wide and side. Two couplets carry a single sound, which is the longest run in the poem, and it holds the middle together tightly.
Remember and forever are meant as a pair and are not an exact rhyme. An exact rhyme would snap the poem shut, and this one is left slightly open.
The word each begins all three parts. That turns three items into a steady count rather than a hurried list, so a reader takes each of them separately.
The memorial stands with pride, and the flame glows in silence. Neither stone nor fire can feel anything, so the poem is passing on feelings that belong to the people being remembered.
Long answer questions (3)
The poem is twelve lines built as six rhyming pairs, one after another with no gaps. Behold goes with retold, pride with confide, wide with side, glows with shows, mind with remind, and remember with forever. Two things stand out inside that neat arrangement. The first is in the middle, where pride, confide, wide and side all end on one sound, so two pairs are joined and four lines run together. The second is right at the close. Remember and forever are plainly meant as a pair. They are not an exact match. That small gap keeps the poem from snapping shut on its last word.
Two lines do it. The memorial stands with pride, and the eternal flame glows in silence. Neither of these is possible. A memorial is stone and mortar and has no feelings, and a fire was never going to speak, so calling it silent is strange on the face of it. The poem is not making a mistake. It is telling the reader how to look at these things. The pride belongs to the people being remembered and the silence belongs to them too, and the building and the flame are carrying both on their behalf. That is the work a memorial does, and the poem describes it by handing the feelings over to the objects.
The first is the word each, which begins three parts of one line. Each name etched, each stone, each story. Repeating it that way turns three items into a steady count. A reader takes each one separately instead of running them together. The second is the word respect, which appears near the start in with respect and grace and again in the closing line in with pride and respect. It arrives twice in only twelve lines, once at each end. That ties the poem together. Whatever the reader meets in between, they leave holding the same word they came in with.
Flashcards (15)
Play this topic
- Find the rhyming partner
- Exact rhyme, or almost?
- Sound, or meaning?
- Fact or myth?
- Quick round
Read It, Learn It, Go and See It
Three small activities that form a ladder, a way of learning a poem by heart that uses its rhymes, and how to look up and visit a real memorial.
What you will be able to do
- I can say how reading aloud differs from reciting
- I can learn a poem by heart in pairs of lines rather than one at a time
- I can recite with a group without racing ahead
- I can plan a visit to a memorial and behave properly there
Key points
The three activities are read the poem aloud, recite it together, and remember it.
They form a ladder: the page, then the group, then neither.
Reading aloud uses the page, and reciting means saying it without one.
A poem in rhyming pairs is easier to learn two lines at a time.
The rhyme narrows your choices, so the first line of a pair helps you find the second.
Reciting with others means matching their pace instead of racing ahead.
The explore task points to an official government website ending in gov.in.
A visit needs planning, and a memorial needs quiet behaviour when you get there.
Full explanation
Three small tasks
Read the poem aloud. Recite it with your classmates and teacher. Remember the poem. Three tasks, and no more than that. They look small on the page.
They are in an order
That order is not an accident. Each one takes away a support that the one before it gave you. Read them in order and you can see it happen. Read the order again with that in mind.
The first one
Reading aloud. Your eyes are on the page, so the words are there whenever you need them. The point is hearing the poem in your own voice. A poem read silently and a poem spoken are not the same experience.
The second one
Reciting with your classmates and your teacher. Now other voices are carrying you. Reciting means saying a poem without reading it. The difference from the first task is simply where the words come from.
Why a group helps
If you lose a line, thirty other voices have it. You can rejoin at the next line without stopping anybody. Nobody even hears the gap.
What a group demands
One pace for everybody. A reciter who races ahead is heard immediately, and so is one who lags. Matching the others is the real skill being practised here.
Where a group breathes
At the end of each rhyming pair. That is where the poem itself pauses. The pairs give the poem natural stopping points, and a class finds them without being told. Listen to any class reciting and you will hear it happen.
The third one
Remember the poem. No page, and no other voices. This could not have come first, and now it can.
How to do it
Not one line at a time. This poem is built in six rhyming pairs, so learn it two lines at a time. Take each pair as a single piece.
Why pairs are easier
The rhyme does half the work. If you have the first line, the sound at its end tells you roughly how the next one has to finish. Half the work of remembering is already done for you.
A worked example
Say the line about the eternal flame glowing in silence. Now try to find the line that follows it. The next line ends in shows, and glows has already told you that. The second line of a pair is never a blank.
Then the explore task
Look the memorial up on its own website and learn more about it. The address given there ends in gov.in. Look at the last part of it.
Why that ending matters
It marks a government website. Anybody can put a page about a monument online, and a gov.in address tells you who is answerable for it. Read the last part of any address before you trust it.
The last task
Plan a visit with your teacher or your parents. Notice the word plan, which comes before going. You are not being told simply to turn up.
What planning means
Finding out the opening times, working out how to get there, and knowing what there is to see before you arrive. All three of those happen before the day itself.
When you get there
A memorial is not a park. Keep your voice low, do not climb on anything, take nothing away and leave nothing behind. Follow any notice you see there. Read the names slowly if you stop at a wall, because each one belonged to somebody with a family and a home town. A visit you have thought about beforehand is the one you remember afterwards, and the quiet you keep is part of what you came to give.
Concepts and terms
Reading aloud means your eyes are on the page. Reciting means the words come from memory, and the page is closed.
This poem is built in rhyming pairs. Learn each pair as one unit and the rhyme will help you find the second line.
Reciting together only works if everybody moves at one pace. The end of each pair is where a group can breathe.
The address given ends in gov.in, which marks it as a government website. That is why it is the one the book sends you to.
Watch out!
Common Misconceptions
Two ways of learning it
Scenario:
A teacher gives the class a week to learn the poem by heart. Nikhil decides to be thorough. He learns line one until he is sure of it, then line two, then line three, and so on down the page. Come the day, he gets through the poem but stops for a moment before almost every second line. Sara learns it in pairs. She takes two lines at a time and does not move on until the pair runs straight through. She gets stuck once, in the middle, and cannot see why. She has learnt pride with confide and wide with side, and when she reaches the end of the second pair she finds herself back at the start of it.
Analysis:
One method fought the poem all the way. The other fitted it, and then met the one place where the poem itself is unusual.
Activity:
Learn any four lines of the poem by the pair method, then say them to a partner with the book closed.
Plan the visit on paper
Title:
Plan the visit on paper
Safety:
Look things up with an adult, and never plan a trip without one going with you.
What You Notice:
The question you save for the day is usually the best one on your list. Websites answer the questions everybody asks, which is why they are worth reading first, and they leave the rest alone. Standing in a place tells you things no page does: how large it really is, how quiet it goes, and who else has come. Those are the answers worth travelling for.
Did you know
An address ending in gov.in belongs to the Indian government. The last part of a web address is what tells you who runs it.
Actors learn long speeches in small pieces and join them up afterwards, which is exactly what learning in pairs does.
Memory tricks
The three activities — Page, group, neither — Read from the page, recite with the class, then hold the poem on your own.
Learning by heart — Two lines at a time — The rhyme joins them, so the pair is easier to hold than either line alone.
Practice MCQs with answers (20)
- A I and II only
- B II and III only
- C I and III only
- D I, II and III
Show answer
Why:
All three are correct, and the second is why the order is what it is. The page goes, then the group goes, and what is left is one pupil and a memory.
- A Each takes away a support the one before it gave
- B Each one takes a good deal longer than the last one
- C Each is done by a different person
- D Each uses a different poem
Show answer
Why:
Page, then group, then neither.
- A it must be done standing up
- B it is always done by a group
- C it has to be done slowly
- D the words come from memory
Show answer
Why:
The page is closed.
- A The teacher will stop the class
- B Other voices still have it, so they rejoin at the next line
- C Groups always recite more slowly
- D The poem somehow becomes shorter when it is recited in a group
Show answer
Why:
Nobody has to stop.
- A Matching one pace
- B Speaking as loudly as possible
- C Learning twice as many lines
- D Standing in a particular order
Show answer
Why:
Racing ahead is heard at once.
- A Halfway through every line
- B Only at the very end
- C Wherever the teacher signals
- D At the end of each rhyming pair
Show answer
Why:
The pairs supply the stopping points.
- A Copy it out ten times
- B Learn the last line first
- C Two lines at a time
- D One line at a time
Show answer
Why:
The poem is built in six pairs.
- A Two lines are shorter than one
- B The rhyme tells you how the second must end
- C Pairs of lines can be sung instead of being said
- D The first line is always simpler
Show answer
Why:
The sound narrows your choices.
- A side
- B remind
- C behold
- D shows
Show answer
Why:
The rhyme has done half the work.
- A a library
- B a museum in your town
- C the memorial's website
- D your grandparents
Show answer
Why:
Learn about it before you go.
- A It marks a government website, so you know who is answerable
- B It means the website loads faster
- C Only schools are allowed to open it
- D It shows that the whole site was built only a short while ago
Show answer
Why:
Anybody can put a page online.
- A cancel
- B plan
- C describe
- D draw
Show answer
Why:
The planning comes before the going.
- A Your friends, on your own
- B Anybody you meet there
- C Your teacher or your parents
- D Nobody in particular
Show answer
Why:
An adult, in both cases.
- A Choosing what to wear on the day
- B Deciding who will speak first
- C Learning the poem by heart
- D Finding out the opening times
Show answer
Why:
Times, route, and what to see.
- A Shout so everybody hears
- B Quietly, climbing on nothing
- C Take a small stone as a keepsake
- D Run about as in a park
Show answer
Why:
A memorial is not a park.
- A The pairs were split, so the rhyme could not help
- B The poem is too long to learn at all
- C He should have copied the whole poem out first instead
- D He needed to read it silently first
Show answer
Why:
The joins are between pairs, not inside them.
- A Reciting is only for older pupils
- B Reading aloud takes less time
- C Nothing has to be remembered yet
- D Reading aloud is done in silence
Show answer
Why:
One support is removed at a time.
- A So you know what is there before you arrive
- B Because the memorial is closed to visitors
- C Because the website has better pictures
- D So that the visit can be cancelled
Show answer
Why:
Learning first makes the visit worth more.
- A speed up steadily
- B lose the rhyme
- C settle into one pace
- D stop at every line
Show answer
Why:
Nobody wants to be heard alone.
- A Both true, and the reason explains the assertion
- B Both true, but the reason does not explain it
- C The assertion is true and the reason is false
- D The assertion is false and the reason is true
Show answer
Why:
Both are true, but the reason does not explain the assertion. The length of the poem has nothing to do with it. The three activities are reading aloud, reciting and exploring, and writing is not among them.
Important short questions (6)
Read the poem aloud, recite it with your classmates and teacher, and remember it. Each step removes a support: first the page goes, then the other voices, until you hold the poem alone.
Reading aloud keeps your eyes on the page, so nothing has to be remembered. Reciting means the words come from memory instead.
Other voices carry you. If you lose a line, thirty people still have it, and you can rejoin at the next line without stopping anybody.
Learn it two lines at a time, because it is built as six rhyming pairs. The sound at the end of the first line tells you roughly how the second has to finish.
It marks a government website. Anybody can put a page about a monument online, and that ending tells you who is answerable for what it says.
Find the opening times, work out how to get there, and know what there is to see. At the memorial keep your voice low, climb on nothing, take nothing away and leave nothing behind.
Long answer questions (3)
The order takes one support away at a time. Reading the poem aloud is first. It asks almost nothing, because every word is in front of you. Reciting with your classmates and teacher comes next, and here the page is gone but other voices are carrying you. If you lose a line, thirty people still have it, and you can step back in at the next one. Remembering the poem comes last, with no page and no voices. That is why it could not have come first. By then you have heard it in your own voice, and you have said it many times in company.
I would not work through it a line at a time. The poem is built as six rhyming pairs, so I would take one pair as a single piece and learn it whole. That works because the rhyme does half of the job for me. Once I have the first line of a pair, the sound at its end tells me how the second has to finish. The second line is never a blank. The line about the eternal flame ends in glows, and glows already points me towards shows. Then I would join the pairs up in order. That is easier, because every pair closes cleanly before the next begins.
Before going I would visit the official website, the one whose address ends in gov.in. From it I would find out when the memorial is open, how to get there and what there is to see. That ending matters. Anybody can put a page about a monument online, and a government address says who is answerable for it. I would go with my teacher or my parents, as the book says. During the visit I would keep my voice low, climb on nothing, take nothing away and leave nothing behind, because a memorial is not a park. Afterwards I would write down one thing I saw that the poem had not prepared me for.
Flashcards (15)
Play this topic
- The ladder of activities
- Reading aloud, or reciting?
- Say the pair
- Fact or myth?
- Quick round
Class 6 English Chapter 16 — frequently asked questions
A national monument in New Delhi, raised by the Government of India to honour brave soldiers. It was established in February 2019.
Cut into the stone. A written name sits on the surface and could be wiped away, while a cut one is part of the stone itself, which suits a memorial.
Battlefields, skies and oceans wide. They stand for the three services, on land, in the air and at sea.
Two lines that rhyme together. This poem has six of them, stacked one on another with no gaps between them.
Behold and retold, pride and confide, wide and side, glows and shows, mind and remind, remember and forever.
Pride, confide, wide and side. Two couplets carry a single sound, which is the longest run in the poem, and it holds the middle together tightly.
Read the poem aloud, recite it with your classmates and teacher, and remember it. Each step removes a support: first the page goes, then the other voices, until you hold the poem alone.
Reading aloud keeps your eyes on the page, so nothing has to be remembered. Reciting means the words come from memory instead.
Other voices carry you. If you lose a line, thirty people still have it, and you can rejoin at the next line without stopping anybody.
All Class 6 English chapters
All English chapters · Every Class 6 subject · The whole NCERT library
Study this chapter properly, free
Everything above is on this page to read. In the Veda app the same chapter becomes spaced-repetition flashcards, timed tests that mark themselves, Veda Bites you can swipe, and games — with your progress tracked topic by topic.
Get Veda free