A minute, in thirty-six lines
The interest is in who.
Nothing large happens here. An old woman crosses a street with help. The poem spends thirty-six lines on a minute.
📚 Chapter Learning Kit
Somebody’s Mother · Class 8 English · Poorvi
English 3 topics 105 leveled MCQs 51 flashcards 5 games Free
Shared by a Veda teacher · Generated with Veda AI · Oct 2026
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What a stranger could see
Old, ragged, grey, bent, slow.
She is old, ragged and grey, bent by the cold, with feet that are aged and slow. Anybody passing could see she needed help.
A wet street
Fresh snow, and slippery.
The street is wet with snow that has just fallen. Slippery ground is the reason she cannot cross alone.
Lines in pairs
That shape is called a couplet.
The lines come in rhyming pairs. A pair like that is a couplet, and the whole poem is built out of them.
Writing it in letters
AABB, every time.
Give the first line A, and the line that rhymes with it A as well. Rhyming couplets always give AABB.
What the shape does
Steady as footsteps.
The couplet keeps the rhythm steady, like footsteps, and finishes a thought every two lines.
📖 Smart notes
What you'll study, topic by topic
1
The Poem: An Old Woman at the Crossing
An old woman waits to cross a wet winter street. A crowd walks past her, and so does a troop of schoolboys. One boy turns back, offers his arm, and walks her across.
- The poem is by Mary Dow Brine and tells one small event.
- An old woman stands at a crossing on a wet winter day.
- She is described as old, ragged and grey, and bent by the cold.
~32 min · full explanation, examples & memory tricks in the app
2
How the Poem Works: Couplets, Simile, Contrast and Repetition
The poem is built in couplets rhyming AABB. A simile compares the boys to a flock of sheep, a contrast sets trembling feet against firm ones, and a repeated phrase turns a stranger into somebody’s mother.
- A couplet is a pair of lines that belong together, and the poem is written in couplets.
- Each couplet rhymes, so the scheme is AABB.
- Grey rhymes with day, snow with slow, and shout with out.
~34 min · full explanation, examples & memory tricks in the app
3
Words at Work: Shades of ragged, Antonyms, Idioms and Analogies
One word with four meanings, and six antonyms. Six words matched to everyday situations, and a family of idioms built on hand. Five analogies, and the conjunction lest.
- Ragged has four meanings, and only the clothing one fits the poem.
- An antonym is a word of opposite meaning, such as straight for bent.
- Fragile is the opposite of firm, and peaceful of anxious.
~34 min · full explanation, examples & memory tricks in the app
❓ Leveled MCQ practice
Try the smart MCQs from this kit
105 questions laddered from warm-up to topper-level, each with an explanation. A taste:
The whole poem describes ______.
Beginner
A an old woman being helped across a snowy street
B a snowball fight between two groups of schoolboys
C a carriage accident on a winter day
D a mother waiting at a school gate
Show answer & explanation
an old woman being helped across a snowy street
Thirty-six lines are spent on an event that took about a minute.
The opening line sketches the woman in three words before anything at all has happened to her. In the first line the woman is called old, ragged and ______.
Beginner
A frail
B grey
C bent
D tired
Show answer & explanation
grey
Grey is the third word, and it suggests her hair and her years.
What does ragged mean in that line?
Intermediate
A Uneven along its edge
B Breathing with difficulty
C Wearing old and torn clothes
D Extremely tired out
Show answer & explanation
Wearing old and torn clothes
The word has four senses, and only the clothing one fits a woman.
The woman hesitates at the kerb because the surface underfoot has turned treacherous since the weather changed. What has made the street dangerous for her?
Beginner
A A crowd blocking the crossing
B A carriage parked across it
C Darkness falling earlier than usual
D Snow that has just fallen
Show answer & explanation
Snow that has just fallen
Wet snow is slippery, which is why slow feet cannot risk it.
🃏 Flashcards
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51 flashcards in this kit — the app reviews them with spaced repetition so the right card returns on the right day.
🎮 Learning games
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Sequence Builder
Word Match
Fact Or Myth
Memory Match
Categorization
Playable in the app
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