Analytical Questions — 6 Marks Each

Answer: The people who pass the old woman are not described as openly cruel. They simply fail to “heed” her anxious eyes and continue on their way. The schoolboys are cheerful, not malicious, yet most of them also hurry past without a helping hand. The helpful boy is different because he pauses and notices. Once he gives the woman his attention, the correct action becomes obvious. This suggests that empathy begins before the act of helping: it begins with seeing another person’s fear and treating it as important. The poem therefore criticises indifference more than deliberate cruelty and presents attention as the first step towards humanity.

Answer: The incident is simple: an old woman cannot cross a slippery street, and one boy helps her. Yet the poem expands this moment through the boy’s reasoning. He sees the woman as “somebody’s mother” and imagines his own mother becoming old when he is far away. This turns one crossing into a larger question: who will care for vulnerable people when their own families are absent? The answer offered by the poem is a compassionate society in which strangers are willing to help one another. The street crossing therefore becomes an example of how everyday civic kindness supports human dignity.

Answer: The poem begins with sympathy: the woman is old, ragged and bent by the cold. Anxiety grows as she waits alone, people ignore her, and the slippery street and traffic create danger. The boys bring a temporary burst of lively energy, but their failure to help keeps the tension. Hope enters with “At last” when one boy stops. The crossing creates relief, and the boy’s happiness adds warmth. His explanation about his mother makes the poem reflective, while the woman’s prayer creates a quiet, grateful ending. The emotional movement therefore mirrors the moral movement from neglect to connection.

Answer: The boy begins with a feeling most people understand: concern for one’s own mother. Instead of keeping that concern private, he uses it to understand a stranger. He helps the old woman because she is “somebody’s mother” and because he hopes someone would help his own mother if he were far away. The woman then mirrors this thought by calling him “somebody’s son”. Through these two phrases, private family love becomes a reason to treat unknown people with dignity and care. The poem suggests that society becomes humane when the concern we feel for family is extended beyond family.