Appreciation of the poem 'Newton’s Law' Nandita Das’s poem Newton’s Law is all about a childhood memoir spiced up with a generous amount of humour. It also pokes an unintended pun on the dry scientific facts that children are forced to swallow in their formative years. If the curiosity is not aroused or inquisitiveness not rewarded, children would only take a morbid interest and it would result in passive listening. Scenes of similar ones may occur in everyone’s life. The poet ,with her brave selection of words ,expresses her embarrassment she once had in her school days. She wasn’t attentive and was caught red handed by her teacher, whom she was too scared of .She couldn’t lift her head up. Neither could she open up her mouth to speak up. She was asked to explain to the class Newton’s law of gravity and mass. she could hear her heart pounding louder and louder and she searched in vain for an answer on the blank walls of her mind. Mustering up courage ,she stood up and tried to tongue the word ‘gravity'.But the next moment ,she fell off the stage on to the floor. Amidst the loud roar of her classmates’ laughter she heard her teacher’s words that she has demonstrated gravity with much levity. She was in a real hell. Her friends couldn’t understand the pain she was going through. She had to go back to her seat with much shame .They were applauding ceaselessly. That shameful event made her not to wander again in the class. At a later stage she could laugh it off. The poem brings to mind the free spirited souls chained up in a class room and their imagination is held captive. They are forbidden to stride outside the classroom and are forced to take in much of those things which they couldn’t actually digest.,Childhood, is a fantasy world where everyone ,woulld want to slip into magical spells as Alice did ,devoid of parental restrictions .The poem is but a sweet memory lozenger shared. At he end of thee day, everything childhood offers is too sweet.

Prepared by

Jisha. K HSA(English) G.H.S.S Kattilangadi, Tanur

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