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Question
This poem is nothing but a criticism of modern life. Justify this statement.
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Solution
The poet’s understanding of adult society is extremely negative. The poet distinctly portrays how people in modem times have become hypocrites and fake emotions to be socially accepted. The phrases of hospitality they use “feel at home” and “come again,” are fake that a third visit would be disallowed by the hosts. In modem times, people don’t value real emotions; instead, they value positions and possessions. Even while shaking hands, they try to assess the material worth of a person. People don’t laugh with their hearts. Their ice-cold block eyes search the person they talk to. Most of them have acquired the skill of wearing a standard, deceitful, artificial smile on all occasions, i.e., a “portrait smile.” Thus the poem is nothing but criticism of modem life.
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| relearn | adults | facial |
| personal | fangs | child |
| fakes | superficially | duplicity |
| genuine | unlearn | falsity |
| masks | mirror | pleasantries |
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