Maps
Understanding the Poem
1. Maps help us to dream happily of unknown places and
unseen things. They help us plan and go on exciting
adventures. They make us feel fascinated about every place
we can travel to and discover. That is how they are related to
high adventure and bright dreams.
2. Maps remind the speaker of ships, stars, markets, ice floes
and aeroplanes.
3. The speaker mentions train maps, maps of wind and
weather, and road maps.
4. a. Maps have been called magic wands because they seem
to have a magical power similar to magic wands. Magic wands
can easily transport us elsewhere or change one thing into
another. Maps can help us imagine different places so well that
it feels as if we are there, and they can make ordinary things
like ice and markets feel wonderful and exciting because they
are far away and unknown. b. A person who stays at home can
be a vagabond—he or she can travel to different places—by
reading about and imagining different places. In one’s
imagination, one can move from markets to ice floes, ships to
aeroplanes in a matter of seconds, all the while sitting at home.
And maps can help one do that.
Appreciating the Poem
1. a. Maps may not seem very mighty at first because a map
may just look like a piece of paper with some lines drawn and
some names written on it.
b. The poem argues that maps are, in fact, important, as they
give us information about trains, roads, wind and weather.
Without this information, we wouldn’t be able to know so much
about different places. Maps are also magical because they
help us imagine things that are not mentioned in the maps
themselves but can be found in the places that the maps
mention, such as ships and strange markets and ice floes.
2. The line ‘Ships that follow leaning stars’ draws a picture of
ships sailing under a night sky full of stars, as if the stars are
showing the way to the ships. This adds an element of mystery
and adventure to the ships. The line ‘Red and gold of strange
bazaars’ uses three words to make markets sound attractive—
strange (we think of unknown and unseen bazaars rather than
those we have seen already), red and gold (What could be the
things that have these bright colours and are sold at these
markets?). It also uses the word, bazaar, rather than, market, to
make it sound a little more unfamiliar and curious. ‘Ice floes hid
beyond all knowing’ makes us imagine a strange, wintry land
where many big things are hidden from sight and are waiting to
be discovered by us. Finally, the line ‘Planes that ride where
winds are blowing!’ reminds us that aeroplanes travel to many
different places, as if carried there by winds like paper-planes,
and there will always be new places to discover.
3. Suggested answer (accept any logical answer): A book or a
painting may look simple and humble on the surface, but it can
fire our imagination by talking about or showing us strange,
wonderful or even imaginary places, people and things.
