NCERT Book Class 12 English Poetry Blood

Blood

When we were children

My brother and I

And always playing on the sands

Drawing birds and animals

                                          Our great-grandmother said one day,

                                          You see this house of ours

                                          Now three hundred years old,

                                          It’s falling to little bits

Before our very eyes

The walls are cracked and torn

And moistened by the rains,

The tiles have fallen here and there

                                          The windows whine and groan

                                          And every night

                                           The rats come out of the holes

                                           And scamper past our doors 

The snake-shrine is dark with weeds 

And all the snake-gods in the shrine

Have lichen on their hoods.

O it hurts me she cried,

                                           Wiping a reddened eye

                                           For I love this house, it hurts me much

                                           To watch it die.

                                           When I grow old, I said,

And very very rich

I shall rebuild the fallen walls

And make new this ancient house.

My great-grandmother

                                            Touched my cheeks and smiled.

                                           She was really simple.

                                            Fed on God for years

                                            All her feasts were monotonous

For the only dish was always God

And the rest mere condiments.

She told us how she rode her elephant

When she was ten or eleven

                                           Every Monday without fail

                                           To the Siva shrine

                                           And back to home again

                                          And, told us of the jewel box

And the brocade from the north

And the perfumes and the oils

And the sandal for her breasts

Please refer to attached file for NCERT Class 12 English Poetry Blood