Magnifying Glass: NCERT Class 8 English Poem (Poorvi)

etmantra3 Nov 20267 min read

A scrap of chalk, a patch of moss, a drop of water: things we pass every day without a second look. In this poem, a simple magnifying glass turns them into whole worlds, and students start to see how much there is to notice when they look closely. It is a good poem for curious minds, and for learning simile, metaphor and collective nouns along the way.

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From NCERT’s new English book Poorvi for Class 8, unit “Science and Curiosity”. Unit 5.

What your child learns

Words of wonder: myriad, deft, marvellous, surpass, tigerish, stumble
Collective nouns such as a hive of bees, a swarm of locusts and a fleet of ships
Poetic devices: simile, metaphor, alliteration, personification and the ABCB rhyme scheme
Saying /f/ and /v/ clearly, and writing a conversation with actions in brackets

What the poem is about

The speaker of the poem has a round magnifying glass, and through it ordinary things become extraordinary. A tiny piece of chalk shows countless shells, an inch of moss looks like a whole forest with flowers and trees, and one drop of water seems as busy as a hive of bees. The speaker waits quietly and watches a skilful spider spin silk for its web from its spinnerets. Up close, its claws look fierce like a tiger's, and the poet feels sorry for the silly flies that blunder into its net.

The speaker says there is nothing so small that the glass cannot make it more wonderful. In the last stanza the poem looks up: with lenses like this one, the moon would seem so close that you could walk there in an afternoon. The poem, by Walter de la Mare, has six stanzas of four lines each, with the second and fourth lines rhyming (ABCB). Its feeling is wonder and curiosity, and its message is that close observation reveals hidden marvels everywhere, from a drop of water to the sky.

New words, with Hindi meanings

magnifying glass: a round piece of special glass that makes things look bigger (हिंदी: आवर्धक लेंस)
myriad: a very large number of; too many to count (हिंदी: अनगिनत)
scrap: a small piece of something (हिंदी: टुकड़ा)
moss: a soft, tiny green plant that grows like a carpet on damp walls and stones (हिंदी: काई)
deft: quick, neat and skilful (हिंदी: कुशल, निपुण)
spinnerets: the small parts of a spider's body that give out silk thread (हिंदी: रेशम ग्रंथियाँ)
tigerish: fierce, like a tiger (हिंदी: बाघ जैसा)
stumble: to trip, or to come upon something by mistake (हिंदी: ठोकर खाना)
marvellous: wonderful; filling you with wonder (हिंदी: अद्भुत)
surpass: to go beyond or do better than (हिंदी: आगे निकल जाना)

Talk about it

Ask these aloud after reading or watching. Let your child answer in English if they can, or mix in their home language. Both help.

What does the magnifying glass show the poet in a scrap of chalk, an inch of moss and a drop of water?
What does the poet watch the spider do, and how does the spider look through the glass?
How does the poet feel about his magnifying glass?
Why does the poem end with the moon?
If you had a magnifying glass, what is the first thing you would look at, and why?

Answers for parents

The chalk shows countless tiny shells, the moss looks like a forest of flowers and trees, and the drop of water looks as full and busy as a hive of bees.
He waits and watches the skilful spider shoot out silk for its web from its spinnerets. Its claws look fierce like a tiger's, and the flies that blunder into its net seem silly.
He is fascinated by it. He feels it can make even the tiniest thing more wonderful than it seems.
It shows that lenses can bring far things close as well as make small things big. With lenses like his glass, the moon would seem so near that you could walk there in an afternoon, so curiosity has no limit.
For example: I would look at a butterfly's wing, because I want to see whether its colours are made of tiny dots, and I would draw what I see.

Grammar corner: Collective nouns

A collective noun is a word for a group of people, animals or things taken together, like a hive of bees in the poem. Many groups have their own special word: a swarm of locusts, a troupe of dancers, a fleet of ships. We usually use the pattern 'a ___ of ___', and the right word depends on what the group is.

Under the lens, a colony of ants looked like busy workers in a city.
Through the telescope at the observatory, we saw a constellation of stars.
A team of students in the Science Club built a model of the moon.

Practice at home

Fill in the collective noun: A ___ of soldiers marched past, and a ___ of ships sailed by.
Add -ish to make adjectives: girl → ___, boy → ___, book → ___. Then use one in a sentence.
Say each pair aloud with your hand on your throat: fan / van, fine / vine, few / view. In which word of each pair does your throat buzz?

Answers: 1. battalion, fleet · 2. girlish, boyish, bookish. For example: My bookish cousin reads under a lamp every night. · 3. van, vine and view: the /v/ sound buzzes, the /f/ sound does not.

Try this

Go on a 'look closer' hunt at home. Choose three small things, such as a grain of salt, a leaf, a drop of water on a spoon or the threads of a cloth, and look at each one very closely, with a magnifying glass if you have one. For each, say one sentence with 'like' that compares it to something big, as the poet does: 'The leaf's lines look like rivers on a map.' Then let someone at home guess which thing you were describing.

Tip for parents

Ask your child to tell you in Hindi what the glass shows in each stanza: चॉक में क्या दिखता है, काई कैसी लगती है, मकड़ी क्या करती है. Then ask for the same in English, using the poem's words like myriad, deft and marvellous; mixing in a few Hindi words is fine. For collective nouns, say the Hindi phrase first (मधुमक्खियों का छत्ता, जहाज़ों का बेड़ा) and let your child find the English (a hive of bees, a fleet of ships). Praise each try, even when a word is missing.

Questions parents ask

What is the poem Magnifying Glass about?

It is about the wonder of looking closely. Through a round magnifying glass the speaker sees countless shells in chalk, a forest in moss, a busy world in a drop of water and a spider spinning its web, and imagines that lenses could even make the moon seem close.

Who wrote the poem Magnifying Glass?

The poem is by Walter de la Mare. It has six stanzas of four lines each, with the rhyme scheme ABCB.

Is Magnifying Glass in the new NCERT book?

Yes. It is Chapter 14 of Poorvi, NCERT's new English book for Class 8, in Unit 5 (Science and Curiosity).

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Every chapter of Poorvi, NCERT’s new Class 8 book, with notes in English and Hindi, say-it-aloud practice with a score, listening, grammar, speaking and writing with feedback. ₹1,599 for the whole year.

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