NCERT Solutions: The Shed

Answer the following questions.

Q1: (i) Who is the speaker in the poem?
Ans: The speaker in the poem seems to be a little boy who talks about a shed which is at the bottom of his garden.

(ii) Is she/he afraid or curious, or both?
Ans: He/she is both afraid and curious. Whenever he passes by the window of the shed, he feels that somebody is staring at him. This suggests that he is afraid to go inside. However, after describing each part of the shed with its strange sounds and other descriptions, he says that he would go inside the shed one day. This shows his curiosity. He wants to know if all the things his brother had told him are true or not and whether there is any ghost inside the shed or not. That is why he is a little afraid but a lot more curious.

(iii) What is she/he planning to do soon? 
Ans: She/he is planning to go inside the shed soon.

(iv) “But not just yet…” suggests doubt, fear, hesitation, laziness or something else. Choose the word which seems right to you. Tell others why you chose it.
Ans: “But not just yet…” suggests the speaker’s hesitation. He is unsure about the existence of a ghost in the shed and is influenced by the stories his brother tells. Nobody is staring or making strange noises. Also, there is no more a spider on that web on the main door. However, there is some fear inside him as he still cannot muster enough courage to set foot inside the shed even though he listens to the noises coming from the shed every night and has also passed by the shed many times. This shows that his curiosity is mixed with a certain amount of fear and therefore, he hesitates to go inside the shed as yet.