Class 11 English 2024 Edition www.tntextbooks.in · Section 27

Children acquire important life skills and values by observing and imitating grown- ups like parents or teachers. Can it be the other way round? Now, you are going to listen to the poem ‘Once Upon a Time’, where a parent wants to learn something from the son. Let’s find out how. Once upon a time, son They used to laugh with their hearts And laugh with their eyes: But now they only laugh with their teeth While their ice-block-cold eyes Search behind my shadow. There was a time indeed They used to shake hands with their hearts But that’s gone, son Now they shake hands without hearts While their left hands search My empty pockets. “Feel at home!”, “Come again”: They say, and when I come Again and feel At home, once, twice There will be no thrice - For then I find doors shut on me. So I have learnt many things, son I have learned to wear many faces Like dresses – home face Office face, street face, host face Cocktail face, with all their conforming smiles Like a fixed portrait smile. And I have learned too To laugh with only my teeth And shake hands without my heart I have also learned to say “Goodbye” When I mean “Good-riddance”: To say “Glad to meet you” Without being glad; and to say “It’s been Nice talking to you”, after being bored. “I h a v e l e a r n e d t o w e a r m a n y f a ce s” -B-Poem-Once upon a - - :