A Funny Man Questions & Answers | Class 7 English | CBSE NCERT

(b) — the stanza clearly states, "He wore a shoe upon his head."

(b) — a shoe belongs on the feet and hats on the head, but the man wears them the opposite way, which is absurd and funny.

(c) — only the second and fourth lines rhyme ("street"/"feet"); "man" and "head" do not rhyme.

hats (the stanza says "And hats upon his feet").

The poet introduces a man doing everything the wrong way round — a shoe on his head and hats on his feet instead of the reverse. This strange, upside-down picture is unexpected, so the reader is surprised and starts smiling right from the beginning.

I would first be astonished and then burst out laughing, because a man with a shoe on his head and hats on his feet is a sight nobody expects on a normal street. I would also be curious to know why he was dressed so oddly and would probably want to talk to him.

(b) — the stanza says he raised the shoe (in place of a hat) and smiled at the poet, which was his way of greeting politely.

(c) — the normal word order is "I had never seen before"; the poet changes the order to keep the rhythm of the line.

(a) — the poet playfully mixes the sense of hearing ("sounding") with the sense of seeing ("sight") to stress how odd the whole experience was.

polite.

Although the man was dressed ridiculously, his behaviour was courteous — he greeted the poet by raising his shoe (as one would raise a hat) and smiled warmly. This shows that good manners and a funny appearance can go together.

It seems he did not care at all — he smiled confidently and went on with his antics without any embarrassment. This suggests he was either unaware of his oddness or happily unconcerned about what people thought of him.

(b) — although he announced a rose, the stanza says he took out a currant bun and held it to her nose.

(b) — "Your Highness" is a royal title, so the man uses exaggerated, courtly politeness to make the meeting comic.

(b) — the phrase is a courteous, formal way of offering something, like a gentleman presenting a gift.

raisin (a small dried seedless grape).

The man makes a grand, royal announcement — presenting "Your Highness" with a rose — but then pulls out an ordinary currant bun and holds it to the poet's nose. The mismatch between his dignified words and his silly action is what makes us laugh.

The poem is a nonsense poem, so the substitution is deliberate: the man lives in his own funny world where a bun is as good as a rose. It is meant purely to surprise the poet and amuse the reader.

(b) — the sudden appearance of a bun at her nose took her by surprise, so she stepped back unsteadily against the wall.

(b) — the poet wittily mixes two senses again: seeing and smelling, calling it a "looking smell" to play along with the man's joke.

(c) — the exclamation shows how astonished she was at the man's ridiculous behaviour.

wall.

The poet staggers back in surprise but does not get angry or rude. Instead, she answers with wit, saying she never saw a rose with such a funny looking smell — she enters into the spirit of the joke.

It shows that the poet is good-humoured and quick-witted. Rather than being annoyed by the nonsense, she replies in the same playful tone, joking about a rose with a "funny looking smell."

(b) — the stanza says he "began to sing a song" and "sat down on the ground" while singing.

(a) — the poet exaggerates to stress how extraordinarily strange the song sounded.

(c) — "ground" and "sound" rhyme, while "song" and "life" do not.

feeling ("a funny feeling sound").

The poet is using exaggeration to emphasise how peculiar and comical the man's song was. It is not meant literally — it simply tells the reader that the sound was unbelievably odd and funny.

It shows that he is completely uninhibited and childlike — he does not care where he is or what people think. He happily performs his song on the street just as he would anywhere else.

(b) — the poet asks, "why do you wear two hats / Upon your feet?"

(c) — instead of answering, he "turned the other way about, / And hopped home on his head."

(a) — the 'h' sound is repeated in "hopped home on his head," creating alliteration.

my friend.

Yes, the ending is perfect for a nonsense poem: the man leaves exactly as absurdly as he arrived — hopping home on his head instead of walking. The humour continues right up to the last line and leaves the reader laughing.

She must have felt amused and amazed at the same time, because she called him "my friend," which shows warmth. His hopping exit would have made her laugh, though perhaps she was also a little sorry that the strange, funny meeting had ended so soon.

The speaker is the poet herself, a passer-by on a street. One day the funny man comes walking down her street, dressed absurdly with a shoe on his head and hats on his feet, and greets her.

The funny man wore a shoe upon his head and hats upon his feet — the exact opposite of normal dressing. When he greeted the poet, he raised the shoe and smiled politely.

The man smiled at the poet, raised his shoe like a gentleman raising his hat, and said "Allow me to present / Your Highness with a rose." These courteous, respectful actions show that his manners were polite despite his odd looks.

He announced that he was presenting "Your Highness with a rose," but he actually took out a currant bun and held it to the poet's nose. The difference between his grand words and his action is the joke.

She staggered back against the wall in surprise. Then she recovered and answered wittily, "Well! I never saw a rose with such / A funny looking smell."

The poet says she never saw "a rose with such a funny looking smell." She cleverly plays along with the man's joke, pretending the bun is a rose and mixing the senses of sight and smell.

After offering the bun, he began to sing a song and sat down on the ground while singing. The poet says no one ever heard in all their life such a funny feeling sound.

Addressing him as "my friend," she asks why he wears two hats upon his feet. It is a direct but good-humoured question about his odd way of dressing.

He does not answer the question at all. He simply turns the other way about and hops home on his head — an exit as ridiculous as everything else he does.

The rhyme scheme of every stanza is abcb — only the second and fourth lines rhyme. One rhyming pair is "street"/"feet" from the first stanza; another is "ground"/"sound."

"And hopped home on his head" repeats the 'h' sound, and "a funny feeling sound" repeats the 'f' sound. Both are examples of alliteration.

The word 'funny' appears in phrases like "funny kind of man," "funny sounding sight," "funny looking smell" and "funny feeling sound." The repetition stresses that everything about the man — his looks, his gift, his song — was laughably strange, and it keeps the light, comic mood alive.

Inversion is the reversal of the normal word order in a line, usually to maintain the rhythm. The line "But never had I seen before / Such a funny sounding sight" is an example, for the normal order would be "I had never seen before."

'Your Highness' is the way one addresses royalty. The man uses this exaggerated title to treat an ordinary passer-by as grandly as a queen, which adds to the polite nonsense of the scene.

Both phrases mix up two different senses — 'sounding' belongs to hearing, 'sight' to seeing, and 'looking' to seeing while 'smell' belongs to the nose. This deliberate confusion of the senses adds to the nonsense humour of the poem.

No, it is not a pure monologue. The poem is mainly the poet's narration, but it includes spoken dialogue as well — the funny man's "Allow me to present / Your Highness with a rose," the poet's "Well!" and her final question, "why do you wear two hats / Upon your feet?"

The poet shows that behaving in a nonsensical, unexpected way can bring joy and laughter to ordinary life. The funny man teaches us that it is fine to be different and playful, as long as no harm is done.

His cheerful self-confidence appeals to me the most. He dresses and acts exactly as he pleases — singing on the ground and hopping home on his head — without worrying about anyone's opinion, and yet he stays polite throughout.

Like clowns and street performers, the funny man dresses in an unusual way (shoe on head, hats on feet) and does unexpected things — offering a bun as a rose, singing on the ground, hopping on his head — to entertain people and make them laugh.

The tone is light, playful and full of good humour. There is no unkindness anywhere — the man is polite, the poet answers wittily instead of rudely, and words like 'funny', 'smiled' and 'my friend' keep the mood cheerful.

The funny man is the most unusual person the poet has ever met. He wears a shoe on his head and hats on his feet, exactly reversing normal dressing. Yet his manners are polished — he smiles, raises his shoe like a hat, and addresses the poet as "Your Highness." He offers a currant bun as if it were a rose, sings a song sitting on the ground, and finally hops home on his head. He is courteous, cheerful, uninhibited and completely indifferent to what the world thinks of him.

Throughout the poem, the poet deliberately confuses the five senses to create nonsense humour. She speaks of a "funny sounding sight" (hearing + seeing), a "funny looking smell" (seeing + smelling) and a "funny feeling sound" (feeling/emotion + hearing). These impossible combinations perfectly capture how overwhelming and confusing — yet delightful — the encounter was, and each phrase makes the reader smile.

The title suits the poem because every stanza describes something 'funny' about the man — his dress, his gift, his song and his exit. The whole poem is built around his funny personality. An alternative title could be 'The Man Who Hopped Home' because his hopping exit on his head is the most memorable image of the poem.

If the man dressed normally — hat on head, shoes on feet — there would be no surprise, no inverted world and nothing to laugh at. The poet's astonished reactions ("never had I seen before," "You never heard in all your life") would have no cause, and the wit of phrases like "funny looking smell" would disappear. The poem would become an ordinary, unremarkable street encounter instead of a comic one.

The man first walks down the street in his absurd dress and greets the poet by raising the shoe and smiling politely. He then grandly announces a rose for "Your Highness" but holds a currant bun to her nose instead. When she staggers back and answers wittily, he sits down on the ground and sings a strange song. Finally, when she asks why he wears two hats on his feet, he turns around and hops home on his head without answering.

The funny man is ridiculous in appearance and action, but never rude. He smiles at the poet, uses the respectful phrase "Allow me to present," and honours her with the royal title "Your Highness." The poet, likewise, is startled but answers with wit rather than anger, and finally calls him "my friend." Thus, both characters remain warm and courteous while the situation remains delightfully absurd.

The dialogues make the encounter come alive, like a short comic scene being played before our eyes. The man's grand, courtly words contrast with his silly actions, and the poet's short exclamations ("Well!") and her friendly question give us her side of the conversation. The dialogue form adds drama and makes the humour sharper and more immediate.

The poet exaggerates to tell us that the man's song was the strangest sound imaginable — one that nobody in a whole lifetime would have heard. Similar exaggeration appears in "never had I seen before / Such a funny sounding sight." This hyperbole is not meant to be taken literally; it simply magnifies the oddness of the man so that the reader's amusement also grows.

His silence actually completes the poem. A sensible answer would have ended the nonsense and made the man seem ordinary; instead, he responds with his most absurd act yet — hopping home on his head. The unanswered question keeps his character mysterious and leaves the reader laughing at the unexpected ending, which is exactly what a nonsense poem should do.

Like the funny man, characters in nonsense verse defy logic and expectation. They wear impossible clothes, perform impossible actions (hopping on the head, singing on the ground), and treat absurd things (a bun for a rose) as perfectly normal. The common qualities are playful imagination, freedom from rules, and a gentle, harmless kind of humour that delights readers of every age.

The funny man is a creation of pure nonsense humour, yet he is drawn with remarkably consistent traits. First, he is odd in appearance: he wears "a shoe upon his head / And hats upon his feet," the exact reverse of ordinary dressing. Secondly, he is genuinely well-mannered: he "smiled" at the poet, raised the shoe as a gentleman raises his hat, and used the courtly words, "Allow me to present / Your Highness with a rose." Thirdly, he is playful and imaginative — he offers a currant bun as though it were a rose, entering happily into his own joke. Fourthly, he is uninhibited: he sits down on the ground in the middle of a street and sings a song "such a funny feeling sound" that "you never heard in all your life." Finally, he is mysterious and free-spirited: asked a simple question about the hats on his feet, he gives no answer at all but "turned the other way about, / And hopped home on his head." Politeness, playfulness, confidence and complete disregard for convention make him an unforgettable comic character.

The central theme of the poem is the joy of nonsense — the idea that absurdity, when it is gentle and harmless, can brighten ordinary life. The poet develops this theme step by step. In the first two stanzas, she creates an upside-down world through the man's clothes — shoe on the head, hats on the feet — and calls it a "funny sounding sight." In the third and fourth stanzas, she adds courteous nonsense: the man's royal address "Your Highness" followed by the comic offer of a bun as a rose, which the poet answers with her own witty nonsense about a "funny looking smell." In the fifth stanza, the nonsense becomes musical with the strange song sung sitting on the ground. The final stanza crowns it all — instead of answering a question, the man hops home on his head. Through this build-up, the poem shows that laughter needs no logic; a little silliness, offered politely, can turn an ordinary street into a stage of delight.

The poem quietly teaches several values. First, good manners matter even in fun: the funny man "smiled," raised his shoe politely and said "Allow me to present," proving that courtesy costs nothing, however odd the situation. Secondly, the poem teaches tolerance and an open mind — the poet never mocks or scolds the strange man; she staggers back in surprise but then answers with wit and finally calls him "my friend," showing kindness to someone different. Thirdly, it celebrates the courage to be oneself: the man dresses, sings and travels exactly as he pleases, "unaware" or unafraid of public opinion. Lastly, it shows the value of humour itself — the poet's "funny looking smell" remark demonstrates that a playful response to a playful situation creates joy for both sides. Together, these values tell us to be polite, kind to those who are different, brave enough to be ourselves, and always ready to smile.

The poem proves that a few minutes of nonsense can refresh an ordinary day. Before the funny man arrives, the poet is simply walking down her street; by the end of the encounter she has smiled, staggered, laughed and made a new "friend." Nothing of practical value has happened — no problem is solved, no lesson of arithmetic is learned — yet the poet is clearly delighted, describing each moment as something "you never heard in all your life." In my own life, I have felt the same effect: a silly joke shared in the classroom, a younger sibling's funny antics, or a comedian's act instantly lifts a tired or gloomy mood. Doctors too agree that laughter relaxes the body and reduces stress. The funny man, with his bun-for-a-rose and his head-hop exit, is a reminder that we should keep small doses of laughter in every day, because happiness of this kind is free and available to everyone.

Picture the Annual Day programme in full swing when suddenly, through the gate, walks a man with a shoe on his head and hats on his feet. A ripple of giggles runs across the ground as he politely raises the shoe to greet the Principal! He walks up to the front, bows before the chief guest, and says grandly, "Allow me to present Your Highness with a rose" — and offers her a soft currant bun instead. The chief guest laughs, the teachers smile despite themselves, and the students cheer loudly. Then he sits down cross-legged on the stage and sings his strange "funny feeling sound" song; soon the whole school is clapping to the beat. A student bravely asks, "Why do you wear two hats upon your feet?" — and without a word, the man turns about and hops away on his head, right through the middle of the amazed audience. For weeks afterwards, the whole school talks of nothing else, and the funny man becomes the most beloved memory of that Annual Day.

The poet's devices work together like the gears of a laughter machine. Alliteration gives the lines a bouncy music that sounds comic in itself — "hopped home on his head" with its hopping 'h' sounds, and "a funny feeling sound" with its fizzing 'f' sounds, make the actions seem even sillier. Inversion, the reversal of normal word order, appears in "But never had I seen before / Such a funny sounding sight"; the twisted grammar mirrors the twisted world of the man with a shoe on his head, and keeps the rhythm dancing. Hyperbole (exaggeration) enlarges everything to cartoon size: the poet claims "You never heard in all your life / Such a funny feeling sound" and that she "never saw a rose with such / A funny looking smell." Added to these are the mixed-sense phrases ('sounding sight', 'looking smell') that confuse the reader's senses just as the man confused the poet. Together, the devices make the absurdity musical, rhythmic and memorable — which is why the poem still makes readers laugh.

A close reading shows that the poet's amusement ripened into genuine enjoyment and affection. Initially she is simply astonished: she staggers back against the wall and can only say "Well!" But her very next words — "I never saw a rose with such / A funny looking smell" — show that she chooses to join the game rather than stand apart from it. She calls the strange sounds "funny" rather than irritating, and describes the song as "a funny feeling sound," as if the laughter had touched her feelings as well as her ears. Most tellingly, in the last stanza she addresses the man as "My friend," a warm word for someone she has known for barely a few minutes. Her final question — "why do you wear two hats / Upon your feet?" — is asked gently, out of curiosity and friendliness, not ridicule. Therefore, the poet was not a distant, mocking observer; she was a charmed participant who came away from the meeting with a smile and, perhaps, a story to tell with delight for the rest of her life.