A Concrete Example

1. About the poet & the poem

‘A Concrete Example’ is a witty poem by Reginald Arkell, who wrote many cheerful, light-hearted poems — several of them about gardens and the people who tend them. It is placed in Unit 1, ‘Wit and Wisdom’, of the Class 8 textbook Poorvi, where every piece celebrates cleverness, humour and sharp thinking.

The poem is a friendly, smiling sketch of a neighbour, Mrs. Jones, and her strange “garden full of stones”. The speaker cannot quite understand why anyone would fill a garden with rocks and tiny, almost invisible plants — yet Mrs. Jones is completely proud and happy with it. The poem turns on a quiet twist at the very end, when the speaker, hunting for a ‘lovely’ flower, is told he is standing on it.

2. The poem (text)

My next-door neighbour, Mrs. Jones, / has got a garden full of stones: / A crazy path, a lily pond, / a rockery and, just beyond / A sundial with a strange device, / which Mrs. Jones thinks rather nice.

My next-door neighbour, Mrs. Jones, / puts little plants between the stones / They are so delicate and small, / they don’t mean anything at all. / I can’t think how she gets them in, / unless she plants them with a pin.

My next-door neighbour, Mrs. Jones, / once asked me round to see her stones. / We stood and talked about a flower / for quite a quarter of an hour. / “Where is this lovely thing?” I cried. / “You’re standing on it,” she replied.

3. Stanza-wise explanation — Stanza 1

The speaker introduces his next-door neighbour, Mrs. Jones, whose garden is, surprisingly, “full of stones” rather than full of flowers. He lists its odd features: a “crazy path” (a path made of irregular, uneven stone slabs), a lily pond, a rockery (a raised arrangement of rocks among which small plants grow), and a sundial with a “strange device” — an old-fashioned clock that uses a shadow to tell time. To the speaker these seem peculiar, but the line “which Mrs. Jones thinks rather nice” shows that she is delighted by all of it. Already we sense a gap between how the speaker sees the garden and how Mrs. Jones sees it.

4. Stanza-wise explanation — Stanza 2

Mrs. Jones tucks “little plants between the stones”. These plants are “so delicate and small” that, to the speaker, “they don’t mean anything at all” — he can barely see them. He cannot even imagine how she manages to fit such tiny plants into the gaps, joking that she must plant them “with a pin”. This exaggeration (hyperbole) is gently comic: it pokes fun at how minute the plants are and how mysterious her gardening seems. Yet there is no cruelty in it — it is the puzzled wonder of someone who simply does not share her taste.

5. Stanza-wise explanation — Stanza 3 (the twist)

One day Mrs. Jones invites the speaker round to see her stones. They stand and talk about a flower for a full quarter of an hour — fifteen minutes of conversation about a single bloom. Eager and a little impatient, the speaker finally cries, “Where is this lovely thing?” Mrs. Jones calmly replies, “You’re standing on it.” This is the poem’s punch line: the very flower he has been searching for is so small that he has been standing on it the whole time without noticing. The ending is funny and full of situational irony — what we expect (finding a grand, obvious flower) is the opposite of what happens.

6. Significance of the title (the pun)

The title ‘A Concrete Example’ is a clever pun — a play on the two meanings of a word.

• Literal meaning: Mrs. Jones’ garden is a real, physical, ‘concrete’ (solid, made of stone) garden — quite literally full of hard surfaces, paths and rocks.
• Symbolic / figurative meaning: ‘A concrete example’ is a common phrase meaning a clear, definite, real-life illustration of something. The poem is a clear example of Mrs. Jones’ unusual, stone-loving gardening habits — and, more widely, of how differently people can see the same thing.

This double meaning gives the title a witty, humorous edge that fits the ‘Wit and Wisdom’ theme of the unit.

7. Theme & message

• People see the world differently: What seems plain, dull or odd to one person can be beautiful and precious to another. The speaker sees only stones; Mrs. Jones sees a garden she loves.
• Respect for individual taste: The poem gently teaches that everyone has the right to enjoy things in their own way. We need not share someone’s taste to respect their happiness.
• Beauty in small things: The tiny flower the speaker overlooks reminds us that small, easily-missed things can be valuable — we should look more carefully at the world.
• Gentle humour, not mockery: The poem smiles at human quirks without insulting anyone. Its lightness is its message — life’s small oddities are to be enjoyed.

8. Characters

Mrs. Jones — The speaker’s next-door neighbour and the subject of the poem. She is fond of an unusual, stone-filled garden and is genuinely proud and content with it (“which Mrs. Jones thinks rather nice”). She enjoys her tiny plants, talks happily about a single flower for fifteen minutes, and is calm and matter-of-fact at the end. She represents people who find joy in their own, individual way and are not troubled by what others think.

The speaker (the neighbour) — A friendly but puzzled and slightly amused observer. He cannot understand Mrs. Jones’ taste, jokes that she plants with a pin, and is impatient to see the ‘lovely’ flower — only to discover it was beneath his feet. He represents the ordinary point of view that fails, at first, to see beauty in the small and unusual.

9. Literary devices

• Pun (in the title): ‘A Concrete Example’ plays on ‘concrete’ as a hard material and as ‘a clear, real illustration’.
• Situational irony: The speaker searches everywhere for the lovely flower — the opposite of what he expects happens: he has been standing on it all along.
• Refrain: The line “My next-door neighbour, Mrs. Jones” opens every stanza, giving rhythm and unity.
• Hyperbole (exaggeration): “unless she plants them with a pin” exaggerates how tiny the plants are, for comic effect.
• Alliteration: Repeated initial sounds, e.g. “puts little plants” and “strange…” / “stones”.
• Imagery: Vivid visual pictures — “a crazy path, a lily pond, / a rockery… A sundial with a strange device” — help us see the peculiar garden.
• Rhyme & metre: Each stanza follows the rhyme scheme AABBCC (rhyming couplets), giving a light, sing-song, comic flow.
• Conversational / dialogue close: The final exchange (“Where is this lovely thing?” / “You’re standing on it”) delivers the humour through direct speech.

10. Word meanings

• Concrete — (1) a hard building material of stone, sand and cement; (2) real, clear and definite.
• Rockery — a raised garden bed made of rocks with small plants growing between them.
• Crazy path — a path made of irregular, uneven flat stones fitted together.
• Lily pond — a small ornamental pool in which water-lilies grow.
• Sundial — an old instrument that tells the time using the shadow cast by the sun.
• Device — a clever mechanism or instrument made for a particular purpose.
• Strange — unusual, peculiar, odd.
• Delicate — very fine, fragile and easily damaged.
• Hedge — a row of bushes forming a boundary or fence (a garden term).
• Sapling — a young, small tree.
• Pebbles — small, smooth, rounded stones.
• Refrain — a line or phrase repeated in each stanza of a poem.
• Hyperbole — a deliberate exaggeration used for effect.
• Irony — a contrast between what is expected and what actually happens.
• Pun — a play on words that have more than one meaning, for humorous effect.
• Lovely — beautiful, charming, delightful.
• Quarter of an hour — fifteen minutes.
• Just beyond — a little further on; slightly past.