Read the poem and answer the questions given below it.
The Dog on the School Steps
He is there before the gates swing wide,
before the watchman finds his keys,
curled on the top step like a doormat,
one ear twitching in the morning breeze.
The little ones step round him gently,
the big boys jump him two at a time.
He will not move for the Principal’s car,
but wakes at the lunch bell’s first chime.
At prayer he lies at the end of a row,
eyes half shut, so still, so good,
till he lets out a long and noisy yawn
and Class Five giggles, as children would.
At lunch he makes his rounds of the benches,
half a roti here, a biscuit there,
thanks each giver with a thump of his tail,
then sleeps it off in the warm noon air.
At four the school spills out of the gates.
He sees the smallest girl to her bus,
then climbs back up to his own top step,
nobody’s dog, and one of us.
What is the central idea of the poem?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → how a street dog that belongs to no one has become a loved part of the school’s day
The poem follows the dog through one school day and shows how the school has taken him in.
- He is there before the gates open, and the little ones “step round him gently”.
- At lunch the children give him “half a roti here, a biscuit there”.
- The last line sums it up: he is “nobody’s dog, and one of us”. No one owns him, but the whole school counts him as its own.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 2: the need for every school to look after the street animals that live around it — Incorrect. Not mentioned: The poem gives no advice to schools. It only shows one dog and one school.
Option 3: the hard life of a street dog that lives on scraps from children — Incorrect. Wrong focus: The dog does eat what children give him, but he is fed, safe and happy. He thumps his tail and “sleeps it off in the warm noon air”.
Option 4: the noise and fun of a school day from the morning gate to the last bus — Incorrect. Wrong focus: The school day is only the setting. Every stanza is about the dog and his place in the school.