(i) - Repetition of certain lines.
- He couldn't wait, eh?
- begged, begged (½ mark)
- For the child of my mother (½ mark)
- Repetition of the interjection 'eh' (½ mark) - The equal length of lines (1 mark) - Alliteration (½ mark) my mother (½ mark)
(ii) My (1 mark) to signal that it isn't any other and my closeness with the girl in question
Sound patterns
e.g. - Alliteration - for the child of my mother - Assonance e.g. that man begged
- Consonance - He begged and begged
marto answered the question on April 4, 2019 at 06:10
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow: Old and New. She went up the mountain to pluck wild herbs(Solved)
Old and New
She went up the mountain to pluck wild herbs,
She came down the mountain and met her former husband,
She knelt down and asked her former husband,
What do you find your new wife like?
My new wife, although her talk is clever,
Cannot charm me as my old wife could,
In beauty of face there is not much to choose,
But in usefulness they are not at all alike,
My new wife comes in from the road to meet me,
My old wife always came down from her tower.
My new wife is clever at embroidering silk;
My old wife was good at plain sewing.
Of silk embroidery one can do an inch a day;
Of plain sewing, more than five feet.
Putting her silks by the side of your sewing,
I see that the new will not compare with the old.
Anonymous 1st Century B.C
Questions
a. What is the poem about? (3 marks)
b. With illustrations identify one similarity and difference in the two wives. (4 marks)
c. Comment on any two poetic devices used in the poem. (6 marks)
d. Explain the meaning of the following lines.
'My new wife, although her talk is clever, cannot charm me as my old wife' (3 marks)
e. Identify aspects of social life noticeable in the poem. (3 marks)
f. What is the tone of the poem?
Date posted: April 4, 2019. Answers (1)
- Paraphrase the poem below with about 60 words. Ibadan.running splash of rust and gold - flung and scattered among seven hills like broken China in the sun.(Solved)
Paraphrase the poem below with about 60 words.
Ibadan.
running splash of rust
and gold - flung and scattered
among seven hills like broken
China in the sun.
Date posted: April 3, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the song below and then answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
Read the song below and then answer the questions that follow.
Death
There is no needle without piercing point
There is no razor without trenchant blade
Death comes to us in many forms
With our feet we walk the goat’s earth
With our hands we touch God’s sky
Some future day in the heat of noon,
I shall be carried shoulder high
Through the village of the dead
When I die, don’t bury me under forests trees,
I fear their thorns
Bury me under the great shade trees in the market,
I want to hear the drums beating
I want to feel the dancer’s feet.
i. Explain how good artist would involve the audience in the audience of thus song (2 mks)
ii. How would you make line 4 – 12 more effective as you perform the song to an audience (4 mks)
iii. Mention three ways in which you would expect the audience to react during the presentation of this song (3 mks)
D) Your house was broken into last night and your friend come to comfort you the following day and wants to know what happened. Below is the conservation. Fill in the blanks appropriately (6
mks)
Japeth : I’m sorry to hear about the break in at your house. Was anybody hurt?
You: …………………………………………………………………………
Japeth : What happened? Did you hear the thugs breaking?
You: ……………………………………………………………………….
Japeth : Did your father open the door?
You: ……………………………………………………………………..
Japeth : What did you do?
You : …………………………………………………………………….
Japeth : Did they steal anything? How did they carry the TV’s decks and fridge?
You: ………………………………………………………………………..
Japeth : Who untied you after they left?
You: ………………………………………………………………………..
Date posted: April 3, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
Bananas ripe and green and ginger- root,
Cocal in pads and alligator pears,
And tangerines and mangoes and grapefruits,
Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs.
Set in the window, bringing memories,
Of fruits- trees raden by low- singing rills,
And deny dawns and mystical blue skies
In benediction over non- like hills
My eyes grew dim, and I could no more gaze,
A wave of longing thought my body swept,
And, hungry for the old, familiar ways,
I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.
(Claude Mckay)
(i) How does the poet achieve rhythm in the poem above? (3 mks)
(ii) Identify and comment on the rhyme scheme (2 mks)
(iii) Which words would you stress in the last line of the poem? Why? (2 mks)
(B) Construct two sentences using each of the following words. In the first sentence use the word as a verb and the second as a noun
(i) Record
(ii) Disgrace
(iii) Present
(iv) Refuse
Date posted: April 3, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
THE EAGLE
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Rung’d with azure world, he stands
The wrinkled sea beneath with crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls
a)(i) Identify two sound patterns employed in the poem (2 mks)
(ii) What has the poet achieved by use of the patterns above? (2 mks)
(iii) Which word would you stress in the last line and why? (2 mks)
(iv) What gesture would you use while reciting line 1 of the poem? (2 mks)
b. A small woman who cooks better than your mother. Answer. Bee,
(i) Identify the above genre (1mark)
(ii) Translate into English, an example of the genre you identified in (i) above using the correct format (3 mks)
(c) Write, another word with similar pronunciation as these (5 mks)
i. Time
ii. Aren’t
iii. Need
iv. Weigh
v. Aural
Date posted: April 3, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.
This is the voice of people
From the people to some people
From the hillocks and the steeple
This voice will cause a ripple
For it is the voice of the people
From the hills together we have sung
As children in the swings we have swung
We have cherished cheerfully our youth
Now it’s Bang! Bang! Bang!
And pangas causing pangs
We are tired
We are tired my people
Hearken this voice of the people!
(a)
(i) Explain four features of style the writer has used to achieve rhythm (4 mks)
(ii) Which line would you emphasize in this poem and why? (2 mks)
(iii) Describe the rhyme in the first stanza (2 mks)
(b) Give words that are pronounced the same as each of the following (5 mks)
(i) Way
(ii) Tide
(iii) Him
(iv) Sail
(v) Flu
(c) Circle the silent letter for each of these words
-Thump
- Solemn
-Parliament
- Snatch
Date posted: April 3, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow(Solved)
Success is Counted sweetest (By Emily Dickinson)
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need
Not one of all the purple host
Who took the flag today
Can tell the definition
So clear of victory
As he defeated - dying –
On those forbidden ear
The distant strains of triumph
Burst agonized and clear
(a). Describe the rhyme scheme of this poem. (2 mks)
(b). Which words would you emphasize in a stanza one and why? (3 marks)
(c). i) Which words have an imperfect rhyme in the poem? (1 mark)
ii) A student play will be followed an awards dinner honoring students who have served both your school and the surrounding community. The mayor has been invited and will attend. You have been asked as the entertainment prefect to pass a vote of thanks on this day.
What non- verbal clues will make your speech effective? (4 mks)
Date posted: April 3, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow. Adam's song(Solved)
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow. Adam's song
Come live with and be my love
Come romp with me in Eden's grave
In unabated joy, not shy
But unbashed by nudity
Where you can bare - sans shame - your
breast
Until the fell forbidden feast
Thereafter I shall toil and sweat
To earn whatever bread we eat
And you, in bearing children, shall
Know pain and suffering
The fall will bring us sickness, death and
fear
Embarrassment and underwear
(For which fig.donates its leaf)
And poets who are surely deaf
Bob Mckerity
(i). Describe the rhyme scheme of this poem. (2 marks)
(ii). Other than rhyme, identify and illustrate two sound devices used in this poem. How effectively have they been used? (2 marks)
(iii). Which words would you stress in the first and last lines? Explain.
(2 marks)
Date posted: April 3, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the following oral poem and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
Read the following oral poem and answer the questions that follow.
After a brief struggle I got myself a job;
My food was meat and banana flour.
A hundred ants a month and soon I had some
Money
Soon after wards I bought myself a beautiful girl.
My heart was telling time this was a fortune,
So heart you were deceiving me and I believed you.
On a Saturday morning I was leaving work;
I was thinking I was being awaited at home.
But on arrival! couldn't find my bride.
Nor was she in her parents' home
I run fast to a river valley;
What I saw gave me a shock –
There was my wife conversing
With her lovers.
I sat and silently wept;
I realized there was no lack
In this world
People are not trustworthy and
will never be
Girls are not trustworthy and
will never be!
1. Place this song in its appropriate genre
2. State and illustrate two functions of this song.
3. What evidence is there to show that this is an oral poem? Give two illustrated features.
4. If you were to do a solo performance of this oral poetry what elements would you emphasize on?
5. What is the singer’s attitude towards his subject(s) in this song?
6. Give two character traits of the singers.
7. Give this oral poem an appropriate title.
Date posted: April 2, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
The road not taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both .
And be on traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.
And both that morning equally lay,
In leaves no step had trodden black,
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh,
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood and I
I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference.
(Robert Frost)
(a) What is the poem about? (4 marks)
(b) Identify and explain any two used in the poem. (4 marks)
(c) Explain the meaning of the following lines (6 marks
i) Because it was grassy and wanted wear',
ii) Oh, I kept the first for another day!'
iii) 'And that has made all the difference'
d) The title, of the poem can be interpreted in two different ways. Give the two possible illustrations. (4 marks)
Date posted: April 2, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow:(Solved)
Love
Love is madness
Hard brutal madness
Love is fire
Hot blazing
Love is a chameleon
a camouflaged dangerous chameleon
Hot fiery Love
I beg you ------------
Put out your blazing flame,
Because I desire to feel you.
Hard remorseless love
Please change your stance.
Before the fire of my youth
is quenched.
(From the African saga by Susan N. Kigali)
a) Explain in your own words what the poem says about love. (4 mks)
b) Identify and explain the image used to describe love (6 mks)
c) What effect does the persona create by addressing (apostrophizing?) love directly in the last stanza? (4 mks)
d) Explain the irony of the last two lines: Before the fire of my youth is quenched (3 mks)
e) Explain the meaning of the following
i) brutal
ii) Camouflaged
iii) Remorseless
Date posted: April 2, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.
Crazy Peter Prattles
So what is the mountain deal
About the minister's ailing son
That he makes boiling news?
How come it was not whispered
When Tina's hospital bed crawled with maggots
And her eyes oozed pus
Because the doctors lacked gloves?
What about Kasajja's only child
Who died because the man with the key
To the oxygen room was on leave?
I have seen queues
of emaciated mothers clinging to
babies with translucent skins
faint in line
and the lioness of a nurse
Commanding tersely
"Get up or leave the line".
Didn't I hear it rumoured that
the man with the white mane
and black robes
whose mouth stores the justice of the land
ushered a rape case out of court
because the seven year old
failed to testify?
Anyway, I only remember these things
when I drink
they are indeed tipsy explosions.
["Crazy Peter Prattles" by Susan Nalugwa Kiguli in Echoes Across the valley: Ed. Auther I. Luvai and Kwamchetsi Makokha]
a) What problems are highlighted in the poem about the state of health care?
(2 mks)
b) What is the significance of the rhetorical question in the first stanza?
(3 mks)
c) Pick out any two images in this poem and explain their significance.
(4 mks)
d) i) Identify the problem that the fifth stanza deals with (2 mks)
ii) How does this connect with the problems in the previous stanzas?
(3 mks)
e) Explain the meaning of the following words a they are used in the poem
(3 mks)
(i) oozed
(ii) emaciated
(iii) translucent
f) What is the significance of the last stanza (3 mks)
Date posted: April 2, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.
My little sister likes to try my shoes,
to strut in them
admire her spindle- thin twelve- year old legs
In this season's styles.
She says they fit perfectly,
But wobbles
On their high heels, they're
hard to balance
I like to watch my little sister
playing hopscotch, admire the
neat hops-and -skips of her,
their quick peck,
never missing their mark, not
over-stepping the line
She is competent at peever.
I try to warn my little sister
about unsuitable shoes,
Point out my own distorted feet, the callouses,
Odd patches of hard skin.
I should not like to see her
In my shoes
I wish she would stay
Sure footed
Sensible shod
(By Liz Lochhead in poem 1, ed. Celeste flower. Singapore: Longman, 1995.)
a) Why does the little sister try the persona's shoes? (3 mks)
b) How do we know from the first stanza that the shoes don't fit? (1 mk)
c) Why does the persona like watching her younger sister play hopscotch?
(4 mks)
d) In the third stanza, the persona gives us new reasons why her little sister should not wear her shoes. What are these reasons? (2 mks)
e) What is the message of this poem? (5 mks)
f) Describe the tone of the poem? (3 mks)
g) Explain the meaning of the following lines; I should not like to see her in my shoes (2 mks)
Date posted: April 2, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.
Touch by High Lewin.
When I get out
I'm going to ask someone
To touch me
Very gently please
And slowly
Touch me
I want
To learn again
How life feels.
I've not been touched
For seven years
for seven years
I've been untouched
out of touch
and I've learnt
to know now
the meaning of
untouchable.
Untouched - not quite
I can count the things
that have touched me.
One: fists
At the beginning
fierce mad fists
beating beating
till I remember
screaming
don't touch me
please don't touch me.
Two: paws
The first four years of paws
everyday
patting paws, searching
- arms up, shoes off
legs apart
prodding paws, systematic
heavy, indifferent
probing away
all privacy.
I don't want fists and paws
I want
to want to be touched
again
and to touch
I want feel alive
again
I want to say
when I get out
Here I am
please touch me.
(From poets to the people, edited by Barry Feinberg)
a) Where do you think the persona is? Briefly explain your answer (3mks)
b) What do you think the persona means by "touch"? (3 marks)
c) Using two illustrations, describe the persona’s experience during the seven years. (4 marks)
d) What is the significance of the word "paws"? (2 marks)
e) Which device does the poet use to reinforce the theme? (2 marks)
f) Explain the meaning of the following words as they are used in the poem:
(2 marks)
g) What does the poem reveal about human need? (4 marks)
Date posted: April 2, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and then answer the questions that follow:(Solved)
Read the poem below and then answer the questions that follow
"Sympathy"
I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opens,
And the faint perfume from its petals steals-
I know what the caged bird feels!
I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he rather would be on the branch a swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting-
I know why he beats his wing!
I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his blossom sore;
When he beats his bars and would be free;
It is not a song of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to heaven he flings –
I know why the caged bird sings!
(Adapted from the poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar in America Negro Poetry, edited by Arna Bontemps. New York: Hill and Waug 1974.)
(a). Explain briefly what the poem is about (3 mks)
(b). What does the poet focus on in each of the three stanzas? Give your
answer in note form. (6 mks)
(c). How would you describe the persona's feelings towards the caged bird?
(4 mks)
(d). What can we infer about the persona's own experiences? (3 mks)
(e). Identify a simile in the first stanza and explain why it is used. (2 mks)
(f). Explain the meaning of the following lines
(i). And the faint perfume from its petals steals. (1 mark)
(ii). And they pulse again with a keener sting. (1 mark)
Date posted: April 2, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
The Brewing Night
It was that memorable night when I heard it.
Yes, I heard it all.
That night sleep deserted me,
Mocked at me and tantalized me;
So I lay awake, sharp in all my senses.
It was long past midnight:
Time dragged on, the clock wouldn't chime;
The dog wouldn't bark, nor the babies cry;
It was a moonless and windless night;
The whole universe seemed to stagnate
In dark, dreary, dead slumber
What was amiss? I knew not.
The dead quietness and solitude
Seemed to be eternal, - but
Waves of babbling and muttering
Began to trickle through the streets;
A distant roaring if heavy trucks filled the air,
Hurried footsteps echoed through the street.
What was a miss? I knew not.
I pulled my curtain
And there I saw it all
Heavy boots thick uniforms and solid helmets
Dimly discernible under the pale street lamp
The atmosphere stood stiff and solid with
Browny - faced and clenched-teeth determination.
The night had pused with passions high and wild;
The streets were stained with new portraits framed;
The wheel changed hands and new plans were filled.
The morning saw the country strangely dressed
And everyone attended the rally.
To hear the eloquence from a strange face,
And everyone quietly nodded and said, 'yes'
(By Yusuf O. Kassam, in poem from East Africa.)
(a) Explain what the poem is about
(b) ln what way was the night described in the poem peculiar?
(c) What was amiss? I knew not. (Rewrite as one sentence beginning: I did)
(d) Paraphrase in one sentence what the persona saw when he or she pulled curtain to see.
(e) What is the significance of stanza two?
(f) Explain the meaning of the title.
Date posted: April 2, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.
Betrothed by Obyero Qdhiambo
The bride, they said
Had gone through school
Primary secondary university upwards
Three thousand shillings is not enough
For having fed her
schooled her
employed her
Three thousand shillings is not enough
For having borne her
Cared for her
doctored her
And "she is pure"
Three thousand shillings is not enough
Look at her silky black hair
Darker and finer than that
Flywhisk there
Look at her forehead, a
nice wide trace between
hair line and eyes:
"She is immensely intelligent".
Look at her eyes .Yes, look again
Two diviners' cowries spread out
Symbolically on the divination mat
Deep profound intelligent
Look at those lips "ndugu"- - - - -
Three thousand shillings is not enough
even to shake her by the hand.
"Fathers, this is what we walked with!
Three thousand shillings
As a token of our
Love
For your daughter and you
Our intended kin
It was just a token
the size of a token does not reflect
The size of the heart that bringeth it
My heart is full to the brim with
Love
For her and you my intended kin"
But young man, you say, you love
And you possible expect love
But, young man, don't you
Don't you really feel
Three thousand shillings is not enough
even to get love?
Three thousand is not enough!
(From an ‘Anthology of East Africa Poetry’ Editing by A.D Amateshe, Longman, UK 1988)
1. Briefly explain what the poem is about? (2 mks)
2. Which qualities make the bride such a special person according to her kin?
(4 mks)
3. Identify the adjectives in the comparative degree. 2 mks)
4. Identify the metaphor in the fifth stanza and explain it’s meaning
(4 mks)
5. Why do you think the line "Three thousand shillings is not enough" is repeated several times? (2 mks)
6. How would you describe the bride's kin? Illustrate your answer (4 mks)
7. What do we learn about the society from this poem? (2 mks)
Date posted: April 2, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.
CITY LIFE
When I am in a great city, I know that I despair.
I know there is no hope for us, death waits, it is useless to care,
For oh the poor people, that are flesh of my flesh,
I, that am flesh of their flesh,
When I see the iron hooked into their faces
their poor, their fearful faces
I scream in my soul, for I know I cannot
Take the iron hooks out of their faces, that make them so drawn,
Nor cut the invisible wires of steel that pull them.
Back and forth, to work,
Back and forth to work,
Like fearful and corpse-like fishes hooked and being played.
By some malignant fisherman on an unseen shore where he does not choose to land them yet, hooked fishes of the factory world.
(D.H. Lawrence (1885 - 1930)
1. Identify and explain the mood in the poem (2 mks)
2. Identify and explain the appropriateness of 3 poetic features used in the poem (6 mks)
3. In one sentence summarize the persona perception of the city life? (1 mark)
4. If you were to recite this poem how would you make it emotional? (2 mks)
5. Explain the meaning of the word ‘malignant’ (1 mark)
Date posted: April 2, 2019. Answers (1)