Read the following poem and then answer the questions that follow.

      

Read the following poem and then answer the questions that follow.
THE PAUPER.
Pauper, pauper, craning your eyes
In all directions, in no direction!
What brutal force, malignant element, Dared to forge your piteous fate? Was it worth the effort, the time?
You limply lean on a leafless tree
Nursing the jiggers that shrivel your bottom
Like baby newly born to an old woman.
What crime, what treason did you commit
That you are thus condemned to human indifference?
And when you trudge on the horny pads,
Gullied like the soles of modern shoes,
Pads that even jiggers cannot conquer;
Does He admire your sense of endurance
Or turn his head away from your imprudent presence?
You sit alone on hairless goatskins,
Your ribs and bones reflecting the light That beautiful cars reflect on you, Squashing like between your nails. And cleaning your nails with dry saliva.
And when He looks at the grimy coating
Caking off your emaciated skin,
At the rust that uproots all your teeth
Like a pick on a stony piece of land,
Does He pat his paunch at the wonderful sight?
Pauper, pauper, crouching in beautiful verandas Of beautiful cities and beautiful people, Tourists and I will take your snapshots, And your M.P. with a shining head and triple chin
Will mourn your fate in a supplementary questions at question time.
(Adapted from poems from East Africa, by Cook and Rubadiri EDS)

i) Identify the persona in the poem above. (2 marks)

ii) What evidence from the poem suggest that the subject is poor? (4 marks)

iii) Comment on the writer's use of imagery in stanza two. (3 marks)

iv) Apart from the imagery indentified in

(iii) above, discuss any two other stylistic devices employed in the poem. (4 marks)

v) What is the persona's attitude towards the M.P. (2 marks)

vi) Discuss one theme brought out in the poem. (2 marks)

vii) Explain the meaning of the following words and expression as used in the poem. (3 marks)

a) Emaciated .

b) Crouching.

c) Gullied like the soles of modern shoes.

  

Answers


Martin
Poetry

i. The persona is an observer/bystander etc who is able to see the peoples suffering and how different members of the
society react to him

ii. - Infested with jiggers-nursing the jiggers that shrivel your bottom

- Caked feet - and when you trudge on the lorny pads

- Shining ribs - your ribs and bones reflecting the light

- Infested with Gee- squashing lice between your nails

- Cleans nails with dry saliva

- Emaciated and caking skin

- Crouches in beautiful verandar (4 x 1)

iii. Use of simile like a baby newly born to an old woman to bring out the special relationship between the pauper and the
jiggers

iv. Repetition - pauper, pauper

Rhetorical questions- dared to forget your piteous fate Hyperbole- your ribs and bones reflecting light

Irony- pauper crouching in beautiful verandas of beautiful cities and beautiful people
Sarcasm - and your MP with a shining head and a triple chin will mourn your fate in a supplementary question at question time

v. Critical/sarcastic and your mp with a shining head and a triple chin will mourn your fate in a supplementary question a question time (2 mks)

vi. Themes


- Poverty - the paupes cleaning his ails with dry saliva, infested with suffering lice and jiggers and crouches in beautiful verandas

- Poor Leadership- the MP gives lip service to the plight of the pauper by mourning his fate in a supplementary question a question time

vii. Emaciated - thin/weak

Crouching-squatting

Gullied like the soles of modern shoes - with big crack
marto answered the question on April 9, 2019 at 06:37


Next: Describe how the mixture of sugar, iodine and lead (II) carbonate can be separated
Previous: Define the following terms as used in chemistry: atom,molecule, element and compound

View More English Literature Questions and Answers | Return to Questions Index


Exams With Marking Schemes

Related Questions