- Read the poem below and answers the questions that follow (20 MARKS)
WEDDING EVE(Solved)
WEDDING EVE
Should I
Or should I not
Take the oath to love
For ever
This person I know little about?
Does she love me
Or my car
Or my future
Which I know little about?
Will she continue to love me
When the future she saw in me
Crumbles and fades into nothing
Leaving the naked me
To love without hope?
Will that smile she wears
Last through the hazards to come
When fate strikes
Across the dreams of tomorrow?
Like the clever passenger in a faulty plane,
Wear her life jacket
And jump out to save her life
Leaving me crush into the unknown?
What magic can I use
To see what lies beneath
Her angel face and well knit hair
To see her hopes and dreams
Before I take an oath
To love forever?
We are both wise chess players
She makes a move
I make a move
And we trap each other in our secret dreams
Hoping to win against each other
Everett Standa
QUESTION
1. Comment on the title of this poem. 3 marks
2. Explain the dilemma of speaker in the first stanza. 2 marks
3. What is the speaker’s attitude towards their relationship?
4. Discuss and illustrate two character traits of the persona. 4 marks
5. Comment on the imagery of the plane. 3 marks
6. Explain how the relationship is compared to a game of chess. 3 marks
7. Explain the meaning of the following line: leaving the naked me. 3 marks
Date posted: May 3, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below then answer the questions that follow
THE NECKLACE(Solved)
Read the poem below then answer the questions that follow
THE NECKLACE
From a distance
Fearful of inching any further,
A cold sweat trickled rivulets,
Making me shiver at noon.
Undaring to approach the form
It was over in minutes,
The necessities of execution availed,
The firestone tyre,
Petrol in blackened tin,
And ignites in numerous hands
Each participant ready and anxious,
To set the man a flame.
As the smouldering form blackened,
Smell of sizzling flesh filling in the air
Piercing the nostrils,
And choking me breathless,
I watched in wonder,
Witness to an unwritten law.
As the crowd dispersed,
The haggling and bargaining resumed,
Buying, selling and cheating,
As men in uniform arrived,
Bearing away the charred remains
Questions
a) How relevant is the title of the poem above? (2 marks)
b) Describe the character of the executionists in the poem (2 marks)
c) What was needed to carry out the execution? (3 marks)
d) Explain the difference in the use of the word 'form' in stanza one and stanza three (2 marks)
e) (i) Who is the persona ? (1 mark)
(ii) What deters the persona from getting closer to the scene of action? (1 mark)
f) Explain the meaning of the following phrases as used in the poem (3 marks)
i) Smell of sizzling flesh
ii) Each participant ready and anxious
iii) Witnessed to an unwritten law
g) What mood is portrayed in the poem? (2 marks)
h) Paraphrase the last stanza (4 marks)
Date posted: May 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.
OUT-CAST
They met by accident He proposed the idea
She gave her consent All the way to the altar
The casualty was male
And his pigment was pale
Unlike his alleged sire
Who was black with ire
The recourse was legitimate
He disclaimed responsibility So they had to separate
The boy remains illegitimate
Last month, not long ago
They both took their go Coincidentally by accident
No will, no estate
Nothing to inherit
The poor boy is hardly ten
And knows no next-of-kin
He roams the streets of town Like a wind-sown out-cast
G. Gathemia
a) Briefly explain what the poem is about. (4 marks)
b) Describe two characters traits of the mother in the poem (4 marks)
c) Explain the meaning of the following as used in the poem. (3 marks)
(i) Disclaimed.
(ii) Unlike his alleged sire who was black with ire
d) Identify and explain one instance of irony in the poem (3 marks)
e) What is the persona’s attitude towards the boy in the poem?
Date posted: April 9, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow(Solved)
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow
If you have some sure year
Then get to hear
A man of your year
Even if he is a bad man anywhere
Should not be found phoning here
Don't you think that it is sometimes queer To neutralize fear
With a bottle of beer?
Anon.
i) Comment on the rhyme scheme of the above poem. (2 marks)
ii) Other than through rhyming words, illustrate other three ways in which the poet has attempted to achieve rhythm.
(6 marks)
Date posted: April 9, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow: The earth does not get fat. (Solved)
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow
The earth does not get fat.
It makes an end- Of those who wear the head plumes We shall die on the earth.
The earth
does not get fat.
It makes an end of those who act swiftly as heroes.
Shall we die on the earth?
Listen O earth.
We shall mourn because of you. Listen O earth.
Shall we all die on the earth? The earth does not get fat.
It makes an end of The chiefs.
Shall we die on earth? The earth does not get fat.
It makes an end Of the women chiefs.
Shall we die on earth?
Listen o earth. We shall mourn because of you.
Listen O earth.
Shall we all die on earth? The earth does not get fat.
It makes an end Of the nobles.
The earth does not get fat It makes an end of the royal women.
Shall we die on earth?
The earth does not get fat.
It makes an end
of the common people.
Shall we die on the earth?
The earth does not get fat.
It makes an end of all the beasts Shall we die on the earth?
Listen you who are asleep, who are left
tightly closed in the land.
Shall we all sink Into the earth? Listen O
Earth the sun is setting tightly.
We shall enter into the earth.
We shall not enter into the earth.
(From: 'The Heritage Of African Poetry
a) What is the poem about? (3 mks)
b) Who is the persona in the poem? (2 mks)
c) Identify and illustrate any two features of style used in the poem? (4 mks)
d) What is the tone of the persona in the poem? (2 mks)
e) What in the poem shows that death is indiscriminate in its manifestations? (2 mks)
f) Describe the political setting of the community from which the poem originates. (2 mks)
g) What is the mood of the poem? (2 mks)
h) Explain what the expressions below mean : (3 mks)
i) The earth does not get fat .
ii) Those who wear the head plumes
iii) Earth the sun is setting tightly
Date posted: April 8, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and then answer the questions that follow: Why do we Grumble?(Solved)
Read the poem below and then answer the questions that follow
Why do we Grumble?
Why do we grumble because a tree is bent
When, in our streets, there are even men who are bent? Why must we complain that a new moon is slanting? Can anyone reach the skies to straighten it?
Can't we see that some cocks have combs on their heads but no plumes in their tails?
And some have plumes in their tails but no claws on their toes? And others have claws on their toes but no power to crow? He who has a head has no cap to wear, and he who has a cap has no head to wear it on.
He who has good shoulders has no gown to wear on them, and he who has the gown
has no good shoulders to
wear it on.
The Owa has everything but a horse's stable.
Some great scholars of Ifa cannot tell the way to Ofa:
Others know the way to Ofa, but not one line of Ifa.
Great eaters have no food to eat, and great drinkers no wine to drink:
Wealth has a coat of many colors.
(An oral poem from Nigeria in Oral Poetry from Africa: Longman, U.K. 1983. Compiled by Jack Mapanje and Landeg White)
(i) Identify and illustrate two aspects that make this oral poem easy to perform. (4 marks)
(ii) Which words would you stress on the last line of the poem 3, and why? (2 marks)
(iii) How would you perform line 4 of the poem ? (2 marks)
(a) Assume that you are the principal of Bidii School where the governor makes a visit. Introduce Sarah Mwangi
(a medical doctor) who is a member of the Board of Management to the Governor (2 marks)
You.
Date posted: April 8, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the following poem and respond to the questions appropriately(Solved)
Read the following poem and respond to the questions appropriately
STILL I RISE
You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? 'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells' Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns, With the certainity of tides Just like hopes springing high, Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like tear drops. Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you? Don‟t you take it awful hard
'cause I laugh like I've got gold mines Diggin' in my own backyard.
You m,ay shoot me with your word
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I'll rise.
Out of the hurts of history's shame I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain I raise
I‟m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear In the tide
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise
Into a day brake that is wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my
Ancestors game,
I am the dream and the Hope of the slave I rise
I rise I rise
Adapted from: Maya Angelous STILL I RISE (1978)
1. With support from the poem, briefly explain what the poem is about. (3 marks)
2. Identify three challenges that the speaker in the poem contends with. (3 marks)
3. What is the attitude of the speaker towards these challenges? (2 marks)
4. Identify and illustrate figures of speech from the poem above. Comment on their effectiveness. (4 marks)
5. Other than the style in (4) above, identify and illustrate other two stylistic devices employed by the poet. (4 marks)
6. Explain the meaning of the following phrases as they are used in poem. (3 marks)
a) Cause I laugh I've got gold mines'
b) But still, like dust, I'll rise'.
c) I am Black Ocean, leaping and wide.
7. Supply the following sentence with the correct question tag. (1 mark)
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
Date posted: April 5, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem written below and answer the questions that follow(Solved)
Read the poem written below and answer the questions that follow.
The seed shop
Here in a quiet and dusty room they lie
Faded as crumbled stone or shifting sane
Forlorn as ashes, shriveled scentless dry
Meadows and gardens running through any hand
In this brown husk a dale of how throne dreams A cedar in this narrow cells in thrust That will drink deeply of a century‟s streams These lilies shall make summer on my dust Here in their safe and simple house of death Sealed in their shells, a million roses leap Here I can blow a garden with my breath And in my hand a forest lies asleep
i) Identify four pairs of rhyming words. (2 marks)
ii) Describe the tone of the voice that would be appropriate in reading this poem. (3 marks)
iii) How would you say the last two lines of the poem?
Date posted: April 5, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow: THE VILLAGE WELL By the well, Where fresh water still quietly whisper(Solved)
THE VILLAGE WELL
By the well,
Where fresh water still quietly whisper
As when I
First accompanied Mother and filled my baby gourd,
By this well,
Where many an evening its clean water cleaned me;
This silent well
Dreaded haunt of the long haired Musambwa
Who basked
In the mid-day sun reclining on the rock
Where I now sit
Welling up with many poignant memories;
This spot,
Which has rung with the purity of child laughter;
This spot,Where eye spoke secretly to responding eye;
This spot,
Where hearts pounded madly in many a breast;
By this well,
Over-hung by leafy branches of sheltering trees
I first noticed her
I saw her in the cool of red, red evening
I saw her
As if I had not seen her a thousand times before
By this well
My eyes asked for love, and my heart went mad.
I stuttered
And murmured my first words of love
And cupped
With my hands, the intoxication that were her breasts
In this well,
In the clear waters of this whispering well,
The silent moon
Witnessed with a smile our inviolate vows
The kisses
That left us weak and breathless.
It is dark.
It is dark by the well that still whispers.
It is darker
It is utter darkness in the heart that bleeds
By this well
Where magic has evaporated but memories linger.
Of damp death
The rotting foliage reeks,
And the branches
Are grotesque talons of hungry vultures,
For she is dead
The one I first loved by this well.
Questions:
(i) Who is the persona in this poem? (2 marks)
(ii) What is the significant of the well to the persona? (4 marks)
(iii) Identify imagery in the poem. (2 marks)
(iv) Explain the meaning of the following lines as used in the poem.
(a) Dreaded haunt of the long haired Musambwa. (2 marks)
(b) I saw her in the cool of a red, red evening. (2 marks)
(c) It is dark by the well that still whispers. (2 marks)
(v) Comment on the change of mood in the last two stanzas. (4 marks)
(vi) What is the attitude of the persona towards death?
Date posted: April 4, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the oral poem below and then answer the questions that follow: He couldn't wait, eh! For the child of my mother To finish school(Solved)
Read the oral poem below and then answer the questions that follow
He couldn't wait, eh!
For the child of my mother To finish school
He begged, eh!
That man begged
He begged and begged
He couldn't wait, eh!
For the child of my mother To dress up
Questions.
(i) What makes this oral poem rhythmic? (2 marks)
(ii) Which word are you likely to stress in the second line of the first and last stanzas and why? (2 marks)
(iii) How would you say the last line of the poem
Date posted: April 4, 2019. Answers (1)
- 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)