(a) black man in America / African-American student- 'I am the only coloured student in (no mark without illustration)
(b) racism- he is discriminated based on skin colour education- African-Americans acquire education but in an indiscriminately manner
(c) somber, solemn, serious- the black student is in a class dominated by white students ‘'sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be part of me.'
(d) wants to prove that he is just like others, his colour notwithstanding.
(e) Contemplative/introspective- the persona is examining the difficult issues he is undergoing.
(f) 'Harlem, I hear you.'
(g) Similarities- both are human and have same needs.
Differences- they are from different races (black and white)
Note: there should be clear indication of similarities and differences
(h) an uneasy one/not close to one another.
There is mutual respect / tolerance because they are really part of each other.
(i) is it really that simple?
(no mark if question mark is missing)
Neither you nor 1 want to be part of each other.
(no mark if the two pronouns i.e. you and I are interchanged)
marto answered the question on May 3, 2019 at 07:19
- Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.
The Gourd of Friendship(Solved)
The Gourd of Friendship.
Where is the curiosity we've lost in discovery?
Where is the discovery we've lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we've lost in communication?
Where is the communication we've lost in mass media?
And where is the community we've lost in all these?
Where is the message we've lost in the medium?
It is easy to go to the moon:
There, there are no people.
It is easier to count the stars:
They will not complain.
But the road to your neighbour's heart - who has surveyed it?
The formula to your brother's head - Who has devised it?
The gourd that doesn't spill friendship - In whose garden has it ever grown?
You never know despair Until you've lost hope;
You never know your aspiration Until you've seen others disillusionment.
Peace resides in the hearts of men.
Not in conference tables and delegates signatures.
True friendship never dies - It grows stronger the more it is used.
By Richard Ntiru
1. Explain the meaning of the poem (3 marks)
2. Discuss the use of the rhetorical questions in the poem. (3 marks)
3. Describe the tone of this poem (3 marks)
4. Identify and explain two other stylistic devices (apart from the rhetorical questions) (4 marks)
5. Explain the meaning of these lines. (4 marks)
i) 'where is the curiosity we have lost in discovery'.
ii) 'But the road to your neighbour's heart - who has surveyed it?' ( marks)
6. What does the persona think about relationships? (2 marks)
7. Explain the appropriateness of the title. (1 mark)
Date posted: May 3, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and then answer the question that follow. (20 marks)
DEATH OF MY FATHER(Solved)
DEATH OF MY FATHER
His sunken cheeks, his inward-looking eyes,
The sarcastic, scornful smile on his lips
The unkempt, matted, grey hair,
The hard, coarse sand-paper hands,
Spoke eloquently of the lifehe had lived.
But I did not mourn for him.
The hammer, the saw and the plane,
These were his tools and his damnation,
His sweat was his ointment and his perfume.
He fashioned dining tables, chairs, wardrobes,
And all the wooden loves of colonial life.
No, I did not mourn for him.
He built colonial mansions,
Huge,unwieldy,arrogant constructions;
But he squatted in a sickly mud-house,
With his children huddled stuntedly,
Under the bed-bug bed he shared with Mother.
I could not mourn for him.
I had already inherited
His premature old-age look,
I had imbibed his frustration;
But his dreams of freedom and happiness
Had become my song, my love.
So, I could not mourn for him.
No, I did not shed any tears;
My father’s dead life still lives in me,
He lives in my son, my father,
I am my father and my son.
I will awaken his sleepy hopes and yearnings,
But I will not mourn for him,
I will not mourn for me.
a) Identify the persona. (2 marks)
b) What is the poem talking about? (3 marks)
c) Comment on the alliteration that is used in the poem? (2 marks)
d) Apart from alliteration, identify and explain any other two aspects of style that the poet has used. (4 marks)
e) What reason does the persona give for not mourning his father’s death? ( 3 marks)
f) What is the father’s profession from the poem? ( 1 mark)
g) Explain the meaning of the following lines as used in the poem: ( 3 marks)
i) The hard, coarse sand-paper hands,
Spoke eloquently of the life he had lived.
ii) His premature old-age look,
iii) I will awaken his sleepy hopes and yearnings,
h) What is the attitude of the persona towards his father’s life? ( 2 marks
Date posted: May 3, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the Poem below and answer the questions that follow: (20 Marks)
The Twist(Solved)
a) What is the poem about? (3 marks)
b) Identify three senses that the poem appeals to. (3 Marks
c) What is the main theme of this poem? (2 Marks)
d) What is the attitude of the persona towards the girls mentioned in the poem? (2 Marks)
e) Identify three poetic devices used in the poem. (6 marks)
f) What are the achievements of the persona on this night? (2 marks)
g) Explain the meaning of:
i) …… a miss (who was brown and black). (1 Marks)
ii) Twist the music out of hunger. (1 Marks)
Date posted: May 3, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow. (20 marks)
Western civilization(Solved)
/
Questions.
a) What is the poem about? (4 marks)
b) Identify and illustrate two features of style used in the poem. (4 marks)
c) What does the fifth stanza suggest about the work done by 'he'? (2 marks)
d) What basic requirements does the 'he' in the poem lack? (3 marks)
e) Why do you think the 'he' dies 'gratefully'? (1 mark)
f) Describe two themes brought out in the poem. (4 marks)
g) Explain the meaning of 'Old age comes early' (1 marks)
h) Supply a word that means the same as hunger as used in the poem. (1 mark
Date posted: May 3, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow. (20 marks)
Their City(Solved)
Questions.
a) Who is the persona in the poem? (2 marks)
b) Explain what the poem is about. (3 marks)
c) What is achieved by repetition of 'We have seen them'? (2 marks)
d) Identify and explain two thematic concerns of the poet. (4 marks)
e) Why are the 'new Africans' said to have anxious faces? (2 marks)
f) Explain the meaning of the expression;
figures hardly human
desperately dying to live. (2 marks)
g) How does the persona portray the rich? (2 marks)
h) Describe the tone in the poem. (3 marks)
Date posted: May 3, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.
THE PRESS(Solved)
Questions
a) Identify and explain the social evils dealt with in the poem. (6 marks)
b) Pick out three poetic devices evident in this poem and comment on their significance. (6 marks)
c) Comment on the tone of the poem. (2 marks)
d) Is the title significant? Why or why not? (2 marks)
e) Explain the irony of the poem? (2 marks)
f) Explain the meaning of the following words: (2 marks)
i) Crawled
ii) Ushered
Date posted: May 3, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the following poem and respond to the questions appropriately.
‘STILL I RISE’(Solved)
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: May 3, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the following poem and then answer the questions that follow.
The Courage That My Mother Had(Solved)
The Courage That My Mother Had
The Courage That My Mother Had
The courage that my mother had
Went with her, and is with her still;
Rock and New England quarried;
Now granite in a granite hill.
The golden brooch my mother wore
She left behind for me to wear;
I have nothing I treasure more;
Yet, it is something I could spare.
Oh, if instead she’d left to me
The thing she took into the gravel!
The courage like a rock, which she
Has no more need of, and I have.
(Had – Edna St. Vincent Millay)
a) Briefly explain how the poem is about. (4 marks)
b) Is the speaker male or female? How do you know? (2 marks)
c) What does the speaker wish the mother had left behind? Why can’t the wish be fulfilled? (3 marks)
d) Describe the character trait of the mother in the poem. (2 marks)
e) Identify and illustrate the imagery used in the poem. (4 marks)
f) What is the speaker’s attitude towards the mother and the golden brooch in the poem. (3 marks)
g) Rewrite the following in your own words: (2 marks)
'Has no more need of, and I have'
Date posted: May 3, 2019. Answers (1)
- 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)