- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
(Solved)
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
I laugh with all the skulls
Amin holds in his hands
With those perched on his shoulder
and the ones in an infinite queue
behind his back
I laugh with the victims of
the 1976 firing squad.
They were dead long before
the gunmen fired
I laugh at bullets wasted
I chuckle with the heads of school
across the nation.
It tickles to extract money
From an army of tortured widows
I remember in our school
only one child had a father
we were curious about her
we laughed to discover
she was Amin’s daughter.
I laugh with the ghost of Kay Amin
Remembering Amin astride
her dismembered body
calling her “wicked woman”
before her bereaved children.
But mainly I laugh
that seventeen years after
the man was forced to retire
Ugandans still sob at the mention of his name
surely my people lack
a good sense of humour.
(Susan NalugwaKiguli)
(a) What are we told about Amin in this poem?
(b)Identify and illustrate the main stylistic feature in the first stanza?
(c) In the last two lines, the persona claims to have a ‘good sense of humour’. Comment on the persona’ sense of humour.
(d) Describe the tone of this poem.
(e) Give two lessons that we learn from this poem.
(f) Identify and illustrate other two stylistic devices used in this poem.
(g) With illustrations from the poem, say who the persona is
(h) Explain the meaning of the following words as used in the poem.
(i) Chuckle
(ii) Dismembered
Date posted: August 15, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below then answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
Read the poem below then answer the questions that follow.
RESPECT.
What you don’t understand, sister.
Is that women are respected in Africa
Oh yes
We call a woman the light of the house
She is the one who fetches water
She is the one who cooks the food
She is the one who gives milk and brings wood
She is the one we come to
When we need satisfaction
We know where the light comes from
We are respected
Is that so, brother?
Is that why she is the last to drink from the gourd?
Is that why she is the last to eat from the bowl?
Is that why she is the last to sleep and first to rise?
Is that why she is the one for whom the only satisfaction
Is another mouth to feed?
And tell me, brother
If the woman is the light of the house
Where does darkness come from?
And tell me, brother
What Will happen if the light fades
Or simply refuses to shine?
Then, sister
It must be made to shine again
Or cast out
A light that does not shine is of no use to any one
Isee
Good, I knew you would understand
In Africa, my sister, women are respected
By Jeanette Cross
Questions
1. Who is the persona in this poem?
2. What is the tone of this poem? Explain.
3.What is the attitude of the “brother” towards women?
4. What does “sister” mean by 1 see”?
5.Discuss the message in this poem.
6.Explain the meaning of the following expressions as used in the poem.
a. ….is another mouth to feed
b. ... we come to when we need satisfaction
C. ...Women are respected
Date posted: August 15, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below carefully and answer the questions that follow.
(Solved)
Read the poem below carefully and answer the questions that follow.
Pedestrian to passing Benz-man
You man, lifted gently
Out of the poverty and suffering
We so recently shared; I say
Why splash the muddy puddle onto
My bare legs as if, still unsatisfied
With your seated opulence
You must sully the unwashed
With your diesel-smoke and mud-water
and force him buy, beyond his mean
A bar of soap from your shop?
A few years back we shared a master
Today you have none, while I have
Exchanged a parasite for something worse
But maybe a few years is too long a time.
(a) Briefly explain what is happening in the poem
.................................................................
(b) With two illustrations from the poem, describe the economic condition of the persona.
...............................................................
c)Explain the significance of the following images in the poem.
...............................................................
(i) Muddy puddle/mud-water.
.................................
(ii) Diesel smoke.
...................................
(iii) Parasite.
.....................................
d)What is the importance of the last line in relation to the rest of the poem.
.........................................................
e)Explain the tone of the poem.
..........................................................
Date posted: August 15, 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.
Oh beautiful bride, don’t cry,
Your marriage will be happy,
Console yourself, your husband will be good.
And like your mother and your aunt,
You will have many children in your life,
Two children, three children, four……………..
Resign yourself do like all other,
A man is not a leopard,
A husband is not a thunderstruck,
Your mother was your father’s wife,
It will not kill you to work.
It will not kill you to grind the grain
Nor will it kill you to wash the pots
Nobody dies from gathering firewood
Nor from washing clothes.
We did not do it for you,
We did not want to see you go,
We love you too much for that
Its your beauty that did it
Because you are so gorgeous
Ah, we see you laugh beneath your tears!
Goodbye, your husband is here
And already you don’t seem
To need our consolations.
Questions
a) With evidence, classify the oral poem.
b) Who do you think are the singers of the song? Illustrate.
c) How do the singers make the situation bearable for the lady?
d) What is the attitude of the society from which the song is derived towards women?
e) Illustrate and explain the use of the following stylistic devices in this oral poem.
i) Repetition –
ii) Ellipses –
f) State in note form the duties of a wife according to the song.
g) Explain any social aspect and one economic activity carried out in the commodity from which the oral poem is taken
h) Explain the irony in the 7th stanza.
Date posted: August 14, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and then answer the questions that follow.
No coffin, no grave by Jared Angira
(Solved)
Read the poem below and then answer the questions that follow.
No coffin, no grave by Jared Angira
He was buried without a coffin
Without a grave
The scavengers performed the post-mortem
In the open mortuary
Without sterilized knives
In front of the night club
Stuttering rifles put up
The gun salute of the day
That was a state burial anyway
The car knelt
The red plate wept, wrapped itself in blood its
master’s
The diary revealed to the sea
The rain anchored there at last
Isn’t our flag red, black and white?
So he wrapped himself well
Who could signal yellow
When we had to leave politics to the experts
And brood on books
Brood on hunger
And schoolgirls
Grumble under the black pot
Sleep under torn mosquito net
And let lice lick our intestines
The lord of the bar, money speaks madam
Woman magnet, money speaks madam
We only cover the stinking darkness of the cave of our mouths
And ask our father who is in hell to judge him
The quick and the good.
Well, his diary, submarine of the Third World
War
Showed he wished
To be buried in a gold-laden coffin
Like a VIP
Under the jacaranda tree beside his palace
A shelter for his grave
And much beer for the funeral party
Anyway one noisy pupil suggested we bring
Tractors and plough the land.
(From Poems from East Africa, D. Cook andD. Rubadiri (Eds,): East African EducationalPublishers)
a) Briefly explain what this poem is about.
b) Explain the use of onomatopoeia in the poem.
c) Identify and explain the tone of the poem.
d) Comment on the central theme of the poem.
e) Explain the meaning of the following lines:
i) who could signal yellow
ii) submarine of the Third World War
f) How else can people bring change in society without assassinating politicians?
g) Explain the meaning of the following words as used in the poem
i) Anchored
ii) Brood
Date posted: August 14, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the oral poem below and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
Read the oral poem below and answer the questions that follow.
Ha! That mother who takes her food alone
Ha! That mother before she has eaten
Ha! That mother she says, “lull the baby for me”.
Ha! That mother, when she has finished eating,
Ha! That mother, she says, “give the child to me.”
a) What type of oral poem is this? (2 marks)
.....................................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................................
b) Explain briefly what the above oral poem is about (4 marks)
.....................................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................................
c) Who is the speaker in the above oral poem? (2 marks)
.....................................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................................
d) What is the speaker’s attitude towards the mother? (2 marks)
.....................................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................................
e) What evidence is there to show that this is an oral poem? (6 marks)
.....................................................................................................................................................
f) State two functions of the above oral poem.
g) Mention one feature that is characteristic of this sub-genre (2 marks)
.....................................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................................
.....................................................................................................................................................
Date posted: August 13, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer questions that follow (Solved)
Read the poem below and answer questions that follow
(8mks)
To my Sister
It is the first mild day of March
Each minute sweeter than before,
The red breast sings from the tall larch
That stands beside our door
There is a blessing in the air,
Which seems a sense of joy to yield?
To the bare trees and mountains bare,
And grass in the green field
My sister! (‘tis a wish of mine)
Now that our morning meal is done
Make haste, your morning task resign,
Come forth and feel the sun.
William Wordsworth.
Questions
(i) List any four pairs of rhyming words.
(ii) Describe the rhyme scheme of the poem.
(iii) How would you say the ninth line of the poem?
Date posted: August 13, 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.
When, in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possessed,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least,
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising;
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
(Like to the lark at the break of day arising)
From sullen earth sings hymns at heaven's gate,
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
William Shakespeare's Sonnet 29)
i) Identify any four pairs of words that rhyme in this poem.
(ii) Give two instances of alliteration in this poem.
iii) Imagine you are performing this poem to learners who are visually impaired.
B.Explain four ways in which you would ensure that they get the message effectively.
Date posted: August 13, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow. When the sessions of sweet silent thought...(Solved)
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
When the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many things I sought.
And with old woes new wails my dear time’s waste,
Then can drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death dareless night
And weep afresh love’s long since cancelled woe,
And moan the expansive of many a vanished sight.
The can I grieve at grievances fore gone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell O’er,
The sad account of fore-bemoaned man
Which I now pay as not paid before,
But if the while I THINK ON THEE DEAR FRIEND
All loses are restored and sorrow end.
QUESTIONS
i) Describe the rhyme scheme of this poem.
ii) Identify three pairs of rhyming words in this poem.
iii) Apart from rhyme, how else has rhythm been achieved
iv) Which words would you stress in the first line. Explain.
Date posted: August 8, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
O whisper, O my soul! The afternoon
Is waning into evening, whisper soft!
Peace, O my rebel heart! For soon the moon
From out its misty veil will swing aloft!
Be patient, weary body, soon the night
Will wrap thee gently in her sable sheet,
And with a leaden sigh thou wilt invite
To rest thy tired hands and aching feet.
The wretched day was theirs, the night is mine;
Come tender sleep, and fold me to thy breast.
But what steals out the gray clouds like red wine?
O dawn! O dreaded dawn! O let me rest
Weary my veins, my brain, my life ! Have pity!
No! Once again the harsh, the ugly city! By Claude McKay
i) Explain how the poet achieves rhythm in the poem above.
ii) Briefly explain how you would perform the first two lines in this poem.
Date posted: August 6, 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.
SWEET AND LOW
Sweet and low, sweet and low,
Wind of the western sea.,
Low, low, breath and blow,
Wind of the western sea!
Over the rolling waters go,
Come from the dying moon, and blow,
Blow him again to me;
While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps.
Sleep and rest, sleep and rest,
Father will come to thee soon;
Rest, rest on mother’s breast;
Father will come to thee soon;
Father will come to his babe n the nest,
Silver sails all out of the west
Under the silver moon;
Sleep my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep. (Alfred lord Tennyson)
Questions
i) State any two pairs of rhyming words from the poem above.
ii) Apart from rhyme, with illustrations from the poem, identify any other two techniques that have been used by the poet to create rhythm in this poem.
iii) If you were to classify the above poem as a song, in which category would you place it and
iv) Comment on the number of syllables used in the last line of each stanza. What does this tell you about rhythm of this poem?
v) If you were to recite this poem to its target audience, how would you recite the last line of the last stanza.
vi) From the poem, identify any two words containing the vowel sound / ^/
Date posted: August 6, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow
Make me a grave where’er you will,
In a lowly plain
(Solved)
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
Make me a grave where’er you will,
In a lowly plain, or a lofty hill;
Make it among earth’s humblest graves,
But not in a land where men are slaves.
I could not rest if around my grave
I heard the steps of a trembling slave;
His shadow above my silent tomb
Would make it a place of fearful gloom
I could not rest if I heard the tread
Of a coffle going to the shambles led,
And the mother’s shriek of wild despair
Rise like a curse on the trembling air
(by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper)
Questions
a) Describe the rhyme scheme of the poem above.
b) Apart from rhyme, mention two other ways they have achieved rhythm
c) Mention two ways in which you would know that your audience is fully participating during the recitation of the poem above.
d) How would you say the last line of the poem?
e) Indicate whether the following items have a falling or a rising intonation.
i) Get out now! …………………………………………………
ii) The man was accused of theft. ……………………………………
iii) How did you find the English exam? ………………………………
iv) Could he have left?
Date posted: August 6, 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.
The splash
Under warm sunshine,
A pond of water rests, calm and serene.
The blue sky inhabits the middle of the pond,
And its sides reflect the greenery,
Spotted with the yellow and the red,
The red and the violet
The water, the sky, the vegetation,
Hand in hand convey harmony and peace.
Then comes the splash!
And a tremendous stirring surges:
Reflections distort,
Giving way to a rushing flow of triples
Ripples innumerable,
All fleeing from the wound.
Time elapses,
Ripples innumerable
All fleeing from the wound
Time elapses,
Ripples fade,
Reflections regain their shape,
And once again emerges the pond
Smooth and tranquil.
But the stone!
The stone will always cling to the bottom
a) What do you think this poem is about?
b) What is implied by the use of color imagery (lines 4, 5, 6)?
c) Identify and explain two stylistic devices used in this poem other than color imagery.
d) Describe the tone of this poem
e) Explain the meaning of the last two lines.
f) Explain the message of the following words as they are used in the poem:
Surges
Fade
Tranquil
Date posted: June 27, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow:(Solved)
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow:
Touch by Hugh 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.
Untouchable-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
Every day
Patting paws, searching
Arms up, shoes off
Legs apart-
Probing 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 to feel alive
Again
I want to say
When I get out
Here I am
Please touch me.
(From poets to the people, edit by Barry Feinberg)
a) Where do you think the personal is? Briefly explain your answer.
b) What do you think the persona means by 'touch'?
c) Using two illustrations, describe the persona’s experience during the seven years
d) What is the significance of the word paws ?
e) Which device does the poet use to reinforce the theme?
f) Explain the meaning of the following words as they are used in the poem
Prodding
Indifferent
g) What does the poem reveal about human need?
Date posted: June 27, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the question that follow.(Solved)
Read the poem below and answer the question that follow.
Isatou died
When she was only five
And full of pride
Just before she new
5 How small a loss
It brought to such a few
Her mother wept
Half grateful
To be so early bereft.
10 And did not see the smile
As tender as the root
Of the emerging plant
Which sealed her eyes
The neighbours wailed
15 As they were paid to do
And thought how big a spread
Might be her wedding too
The father looked at her
Through marble eyes and said;
20 “Who spilt the perfume
Mixed with morning dew?”
Lenrie Peters
(From: The Earth Is Ours. Edited by Ian Gordon)
i) Identify any two pairs of rhyming words in this poem.
ii) Which words would you stress in line 2 of this poem, and why?
iii) How would you say the last two lines of this poem?
Date posted: June 27, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
How doeth the little busy bee
Improve each shining hour
And gather honey all the day
From every opening flower.
How skilfully she builds her cell!
How neat she spreads the wax!
And labours hard to store it well
With the sweet food she makes.
In works of labour or of skill
I would be busy too.
For Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do
In books or work or healthful play
Let my first years be past,
That I may give for every day
Some good account at last
i) Identify four pairs of rhyming words in the poem?
ii) Besides rhyme, identify and illustrate two other ways though which rhythm has been achieved in this poem
iii) Imagine you are listening to a live presentation of this poem. What four things would you do to benefit most from the listening experience?
Date posted: June 12, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow in the spaces provided.(Solved)
Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow in the spaces provided.
MY TRAIN JOURNEY TO MOMBASA
Kurukuru kakara kukuru kakara,
The train moves
Roaring and racing on the ridge.
Kukuru kakara kukuru kakara,
Crawling,criss-crossing beautiful plains
I sit staring at scenic scenes
Observing the wild animals.
Kukuru kakara kukuru kakara,
I feel the heat
I see the Swahili houses
Thriving thatched homestead.
Kukuru kakara kukuru kakara,
I see the bright ocean.
The train grinds to a hault.
I am in Mombasa.
By Egara Kabaji
i) Describe the rhyme scheme of this poem.
ii) Describe how rhythm has been achieved in this poem.
iii) How would you make this poem interesting if you were to recite it to audience.
iv) If the words ‘kukuru kakara kukuru kakara ‘are translated into English, what would happen?
Date posted: June 12, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow. Civil War....(Solved)
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
CIVIL WAR
In this land
Graveyards have no markers
For blood flows freely
Into the gutter
Where corpses abide
In restless sleep
In this land
Kinship is long dead
And the insiders prevail
A neighbours hand
In darkness hidden
Stripes yet another victim’s light
In this land
The wind blows across the neglected fields
Promising yet another spectacle
Of hollowed eyes and pinched skins
Trudging and falling to the unyielding trains
Of self-destruction
In the air
The whiter dove
Flutter with change
And perhaps
It would be better if this symbol of peace
Were established in the souls of the people
In this land
(David Mugwika
(1) What is the poem about?
(2) Who is the speaker?
(3) Identify any two features of the style in the poem and show their effectiveness.
(4) Describe the tone of this poem.
(5) Explain the significance of the last stanza in relation to the message in the whole poem.
(6) Give the meaning of the following lines as used in the poem.
(i) Kinship is long dead.
(ii) Stifles yet another victim’s light.
(7) Citing examples, discuss one effect of civil war.
Date posted: June 11, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow. From the dark tower(Solved)
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
FROM THE DARK TOWER
We shall not always plant while others reap
The golden increment of bursting fruit,
Not always countenance, abject and mute,
That lesser men should hold their brothers chap;
Not everlasting while others sleep
Shall we beguile their limbs with mellow flute,
Not always bend to some more subtle brute;
We were not made to eternally weep,
The night whose sable breast relieves the stark,
White stars is no less lovely being dark,
And there are buds that cannot bloom at all
In light, but crumple, piteous, and fall;
So in the dark we hide the heart that bleeds,
And wait, and tend our agonizing seeds.
By Countee Cullen
(i) Describe the rhyme scheme in the poem above.
(ii) Apart from rhyme, identify any other way in which the poet has achieved rhythm.
(iii) Which words would you stress in the line: 'We were not made to eternally weep'?
(iv) How would you say the last line of this poem.
Date posted: June 11, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions below.(Solved)
Read the poem below and answer the questions below.
Advise to my son
The trick is, to live your days
as if each one may be your last
(for they go fast, and young men lose their lives
in strange and unimaginable ways)
but at the same time, plan long range
(for they go slow : if you survive
the shattered windshield and burning shell
you will arrive
at our approximation here below
or heaven or hell)
To be specific, between the poeny and the rose
plant squash and spinach, turnips and tomatoes;
beauty in nectar
and nectar, in desert saves
but the stomach craves stronger sustenance
than the homed vine.
therefore, marry a pretty girl
after seeing her mother;
speak truth to one man,
work with another;
and always, serve bread with your wine.
But son,
Always serve wine
(Peter Meinke)
a) Who is the speaker in the poem. Illustrate your answer.
b) In what circumstances do many young people die? Illustrate your answer from the poem.
c) What do heaven and hell symbolize?
d) Identify items in the poem that represent life’s necessities on one hand and life’s luxuries on the other.
e) Identify and illustrate the use of the paradox in the poem.
f) What does the persona mean by ‘marry a pretty girl after seeing the mother'?
g) The stomach craves stronger sustenance.(Rewrite using (What)
h) Give two meanings of each of the following words.
-Last
-Fast
i) Give the meaning of the last two lines
Date posted: June 11, 2019. Answers (1)