- Read the incomplete poem below and then answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
Read the incomplete poem below and then answer the questions that follow.
A million stars up in the.......
One shines brighter-I can’t deny.
A love so precious, a love so...........
A love that comes from me to you.
The angels sings when you are near.
Within your arms I have nothing to.....
You always know just what to say
Just talking to you makes my..........
I love you, honey, with all my heart
Together forever and never to.............
i) If the rhyme scheme is aa,bb,cc,dd,ee, fill the gaps with the most suitable words . use one word in each space.
ii) How would you say the second last line of this poem?
iii) It is also concluded by the audience after the recitation that the recitor is anxious. Suggest four signs that could have led to this conclusion.
Date posted: September 11, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
Make me a grave whate’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 gang to the shambles led.
And the mother’s shriek of wild despair
Rise like a curse on the trembling air.
(i) Show the rhyme scheme of the poem and describe it.
(ii) What features would you employ when reciting the above poem before the audience?
(iii) Mention two ways in which you would know that your audience is fully participating during the recitation of the above poem.
(iv) Which words would you stress in the last line of the above poem and why?
Date posted: September 11, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
NATURALLY”
I fear the workers: they writhe in bristling grass
And wormy mud: out with dawn, back with dusk.
Depart with seed, and return with fat- bursting fruits.
And I ate the fruit.
And still they toil at boiling point,
in head – splitting noise and threatening saws:
They suck their energy from slimy cassava
And age – rusty water taps: till they make a Benz
And I ride in the benz: festooned with
stripped rags and python copper coiling monsters
While the workers clap their blistered hands
And I overrun their kids.
They build their hives: often out
of broken bones of fallen mates
And I drone in them – “state house”
Them,“collegize” them, officialize them.
And I……. I whore their daughters
Raised in litter – rotting hovels
And desiring a quickquickhighhighlifelife
To break the bond.
And I tell the workers to unite:
knowing well that they can’t see, hear or understand:
what with sweat and grim sealing their ears
And eyes already blasted with welding sparks,
And me speaking a colourless tongue
But one day a rainstorm shall flood
The litter rotten hovels and
wash the workers’ ears and eyes clean,
Refresh the tattered muscles for a long – delayed blow
a) Describe the working conditions of the workers as depicted in stanza 1 and 2.
b) The persona assumes different roles in stanza 3, 4 and 6.With illustrations explain these roles.
c) Identify and explain 2 images from the poem
d) Which bond do the girls want to break in stanza 5 and how do they do it.
e) What reasons are given for the workers’ inability to understand the persona?
f) What is the poem suggesting in the last stanza?
Date posted: August 19, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
I laugh at Amin
(Solved)
3. Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow
I laugh at Amin
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 16, 2019. Answers (1)
- Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
AN ELEGY
When he was here
We planned each tomorrow
With him in mind
For we saw no parting
Looming in the horizon
When he was here,
We joke and laughed together
And no fleeting shadow of a ghost
Ever crossed our paths
Day by day we lived
On this side of the mist
And there was never a sign
That his hours were running fast
When he was gone,
Through glazed eyes we searched
Beyond the mist and shadows
For we couldn’t believe he was nowhere
We couldn’t believe he was dead
(Laban Erapu)
a) What is the message of this poem?
b) Comment on the use of repetition in line 1 of stanza 1 and 2.
c) What is the significance of the last line of poem?
d) What would the persona miss in his friend’s absence?
e) Describe the mood of this poem
f) Paraphrase the following line: Through glazed eyes we searched
g) Which two lines in the poem show that the persona has nostaligic tone?
h) Explain the meaning of the following lines as used in the poem.
i. Ghost
ii. And there was never a sign: that his hours were running fast
Date posted: August 15, 2019. Answers (1)
- 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)