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

      

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

LIFE VARIETY

Why do we grumble because a tree is bent?
When in our streets, there are even men who are bent?
Why do we complain that the new moon is slanting?
Can anyone reach the sky to straighten it?
Can't we see that some cocks have combs on their heads?
but no plums in their tails?
And some have plumes in their tails, but claws on their toes?

And other have claws on their toes, but no weapon 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.
The Owa has everything but a horse's stable
Some scholars of Ifa cannot tell the way to Ofa
Others know the way to Ofa, but not alien of Ofa
Great eaters have no food to eat,
And great drinkers no wine to drink
Wealth has coat of many colors


i)State the intonation at the end of lines 3 and 8.

ii)Describe the oral performance devise you would use to deliver this poem.

iii)Explain two qualities of a good story teller.

  

Answers


Martin
i)Line 3 variation of pitch to effectively pass the message and create the right tone and mood; hence a falling intonation.Line 8 has a rising intonation

ii)
- tonal variation
- facial expression
-gestures

iii)
- One must be able to create the story afresh every time he tells it.
-A good story teller should be interested in the culture of his people
-He should have a sense of pride and belonging
-He should be bold.
marto answered the question on March 5, 2020 at 10:33


Next: Use the following pair of words to bring out their different meanings.
Previous: The lorry rolled along the Limuru road.

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


Exams With Marking Schemes

Related Questions


  • Read the following and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)

    Read the following and answer the questions that follow.

    "Too many cooks spoil the broth"

    i)Classify the above genre.

    ii)Give another example from the same genre with a similar meaning

    iii)Give another example from same genre that contrasts it.

    iv)Cite an incident where the above genre can apply.

    Date posted: March 5, 2020.  Answers (1)

  • Read the item below and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)

    Read the item below and answer the questions that follow.

    LAZY MAN

    When the cock crows
    the lazy man smacks his lips and says;
    So it is daylight again, is it?
    And before he turns over heavily,
    before he even yawns,
    the farmer has reached the farm,
    the water carriers have arrived at the river,
    the spinners are spinning their cotton
    the weaver works on his cloth,
    and the fire blazes in the blacksmith's hut.

    The lazy one knows where the soup is sweet.
    He goes from house to house,
    I f there is no sacrifice today,
    his breastbone will stick out!
    but when he sees the free yam,
    he starts to unbutton his shirt, he moves close to the celebrant.
    Yet his troubles are not few,
    When his wives reach puberty,
    rich men will help him marry them.

    i)Classify the above oral poem

    ii)Identify and explain any two stylistic devices used in the poem.

    Date posted: March 5, 2020.  Answers (1)

  • Read the song below and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)

    Read the song below and answer the questions that follow.

    Where is she eee
    Where is the bride?
    We want to pamper her
    We want to pamper her x 2

    We advise you, we advise you
    When you get there, respect your husband
    When he calls you respond to his call.So that your marriage can last.

    Both of you may live in peace
    Both of you may live in peace x 2

    i)State the words which can be stressed in line two and explain why?

    ii)What is lost when the above song is written down?

    iii)If you were reading the song aloud in class, how would you ensure that those listening to you get the message?




    Date posted: March 4, 2020.  Answers (1)

  • Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)

    Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.

    Sampan
    Waves lap lap
    Fish fins clap clap
    Brown sails flap flap
    Chop sticks tap tap

    Up and down the long green river
    Ohe! Ohe! Lanterns quiver
    Willow branches brush the river
    Ohe! Ohe! Lanterns quiver

    Waves lap lap
    Fish fins clap clap
    Brown sails flap flap
    Chop sticks tap tap

    Questions:
    1. Describe the rhyme scheme of the above poem.

    2. Identify and illustrate any sound devices used in the poem.

    3. Provide another word that is pronounced the same way as the ones provided below.

    i) Key –
    ii) One –
    iii) Passed –
    iv) Come –
    v) Read

    Date posted: October 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.

    tapt124310142019.png

    Questions:
    1. Describe the rhyme scheme of the above poem.

    2. Identify and illustrate any sound devices used in the poem.

    3. Provide another word that is pronounced the same way as the ones provided below.

    i) Key –
    ii) One –
    iii) Passed –
    iv) Come –
    v) Read

    Date posted: October 14, 2019.  Answers (1)

  • Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)

    Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.

    POEM120010412019.png

    a) Who is the persona in the poem.

    b) Identify the imagery used and show its effectiveness.

    c) Explain the meaning of the following sentences:-

    1) Seeing only a bun on some sky-high shelf.

    2) Your stomach is a den of lions

    Roaring day and night

    d) What is the attitude of the persona towards the boy?

    e) What is the meaning of the following words?

    1) Chiseled

    2) Glazed

    3) Taut

    4) Confetti

    f) What is the mood of the poem?

    Date posted: October 14, 2019.  Answers (1)

  • Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.(Solved)

    Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.

    There was an Indian, who had known no change,
    Who strayed along a sunlit beach.
    Gathering shell, He heard a sudden strange
    Commingled noise; looked up; and gasped for speech.
    For in the bay, where nothing was before,
    Moved on the sea, by magic, huge canoes,
    With bellying cloths on poles and not oar,
    And fluttering coloured signs, and clambering crews.
    And he, in his fear, this naked man alone,
    His fallen hands forgetting all their shells,
    His lips gone pale, knelt low behind a stone
    And stared, and saw, and did not understand,
    Columbus’s doom- burdened caravels.
    Slant to the shore, and all their seamen land

    Question
    a) Describe the rhyme scheme in the above poem and state its function.

    b) Identify words that end in the same sound in line 4.

    c) Provide words that are identical in pronunciation to the following. (4 marks)
    i) Pale
    ii) Oar
    iii) Crews
    iv) Was

    d) What would be the effect of mid-line pauses on the performance of the poem.

    Date posted: October 9, 2019.  Answers (1)

  • Read the poem below and answer the questions. A freedom song(Solved)

    atieno9041092019.png
    yo9051092019.png

    Questions
    a) Who is speaking in this poem? Give evidence.

    b) In about 50 words what is the poem talking about?

    c) If you were to read this poem to an audience, which words and lines would you emphasize?

    d) How does Atieno change over the years?

    e) From the poem identify.

    i) A proper noun

    ii) Three common noun

    Date posted: October 9, 2019.  Answers (1)

  • (Solved)

    Analyze the oral song below and answer the questions that follow.

    WHEN I SEE THE BEAUTY ON MY BELOVED’S FACE

    When I see the beauty on my beloved’s face,
    I throw away the food in my hand;
    Oh, sister of the young man, listen;
    The beauty on my beloved’s face.
    Her neck is long, when I see it cannot
    Sleep one wink
    Oh, the daughter of my mother-in-law,
    Her neck is like the shaft of a spear.
    When I touch the tattoos on her back,
    I die;
    Oh, sister of the young man, listen;
    The tattoo on my beloved’s back.
    When I see the gap in my beloved’s teeth,
    Her teeth are white like dry season simsim;
    Oh, daughter of my father-in-law, listen;
    The gap in my beloved’s teeth.
    The daughter of the bull confuses my head,
    I have to marry her;
    True, sister of the young man, listen;
    The suppleness of my beloved’s waist.



    i) How has rhythm been achieved in this oral song?
    ii) Explain how you would perform this oral song.
    iii) What tone will you adopt when singing this song?

    Date posted: October 7, 2019.  Answers (1)

  • Read the poem below and then answer questions that follow.(Solved)

    Read the poem below and then answer questions that follow.
    poen.png

    (a) Who is the speaker in this poem?

    (b) Describe what the poem above is about.

    (c) Identify three instances of similes in the poem.

    (d) Give this poem a suitable title.



    Date posted: September 30, 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.

    poem1.png

    i). Describe the rhyme scheme of this poem.

    ii).Identify any two sound patterns used in the poem above.

    iii). How would you perform the last line of the poem?

    iv). Which words would you stress in the first line?

    Date posted: September 24, 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 wonder by the edge
    Of this desolate lake
    Where wind cries in the sledge
    Until the axle break
    That keeps the stars in their round
    And hands hurt in the deep
    The banners of east and west
    And the girdle of light is unbound,
    Your breast will not lie by the breast
    Of your beloved in sleep


    (i) Describe the rhyme scheme of the poem.

    (ii) Identify and illustrate any two sound pattern used in the poem.

    (iii) How would you say the last two lines of the poem?

    (iv) Give homophones for the following words used in the poem (2mks)
    Wonder –
    Break-

    Date posted: September 12, 2019.  Answers (1)

  • Read the following poem and then answer the questions that follow. (Solved)

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

    There, I've got you,
    I've got you . . . Crack, crack,
    what a louse. It bit me,
    what a louse. . . It bit me,
    what a louse!
    (From: Oral literature in Africa, by Ruth Finnegan)

    i) Explain how rhythm is achieved in this poem

    ii) How would you perform the above poem to make it enjoyable?


    iii) Identify the words that you would stress in line 3, and explain why.

    Date posted: September 11, 2019.  Answers (1)

  • READ THE FOLLOWING POEM AND THEN ANSWER THE QUESTIONS THAT FOLLOW .(Solved)

    READ THE FOLLOWING POEM AND THEN ANSWER THE QUESTIONS THAT FOLLOW .

    The light of the whole being,
    The illuminator of my very self,
    In your presence darkness exists no longer,
    You make me feel bright and shining all over,
    Oh! My moon.


    My moon is still not yet fully full,
    My moon is three-quarter full,
    Still becoming what it will be,
    But the brightness of my moon surpasses all other moons,
    Oh! My moon.

    My moon is uncomparable,
    My moon has possession of the natural beauty,
    The sight of my moon makes hearts stop a beat or melts hearts’
    The smile of my moon makes the whole of my being hot and boiling,
    Oh! My moon.

    My moon when will you become a full moon?
    I have waited long enough and my patience is fading away,
    I may end up devouring my moon before it is fully ripe,
    My moon my moon without you then I am not;
    Oh! My moon

    From when I wake I think only of you my moon,
    At noon you are still dwelling in my mind,
    In the evening I die just to see you,
    And in the dark night I am restless and sleep never comes,
    Oh! My moon.

    By NYagilo. C

    QUESTIONS

    a) I) classify the poem.

    II) What does the term moon refer to.


    b) What do you think the persona means when he says that his moon three quarters full?


    c) Give the character traits of the persona.


    d) Identify any other words the poet uses to refer to the moon?

    e) State how the moon affects the persona’s mind at different times.


    f) Which aspects of style has the poet employed?

    g) Give the meaning of the following words as used in the poem.

    I) Devouring

    II) Surpasses

    Date posted: September 11, 2019.  Answers (1)

  • 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)