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

      

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

DEMOLITION by K.E Kasu
High up in his cabin
Hard - hatred
Gloved hands,
Extensions of levers,
The driver-
Unseeing

Down there
The woman
Pleading
And dragging out
Boxes
Bedding
Babies

And the blade chews up her meagre shelter
Scrapes away the heartstones
Leaving a nice smooth surface
High up in the cabin
He could not perhaps
Have heard her please
Above the din of machine
Could not possibly have seen her
Through the thick goggle darkness,
Small as she was

Or was busy perhaps
Thinking
About his family of five
Boxed in one room
Council house
Not far off

a)Waht is the poem about?

b)Identify and illustrate two sound patterns in the poem.

c)What is the effect of repeating the words 'nice smooth surface'?

d)Identify the irony in the poem.

e)Pick out an instance of personification and comment on its effectiveness.

f)Explain the mood of the poem.

g)Identify one theme from the poem.

  

Answers


Martin
a)The poem is about
-The destruction of a woman's humble abode by a bulldozer driven by a town/ city council askari;

-Who seems to be under instruction and not to even think about the suffering person whose house he demolishes;

- Yet he himself seems to live in deplorable conditions with a family of five in a single roomed house.

b)Sound patterns in the poem include
i)Alliteration
-hard hatred
-boxes
-heard her pleas

ii)Assonance
-in his cabin
-heard her
-din of the machine

c)What is the effect of repeating the words
-The effect of repeating words is to pass the intended meaning, message e.g 'nice smooth surface' brings out the meaning that nothing is left behind or is salvaged,
-and in the same breath brings out the sarcasm to show how uncaring the driver is.

d)The irony is that
the driver demolishes the poor woman's meagre shelter without feeling,
yet he himself is not living a better life as he is in poor living quarters- one roomed house with a family of five.

e)Personification is seen in the blade chewing up the woman's meagre shelter;
It has been effective because it is able to bring out the image of a person, who eats up everything set before him without leaving behind even a tiny morsel, so the machine eats up everything.

f)The mood of the poem is:
-desperate / helplessness then hopelessness.
-At the beginning when the machine comes and the woman is pleading with the driver, the mood is desperate and helpless as she can't do anything to salvage her belongings.
-the mood changes to hopelessness after the bulldozer flattens the woman's abode, and when the driver is reflecting on the kind of house he lives in.

g)One theme in the poem is
i)Poverty
the driver lives in a one roomed house with a family of five

ii)Hopelessness
-The woman is left hopeless after her house is demolished.

iii)Problems of housing in towns/ cities/problems of urbanization.The driver of the bulldozer lives in a small house with his large family

marto answered the question on March 9, 2020 at 11:44


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