Western civilization - KCSE English poetry questions and answers
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
Sheets of tin nailed to posts driven in the ground make up the house Some rags complete The intimate landscape The sun slanting through the cracks welcomes the owner. After twelve hours of slave labour Breaking rock shifting rock breaking rock shifting rock fair weather wet weather breaking rock shifting rock Old age comes early a mat on dark nights is enough when he dies gratefully of hunger 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
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White child meets black man - KCSE English poetry questions and answers
Read the poem below and answer questions that follow.
She caught me outside a London Suburban shop, I, like a giraffe And she a mouse. I tried to go But felt she stood Lovely as light on my back I turned with hello And waited. Her eyes got Wider but not her lips. Hello I smiled again and watched. She stepped around me Slowly, in a kind of dance, Her wide eyes searching Inch by inch up and down: No fur no scales no feathers No shell. Just a live silhouette, Wild and strange And compulsive Till mother came horrified 'Mummy is his tummy black?' Mother grasped her and swung Toward the crowd. She tangled Mother’s legs looking back at me As I watched them birds were singing. James Berry (Jamaica) questions
(a) Briefly explain what the poem is about. (3mks)
(b) Explain what the reaction of the white child makes the persona feel. (4mks) (c) Compare and contrast the reactions of the mother and daughter to the black man. (6mks) (d) Identify and explain any two figures of speech used in this poem. (4mks) (e) Explain the significance of the last line of the poem. (3mks) THE PRESS - KCSE English poetry questions and answers
Read the poem below and then answer the question that follows.
So What is the mountain deal? About the minister’s ailing son That makes boiling news? How come it was not whispered? When Tina’s hospital bed was crawled with maggots And her eyes oozed pus Because the doctors lacked gloves? What about Kasajja’s only child Who died because the man with the key To the oxygen room was on leave? I have seen queues Of emaciated mothers clinging to Babies with translucent skins Faint in line And the lioness of a nurse Commanding tersely ‘Get up or live the line’ Didn’t I hear it rumored that The man with the white mane Ushered a rape case out of court Because the seven-year-old Failed to testify? Anyway, I only remembered these things Ehen I drink They indeed tipsy explosions. Susan Nalugwa Kiguli Adopted By from: Echoes across the valley. 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 Their City - KCSE English poetry questions and answers
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
Their city City in the sun without any warmth except for wanaotosheka and the tourists escaping from civilized boredom Sit under the Tree any Saturday morning and watch the new Africans, the anxious faces behind the steering wheels in hire purchase cars see them looking important in a tiny corner behind the chauffeur We have seen them in a nightmare, the thickset directors of several companies; we have seen them struggling under the weight of a heavy lunch on a Monday afternoon cutting a tape to open a building, we have seen them looking over their gold-rimmed glasses to read a speech And in the small hours between one day and the next we have strolled through the deserted streets and seen strange figures under bougainvillea bushes in traffic islands figures hardly human snoring away into the cold winds of the night; desperately dying to live. (Lennard Okola) 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) Beggar in the three a piece - KCSE English poetry questions and answers
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
My Jumbo Shot its way Across the sky To distant lands Across blue seas I descended the ladder To a waiting ribbon Of blood-red carpet A quick glance at my Three piece suit and the tie That beautifully strangled my neck. On my left hand hang My beaded knob kerry On my right I clutched My rusty inter- nation Begging Bowl On my face I wore humility and need And of course dignity. Sir, the dearth of food Had rendered my people thin And hungry Scoop us a little You know Just little To keep them till next rains. But Sir, beggars In three piece Are a rare sight But your suit is beautiful Honestly. Now my suit Which cost me a fortune In a Parisian Texture Has denied me a fortune And my countrymen, life. By. L.O. Sunkuli. questions
(a) Who is the persona in the poem? (3 marks)
(b) What is the subject matter of this poem? (4 marks) (c) Explain the satire in this poem and comment on its effectiveness. (4 marks) (d) Describe the tone of this poem. (3 marks) (e) Explain what the last stanza implies. (3 marks) (f) Explain the meaning of the following liens as used in the poem. (3 marks)
THE CRACK - KCSE ENGLISH POETRY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Crack the glass
And the crack Will always remain The human heart Has the same vein Its just as delicate To the strain Once it is hurt It is too hard To fade the strain Although parts can Fix together You’ve just to touch the wound To make it drain again Questions
I HAD A DREAM - KCSE ENGLISH POETRY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
I had a dream last night, I dreamed
I had to pick a mother out. I had to choose a father too. At first, I wondered what to do, There were so many there, it seemed, Short and tall and thin and stout But just before I sprang awake, I know what parents I would take. And this surprised and made me glad; They were the ones I always had! QUESTIONS
THE CROW - KCSE ENGLISH POETRY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Read the following poem carefully and answer all the questions that follow.
Crows on the wing! What grace as they swim Rising and driving Like fish in the billows In the willowy air Or softly as feathers Franboken pillows Crows on the wing What a symphony sings The wind in their wings As they swoop as the rise To the sea to the skies As they float in the light (Barnabas J. Ramon Fortune) Questions
Answers
a)
LOVE - KCSE ENGLISH POETRY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follows: (20 mks)
Love is madness. Hard brutal madness Love is fire Flat blazing Love is a chameleon A camouflaged dangerous chamwleon Hot fiery love, I beg you……….
Put out your brazing flame,
Because I desire to fell for you Hard remorseful love Please change your stance Before the fire of my youth Is quenched (from the African saga by Susan N. Kiguli) Questions
Answers
a)
I WENT TO CHURCH - KCSE ENGLISH POETRY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.
I went to church today. Yes I went and prayed for all Friends and foes a like. Dead and those alive. I also prayed hard. For the soul of that soldier. Who got short. Fighting for our motherland While I shot hot life into his wife. And I prayed to God too That I live long To go and pray again Questions
‘STILL I RISE’ - KCSE ENGLISH POETRY QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS
Read the following poem and respond to the questions appropriately.
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) QUESTIONS
THE SMILING ORPHAN - KCSE ENGLISH POETRY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Read the following poem and respond to the questions appropriately.
And when she passed away, They came, Kinsmen came, Friends came, Everybody came to mourn her. Hospitalized for five months The ward was her world Fellow patients her compatriots The meager hospital supply-her-diet When she was dying Her son was on official duty The state demanded his services Her only daughter, uneducated, Sat by her Crying, praying waiting for an answer From God far above Wishing, she spoke the language Figures in white-coats do understand They matched, the figures did Stiff, numb and deaf, to the cries and wishes Of her dying mother As she was dying Friends and kinsmen TALKED of her How good, how helpful: a very practical woman None reached her: they were too busy, there waws no money, Who would look after their homes? Was it so crucial their presence? But when she passed away, they came, Kinsmen came, friends hired cars to come, Neighbours gathered to mourn her, They ought to be there, to be there for the funeral So they swore The mourners shrieked out cries As they arrived in the busy compound of the dead. Memories of loved ones no more Stimulated tears of many. They cried dutiful tears for the deceased Now stretching their hands all over to help The daughter looked at them With dry eyes, quiet, blank
The mourners pinched each other
Shocked by the stone – heartedness Of the be-orphaned. She sat: watching the tears soak their garments Or in the soil around them; wasted That night, she went to her love, In the freshly made emergency grass hut, And let loose all ties of the Convectional Dress she wore Submitting to the Great Power, she whispered: ‘Now ………………. You and I must know Now…………. Tomorrow you might never understand Unable to lick my tears …………….. And there was light In the darkness of the hut While outside The mourners cried Louder thant he Orphan By Grace Birabwa Isharaza QUESTION
a) Who is the persona in the poem? (2 marks)
AFRICA - KCSE ENGLISH POETRY QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS
Read the poem below and then answer the question that follow.
Africa my Africa Africa of proud warriors in the ancestral savannah’s Africa my grandmother sings of Beside her distant river I have never seen you. But my gaze is full of your blood. Your black spilt over the field. The blood of your sweat The sweat of your toil The toil of slavery The slavery of your children. Africa, tell me Africa, Are you the back that bends. Lies down under the weight of humbleness? The trembling back stripped red. That says yes to the whips on the road of noon? Solemnly a voice answers me “Impetuous child, that young and sturdy tree. That tree that grows. There splendidly alone among white and faded flowers. Is Africa, your Africa. It puts forth new shoots. With patience and stubbornness pouts forth news shoots. Slowly its fruits grow to have That bitter taste of freedom. QUESTIONS
THE EARTH - KCSE ENGLISH POETRY QUESTIONS AND AND ANSWERS
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') QUESTIONS
A FORTUNE THAT NEVER WAS - KCSE ENGLISH POETRY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Read the following oral poem and answer the questions that follow.
After a brief struggle I got myself A job My food was meat and banana flour A hundred cents a month and soon I had some money. Soon afterwards I bought myself A beautiful girl My heart was telling time this was a fortune So heart you were deceiving me and I believed you On a Saturday morning as I was leaving work I was thinking I was being awaited at home But on arrival I couldn’t find my bride Nor was she in her parents home I ran fast to the river valley; What I saw gave me a shock. There was my wife conversing with her lovers. I sat and silently wept. I realized there is no luck in this world. People aren’t trustworthy and will never be! QUESTIONS
DEATH IS A WITCH - KCSE ENGLISH POETRY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
DEATH IS A WITCH
Solo: Ah, what shall I do, Abuluhya? It’s wrong Chorus: Today I will say Death is a witch, my people It snatched my child I will remain alone Solo: Ah what shall I really do, Abuluhya its very wrong Chorus: Today I will say Death is a witch, my people It snatched my child I will weed along Solo: Ah, what shall I really do, Abuluhya it’s wrong Chorus: Today I will say Death is a witch, my people It snatched my child I will dance alone Solo: My child, my friend, I cry what shall I do? I cry What shall I do? I cry x2 QUESTIONS
THE PAUPER - KCSE ENGLISH POETRY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Read the following poem and then answer the questions that follow.
Pauper, pauper, craning your eyes In all directions, in no direction! What brutal force, malignant element, Dared to forge your piteous fate? Was it worth the effort, the time? You limply lean on a leafless tree Nursing the jiggers that shrivel your bottom Like baby newly born to an old woman. What crime, what treason did you commit That you are thus condemned to human indifference? And when you trudge on the horny pads, Gullied like the soles of modern shoes, Pads that even jiggers cannot conquer; Does He admire your sense of endurance Or turn his head away from your imprudent presence? You sit alone on hairless goatskins, Your ribs and bones reflecting the light That beautiful cars reflect on you, Squashing like between your nails. And cleaning your nails with dry saliva. And when He looks at the grimy coating Caking off your emaciated skin, At the rust that uproots all your teeth Like a pick on a stony piece of land, Does He pat his paunch at the wonderful sight? Pauper, pauper, crouching in beautiful verandas Of beautiful cities and beautiful people, Tourists and I will take your snapshots, And your M.P. with a shining head and triple chin Will mourn your fate in a supplementary questions at question time. (Adapted from poems from East Africa, by Cook and Rubadiri EDS) QUESTIONS
The Courage That My Mother Had - KCSE ENGLISH POETRY QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS
Read the following poem and then answer the questions that follow.
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) QUESTIONS
THE INMATES - KCSE ENGLISH POETRY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.
The inmates Huddled together Cold biting their bones Teeth chattering from the chill, The air oppressive, The smell offensive They sit and they reflect The room self contained At the corner the ‘gents’ invites With the nice fragrance of ammonia, And fresh human dung, The fresh inmates sit thoughtfully Vermin perform a guard of honour Saluting him with a bite here And a bite there ‘Welcome to the world, they seem to say’ The steel lock of the door The walls insurmountable And the one torching tortuous bulb Stare vacantly at him Slowly he reflects about the consignment That gave birth to his confinement Locked in for conduct refinement The reason they put him in prison The clock ticks But too slowly Five years will be a long time Doomed in the dungeon In this hell of a cell QUESTIONS
LIES BEHIND BEAUTY
Read the poem and answer the questions that follow: (8 marks)
Who will believe my verse in time to come,
If it were filled with your most high whoosh deserts? Though yet heaven knows, it is but as tomb Which hides your life and shows not half your parts If I could write the beauty of your eyes And in fresh number all your graces, The age to come would say ‘This poet lies’ Such heavenly touches never touched earth’s faces, So should my papers, yellowed with their age, Be scorned, like lazy less travelled old men of less truth than tongue QUESTIONS
MARKING SCHEME
DUSKS OF DRINKS AND DRUGS
Read the poem provided below and answer the questions that follow: (20mks)
Drinks and drugs drained our dreams,
Drinks and drugs drowned our dreams; They drew dusks and dark nights, Drinks and drugs spawned our nightmares; We wailed and screamed in seas of terror In sweat-drenched bodies, bobbed we out, Like drugged fish out of muddy streams; Gasping for breath-hearts pumping and panting. Inaudibly mumbled incoherent words Pulled back stubborn sleep to no avail, She fled like a refugee fleeing a civil war. Our bedmates asked: we answered not! ~ Boniface Wasira QUESTIONS
BLOOD IRON - KCSE POETRY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Read the Oral Poem below then answer the questions that follow.
Blood iron and trumpets
Blood iron and trumpets Forward we march (Clothes fall on the way) Blood iron and trumpets We shall hack, kill and core Blood iron and trumpets Singers of the Datsun blue Forward we drive breaking the records Blood iron and trumpets Let bullets find their targets and earth be softened Blood iron and trumpets Let the dogs of war rejoice And the Carion birds feed We are reducing population explosion Blood iron and trumpets The uniformed machines are around Put on your helmet iron and vest Blood iron and trumpets Only through fire can be baptized to mean business So once again, Blood iron and trumpets We shall always march along Blood iron and trumpets Blood iron and trumpets Blood alone QUESTIONS
MARKING SCHEME
FOOTPATH - KCSE POETRY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow. (20 marks)
Footpath
Path – let … Leaving home, leading out Return my mother to me. The sun is sinking and darkness coming, Hens and cocks are already inside and babies drowsing, Return my mother to me. We do not have firewood and I have not seen the lantern, There is no more food and the water has run out Path – let me pray, you return my mother to me. Path of the small hills, path of the small stones Path of slipperiness, path of the mud Return my mother to me. Path of papyrus, path of the rivers Path of small forests, path of reeds Return my mother to me Path, I implore you, return my mother to me Path of the crossways, path that branches off, Path of the stringing shrubs, path of the bridge Return my mother to me Path of the open, path of the valley Path of the steep climb, path of the downward slope Return my mother to me. Children are drowsing about to sleep, Darkness is coming and there is no firewood, And I have not found the lantern; Return my mother to me. ~ Stella Ngatho. QUESTIONS
MARKING SCHEME
A Sudden Storm: Pius Oleghe
Read the poem below and then answer the questions that follow (20 marks)
The wind howls, the trees sway,
The loose house-top sheets clatter and clang, The open window shuts with a bang, And the sky makes night of day. Helter-skelter the parents run, Pressed with a thousand minor cares: ‘Hey, you there! Pack the house hold wares! And where on earth is my son?’ Home skip the little children: ‘Where have you been you naughty boy?’ The child can feel nothing but joy, For he loves the approach of the rain. The streets clear, the houses fill, The noise gathers as children shout To rival the raging wind without, And naught that can move is still- A bright flash! – alighted plain; Then from the once-blue heavens, Accompanied by noise that deafens, Steadily pours the rain QUESTIONS
REPRISE - ENGLISH POETRY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Read the poem and then answer the questions that follow:
Reprise Geniuses of countless nations Have told their love for generations Till all their memorable phrases Are common as goldenrod or daisies. Their girls have glimmered like the moon, Or shimmered like a summer noon, Stood like lily, fled like fawn, Now the sunset, now the dawn, Here the princess in the tower There the sweet forbidden flower. Darling, when I look at you Every aged phrase is the new And there are moments when it seems I’ve married one of Shakespeare’s dreams. QUESTIONS
(i) Describe the rhyme scheme in this poem and say what it does. (4 marks)
(ii) Identify and illustrate any two instances of alliteration in the poem. (2 marks) |
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