POETRY

2006 P1

Read the poem below and answer the question that follows.

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. (2marks)

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

ii) Which words would you stress in line 2 of this poem, and why? (2marks)

iii) How would you say the last two lines of this poem? (2marks)

2006 P2

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

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. (3marks)

b) What do you think the persona means by “touch”? (3marks)

c) Using two illustrations, describe the persona’s experience during the seven years

(4marks)

d) What is the significance of the word” paws”? (2marks)

e) Which device does the poet use to reinforce the theme? (2marks)

f) Explain the meaning of the following words as they are used in the poem (2marks)

Prodding

Indifferent

g) What does the poem reveal about human need? (4marks)

2007 P2

Read the poem below and then answer the questions that follow

“Sympathy”

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!

When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;

When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass

And the river flows like a stream of glass

When the first bird sings and the first bud opes

And the faint perfume from its petals steals

I know what the caged bird feels!

I know why the caged bird beats his wing

Till its blood is red on the cruel bars

For he must fly back to his perch and cling

When he rather would be on the branch a swing

And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars

And they pulse again with a keener sting

I know why he beats his wings

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me

When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore

When he beats his bars and would be free

It is not a song of joy or glee

But a prayer that he sends from his hearts deep core

But a plea, that upward to heaven he flings

I know why the caged bird sings!

(Adapted from the poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar in America Negco Poetry,

edited by Arna Bontempts. New York: Hill and Waug, 1974

Explain briefly what the poem is about (3 marks)

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

What does the poet focus on in each of the three stanzas? Give your answer in one form (6 marks)

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

How would you describe the persona’s feelings towards the caged bird? (4 marks)

What can we infer about the persona’s own experiences? (3 marks)

Identify a simile in the first stanza and explain why it is used (2 marks)

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Explain the meaning of the following lines

(i) And the faint perfume from its petals steals (1 mark)

(ii) And they pulse again with a keener sting (1 mark)

2008

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

“The Debt” by Paul Laurence Dunbar

This is the debt I play

Just for one riotous day,

Years of regret and grief,

Sorrow without relief.

Put it I will to the end-

Until the grave, my friend,

Gives me a true release-

Gives me the clasp of peace.

Slight was the thing I bought,

Small was the debt I though,

Poor was the loan at best

God! But the interest!

(From American Negro Poetry, Edited by arna Bontemps)

(i) List at the pairs of rhyming words (3marks)

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

(ii) Describe the tone of voice that would be appropriate in the reading of this poem. (3marks)

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

(iii) How does the punctuation in the second stanza influence your reading of the poem? (3marks)

(iv) How would you say the last are of the poem? (2marks)

2008 P2

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

Yusuf O. Kassem

a) What do you think this poem is about? (3marks)

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

b) What is implied by the use of color imagery (lines 4, 5, 6)? (4marks)

c) Identify and explain two stylistic devices used in this poem other than color imagery. (4marks)

d) Describe the tone of this poem (3marks)

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

e) Explain the meaning of the last two lines. (3marks)

f) Explain the message of the following words as they are used in the poem: (3marks)

Surges

Fade

Tranquil

2010 P2

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

“Song of the wagondriver”. B.S. Johson

My first love was a ten-ton truck They gave me when I started, And though she played the bitch with me I grieved when we were parted.

Since then I’ve had a dozen more,

The wound was quick to heal,

And now it’s easier to say

I’m married to my wheel.

I’ve trunked it north, I’ve trunked it south, On wagons good and bad, But none was ever really like The first I ever had.

The life is hard, the hours are long,

Sometimes I cease to feel,

But I go on, for it seems to me

I’m married to my wheel. . _;

Often I think of my home and kids, Out on the road at night, And think of taking a local job Provided the money’s right.

Two nights a week I see my wife And eat a decent meal, But otherwise, for all my life, •5. I’m married to my wheel.

(From The Earth is Ours: Poems for Secondary Schools.

Selected by lan Gordon)

(a) Briefly explain what the poem is about. (2 marks)

(b) What is contradictory about the persona’s relationship with his first truck? (2 marks)

(c) The persona is facing a real dilemma. Which is it? (2 marks)

(d) Identify and illustrate any two literary devices that the poet uses. (4 marks)

(e) What makes the persona’s job demanding? Give your answer in note form. (4 marks)

(f) Explain the meaning of the following lines: (i) Sometimes I cease to feel

(i) Sometime I cease to feel (2 marks)

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

(ii) Provided the money’s right (2 marks)

(g) Explain the meaning of the words below as used in the poem.

(i) grieved ………………………………………………………………… (1 mark)

(ii) trunked ……………………………………………………………….. (1 mark)

7. 2012 Q3a P2

(a) Read the poem below and then answer the questions that follow:

If We Must Die – Claude McKay

If we must die – let it not be like dogs

Haunted and penned in an inglorious spot,

While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,

Making their mock at our accursed lot,

If we must die – oh let us nobly die

So that our precious blood may not be shed

In vain; then even the monsters we defy

Shall be constrained to honour us though dead!

Oh kinsmen! We must meet the common foe;

Though far outnumbered, let us show us brave

And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow

What thought before us lies the open grave?

Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack

Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

(i) Describe the rhyme scheme of this poem, (2 marks)

(ii) Which words would you stress in the last line of this poem and why?(3 marks)

(iii) Apart from rhyme, how else has the poet achieved rhythm?

8. 2012 Q3 P1

Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.

He is a jolly good boss

Sits behind a shiny mahogany desk,

Dreamy and contented like an over-fed python

That has just swallowed a bearded goat.

He is a good-natured fellow

Always patting the rumps of secretaries in tight skirts Which say: marry me if you dare

Laughs absent-mindedly and sinks back into dear oblivion He is an industrious head

Gets dog-tired early in the morning from signing a few papers

Whose contents he is mildly aware of

And leaves for lunch and for the day at 11.30 a.m.

He is a humorous chap

Jokes about how he is underpaid and over-worked to his juniors. Who laugh subserviently to conceal their indignation And grudging envy.

He is a mighty generous comrade

Brags about his christ-heart.

Being a proud donor of a few bastards

To guileless girls under him,

And believes his is a God-sanctioned mission

That dates back to Abraham.

He is a jolly good boss,

A perfect paragon of leadership.

Kitche O. Magak.

What is the message of this poem?

Give evidence from the poem which indicates that the juniors are suffering quietly (2marks)

Explain the image in the line

“Dreamy and contented like an overfed phython” (3marks)

Identify and comment on two aspects of irony in the poem (4marks)

Explain the meaning of the following as used in the poem :
Oblivion………..

Guiless…………..

God sanctioned mission…………..

Identify two instances of alliteration in the poem (2marks)

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Why are the last two lines in the poem significant (2marks)

KCSE ENGLISH POETRY QUESTIONS

POETRY

By Elimu Assistant Team

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KCSE ENGLISH POETRY QUESTIONS

POETRY

By Elimu Assistant Team

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You missed

LESSON PLAN 64: Break and Continue Statements in Control Structures

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LESSON PLAN 62: Iteration Structures and Loops

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