‘Riding Chinese Machines’ Poem

Read the poem below then answer the questions that follow.

Riding Chinese Machines

There are beasts in this city
they creak and they crank
and groan from first dawn
when their African-tongued masters wake
to guide them lax and human-handed
through the late rush
when they‘re handled down and un-animated
still as we sleep, towering or bowing
always heavy

We pour cement through the cities
towns, through the wild
onwards, outwards
like fingers of eager hands
stretched across the earth
dug in
The lions investigate
and buried marvel rumbles
squeezed for progress
By Liyou Mesfin Libsekal

Questions

(a)    Briefly describe what the poem is about.  (3mks)
(b)    Explain how the poet feels towards the beasts in the city.   (2mks)
(c)    Identify two poetic devices employed by the poet in the poem.  (4mks)
(d)    Explain the irony of the type of development described in the poem    (3mks)
(e)    Explain the meaning of the following lines in the poem.  (4mks)
i)     When their African-tongued masters wake to guide them.
ii)      The lions investigate and buried marvel rumbles squeezed for progress.
(f)    Identify and explain one theme tackled in the poem.  (2mks)
(g)    Explain the significance of the title to the poem.   (2mks)

Riding Chinese Machines ANSWERS

(a)    The poem is about how the natural habitat has been invaded by development by the Chinese.  Buildings and roads have made the natural habitat to give way.                        (3mks)
(b)    He / she hates the beasts – he / she says that they crank and creak and groan.
(c)    Alliteration – crank and creak.
Personification – buried marvel rumbles.
(d)    The development talked about is destructive – in the process towers and roads, the environment is destroyed.                                            (3mks)
(e)    (i)  The machines are driven by the locals – Africans.                        (2mks)
(ii)  The wildlife’s habitat is destroyed by the new development.                                                (2mks)
(f)    Environmental degradation – The natural habitat is cleared to pave way for the new roads and buildings.
Neo-colonialism – these are new masters who have the locals as subjects.     (any one theme                         2mks)
(g)    The title is ironic – it portrays whatever is going on in the text as enjoyable yet the destruction is negative.  There is no enjoyable destruction.   (2mks)