‘The Press’ Poem

 Read the poem below and then answer the question that follows.                         (20 mark)

    THE PRESS

       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 tipsyexplosions.
    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

THE PRESS ANSWERS

a)
–    Discrimination.
    The ministers son is accorded medical attention while the less fortune are neglected e.g. Tina and Kasajja’s only child.
–    Callousness / insensitivity
    The medical stuff lacks concern for the patient to get up or leave the line.
–     Negligence
    Tina’s bed is infested with maggots and her eyes are oozing blood. Kisajja’s only child died due to the negligence, in both cases, medical stuff gives very flimsy reasons for not attending to the patients.
–    Injustice / misuse of power.
    The judge dismisses a rape case because seven years old victim failed to testify.
    Any 3 (1 mk identification, 1mk illustration)      2×3=6mks
b)    i)    Use of rhetorical questions.
–    How come it was not whispered?
–    So was is the mountain deal?
ii) Use of hyperbolic questions.
–    Mountain deal – making a big of an ordinary situation.
–    Boiling news – Hot news or breaking news.
    In both cases the persona is criticizing the media. It gives exaggerated attention to the minister’s son’s minor illness at the expense of the deserving cases.
iii) Metaphor
–    Lioness of a nurse
iv) Satire
    The last stanza underscores the persona treats it as a tipsy talk of a drunk yet poet is ridiculing the injustice meted out to the less fortuned.
                                1mk identification, 1mk illustration = 2 mks
                                2×3=6mks
c)    Bitter / angry / sarcastic or satirical
        The persona is disheartened by the hypocrisy of the press. It lacks neutrality and focuses on the bog     people only.
                                     1 mk identification , 1 mk explanation
                                1×2=2mks
d)    The title is relevant:
    The poet is castigating the press for its partiality and lack of commitment to expose social injustice; practiced in the society yet the press is duty bound to produce and release free and fair news.                         (2 mks)
e)    The press is supposed to equally cover all the citizens and not to be biased. Here the press gkives news  yet the news are biased against people.                                            (2 mks)
f)     Crawled – infested
        Ushered – dismissed / cancelled