Poems 2020 – Gr 11: BOOKLET

ANTHEM FOR A DOOMED YOUTH – Wilfred Owen

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them, no prayers nor bells; 5
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, –
The shrill demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all?

Not in the hands of boys but in their eyes 10
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.

Questions
1.1. What is an anthem? (2)
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1.2. Why is it ironic then that the poem is called an anthem? (2)
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2. Why are the youth “doomed”? (2)
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3. Identify and discuss the figure of speech in “for these who die as cattle” (line 1). (3)
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4. Why is the anger of the guns “monstrous” (line 2)? (2)
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5. Explain why the rifles “stutter” (line 3). Discuss the figure of speech used. (3)
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6. Describe line 7 in your own words . (3)
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7. What do the candles (line 9) represent and where are they speeding the soldiers
to? (2)
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8. In Owen’s experiences in peace time, he knew that when someone died there was a
church funeral with bells, choirs, prayers, candles, flowers and a pall. At the person’s home
the blinds would be drawn to show that there had been a death. Discuss the extended
metaphor and the following elements compared. (8)

PEACE TIME WAR TIME

Bells
Prayers
Choirs
Candles
Flowers
Pall
Blinds drawn

9.1. Identify three alliterating words in the last line of the poem. (1)
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9.2. Describe how these words affect the rhythm of the poem. (3)
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10. After reading the poem, why do you think Owen’s poetry is described as “anti-war”?
(2)
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11. Write a short paragraph (3-5 sentences) about the tone and mood of the poem.
Refer to the use of diction and imagery to justify your answer. (4)
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12. Comment on the relevance of the title of the poem. (3)
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[40 marks]
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EATING POETRY – Mark Strand
Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.

The librarian does not believe what she sees.

Her eyes are sad 5
and she walks with her hands in her dress.

The poems are gone.

The light is dim.
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.

Their eyeballs roll, 10

their blond legs burn like brush.
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.

She does not understand.

When I get on my knees and lick her hand.
She screams. 15

I am a new man.
I snarl at her and bark.
I romp with joy in the bookish dark.

Questions
1. Discuss the image created in the first stanza. (2)
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2. How would you describe the speaker's tone and mood in the first stanza? (2)
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3. How does he sound when he confesses that he's been "eating poetry"? (1)
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4. Explain in your own words how the librarian is described in stanza 2. (2)
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5. Comment on what the librarian symbolises. (HINT: refer to stereotyping.) (3)
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6. Why is she an important part of the poem's central themes? (2)

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7. Why are all the poems “gone” (line 7)? (2)

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8. Discuss the connotative and denotative meanings of line 8. (2)
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9. Comment on the mood created in line 9. (2)

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10. Explain in your own words how the dogs are described in stanza 4. (2)
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11. How does the librarian act when she sees the dogs? What does this imply? (2)
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12.1. What does speaker do in stanza 5 that causes the librarian to scream? (1)
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12.2. Why, do you think, has the speaker transformed into a dog? (2)
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12.3. Explain the irony in line 16. (2)
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13. Provide a suitable in-context synonym for “romp” (line 18). (1)
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14. Discuss why there are so many full stops and how the pace is affected. (3)
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15. Normally we say that we read poetry. What is emphasised by saying that the
speaker is eating poetry? How is reading poetry the same as eating? (2)
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16. How is it the same or different from what you think of when you think of reading
poetry? (2)
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[35 MARKS]
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MID-TERM BREAK –Seamus Heaney
I sat all morning in the college sick bay
Counting bells knelling classes to a close.
At two o'clock our neighbours drove me home.

In the porch I met my father crying –

He had always taken funerals in his stride – 5
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.

The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram

When I came in, and I was embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my hand

And tell me they were ‘sorry for my trouble’. 10

Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my hand

In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.

At ten o’clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses. 15

Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops

And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,

Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,

He lay in the four-foot box as in his cot. 20
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.

A four-foot box, a foot for every year.

Questions

1. What is unusual about the title of this poem? (2)

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2. How do you think the poet was feeling in stanza one? Quote to support your answer. (3)
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3. Why does the poet choose the word “knelling” when writing about the school bells? (2)
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4. What type of school did the poet attend? Give reasons for your answer. (2)
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5. What did the poet find strange about his father’s behaviour? (2)
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6. Why is what “big Jim Evans” says (line 6) an unfortunate pun? (HINT: Explain both
meanings.) (3)
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7. Why was the baby the lucky one that day? (1)
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8. Why was the poet embarrassed by the old men shaking his hand? (2)
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9. What was surprising about his mother’s behaviour? (2)
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10.1. Contrast the reactions of both parents. (2)
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10.2. With whom, do you think, is the mother angry? (2)
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11. What is unusual about the poet’s use of the phrase “the corpse”? Answer fully. (3)
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12. How does the use of “corpse” contrast with the language describing when he is alone with
his brother’s body? (3)
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13. Account for the atmosphere change in stanza six. (HINT: Remember before/after). (3)
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14. Explain line 19 in your own words. (2)
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15. Comment on the use if the simile in line 20. (3)
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16. What do you think of the image used in the last line of the poem? (3)
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[40 MARKS]
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LONDON 1802 – William Wordsworth
Milton! thou should’st be living at this hour;
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower 5
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart;
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: 10
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life’s common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

Questions

1. Who was Milton? (2)

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2. Identify the figure of speech the poet uses when addressing Milton. (2)
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3. Identify and discuss the figure of speech used to describe England
in “[England] is a fen / Of stagnant waters” (lines 2-3). (3)
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4. Describe in your own words what is wrong with England according
to the poet. (2)
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5.1. Explain the symbolism used in lines 3-4. (5)
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5.2. Provide another figure of speech that these symbols could be. (2)
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5.3. Identify the over-arching image the poet has painted of England through the use of
these symbols. (2)
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6. Comment on why the poet wants Milton to “return”. (3)
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7.1. Identify and explain the figures of speech the poet uses to describe Milton in lines 9-11. (3)
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7.2. Discuss how these comparisons characterise Milton. (3)

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8. Account for how the poet’s use of structure helps to convey the theme
of the poem. (3)
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[30 MARKS]
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A FAR CRY FROM AFRICA - Derek Walcott
A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt
Of Africa, Kikuyu, quick as flies,
Batten upon the bloodstreams of the veldt.
Corpses are scattered through a paradise.
Only the worm, colonel of carrion, cries: 5
'Waste no compassion on these separate dead!'
Statistics justify and scholars seize
The salients of colonial policy.
What is that to the white child hacked in bed?
To savages, expendable as Jews? 10

Threshed out by beaters, the long rushes break

In a white dust of ibises whose cries
Have wheeled since civilizations dawn
From the parched river or beast-teeming plain.
The violence of beast on beast is read 15
As natural law, but upright man
Seeks his divinity by inflicting pain.
Delirious as these worried beasts, his wars
Dance to the tightened carcass of a drum,
While he calls courage still that native dread 20
Of the white peace contracted by the dead.

Again brutish necessity wipes its hands

Upon the napkin of a dirty cause, again
A waste of our compassion, as with Spain,
The gorilla wrestles with the superman. 25

I who am poisoned with the blood of both,

Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?
I who have cursed
The drunken officer of British rule, how choose
Between this Africa and the English tongue I love? 30
Betray them both, or give back what they give?
How can I face such slaughter and be cool?
How can I turn from Africa and live?

Questions

1. Give three (3) possible meanings the title of the poem could have. (3)
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2. Identify and discuss the figure of speech in: “A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt / Of Africa”
(lines 1-2). (3)
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3.1. Who or what are the Kiyuku (line 2)? (2)
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3.2. Discuss the effectiveness of the simile used to describe the Kiyuku. (2)
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4. Comment on how the image of Africa changes in lines 1-4. (3)
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5. Discuss the significance of the worm in line 5. (3)
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6. Explain lines 7-8 in your own words. (2)
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7. Identify the true cause of what has happened and why in lines 9-10. (2)
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8. Describe what point the speaker is making about nature in lines 11-14. (3)
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9. Account for how the speaker differentiates between actions of animals and man. (4)
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10. Explain what the speaker means in “the tightened carcass of a drum” (line19). (2)
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11. Referring to lines 20-21, what scares natives more the white man’s violence? (1)
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12. Comment, in great detail, critically on the imagery used in line 25. (5)
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13.1. Explain lines 26-27 in your own words. (2)
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13.2. How does the poet situate himself, personally, with relation to the two sides in the conflict?
What are the terms of his connections with each? (3)
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14. Comment on the tone and mood of the poem in terms of the diction and imagery used. (5)
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[45 MARKS]
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THOSE WINTER SUNDAYS – Robert Hayden
Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labour in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him. 5

I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.

When the rooms were warm, he'd call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him, 10

who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices

Questions

1. Discuss the significance of the title of the poem. (2)

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2. Explain what “too” suggests in line 1. (2)
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3. Comment on the effect created by the description of the cold as “blueblack”. (line 2).
(3)
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4. Discuss the state of the father’s hands in line 3. (2)
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5. What does line 4 suggest about the father’s work? (2)
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6. Discuss the significance of the last five words in line 5. (2)
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7. Explain the metaphor used in line 6. (3)
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8. Identify and explain the figure of speech used in line 9. (3)
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9. Describe in your own words how the speaker feels in line 10. (2)
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10. How is this contrasted in lines 11-12? (3)
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11.1. Identify the figure of speech used in lines 13-14. (1)
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11.2. Explain how this figure of speech emphasises the speaker’s tone and mood. (3)
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12. Account for the speaker’s feelings toward his father, how they changed and why. (3)
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13. Comment on the theme of the poem and how the structure supports it. (4)
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[35 MARKS]
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SONNET 130 – William Shakespeare
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral! is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white, 5
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound; 10
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

Questions
1. Name two things to which the speaker compares his mistress. (2)
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2. Outline five features of a Shakespearean sonnet that you can identify. (5)
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3. How does the metaphor of music in stanza 3 impact on your understanding of the poem?(2)
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4. Explain what the speaker means when saying his mistress "treads on the ground"? (2)
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5. Discuss whether you think the speaker's love is sincere. (3)
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6. What use of diction is made, and how does it affect the rest of Sonnet 130? (2)
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7. What is an explanation for both the literal and figurative meaning of Sonnet 130? (2)
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8. What does the line mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun literally mean? (2)
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9. Essay - In an essay of approximately 250-300 words, critically discuss the poet's
comments on the sincerity of love. Your answer should refer to the conventions of a sonnet. (10)
[30 marks]
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Da same, da same – Sipho Sepamla
I doesn’t care of you black
I doesn’t care of you white
I doesn’t care of you India
I doesn’t care of you kleeling
if sometimes you Saus Afrika 5
you gotta big terrible terrible
somewheres in yourselves
because why
for sure you doesn’t look anader man in da eye

I mean for sure now 10

all da peoples is make like God
sometimes you wanna knows how I meaning for
is simples
da God I knows for sure
He make avarybudy wit’ one heart 15

for sure now dis heart go-go da same

dats for meaning to say
one man no different to anader
so now
you see a big terrible terrible stand here 20
how one man can make anader man feel
da pain he doesn’t feel hisself
for sure now dats da whole point

sometimes you wanna know how I meaning for

is simples 25
when da nail of da t’orn tre
scratch little bit little bit of da skin
I doesn’t care of you black
I doesn’t care of you white
I doesn’t care of you India 30
I doesn’t care of you kleeling

I mean for sure da skin

only one t’ing come for sure
and da one t’ing for sure is red blood
dats for sure da same da same 35
for avarybudy

Questions

1. What reason can you find for the poet not writing in standard English? (3)
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2. Summarise the points that the speaker says are common to all of us. (2)
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3. Explain whether you think the style of language used in this poem is effective or not. (2)
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4. How does the image of the thorn tree impact on your understanding of the poem? (3)
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5. What is the effect of repeating “sure” in the final stanza? (3)
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4. Do you agree with the statement made by the speaker in the last two lines of the poem?
Justify your response. (2)
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[15]
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WE WEAR THE MASK – Paul Lawrence Dunbar
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties. 5
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries 10
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask! 15

Questions

1. Name two things that the mask hides. (2)

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2. Quote two words from line 10 that clearly contradict each other. (2)
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3. How does the image of "torn and bleeding hearts" impact on your understanding of what the
mask is concealing? (2)
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4. What is the speaker's motivation for wearing a mask? (2)
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5. Do you empathize with the speaker of the poem? What action would you take if you found
yourself living under similar circumstances? (2)
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[10 marks]
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THE WOMAN by Kristina Rungano
A minute ago I came from the well
Where young women drew water like myself
My body was weary and my heart tired.
For a moment I watched the stream that rushed before me;
And thought how fresh the smell of flowers, 5
How young the grass around it.
And yet again I heard the sound of duty
Which ground on me – made me feel aged
As I bore the great big mud container on my head
Like a big painful umbrella. 10
Then I got home and cooked your meal
For you had been out drinking the pleasures of the flesh
While I toiled in the fields.
Under the angry vigilance of the sun
A labour shared only by the bearings of my womb. 15
I washed the dishes – yours –
And swept the room we shared
Before I set forth to prepare your bedding
In the finest corner of the hut
Which was bathed by the sweet smell of dung 20
I had this morning applied to the floors
Then you came in,
In your drunken lust
And you made your demands
When I explained how I was tired 25
And how I feared for the child – yours – I carried
You beat me and had your way
At that moment
You left me unhappy and bitter
And I hated you; 30
Yet tomorrow I shall again wake up to you
Milk the cow, plough the land and cook your food,
You shall again be my Lord
For isn’t it right that woman should obey,
Love, serve and honour her man? 35
For are you not the fruit of the land?

Questions
1. Explain how the poet is feeling physically and emotionally in line 3. (2)
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2. Identify what makes the speaker not enjoy her natural surroundings for longer. (2)
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3. What effect does the adjective “young” have in line 6? (2)
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4. Identify and explain the simile in lines 9-10. (3)
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5. Explain the irony revealed through the word “umbrella”. (2)
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6. Which three things could the “pleasures of the flesh” be? (3)
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7. Explain the “angry vigilance of the sun” (line 14). (2)
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8. Explain “bearings of my womb”. (1)
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9. Outline the relationship the speaker has with her male partner. Quote in support of your
answer. (3)
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10. Explain the home situation of the speaker. Justify your response referring to the text. (4)
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11. How does the repetition of “And” throughout the poem add to the message the poet wants to
convey? (2)
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12. Discuss the tone of the final four lines of the poem. How does it stand in stark contrast to line
30? What is the poet ultimately saying? (3)
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13. What is the purpose of the rhetorical questions in line 35 and 36? (2)
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14. Refer to line 33. Why is “Lord” capitalised? (1)
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[32 marks]
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