Literature in English

1. Identify and explain the types of poems you know. 

2. Choose two of the poem types you have mentioned above and describe their distinct characteristics.

1. What of poem is it? Substantiate your answer. 

2. Identify the point of view used in this poem 

3.  What is the main theme of this poem? 

4. Create another example of an elegy.

1. Observe the picture above and discuss what you think Epitaph is. 

2. Identify the characteristics of Epitaph.

In your life you will meet SOMEONE SPECIAL sometime 

Listen now as I tell you how death has took mine 

Not a rock or a film star but a father so true 

I lost SOMEONE SPECIAL when dad, 

I lost you My heart it was aching when 

I saw my mum Her crying, her shaking disbelief left me numb 

I could not believe he was actually dead 

Even after his name in the paper I read 

At his funeral I carried his coffin with pride 

Trying at all times my great hurt to hide 

But my heart at last sank and the tears they did flow 

But good memories stay with me where ever I go 

His laughter, his smile, his quick cheeky wit 

Were qualities that I admire, 

I admit All children loved him with passion and fire 

He showed love and kindness, which we all should admire 

He left many people who cared a great deal 

He touched their lives and their hearts he did steal 

For to know him was pleasure and only brought joy 

I was blessed to have loved him as both man and boy

                                                  By Owen Yeats

1. Identify the differences between elegy and epitaph. 

2. Who is the persona/speaker in this poem? 

3. Describe the tone used in the poem.

Two roads diverged in yellow wood 

And sorry I could not travel both 

And be one traveller, long 

I stood And looked down one s far as 

I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair 

And having perhaps the better claim 

Because it was grassy and wanted wear 

Though as for that the passing there 

Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally lay 

In leaves no step had trodden black 

Oh, I kept the first for another 

Day! Yet knowing how ay leads on to way 

I doubted if I should ever come back 

I shall be telling this with a sigh 

Somewhere ages and ages hence: 

Two roads diverged in a wood, and 

II took the less travelled by 

And that has made all the difference.

                              By Robert Frost

1. Identify and explain the tone of the poem. 

2. Why does Robert Frost use the word “sigh” in the poem, The Road Not Taken? 

3. What does the phrase “ages and ages” mean in the poem The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost? 

4. In not more than 100 words, summarise the poem.

When the cock crows, 

The lazy man smacks his lips and says: 

So is it day light again, is it? 

And before he turns over heavily, 

Before he even stretches himself, 

Before he even yawnsThe farmer has reached the farm, 

The water carriers arrive at the river, 

The spinners are spinning their cotton, 

The weaver works on his cloth, 

And the fire blazes in the blacksmith’s hut. 

The lazy one knows where the soup is sweet 

He gazes house to house. 

If there is no sacrifice today, 

His breast born will stick out! 

But when he sees the free yarm, 

He starts to unbutton his shirt, 

He moves close to the celebrant. 

Yet his troubles are not few. 

When his wives reach puberty, 

Rich men will help him to marry them. 

                            Yoruba (Nigeria) 

1. Analyse critically the poem above and explain its atmosphere. 

2. What is the lesson can you learn from this poem? 

3. With clear references from the poem, show that the man does not work for food.

If we must die, let it not be like hogs 

Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot 

While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs 

Making their mocks at our accused lot 

If we must die, o let nobody dies 

So that our precious blood may not be shed 

In vain; then the monsters we defy 

Shall be constrained to honour us though dead 

O kinsmen! We must meet the common foe 

Though far outnumbered let us show us brave 

And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow 

What though before us lays the open grave? 

Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack 

Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back

1. What was Claude McKay’s purpose of writing the poem If We Must Die? 

2. What is the tone of the poem? 

3. Who is the persona? How do you know? 

4. Is the persona afraid of death? Support your answer. 

5. Is the poem relevant today? Give reasons to justify your answer.

I live to hear her speak, yet well 

I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound 

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.

                     William Shakespeare

1. Identify and explain the point of view used in this poem. 

2. When does the poet use this point of view?

On the beach, on the 

Coast, Under the idle, whispering coconut towers, 

Before the growling, foaming waves, 

I met a thief, who guessed 

I had An innocent heart for her to steal. 

She took my hand and led me under 

The intimate cashew boughs which shaded 

The downy grass and peeping weeds. 

She jumped and plucked the nuts for me to suck; 

She sang and laughed and pressed close 

I gazed: her hair was like the wool of a mountain sheep, 

Her eyes, a pair of brown - black beans floating in milk. 

Juicy and round as plantain shoots 

Her legs, arms and neck, 

And like wine - gourds her pillowy breasts; 

Her throat uttered fresh banana juice  

Matching her face - smooth and banana ripe 

I touched - but long before 

I even tasted My heart had flowed from me into her breast; 

And then she went – High and South – 

And left my carcase roasting in the fire she’d lit

                                          Austin Bukenya.

1. How appropriate is the title to the poem? 

2. Comment on the setting of the poem. 

3. Who is the persona in this poem? 

4. Explain the use of imagery in the poem. 

5. In your own words, explain what this poem is talking about.

1. What do you understand by metonymy? 

2. List any four examples of metonymy.

1. What is the subject matter of the poem? 

2. Identify and explain metonymy found in the poem. 

3. What is the poet’s message in the poem?

Today I did my share 

In building the nation. 

I drove the permanent secretary 

To an important urgent function

In fact to a luncheon at the Vic.

The menu reflected its importance 

Cold Bell beer with small talk, 

Then fried chicken with niceties 

Wine to fill the hollowness of the laughs 

Ice-ream to cover the stereotype jokes 

Coffee to keep the PS awake on return journey.

I drove the permanent secretary back. 

He yawned many times in the back of the car 

Then to keep awake, he suddenly asked, 

Did you have any lunch friend? 

I replied looking straight ahead 

And secretly smiling at his belated concern 

That I had not, but was sliming!

Upon which he said with seriousness 

That amused more than annoyed me, 

Mwananchi, I too had none! 

I attended to matters of state. 

Highly delicate diplomatic duties you know, 

And friend, it goes against my grain, 

Causes me stomach ulcers and wind. 

Ah, he continued, yawning again, 

The pains we suffer in building the nation! 

So the PS had ulcers too! 

My ulcers I think are equally painful 

Only they are caused by hunger, 

No sumptuous lunches! So two nation builders 

Arrived home this evening With terrible stomach pains 

The result of building the nation –      

Different ways.

1. What is the poem talking about? 

2. Who is speaking in the poem? How do you know? 

3. What is the tone of the poem? 

4. Identify some poetic devices used in the poem. 

5. The poet says in the last stanza ‘so two nation builders arrived home this evening’ were the   

6.  two people building the nation? Explain your answer.

Atieno washes dishes, 

Atieno plucks the chicken, 

Atieno gets up early, 

Beds her sucks down in the kitchen, 

Atieno eight years old Atienoyo.

Since she’s my sister’s child 

Atieno needs no pay 

While she works my wife can sit 

Sewing each sunny day, 

With her earning I support 

Atienoyo. Atieno’s sly and jealous 

Bad example to the kids 

Since she minds them, like a school girl 

Wants their dresses, shoes and beads. 

Atieno ten years old, Atienoyo.

Now my wife has gone to study 

Atieno’s less free, 

Don’t I feed her, school my own ones, 

Pay the party, union fee

All for progress? 

Aren’t you grateful, Atienoyo?

Visitors need much attention, 

Specially when I work nights. 

That girl stays too long at market 

Who will teach her what is right? 

Atieno rising fourteen, Atienoyo.

Atieno’s had a baby 

So we know that she is bad 

Fifty-fifty it may live 

To repeat the life she had, 

Ending in post partum bleeding Atienoyo

Atieno’s soon replaced 

Meat and sugar more than all 

She ate in such a narrow life 

Were lavished in her funeral 

Atieno’s gone to glory Atienoyo. 

               By Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye