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INTERIM JOINT MATRICULATION BOARD EXAMINATION 2022
SUBJECT: LITERATURE-IN-ENGLISH, PAPER III: POETRY
TIME ALLOWED: THREE HOURS (3 HRS)
INSTRUCTION: Answer questions ONE (1) from Section A, and ONE (1) questions each from Sections B and C.
SECTION A: UNSEEN POEM (30 Marks)
1. Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow
EVEN THERE
There was a great commotion in the cemet’ry last night 1
Skeletons in altercation: ‘twas a grisly sight’
Said one, ‘I’ll have you know, Sir, though in this lev’lin’ place.
You’re not my equal here, Sir, you’re of a different race.
Prevent your nigger worms, man, from capering round my bones 5
I’ll never fester with you here, man, our skins were different tones’.
There was a traffic hold-up to cross the deadly Styx
Because of the black and white spooks, they disagreed with to mix.
The white ones wanted first class, the black should deckers be
But which was white and which was black poo Charon could not see. 10
‘I’ll take ye all to Hades,’ he said, ‘I’ll tell ye I’m in doubt
But when Old Nick comes back from lunch, I’m sure he’ll sort you out.
There were a great dissension ‘midst t’angles up in heaven
Because equal bran of crown had to them all been given.
The white ones said, ‘By right of the race we should have crowns of gold 15
While crowns for natives all should be quite of a different mould.
They shall be made to doff their crowns when one of us goes by
And if they don’t we’ll take our crowns and doff them in the eye’.
There was a grand palaver in the regions of the pit
Barbed tails and horns and cloven hoofs inextricably mixt 20
And when old Satan asked the cause, the clamour that arose
Was ‘muff to make the blighter glad like incense to his nose.
The white fiends then objected to being brimstone with the black
Till Satan lost his dander and threatened them with the sack.
QUESTIONS
a. What is the subject matter of this poem?
b. What is the tone of the poem?
c. What do you consider t be the meaning of the following words above?
i. spooks
ii. old Nick
iii. to doff
iv. Nuff
v. blighter
vi. dander
d. Each stanza is set in a different place. What are the four scenes in the poem?
e. Comment on the style of the poem.
SECTION B: NON-AFRICAN POETRY (25 Marks)
Answer ONE (1) question from this Section
WILLIAM BUTLER YEASTS: SELECTED POEMS
2. With close reference to four poems, discuss Yeats’ fascination with beautiful lofty things.
3. “Yeats looks backwards rather than forward in his poems”. With close reference to three poems, comment on this assertion.
JOHN DONNE: SELECTED POEMS
4. With close reference to four poems, examine the preoccupation of John Donne in his Love Poems
5. Discuss the striking qualities of John Donne’s Holy Sonnets. Refer to four poems in his Selected Poems
SECTION C: AFRICAN POETRY (25 Marks)
Answer ONE (1) question from this Section
JARED ANGIRA: SILENT VOICES
6. What do you consider to be the preoccupation of Jared Angira in Silent Voices?
7. Account for Angira’s fascination with issues of religion in Silent Voices.
DENNIS BRUTUS: LETTERS TO MARTHA
8. With reference to four poems, discuss Brutus’ Letters to Martha as a liberal ideological response to the apartheid system.9. Comment on the title of the collection ‘Letters to Martha’.
