POETRY:
A. Poems Required for Paper 2, ALL of which must be known without use of the text.
1. King, Henry. 'A Contemplation Upon Flowers'
2. Stafford, William. 'Travelling Through the Dark'
3. Senior, Olive. 'Colonial Girls School'
4. McWatt, Mark. 'Ana'
5. Roethke, Theodore. 'My Papa's Waltz'
6. Ghose, Zulfikar. 'Georgraphy Lesson'
7. Brathwaite, Kamau. 'from The Emigrants'
8. Dabydeen, David. 'Coolie Mother'
9. Baugh, Edward. 'The Carpenter's Complaint'
10. Robinson, Edwin Arlington. 'Richard Cory'
11. McDonald, Ian. 'God's Work'
12. Goodison, Lorna. 'For my Mother (May I Inherit Half Her Strength)'
13. Hopkins, Gerard Manley. 'God's Grandeur'
14. Berry, James. 'Dreaming Black Boy'
15. McKay, Claude. 'The Lynching'
16. Scott, Dennis. 'Epitaph'
17. Carter, Martin. 'This is the dark time, my love'
18. Auden, W.H. 'Sonnets from China XV'
19. Walcott, Derek. ' 'Le loupgarou' '
20. Housman, A.E. 'To an Athlete Dying Young'
B. Structure of Poetry Questions in the CXC Examination.
The Poetry question in the Paper 2 consists of four poems, divided into two pairs and hence, two questions. Poems NEVER come singly and will always be paired with another of similar theme or structure. Generally speaking, we are able to determine which poem goes with which, therefore in the exmaination, if poem X comes, then you know it must come with one its corresponding poems, X' or X''. This makes the study and analysis of the poems much easier. The general grouping of poems is listed below.
GROUPING OF POEMS:
1. 'A Contemplation Upon Flowers', and ' Travelling Through the Dark'
2. 'Ana', and 'My Papa's Waltz'
3. 'This is the dark time my love', and 'Sonnets from China XV'
4. 'Geography Lesson', and 'from The Emigrants' or 'Colonial Girls School'
5. 'Coolie Mother', and 'For my Mother (May I Inherit Half Her Strength'
6. 'God's Work', and 'Richard Cory' or 'God's Grandeur'
7. 'The Lynching', and 'To an Athlete Dying Young' or 'Epitaph' or 'Dreaming Black Boy' (please note that any one of these poems may come with the other in this gropuing.)
8. 'Richard Cory', and 'The Carpenter's Complaint' or ' 'Le Loupgarou' '
* Please note that these groupings may vary and are not definite. However, the groupings represent those poems of similar themes. CXC can choose to bring poems as they please, but these groupings are a good guideline. They are based on the structure of previous examinations.
C. Analysis of Poems in Groups.
There is a basic format which will be used to analyze the poems. Your teacher or tutor may do this in his or her own way. However, the method being employed here is ismply to make the analysis easier and more organized. Poems are being analyzed according to these criteria in this particular order:
1. Title
2. Rhyme Scheme
3. Line Structure in terms of metre*
4. Vocabulary
5. Poetic/ Literary devices including parallelism*
6. The overall effect and meaning of the poem
*Please be advised that number six (6.) is done to the best of the creators' knowledge and the student should not hesitate to raise questions and challenge the ideas expressed.
1. 'Ana' and 'My Papa's Waltz'
'Ana' and 'My Papa's Waltz' are told from different perspectives.In 'Ana', the perspective is that of the father; in 'My Papa's Waltz', the perspective is that of the child. The naivity of the title, in terms of the use of the word 'Papa', suggests that the perspective is that of a child's. Furthermore, the word 'Papa is preceeded by the word 'my' which reemphasizes the personal, naive, and childlike nature of the title. In 'Ana', the title is plain and ordainary, describing someone and is somewhat personal in the sense that,
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