Literature-In-English Paper 3 Nov/Dec 2015

Question 10

    Comment on the poet’s tone in “Myopia”.


Observation

This was a popular question. However, many of the candidates failed to meet the demands of the question as they could not bring out the poet’s tone.
The required answers should include:                                                                        

  • The poet’s tone which never ceases to be harsh. It begins on a tone of simmering anger when he observes the plight of the poor.
  • The reference to the peasants “shivering in their emaciated bones” raises the point about their having been ignored and their rice fields having become “putrid marshlands”.
  • The author’s tone which rises to a crescendo as the poet contemplates “the skeletons of stillborn promises” and demands revenge upon those who are the authors of the peasants’ plight.

 

Candidates’ performance was poor.