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.