THE PRESS
So what is the mountain deal?
About the minister’s ailing son
That makes boiling news?
How come it was not whispered?
When Tina’s hospital bed was crawled with maggots
And her eyes oozed pus
Because the doctors lacked gloves?
What about Kasajja’s only child
Who died because the man with the key
To the oxygen room was on leave?
I have seen queues
Of emaciated mothers
Babies with translucent skins
Faint in line
And the lioness of a nurse
Commanding tersely
Get up or die in the line
Didn’t I hear it rumoured that
The man with the white mane
Ushered a rape case out of court
Because the 7 year old
Failed to testify
Anyway I only remember these things
When I drink
1. What is the poem about? 3 marks
It is a critique of the press. The minister’s son’s illness is news yet it is not reported when the poor suffer due to negligence and injustice
2. Explain the social evils in the poem. 6mks
Discrimination- the minister’s son illness is news for the poor but it is no news when they suffer.
Insensitivity- the medical personnel lack concern for the sick (Get up or die in the line)
Negligence-Kasajja’s child died because the man with the key to the oxygen room was on leave.
3 Discuss the poetic devices in the poem 6 mks
Rhetorical questions-
Hyperbole-boiling news
Metaphors-lioness of a nurse
Satire-When I drink (the poem ridicules injustice)
4 Bring out the Irony in the poem 3 mks
The press should release fair news. However in the poem, the press discriminates and lacks commitment to expose social injustice.
Explain the meaning of
- crawled- infested
- ushered-dismissed
LOVE IS NOT ALL
Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Not slumber nor a roof against the rain
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And rise and sink and rise and sink again
Love cannot fill the thickened lung with breath
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone
Yet many a man is making friends with death
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone
It well may be that in a difficult hour
Pinned down by pain and moaning for release
Or nagged by want past resolution’s
I might be driven to sell your love for peace
Or trade the memory of this night for food
It well may be. I do not think I would.
1 What is the poem about?3mks
The poem is about love. Love is mysterious. The persona is aware that love cannot give us solutions to our problems but he would be reluctant to exchange love for anything.
2 What basic needs are mentioned in the poem that love cannot satisfy? 3mks
Food-
Sleep-
Shelter-
Good health-
3. Illustrate the features of style used in the poem 8mks
Repetition-rise and sink
Alliteration-may a man
Rhyme-drink sink/ rain again/breath death
Personification-pinned down by pain
Paradox-Yet many a man is making friends with death
Irony-love is not a cure for our problems yet people die for it.
4 Describe the character traits of the persona
Loving- cannot give up love
Reasonable/Realistic- love is not all
Analytical-He examines the mystery of love
5 What lesson do we learn from this poem?
We should handle love carefully
THE INMATES
The inmates
Huddled together
Cold biting their bones
Teeth chattering from the chill
The air oppressive
The smell offensive
They sit and they reflect
The room self contained
At the corner the ‘gents’ invites
With the nice fragrance of ammonia
And fresh human dung
The fresh inmates sit thoughtfully
Vermin perform a guard of honour
Saluting him with a bite here
And a bite there
‘Welcome to the world they seem to say’
The steel lock of the door
The walls insurmountable
And the one torching tortuous bulb
Stare vacantly at him
Slowly he reflects about the consignment
Locked in for conduct refinement
The reason they put him in prison
The clock ticks
But too slowly
Five years will be a long time
Doomed in the dungeon
In this hell of a cell
