Cambridge Assessment International Education

Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level

LITERATURE IN ENGLISH 9695/32

Paper 3 Poetry and Prose October/November 2019
2 hours
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An answer booklet is provided inside this question paper. You should follow the instructions on the front cover
of the answer booklet. If you need additional answer paper ask the invigilator for a continuation booklet.

Answer two questions, each from a different section.

You are reminded of the need for good English and clear presentation in your answers.

All questions in this paper carry equal marks.

This document consists of 11 printed pages, 1 blank page and 1 Insert.

DC (RW) 178163
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Section A: Poetry

ROBERT FROST: Selected Poems

1 Either (a) Discuss ways in which Frost presents rural landscape. You should refer to two
poems in your answer.

Or (b) Comment closely on ways in which Frost presents the speaker’s experience of the
night-time camp.

An Unstamped Letter in Our Rural Letter Box

Last night your watchdog barked all night,

Content removed due to copyright restrictions.

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Content removed due to copyright restrictions.

To say as much I write you this.

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ELIZABETH JENNINGS: Selected Poems

2 Either (a) Discuss ways in which Jennings explores feelings of fear in two poems.

Or (b) Comment closely on ways in which the relationship between father and son is
presented in the following poem.

Father to Son

I do not understand this child

Though we have lived together now
In the same house for years. I know
Nothing of him, so try to build
Up a relationship from how 5
He was when small. Yet have I killed

The seed I spent or sown it where

The land is his and none of mine?
We speak like strangers, there’s no sign
Of understanding in the air. 10
This child is built to my design
Yet what he loves I cannot share.

Silence surrounds us. I would have

Him prodigal, returning to
His father’s house, the home he knew, 15
Rather than see him make and move
His world. I would forgive him too,
Shaping from sorrow a new love.

Father and son, we both must live

On the same globe and the same land. 20
He speaks: I cannot understand
Myself, why anger grows from grief.
We each put out an empty hand,
Longing for something to forgive.

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Songs of Ourselves, Volume 2

3 Either (a) Compare ways in which particular characters are presented in two poems.

Or (b) Comment closely on ways in which a parent’s view of children is presented in the
following poem.

Sons, Departing

They walked away between tall hedges,

their heads just clear and blond
with sunlight, the hedges’ dark sides
sickly with drifts of flowers.

They were facing the sea and miles 5

of empty air; the sky had high
torn clouds, the sea its irregular
runs and spatters of white.

They did not look back; the steadiness

of their retreating footfalls lapsed 10
in a long diminuendo; their line
was straight as the clipped privets.

They looked at four sliding gulls

a long way up, scattering down frail
complaints; the fickle wind filled in 15
with sounds of town and distance.

They became sunlit points; in a broad

Haphazard world the certain focus.
Against the random patterns of the sea
their walk was one-dimensional, and final. 20

John Cassidy

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Section B: Prose

E.M. FORSTER: Howards End

4 Either (a) Margaret asks: ‘Whether women are to remain what they have been since the dawn
of history.’

In the light of Margaret’s remark, discuss the presentation of women’s desire for
change in the novel.

Or (b) Comment closely on the presentation of Margaret and Mr Wilcox’s marriage in the
following passage.

The furniture, with a few exceptions, went down into Hertfordshire, Mr. Wilcox
having most kindly offered Howards End as a warehouse. Mr. Bryce had died
abroad—an unsatisfactory affair—and as there seemed little guarantee that the
rent would be paid regularly, he cancelled the agreement, and resumed possession
himself. Until he relet the house, the Schlegels were welcome to stack their furniture 5
in the garage and lower rooms. Margaret demurred, but Tibby accepted the offer
gladly; it saved him from coming to any decision about the future. The plate and
the more valuable pictures found a safer home in London, but the bulk of the things
went country-ways, and were entrusted to the guardianship of Miss Avery.
Shortly before the move, our hero and heroine were married. They have 10
weathered the storm, and may reasonably expect peace. To have no illusions and yet
to love—what stronger surety can a woman find? She had seen her husband’s past
as well as his heart. She knew her own heart with a thoroughness that commonplace
people believe impossible. The heart of Mrs. Wilcox was alone hidden, and perhaps
it is superstitious to speculate on the feelings of the dead. They were married 15
quietly—really quietly, for as the day approached she refused to go through another
Oniton. Her brother gave her away, her aunt, who was out of health, presided over
a few colourless refreshments. The Wilcoxes were represented by Charles, who
witnessed the marriage settlement, and by Mr. Cahill. Paul did send a cablegram.
In a few minutes, and without the aid of music, the clergyman made them man and 20
wife, and soon the glass shade had fallen that cuts off married couples from the
world. She, a monogamist, regretted the cessation of some of life’s innocent odours;
he, whose instincts were polygamous, felt morally braced by the change and less
liable to the temptations that had assailed him in the past.
They spent their honeymoon near Innsbruck. Henry knew of a reliable hotel 25
there, and Margaret hoped for a meeting with her sister. In this she was disappointed.
As they came south, Helen retreated over the Brenner, and wrote an unsatisfactory
postcard from the shores of the Lake of Garda, saying that her plans were uncertain
and had better be ignored. Evidently she disliked meeting Henry. Two months are
surely enough to accustom an outsider to a situation which a wife has accepted in 30
two days, and Margaret had again to regret her sister’s lack of self-control. In a long
letter she pointed out the need of charity in sexual matters; so little is known about
them; it is hard enough for those who are personally touched to judge; then how
futile must be the verdict of Society. “I don’t say there is no standard, for that would
destroy morality; only that there can be no standard until our impulses are classified 35
and better understood.” Helen thanked her for her kind letter—rather a curious reply.
She moved south again, and spoke of wintering in Naples.
Mr. Wilcox was not sorry that the meeting failed. Helen left him time to grow
skin over his wound. There were still moments when it pained him. Had he only
known that Margaret was awaiting him—Margaret, so lively and intelligent, and yet 40
so submissive—he would have kept himself worthier of her. Incapable of grouping
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the past, he confused the episode of Jacky with another episode that had taken
place in the days of his bachelorhood. The two made one crop of wild oats, for
which he was heartily sorry, and he could not see that those oats are of a darker
stock which are rooted in another’s dishonour. Unchastity and infidelity were as 45
confused to him as to the Middle Ages, his only moral teacher. Ruth (poor old Ruth!)
did not enter into his calculations at all, for poor old Ruth had never found him out.
His affection for his present wife grew steadily. Her cleverness gave him no
trouble, and, indeed, he liked to see her reading poetry or something about social
questions; it distinguished her from the wives of other men. He had only to call, and 50
she clapped the book up and was ready to do what he wished. Then they would
argue so jollily, and once or twice she had him in quite a tight corner, but as soon as
he grew really serious, she gave in. Man is for war, woman for the recreation of the
warrior, but he does not dislike it if she makes a show of fight.

Chapter 31

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ANDREA LEVY: Small Island

5 Either (a) Discuss some of the ways in which Levy presents different attitudes of English
characters towards immigrants.

Or (b) Comment closely on ways in which the following passage presents the aftermath of
bombing in London.

I should have been asleep on my days off. Lulled drowsy by ordinary daytime
noises I’d thought so loudly disturbing before the war – postmen, delivery lorries,
kids playing cricket in the street. But as often as not those precious days were
spent craning my neck trying to calculate how long a queue could go on. Six
sausages and a loaf of bread later and I’m still trying to work it out. If I cooked the 5
dinner and Bernard and Arthur ate it sharpish, I could wash the dishes, and a few
clothes from the basket, iron my dress for work, a shirt for Bernard, then maybe
get an hour and a half sleep in my feather-pillowed, clean-sheeted, highly sprung
bed before they started – the bombers – and I had to go to the Anderson to kip in
Armageddon. 10
Didn’t seem any point being at home for just a few hours when in the morning
I had to fight my way through an upside-down world. Roads that should have been
familiar turned to wastelands strewn with mountains of wreckage, the displaced
intestines of buildings spewing everywhere. Coughing in the fog of rubble dust.
Stepping lightly over this, teetering over that. Forced round corners to avoid a 15
factory still ablaze. Gushing streams of water lapping at my heels. Glass crunching
under my feet. One morning, looking up a road near home, I recognised nothing. I
was a foreigner to this newly modelled place. I had to ask a warden, ‘Have you seen
Longbridge Road?’ And even the warden was puzzled, looking around him as if
he’d mislaid his hat. ‘It used to be around here somewhere,’ was all he could offer. I 20
had to start spending nights in the rest centre, too, because those few miles to work
were taking me hours! But Bernard didn’t like it. He turned up at the centre more
than once, standing in the doorway on tippy-toes, scanning the classroom until he’d
found me.
‘I just need to know you’re alive,’ he’d say. 25
‘Oh, yes,’ I’d tell him. ‘Very much so.’
‘You say you lost all your clothes in the fire,’ I said now, ‘and your coupons.’
‘Miss, what I’m standing up in is all I’ve got, is what I’m telling you.’ And that
was no more than tatty rags. The man’s son was wrapped in a blanket with no
shoes on. ‘My boy here was in bed. I was making a quick cup of tea. I only had 30
time to grab him when I see the thing falling out the sky. Then suddenly nothing and
we’re on fire. My neighbours are screaming, I can hear them through the wall. I get
him out. My wife, she was in the shelter – well, she’s in the hospital now. Dunno
what happened to next door.’
‘There’s clothes in the other classroom. You could go in and get something for 35
your son and—’
‘We tried that, miss. One of your colleagues pointed it out to us when we came
in. But there weren’t any trousers left, well, not to fit ’im, and my boy really don’t
wanna wear a dress.’
‘Okay,’ I said, looking for advice in my little book. ‘To replace your clothing 40
coupons you’ll need to get the form CRSC1 from the administrative centre. That’s
CRSC1. Fill it in, then forward it by post, to the Customs and Excise office at the
Board of Trade in Westminster. That’s in … SW one.’
‘Right – is that it, then?’ he asked.
And I had to tell him, ‘Yes, I’m afraid it is.’ 45
‘Well, I suppose we could have another go in the classroom next door.’
There were just not enough bunks. People were having to sleep on the floor.
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‘But my house has gone. Surely there is some compensation I can have now
so I can find another property?’
‘Well, madam, you could try writing to the Assistance Board or send to the War 50
Damage Commission for a form CI but they don’t usually pay out until after the war.’
‘Usually! What are you talking about? How many wars have we had where this
has happened? And please, miss, don’t get me wrong but what exactly will they do
with my claim if, God forbid, we don’t win?’
Sometimes the food ran out and all we had to offer anyone was a blinking cup 55
of tea.

Chapter 27

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Stories of Ourselves

6 Either (a) Compare ways in which two stories present violent events or the threat of violence.

Or (b) Comment closely on the presentation of the father in the following passage from
The Fly in the Ointment.

‘It must have been worrying,’ the son said.

‘Worrying? You keep on using that word. I’m not worrying. Things are fine,’ said
the old man, smiling aggressively. ‘I feel they’re fine. I know they’re fine.’
‘Well, you always were an optimist,’ smiled his son.
‘Listen to me a moment. I want you to get this idea,’ said his father, his warm 5
voice going dead and rancorous and his nostrils fidgeting. His eyes went hard, too.
A different man was speaking, and even a different face; the son noticed for the
first time that like all big-faced men his father had two faces. There was the outer
face like a soft warm and careless daub of innocent sealing-wax and inside it, as
if thumbed there by a seal, was a much smaller one, babyish, shrewd, scared and 10
hard. Now this little inner face had gone greenish and pale and dozens of little veins
were broken on the nose and cheeks. The small, drained, purplish lips of this little
face were speaking. The son leaned back instinctively to get just another inch away
from this little face.
‘Listen to this,’ the father said and leaned forward on the table as his son 15
leaned back, holding his right fist up as if he had a hammer in his hand and was
auctioning his life. ‘I am sixty-five. I don’t know how long I shall live, but let me
make this clear: if I were not an optimist I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t stay another
minute.’ He paused, fixing his son’s half-averted eyes to let the full meaning of his
words bite home. ‘I’ve worked hard,’ the father went on. ‘For thirty years I built up 20
this business from nothing. You wouldn’t know it, you were a child, but many’s the
time coming down from the North I’ve slept in this office to be on the job early the
next morning.’ He looked decided and experienced like a man of forty, but now he
softened to sixty again. The ring in the hard voice began to soften into a faint whine
and his thick nose sniffed. ‘I don’t say I’ve always done right,’ he said. ‘You can’t live 25
your life from A to Z like that. And now I haven’t a penny in the world. Not a cent.
It’s not easy at my time of life to begin again. What do you think I’ve got to live for?
There’s nothing holding me back. My boy, if I wasn’t an optimist I’d go right out. I’d
finish it.’ Suddenly the father smiled and the little face was drowned in a warm flood
of triumphant smiles from the bigger face. He rested his hands on his waistcoat 30
and that seemed to be smiling too, his easy coat smiling, his legs smiling and even
winks of light on the shining shoes. Then he frowned.
‘Your hair’s going thin,’ he said. ‘You oughtn’t to be losing your hair at your
age. I don’t want you to think I’m criticising you, you’re old enough to live your own
life, but your hair you know – you ought to do something about it. If you used oil 35
every day and rubbed it in with both hands, the thumbs and forefingers is what you
want to use, it would be better. I’m often thinking about you and I don’t want you
to think I’m lecturing you, because I’m not, so don’t get the idea this is a lecture,
but I was thinking, what you want, what we all want, I say this for myself as well as
you, what we all want is ideas – big ideas. We go worrying along but you just want 40
bigger and better ideas. You ought to think big. Take your case. You’re a lecturer.
I wouldn’t be satisfied with lecturing to a small batch of people in a university town.
I’d lecture the world. You know, you’re always doing yourself injustice. We all do.
Think big.’
‘Well,’ said his son, still smiling, but sharply. He was very angry. ‘One’s enough 45
in the family. You’ve thought big till you bust.’
He didn’t mean to say this, because he hadn’t really the courage, but his pride
was touched.
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‘I mean,’ said the son, hurriedly covering it up in a panic, ‘I’m not like you …
I …’ 50
‘What did you say?’ said the old man. ‘Don’t say that.’ It was the smaller of the
two faces speaking in a panic. ‘Don’t say that. Don’t use that expression. That’s not
a right idea. Don’t you get a wrong idea about me. We paid sixpence in the pound,’
said the old man proudly.
The son began again, but his father stopped him. 55
‘Do you know,’ said the bigger of his two faces, getting bigger as it spoke, ‘some
of the oldest houses in the city are in Queer Street, some of the biggest firms in the
country? I came up this morning with Mr Higgins, you remember Higgins? They’re in
liquidation. They are. Oh yes.”

The Fly in the Ointment

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