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Table of Contents
Page
Animals & Nature
1. A Narrow Fellow in the Grass- Emily Dickinson 4
2. Suburban Intruder- Moira Lovell 6
3. Bird in the Classroom- Colin Thiele 7
4. Mushrooms- Silvia Plath 8

Parent/ Child Relationships

5. Refugee Mother & Child- Chinua Achebe 10
6. You cannot know the fears I have- Shabbir Banoobhai 11
7. Once Upon a Time- Gabriel Okara 12
8. Let the Children Decide- Don Mattera 14

Protest Poetry
9. A Young Man’s Thoughts before June 16th- Fhazel Johannesse 15
10. The Chosen Ones- Chris van Wyk 16
11. My Name- Magoleng Wa Selepe 17
12. Night Train- Fhazel Johannesse 18

Timeless Poetry:
13. Sonnet 18- William Shakespeare 19
14. Do not go gentle into that good night- Dylan Thomas 20
15. Hope is the thing with feathers- Emily Dickinson 21
16. Still I Rise- Maya Angelou 22
17. On aging- Maya Angelou 24

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How to analyse poetry:

S P E C S
Subject Matter Purpose Emotion Craftsmanship Summary

What event, What is the Mood or SLIMS Personal

situation or theme? Discuss Feeling. Main response/
experience the poet’s emotion of the impact of the
does the poem intention in poem. pome on you.
describe? writing this Is there a Has the poet
poem. Is there change of achieved their
a message they mood and why? purpose?
wish to convey? What feelings
does the poet
wish to invoke?

S L I M S
Structure Language Imagery Movement/ Sounds
Rhythm
Form of the Diction. Active/ Use of Discuss Sound
poem. Sonnet, Passive Voice. figurative Pace, Rhythm, Techniques like
elegy, dramatic Discuss the language: fast, slow? How assonance and
monologue? emotive, visual Similes, is the rhythm alliteration.
How do the impact of metaphors, created? Onomatopoeia,
stanzas appear certain words. personification, Length of rhyme.
visually? Why has the connotations. words, lines, What effects do
poet chosen How does the sounds of these add to
that specific poet create the words. For what the poem?
word? image in your purpose?
mind.

How To Eat a Poem by Eve Merriam

Don't be polite.
Bite in.
Pick it up with your fingers and lick the juice that
may run down your chin.
It is ready and ripe now, whenever you are.

You do not need a knife or fork or spoon

or plate or napkin or tablecloth.

For there is no core

or stem
or rind
or pit
or seed
or skin
to throw away.

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 A Narrow Fellow in the Grass- Emily Dickinson

A narrow Fellow in the Grass

Occasionally rides -
You may have met him? Did you not
His notice instant is -

The Grass divides as with a Comb,

A spotted Shaft is seen,
And then it closes at your Feet
And opens further on -

He likes a Boggy Acre -

A Floor too cool for Corn -
But when a Boy and Barefoot
I more than once at Noon

Have passed I thought a Whip Lash

Unbraiding in the Sun
When stooping to secure it
It wrinkled And was gone -

Several of Nature’s People

I know, and they know me
I feel for them a transport
Of Cordiality

But never met this Fellow

Attended or alone
Without a tighter Breathing
And Zero at the Bone.

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) is one of America’s greatest and most

original poets of all time. Unrecognized in her own time, Dickinson is
known posthumously for her innovative use of form and syntax.

1. ‘His notice sudden is’. Who is he and what does he do suddenly? (2)

2. What do lines 5–8 suggest about the snake? (1)

3. Why is the child in line 11 barefoot? (1)

4. In line 11, the word “Yet” indicates a relationship between finding the (2)
snake lying in the sun and the preceding lines about where the
snake usually likes to “hang out.” What does this connection
suggest?

5. Identify examples of alliteration and discuss its effectiveness. (4)

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 Discuss the use of personification in the poem. (3)

7. Refer to Stanza 5. What are ‘Nature’s people’? What does it show (3)
about the speaker’s attitude toward animals? Quote another
example from the poem to support your answer.

8. Discuss the style and structure of the poem. (3)

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 Suburban Intruder- Moira Lovell

Secure in our multi-walls

With manicured grass beyond,
We anticipate some buzzers and crawlers
And despatch them cleanly
Under spotlights of spray.

But we shake to encounter

A spiky black rat
Balancing on the bath tub
Eating the soap ‘for a more beautiful you’.

Lathering at the whiskers

It lunges at a net curtain
And nails its way up
To measure its tail against the drop.
A final swing throws it into the night.

We observe the invisible footprints

Patterning the gloss of the bath…
And ring the Rattex man.

‘Eating the soap you say?

Ja, that’d be a sewer rat.
Come up through the loo.
Good thing you weren’t sitting on it, hey?’
And he grins his yellow teeth.

Now in the middle of the night,

When the call comes, we seldom obey,
Being a little threatened
Within the walls.

Moira Lovell has recently retired from The Wykeham Collegiate,

Pietermaritzburg, where she was Head of the English Department for many
years. She has had three collections of poetry published and her poetry has
appeared in many South African journals, including. It has also been
included in numerous anthologies and textbooks.

1. What is your initial response to the title and how does your response (2)
develop through the course of the poem?
2. Discuss the contrast of the first word of the poem and the title. (2)

3. Identify and discuss the effectiveness of the figure of speech in line 2. (3)

4. Discuss the language used to describe the rat and its effectiveness. (3)

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 Discuss the paradox in line 4. (2)

6. What is revealed of the character of the “Rattex man”? Quote to (3)

substantiate your answer.
7. Discuss the tone of the poem especially in the last stanza. Link the (3)
tone of the poem with the intention of the poet in writing this poem.

Bird in the Classroom- Colin Thiele

The students drowsed and drowned

in the Teacher's ponderous monotone -
limp bodies loping in the wordy heat,
melted and run together, desk and flesh as one.
swooning and swimming in a sea of drone.

Each one asleep, swayed and vaguely drifted

with lidded eyes and lolling weighted heads,
were caught on heavy waves and dimly lifted,
sunk slowly, ears ringing in the syrup of his sound,

Or borne from the room on a heaving wilderness of beds.

And then on a sudden, a bird's cool voice
punched out song. Crisp and spare
on the startled air,

Beak-beamed
or idly tossed,
each note gleamed
like a bead of frost.

A bird's cool voice from a neighbour's tree

with five clear calls - mere grains of sound
rare and neat
repeated twice
but they sprang from the heat
like drops of ice.

Ears cocked, before the comment ran

fading and chuckling where a wattle stirred,
the students wondered how they could have heard
such dreary monotone from a man, and
such wisdom from a bird.

1. From the first two lines:

1.1 Quote and name the sound device (1)

1.2 Examine the diction of ‘ponderous monotone’. (2)
2. Quote another example of alliteration and a metaphor in stanzas 1-2 (3)

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 3. Discuss the impact of the imagery in stanza 1 and 2 regarding the (3)
atmosphere of the classroom and the attitude of the children.
4. Identify the change in the poem. (1)

5. Quote one of the similes that contrast the opening of the poem. (1)

6. Analyse the diction in line 12-13 and discuss its effectiveness. (3)

7. Discuss the comparison that is made between the teacher and the (2)
bird.
Mushrooms- Silvia Plath

Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly

Our toes, our noses

Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.

Nobody sees us,

Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.

Soft fists insist on

Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,

Even the paving.

Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,

Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We

Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking

Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!

We are shelves, we are

Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,

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 Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:

We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot's in the door.

Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet,
novelist, and short-story writer. She married fellow poet Ted Hughes in
1956, and they lived together in the United States and then in England.
Their relationship was tumultuous and, in her letters, Plath alleges abuse at
his hands. They had two children before separating in 1962.
Plath was clinically depressed for most of her adult life, and was treated
multiple times with electroconvulsive therapy. She killed herself in 1963.

1. Who, or what, are the mushrooms? Explain. (2)

2. Identify and explain an example of personification. (2)

3. Explain IN YOUR OWN WORDS the meaning of the following: (3)

(a) ''Nobody sees us,/ Stops us, betrays us''
(b) ''Our hammers, our rams/ Earless and eyeless,/ Perfectly
voiceless,/Widen the crannies''
(c) ''Our foot's in the door.''
4. Comment on the concept "we are meek" and "We shall by morning (4)
inherit the earth".
5. What is the significance of the conclusion, "Our foot's in the door"? (4)

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 Refugee Mother & Child- Chinua Achebe

No Madonna and Child could touch

Her tenderness for a son
She soon would have to forget. . . .
The air was heavy with odors of diarrhea,
Of unwashed children with washed-out ribs
And dried-up bottoms waddling in labored steps
Behind blown-empty bellies. Other mothers there
Had long ceased to care, but not this one:
She held a ghost-smile between her teeth,
And in her eyes the memory
Of a mother’s pride. . . .She had bathed him
And rubbed him down with bare palms.
She took from their bundle of possessions
A broken comb and combed
The rust-colored hair left on his skull
And then—humming in her eyes—began carefully to part it.
In their former life this was perhaps
A little daily act of no consequence
Before his breakfast and school; now she did it
Like putting flowers on a tiny grave.

Chinua Achebe, (born November 16, 1930, Ogidi, Nigeria—died March 21,
2013, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.), is a Nigerian novelist acclaimed for his
unsentimental depictions of the social and psychological disorientation
accompanying the imposition of Western customs and values upon
traditional African society.

1. Comment on the structure, language and tone of the poem. Quote (5)
from the poem to substantiate your answer.
2. How do the words ‘Madonna and Child’ affect your understanding of (2)
the poem?

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 Quote and discuss two figures of speech and show how the use of (6)
imagery contributed to the mood of the poem.
4. Comment on the significance of the words ‘another life’ in line 16. (3)

5. Discuss the effect of the last lines. (3)

You cannot know the fears I have- Shabbir Banoobhai

you cannot know the fears i have

as i think about you

i fear that i shall live only at your laughter

lie awake long nights while you sleep
so loneliness does not trouble you
nor hunger, nor thirst

overwhelm your waking world with wonder

with the music of other worlds, your earlier home
read to you poems written the night before
while you smiled bewildered

or just when my very breathing begins to depend on you

even as your tiny fingers close around mine
some insensitive thing
crushes your butterfly spirit

shadows of a sun-darkened land

flow over you
and the eclipse
closes your eyes

i cannot live with the thought of having you, loving you

any other way
a day without such care
has no meaning

we shall find for you a name

your name shall bring light

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 What fears are expressed by the poet? Why do you think he has these (3)
fears?
2. Comment on the tone in stanza 2 and what this reveals of the father’s (3)
relationship with his child.
3. Examine in detail the image ‘your butterfly spirit’ within the context of the (3)
poem.
4. Refer to stanza 5. Discuss the two ideas presented here of the ‘sun- (4)
darkened land’ and the ‘eclipse’. How effective are they in describing the
nature of South Africa’s situation, as the poet sees it?
5. Note and account for the change from the future tense to the present. What (2)
does this tell us about the nature of the love the poet has for his daughter?
6. Why does the poet use the lower-case throughout, and also does not use (4)
full stops?

Once Upon a Time- Gabriel Okara

Once upon a time, son,

they used to laugh with their hearts
and laugh with their eyes:
but now they only laugh with their teeth,
while their ice-block-cold eyes
search behind my shadow.

There was a time indeed

they used to shake hands with their hearts:
but that’s gone, son.
Now they shake hands without hearts
while their left hands search
my empty pockets.

‘Feel at home!’ ‘Come again’:

they say, and when I come
again and feel
at home, once, twice,
there will be no thrice-
for then I find doors shut on me.

So I have learned many things, son.

I have learned to wear many faces
like dresses – homeface,
officeface, streetface, hostface,
cocktailface, with all their conforming smiles
like a fixed portrait smile.

And I have learned too

to laugh with only my teeth
and shake hands without my heart.
I have also learned to say,’Goodbye’,

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 when I mean ‘Good-riddance’:
to say ‘Glad to meet you’,
without being glad; and to say ‘It’s been
nice talking to you’, after being bored.

But believe me, son.

I want to be what I used to be
when I was like you. I want
to unlearn all these muting things.
Most of all, I want to relearn
how to laugh, for my laugh in the mirror
shows only my teeth like a snake’s bare fangs!

So show me, son,

how to laugh; show me how
I used to laugh and smile
once upon a time when I was like you.

Gabriel Imomotimi Okara was a Nigerian poet and novelist who was born in
Bumoundi in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria
1. The poem starts with a the well-known words “Once upon aa time”. (2)
What connotation is suggested and why do you think the poet has
begun with these words?
2. With reference to the contrasts in the first stanza discuss the theme (3)
that the poet wishes to develop in the poem. You must substantiate
your answer with well-chosen quotes.
3. How effective is the use of direct speech in lines 13 and 14 in (2)
continuing the theme?
4. Stanza four seems to suggest a change in perspective and attitude. (3)
Discuss how the change in structure and diction emphasize this
change.

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 Let the Children Decide- Don Mattera

Let us halt this quibbling

Of reform and racial preservation
Saying who belongs to which nation
And let the children decide
It is their world.

Let us burn our uniforms

Of old scars and grievances
And call back our spent dreams
And the relics of crass tradition
That hang on our malignant hearts
And let the children decide
For it IS their world…

Born in Western Native Township in Johannesburg, South Africa, Mattera

grew up in Sophiatown.
Mattera likes to write about the rich and the poor, the exploiters and the
exploited, all knitted together in a colourful fabric that ignored race or class
structures.

1. According to the poet, what must the poet decide? (1)

2. Identify an example of alliteration from the poem. (1)

3. Discuss the tone of the poem. (2)

4. To what do the “spent dreams” in line 8 refer? (2)

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 5. Discuss whether the poem encourages violence. (2)

6. Explain the puns on the word “uniform” and “scars”. (2)

7. Identify and discuss the effectiveness of the metaphor in line 6 and 7. (3)

A Young Man’s Thoughts before June 16th- Fhazel Johennesse

tomorrow i travel on a road

that winds to the top of the hill
i take with me only the sweet
memories of my youth
my heart aches for my mother 5
for Friday nights with friends
around a table with the broad belch of beer
i ask only for a sad song
sung by a woman with downturned eyes
and strummed by an old man with 10
a broken brow
o sing my sad song sing for me
for my sunset is drenched with red

Fazel Johennesse (1954 –) is a South African poet. He wrote most of his

poetry during the 1970s and early 1980s. He and the poet Chris van Wyk
started a Black Consciousness (a movement that promoted an awareness
of the dignity and rights of black people, started by Steve Biko) literary
magazine, Witie, which gave a voice to young aspirant black writers.
However, the magazine was short-lived, as it was banned by the apartheid
government.

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 1. Discuss the context in which this poem was written. (3)

2. What idea does the poet wish to convey about the ’ road that winds to (3)
the top of the hill?
3. Comment on the lack of punctuation and the use oflower case ‘i’ for (2)
the first person.
4. Explain how the use of alliteration in line 7 (“the broad belch of beer”) (2)
conveys the young man’s attitude to his youth.
5. Comment critically on symbolic significance of the last line of the (3)
poem.

The Chosen Ones- Chris van Wyk

Some people
it seems
have to carry
their crosses
for the rest 5
of their lives.

Others think
they can get away
with it
simply by 10
throwing theirs
into ballot boxes.

1. What does it mean to "carry your cross"? (1)

2. Two groups of people are mentioned, "some" and "others". Who is (2)
"some", and who are the "others"?

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 What does the use of the word "think" in the first line of the second (2)
stanza imply?
4. Explain the satire in this poem. (2)

5. Discuss the title of the poem with reference to the poem as a whole. (3)

6. Discuss the diction used in the poem. (3)

My Name- Magoleng Wa Selepe

Nomgqibelo Ncamisile Mnqhibisa

Look what they have done to my name . . .

The wonderful name of my great-great-grandmothers
Nomgqibelo Ncamisile Mnqhibisa
The burly bureaucrat was surprised.
What he heard was music to his ears
‘Wat is daai, sê nou weer?’
‘I am from Chief Daluxolo Velayigodle of emaMpodweni
And my name is Nomgqibelo Ncamisile Mnqhibisa.’

Messia, help me!

My name is so simple,
And yet so meaningful,

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 But to this man it is trash . . .

He gives me a name
Convenient enough to answer his whim:
I end up being
Maria . . .
I...
Nomgqibelo Ncamisile Mnqhibisa

There appears to be absolutely no information on the poet. No background.

No picture.
A quick google of the Internet reveals that this is a poem which is read
repeatedly at public gatherings in very high places. Yet its author remains a
ghost.

1. Refer to line 2 (‘Look what they have done to my name …’). What (2)
feeling does the speaker express in this line?
2. What does the word ‘burly’ (line 5) suggest about the bureaucrat? (1)

3. Refer to line 6 (‘What he heard was music to his ears’). Does the (2)
reference to music suggest that the bureaucrat appreciates the
speaker’s name? Give a reason for your answer.
4. Identify and discuss the figure of speech used in line 13, (‘but to this (2)
man it is trash …’).
5. Choose ONE word that emphasises how the speaker feels about her (1)
name.
6. What does this poem suggest about the bureaucrat’s political beliefs? (2)

7. Refer to lines 16 – 18 (I end up being Maria …). Discuss the effect (2)
created by the use of very short lines at this point in the poem.

Night Train- Fhazel Johennesse

there is no comfort here

in this third class coach
on this green resisting seat
i twitch and glance around –
there are few too few travellers
on the night train
crossing my legs and flicking
my cigarette i turn to stare
through the window
into the darkness outside

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 (or is it my reflection i stare at)
and glance impatiently at the wrong
stations we stop at
out
i must get out of here soon
for in this coach there is a smell
which haunts me
not the smell of stale man but
the whispering nagging smell of fear

1. In your own words, state what the poem is about. (3)

2. Refer to line 2 ('in this third class coach'). (2)

Explain why the speaker is travelling in a third class coach
3. What is the connection between there being "no comfort here" and (2)
the description of the seat being "green resisting".
4. Refer to lines 12 – 13 ('and glance impatiently … we stop at'). (4)
Explain what the phrase 'the wrong stations' suggests about the
speaker's feelings. Is the speaker justified in feeling this way?
Discuss your views.
5. Why is the word "out" written in italics and placed in a line by itself? (2)

6. Refer to line 18 ('not the smell of stale man but'). (2)

To what does the phrase 'the smell of stale man' refer?
7. Comment on the poet's choice of words when he speaks of (4)
"whispering nagging smell of death".

Sonnet 18- William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,

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 By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor, widely

regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's
greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard
of Avon".

1. Discuss the structure of the poem. (3)

2. Explain why the following statement TRUE. (3)

The speaker describes summer as a season of extremes. Give TWO
points of evidence from the poem.
3. Refer to lines 7 – 9. (2)
Using your OWN words give TWO reasons from these lines why
beauty usually fades.
4. (a) Identify the figure of speech in line 11 (‘Nor shall death brag’). (3)
(b) Explain this image in the context of the poem.
5. Identify and discuss the theme evident in the rhyming couplet (lines (2)
13 – 14).
6. Refer to the poem as a whole. (2)
How does the speaker convince the reader that his beloved’s beauty
is eternal?

Do not go gentle into that good night- Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they
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 Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a

Welsh poet and writer.He became widely popular in his lifetime and
remained so after his death at the age of 39 in New York City. By
then he had acquired a reputation, which he had encouraged, as a
"roistering, drunken and doomed poet"

1. Describe the four kinds of men who ‘do not go gentle’ to death. (4)

2. What is the tone of the poem? (2)

3. Discuss the use of euphemism throughout the poem and the poet’s (3)
intention in using it.
4. Discuss the oxymoron ‘blinding sight’. (2)

5. What does the poet mean when he speaks of his father as being (2)
"there on the sad height"?
6. Explain the apparent contradiction in the words "curse, bless, me". (4)
What is such an apparent contradiction called?
7. What is the poet's overall advice to his father? (2)

Hope is the thing with feathers- Emily Dickinson

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 “Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

1. Identify and explain the qualities of the bird revealed in the first (3)
stanza.
2. What does the gale represent in this poem? (1)

3. Explain the significance of the poet’s choice of words in line 5: And (3)
sweetest in the gale is heard.
4. How can hope’s song be endless? (1)

5. Explain what the poet is implying when she says: And sore must be (3)
the storm / That could abash… warm.
6. Discuss the effectiveness of the last stanza in the context of the poem (3)
as a whole.

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 Still I Rise- Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don't you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame

I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

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 I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Maya Angelou was an American poet, memoirist, and civil rights

activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays,
several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies,
and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of
awards and more than 50 honorary degrees.

1. Explain what the poem is about. (2)

2. Identify three challenges that the speaker in the poem contends with (6)
and her attitude to these challenges.
3. Identify and discuss the effectiveness of two figures of speech from (4)
the poem.
4. What is the overall tone of this poem? What type of feelings does this (2)
poem portray? Explain.
5. What is the effect of the epizeuxis used in the poem? (2)

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 On aging- Maya Angelou

When you see me sitting quietly,

Like a sack left on the shelf,
Don’t think I need your chattering.
I’m listening to myself.
Hold! Stop! Don’t pity me!
Hold! Stop your sympathy!
Understanding if you got it,
Otherwise I’ll do without it!
When my bones are stiff and aching,
And my feet won’t climb the stair,
I will only ask one favor:
Don’t bring me no rocking chair.
When you see me walking, stumbling,
Don’t study and get it wrong.
‘Cause tired don’t mean lazy
And every goodbye ain’t gone.
I’m the same person I was back then,
A little less hair, a little less chin,
A lot less lungs and much less wind.
But ain’t I lucky I can still breathe in.

1. What are the characteristics of the speaker’s aging? List at least and (3)
substantiate your answer by quoting from the poem.
2. Discuss the speaker’s tone. (2)

3. Discuss the effectiveness of the simile in line 2. (2)

4. Discuss the use of exclamation marks in line 5 and 6. (2)

5. The poet is an African American. How does she reveal this within the (3)
poem?
6. Does the poet paint a positive or a negative picture of old age? (4)
Explain.

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