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Eating Poetry

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154 views3 pages

Eating Poetry

Uploaded by

khutsomaredi5
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Eating poetry – Memo – Lockdown work:

Questions

1. Discuss the image created in the first stanza. (2)

The speaker has just eaten something and ink is running from
his mouth. He is very happy about it.

2. How would you describe the speaker's tone and mood in


the first stanza? (2)

The tone is one of satisfaction and elation. The mood is


one of confusion.
How can a person be happy after eating something covered in ink?

3. How does he sound when he confesses that he's been


"eating poetry"? (1)

Happy, jovial.

4. Explain in your own words how the librarian is described


in stanza 2. (2)

The librarian is described as sad, possibly depressed. She has sad


eyes and she is walking with her hands in her dress. She is not open
or willing to communicate with the speaker. She does not share in his
happiness.

5. Comment on what the librarian symbolises.


(HINT: refer to stereotyping.) (3)

The librarian represents those people who witness ecstatic


enjoyment,
but do not understand it. They cannot understand it because they do
not experience it.

6. Why is she an important part of the poem's central themes?


(2)
Happiness is a central theme. Happiness is a personal thing.
What makes the speaker happy will not necessarily make the
librarian
happy. The fact that she does not understand his happiness proves
this.

7. Why are all the poems “gone” (line 7)? (2)

The speaker is “eating poetry”, he has consumed all the available


poems in the library. There are no new poems to read or “eat”.

8. Discuss the connotative and denotative meanings of line 8. (2)

The light in the library is dim because it is becoming late – the sun
perhaps is setting (denotative – literal). The feeling of happiness has
passed and the poet now feels dim, perhaps sad that the feeling has
passed or tired (connotative – figurative).

9. Comment on the mood created in line 9. (2)

It is a mood of anticipation. Why are these dogs in the basement and


why are they coming up? It has an ominous feel to it.

10. Explain in your own words how the dogs are described in
stanza 4. (2)

The dogs seem to be mad/evil. Their eyes are rolling and their
legs are burning.

11. How does the librarian act when she sees the dogs?
What does this imply? (2)

The librarian stamps her feet (as if angry) and weeps (upset).
This implies that the dogs upset the librarian and she cries
in frustration and anger.

12.1. What does speaker do in stanza 5 that causes the librarian


to scream? (1)

The speaker goes down on his knees and licks her hand. She does
not understand his behaviour, which makes her scream.

12.2. Why, do you think, has the speaker transformed into a dog?
(2)
It is a side of the speaker that emerges, a side that the
librarian doesn’t recognize. ü He has changed because of
the poems that he has been reading.

12.3. Explain the irony in line 16. (2)

He behaves like a dog, but says that he is a “new man”.

13. Provide a suitable in-context synonym for “romp” (line 18). (1)

frolic/gambol/frisk/prance/caper/sport/cavort/skip/bound

14. Discuss why there are so many full stops and how the
pace is affected. (3)

The full stops affect the flow of the poem as if the speaker wants
the reader to stop and think. It suggests that if one stops to think,
one may become acquainted with things that seem strange/different
and better understand.

15. Normally we say that we read poetry. What is emphasised by


saying that the speaker is eating poetry? How is reading poetry
the same as eating? (2)

He is reading it and making it a part of him.


He is absorbing/understanding the message of the poems and
reacting
to it emotionally.

16. How is it the poem same or different from what you think
of when you think of reading poetry? (2)

Own answer. Some people read poetry for enjoyment.


They do not read it to understand it.

[35 MARKS]

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