Section A: Poetry
Songs of Ourselves
1 Either
(a) Compare ways in which two poems from your selection use the natural world to
examine human emotion.
Or
(b) Comment closely on the ways in which the writer presents the impact of cares and
troubles in the following poem.
A Mind Content
Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content;
The quiet mind is richer than a crown;
Sweet are the nights in careless slumber spent;
The poor estate scorns fortune’s angry frown:
Such sweet content, such minds, such sleep, such bliss,
Beggars enjoy, when princes oft do miss.
The homely house that harbours quiet rest;
The cottage that affords no pride nor care;
The mean that ‘grees with country music best;
The sweet consort of mirth and music’s fare;
Obscurèd life sets down a type of bliss:
A mind content both crown and kingdom is.
Robert Greene (1560-92)
Section B: Prose
CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE: Half of a Yellow Sun
2 Either
(a) Discuss the way Adichie comments on the different parts of Nigerian and Biafran
society through her focus on Ugwu.
Or
(b) Comment closely on the following passage, paying particular attention to ways in
which Adichie presents the relationship between expatriates and Nigerians.
Susan called some days later. It was late morning and Kainene was at one of her factories.
“I didn’t know you had Kainene’s number,” Richard said. Susan laughed.
“I heard Nsukka was evacuated and I knew you would be with her. So how are you? Are you all
right?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t have trouble evacuating, did you?” Susan asked. “You’re all right?”
“I’m all right.” He was touched by her concern.
“Right. So what are your plans?”
“I will be here for now.”
“It’s not safe, Richard. I’m not staying here longer than another week. These people never fight
civilized wars, do they? So much for calling it a civil war.” Susan paused. “I rang the British Council
in Enugu and I can’t believe our people there are still going off to play water polo and have cocktails
at the Hotel Presidential! There’s a bloody war going on.”
“It will be cleared up soon.”
“Cleared up, ha! Nigel is leaving in two days. Nothing is going to clear up; this war will drag on
for years. Look what happened in the Congo. These people have no sense of peace. They’d sooner
fight until the last man is down—”
Richard hung up while Susan was still speaking, surprising himself by the rudeness. There was a
part of him that wished he could help her, throw away the bottles of liquor in her cabinet and wipe
away the paranoia that scarred her life. Perhaps it was a good thing she was leaving. He hoped she
would find happiness, with Nigel or otherwise. He was still occupied with thoughts of Susan, half
hoping she would not call again and half hoping she would, when Kainene came home. She kissed his
cheeks, his lips, his chin. “Did you spend the day worrying about Harrison and Inthe Time of Roped
Pots?” she asked.
“Of course not,” he said, even though they both knew it was a lie.
“Harrison will be fine. He must have packed up and gone to his village.”
“Yes, he must have,” Richard said.
“He probably took the manuscript with him.”
“Yes.” Richard remembered how she had destroyed his first real manuscript, The Basket of Hands,
how she had led him to the orchard, to the pile of charred paper under his favourite tree, her face all
the time expressionless; and how afterwards he had felt not blame or anger but hope.
“There was another rally in town today, at least a thousand people walking, and many cars covered
in green leaves,” she said. “I wish they would stick to fields instead of blocking major roads. I’ve
already donated money and I won’t be held up in the hot sun just to help further Ojukwu’s ambition.”
“It’s about a cause, Kainene, not a man.”
“Yes, the cause of benign extortion. You know taxi drivers no longer charge soldiers? They get
offended when a soldier offers to pay the fare. Madu says there is a group of women at the barracks
every other day, from all sorts of backwater villages, bringing yams and plantains and fruits to the
soldiers. These are people who have nothing themselves.”
“It’s not extortion. It’s the cause.”
“The cause indeed.” Kainene shook her head but she looked amused. “Madu told me today that the
army has nothing, absolutely nothing. They thought Ojukwu had arms piled up somewhere, given the
way he’s been talking, “No power in Black Africa can defeat us!” So Madu and some of the officers
who came back from the North went to tell him that we have no arms, no mobilization of troops, and
that our men are training with wooden guns, for goodness’ sake! They wanted him to release his
stockpiled arms. But he turned around and said they were plotting to overthrow him. Apparently he
has no arms at all and he plans to defeat Nigeria with his fists.” She raised a fist and smiled. “But I do
think he is terribly attractive: that beard alone.”
Richard said nothing. He wondered, fleetingly, if he should grow a beard.