The serf by Roy Campbell His naked skin clothed in the torrid mist, That puffs in smoke around the patient hooves, The ploughman drives, a slow somnambulist, And through...

The serf by Roy Campbell
His naked skin clothed in the torrid mist,
That puffs in smoke around the patient hooves,
The ploughman drives, a slow somnambulist,
And through the green his Grimson furrow grooves
His heart, more deeply than he wounds the plain
Long by the rasping shame of insult torn,
Red clod, to which the war-cry was rain
And tribal spears the fatal sheaves of corn,
Lies fallow now. But as the turf divides,
I see in the slow progress of his strides
Over the toppled clouds and falling flowers,
The timeless, surly patience of the serf,
That moves the nearest to the naked earth
ploughs down palaces and thrones, and towers
a) What kind of a person is a serf as portrayed in this poem?

b) Explain the meaning of lines 5 to 9.

c) What does the expression surly patience reveal about the serf’s personality?

d) Explain any two literary devices in the poem.

e) What is the tone of the poem?

f) What is the main message of this poem?

g) Explain the meaning of the following words as used in the poem. (3 marks)
i. Turf
ii. Toppled
iii) Rasping

a) A slave / oppressed worker or employee

Illustration…..has naked sin..

He is insulted.

b) His heart (the slave’s) is more wounded than ground he tills.

-He is insulted.

The ground he is ploughing was the battle field

-The war has ended.

c) Unpredictable/pretentious

d) Use of paradox/oxymoron…surly patience/naked skin clothed.

Personification-patient hooves, wounds the plain.

Use of rhymes- mist-somnambulist,

hooves-grooves.

Plain-rain, torn-corn,

divides-strides etc. (Any two devices-

identification 1 mark illustration 1 mark

e) The tone is sympathetic/piteous Illustration; naked skin Emotional

- hurt/wounded by the insult Optimistic tone…I see in the slow progress of his stride.
f) Suffering/oppression The mistreatment of the slave…naked, insulted Correct identification- 2 marks, illustration – 1 mark.
g) i) State condition

ii) Damaged/ruined

iii) Irritating

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lydiajane74 answered the question on January 23, 2018 at 07:15

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