Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.

Read the poem below and answer the questions that follow.

Mother

Were you once a girl too?
Did you also walk the night
To dance in Boro?
Did you sway
To the enchantment
Of the Magenge player?
Did you play with father
Making believe you are family?
Did your mother cane your bottom
When you were naughty?
Did you feel shy
Of your newly sprung breasts?
Were you clumsy
Into your transition to adoloscence?
Did you feel the urge
To fly into your lover's arms
And stay there forever?
Were you hurt and yeaning for home
The day father brought you home?
Tell me mother
Did you do all these things
That I seem to do?
Or were you always mother?
Calm, strong
Kind and soft
yet unbending with discipline?
Mother
Were you ever
Just a bit like me?

a)Identify the persona in the poem.

b)What is the poem about?

c)Identify and illustrate 2 poetic devices used by the poet.

d)The persona is in a crisis.What do you think contributes to this?

e)What is the difference between the speaker and the mother at their present moment?

f)If you were the mother,what answer would you give to the speaker?

g)Identify and explain the main issue that the poet addresses in the poem.

a)Identify the persona in the poem.

-a girl in adolescent stage.

b)What is the poem about?

-a girl who is in the difficult stage of adolescence and is

-in a dilemma whether what she feels and does is right or wrong

- and would like help from her mother to resolve the crisis.

c)Identify and illustrate 2 poetic devices used by the poet.

i)Repetition - Did you) Is repeated

ii)Symbolism imagery

home represents being with the lover.

iii)Rhetorical questions
Were you once a girl too?

iv)Exaggeration/ hyperbole

-Fly into your lovers arms and stay there forever.

d)The persona is in a crisis.What do you think contributes to this?

This is a personal opinion question but answer should revolve around crises in young adults.The crisis the persona is in could be caused by : the fact that her body is undergoing change since what she talks about affects adolescents.

-Some hormonal imbalance.

e)What is the difference between the speaker and the mother at their present moment?

The difference between the speaker and the mother at their present moment is that the speaker is in a dilemma/is going through a difficult development stage while the mother is settled and not in any crises.

f)If you were the mother,what answer would you give to the speaker?

The answer I would to the speaker as the mother would be
-That what she is undergoing is normal and that it would be over after a short time.
-She needs to be careful to avoid falling into trap of infatuated love which does not last.

g)Identify and explain the main issue that the poet addresses in the poem.

The main issue the poet is addressing is
- adolescence / teenage developmental crisis

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marto answered the question on March 9, 2020 at 06:52

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