Jamb Literature in English 1994 Past Questions and Answers

Question 46:

• JAMB 1994

"The poet needs to be up at night,when the world
sleeps...needs to exist in places where spiders
forge their webs in silence;near the gutters where
the underside of our dreams fester."
Based on Ben Okri's 'Of Poets and their Antagonists', the poet in the passage above is

A. Suffering from insomnia
B. One of the numerous living in poverty
C. Not an ordinary individual
D. A difficult individual

Question 47:

• JAMB 1994

"Here lies our sovereign Lord the King,
Whose word no man relies on,
Who never said a foolish thing
Nor ever did a wise one,"
Based on John Wilmot Rochester's Epitaph on King Charles 11, the form of the above stanza is an example of

A. Praise poem
B. Lamentation
C. An epigram
D. Satiric poem

Question 48:

• JAMB 1994

"Full fathom five thy father lies
Of his bones are corals made
Those are pearls that were his eyes
Nothing of him that doth fade."
The rhyme scheme of the above stanza is

A. Baab
B. Abab
C. Abba
D. Aabb

Question 49:

• JAMB 1994

"In the cold hand of death...
his mouth was cotton filled, his man-pike
shrunk to a sub-soil grub
his head was hallowed and his brain
on scales-was this a trick to prove
fore-knowledge after death?"
Based on Wole Soyinka's '' Post Mortem, one of the techniques employed by this poet is the use of

A. Juxtaposition
B. Rhetoric
C. Iambic meter
D. Allusions

Question 50:

• JAMB 1994

"Marjorie turns to the fish, They swim slickly
backwards and forwards in the bright heaven of
their tanks:'white gravel,silver bubbles,green weed and the iridescence of their scales.They
cheer her. How much more beautiful fish are than
people, she thinks for the thousandth time.No
ungainliness,no filth;no stupidity."
Based on Lesley Glaister's "Serrusalmus", New Writing, in the passage above, the fish are better than people because they are

A. More radiant
B. More colourful
C. Less awkward
D. Less scheming