Unseen passages/extracts from Drama, Prose, and Poetry - Jamb Literature in English Past Questions and Answers

Question 86:

• JAMB 1998

This question is based on selected poems from D. Ker, C. Maduka et al (eds.): New Poetry from Africa, Wole Soyinka (ed.): Poems of Black Africa, K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.): A Selection of African Poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.): A Pageant of Longer Poems.
Who are they that 'live that the earth may die'in Nyi Osundare's ''They Too Are The Earth''?

A. The beggars sprawled in gutters
B. The millions who hew wood
C. People who fritter the forest and harry the hills
D. Those who hurl water

Question 87:

• JAMB 1998

This question is based on selected poems from D. Ker, C. Maduka et al (eds.): New Poetry from Africa, Wole Soyinka (ed.): Poems of Black Africa, K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.): A Selection of African Poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.): A Pageant of Longer Poems.
''They too are the earth
Under snakeskin shoes and Mercedez tyres'.
Niyi Osundare uses the lines above to describe the

A. Material for the shoes of the poor
B. Repulsive snakeskin-like bodies of the poor
C. Hope of the oppressed for a better life
D. Oppression of the dispossessed

Question 88:

• JAMB 1998

This question is based on selected poems from D. Ker, C. Maduka et al (eds.): New Poetry from Africa, Wole Soyinka (ed.): Poems of Black Africa, K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.): A Selection of African Poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.): A Pageant of Longer Poems.
Kofi Awoonor's 'Songs of Sorrow' is concerned with devastation because

A. The poet had fought in many wars
B. Of the destruction of part of Africa by the weather
C. Of the impact of white domination on parts of Africa
D. Of the destruction of the shrines of the ancestors

Question 89:

• JAMB 1998

This question is based on selected poems from D. Ker, C. Maduka et al (eds.): New Poetry from Africa, Wole Soyinka (ed.): Poems of Black Africa, K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.): A Selection of African Poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.): A Pageant of Longer Poems.
Dzogbesa Lisa in Kofi Awoonor's 'Songs of Sorrow' can be equated to

A. Salvation
B. Despondence
C. Poverty
D. Fate

Question 90:

• JAMB 1998

This question is based on selected poems from D. Ker, C. Maduka et al (eds.): New Poetry from Africa, Wole Soyinka (ed.): Poems of Black Africa, K.E. Senanu and T. Vincent (eds.): A Selection of African Poetry and E.W. Parker (ed.): A Pageant of Longer Poems.
''O incomprehensible God!
Shall my pilot be''
These lines in Okara''s ''The Call of the River Nun'' reveal a religious undertone which also expresses the

A. Mystery of existence
B. Omnipotence of God
C. Duality of life
D. Inevitability of death