GRADE 10 ENGLISH PAPER 2: CAPS-ALIGNED POETRY Question & Answers

Keywords: Grade 10 English Literature, CAPS poetry analysis, English exam preparation, poetry questions and answers, unseen and seen poetry Grade 10, Paper 2 structure

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INTRODUCTION

Paper 2 in Grade 10 English (Home Language or FAL) focuses on Literature: Poetry, Novel, and Drama. This section covers the Poetry component, helping students master the Seen Poetry Analysis part of the paper with full poems, in-depth commentary, and exam-type questions and answers for each.

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POEM 1: “An African Thunderstorm” by David Rubadiri

Full Poem Text:

From the west
Clouds come hurrying with the wind
Turning sharply
Here and there
Like a plague of locusts
Whirling,
Tossing up things on its tail
Like a madman chasing nothing.

Pregnant clouds
Ride stately on its back,
Gathering to perch on hills
Like dark sinister wings;
The wind whistles by
And trees bend to let it pass.

In the village
Screams of delighted children,
Toss and turn
In the din of the whirling wind,
Women –
Babies clinging on their backs –
Dart about
In and out
Madly
The wind whistles by
Whilst trees bend to let it pass.

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CAPS Poetry Analysis

• Theme: Nature’s power and unpredictability.

• Tone: Urgent, chaotic, menacing.

• Mood: Frantic and fearful.

• Figurative Language: Similes (“like a plague of locusts”), personification, vivid imagery.

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Exam-Type Questions (8)

1. Describe the movement of the storm in stanza 1.

2. What does the simile “like a madman chasing nothing” suggest?

3. How is the storm personified in the poem?

4. Identify the dominant mood in stanza 2.

5. What role do the villagers play in showing the impact of the storm?

6. Comment on the metaphor “pregnant clouds.”

7. Explain the contrast between “delighted children” and the destructive storm.

8. Why is this poem suitable for Grade 10 English Paper 2 under CAPS?

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✅ Model Answers

1. The storm moves quickly and erratically, turning “sharply here and there.”

2. The simile reflects chaos, randomness, and instability of nature.

3. The wind is described as whistling and chasing things, showing it as almost human.

4. The mood is ominous and expectant, indicating tension before a storm.

5. Their actions (darting about, screaming) highlight the chaotic influence of nature.

6. “Pregnant clouds” symbolize impending rain or destruction, full and ready to burst.

7. Children’s joy contrasts with nature’s unpredictable violence, deepening the emotional tension.

8. It meets CAPS standards for its use of figurative language, cultural relevance, and vivid natural imagery.

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POEM 2: “Poem” by Allen Ginsberg

Full Poem Text:

The weight of the world
is love.
Under the burden
of solitude,
under the burden
of dissatisfaction
the weight,
the weight we carry
is love.

Who can deny?
In dreams
it touches
the body,
in thought
constructs
a miracle,
in imagination
anguishes
till born
in human—
looks out of the heart
burning with purity—
for the burden of life
is love.

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CAPS Poetry Analysis

• Theme: Love as both a burden and a miracle.

• Tone: Reflective, emotional, and sincere.

• Mood: Soulful, intense, and longing.

• Literary Devices: Repetition, metaphor, personification.

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Exam-Type Questions (8)

1. Identify the central theme of the poem.

2. What does the poet mean by “the weight we carry is love”?

3. How does the poet use repetition for emphasis?

4. Explain the metaphor “burning with purity.”

5. What does “anguishes till born in human” symbolize?

6. What is the tone of the speaker throughout?

7. Identify a line that shows love as painful yet beautiful.

8. Why is this poem an excellent choice for Grade 10 English Paper 2?

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✅ Model Answers

1. The central theme is love’s emotional complexity—as both burden and beauty.

2. It means that love, though essential, is not easy to carry; it affects us all deeply.

3. Repetition of “the weight” and “burden” emphasizes emotional heaviness.

4. It symbolizes true, untainted emotion, free from selfishness.

5. It refers to how love must struggle before being fully expressed or accepted.

6. The tone is contemplative and heartfelt.

7. “Anguishes till born” implies love’s difficult emergence, showing beauty in pain.

8. It meets CAPS requirements with universal themes and poetic techniques useful for analysis.

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POEM 3: “The Garden of Love” by William Blake

Full Poem Text:

I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen:
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door;
So I turn’d to the Garden of Love
That so many sweet flowers bore.

And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be:
And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys and desires.

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CAPS Poetry Analysis

• Theme: Restriction of joy by institutional religion.

• Tone: Bitter, disillusioned, mournful.

• Mood: From nostalgic to sorrowful.

• Literary Devices: Symbolism, imagery, contrast.

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Exam-Type Questions (8)

1. What is the “Garden of Love” a metaphor for?

2. Explain the change the speaker observes.

3. How does the poet use contrast in the second stanza?

4. What is symbolized by the chapel and graves?

5. Interpret the line “binding with briars my joys and desires.”

6. What is the effect of the poem’s structure?

7. What tone is conveyed in the final stanza?

8. Why is this poem effective for teaching critical poetry analysis in Grade 10?

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✅ Model Answers

1. It represents innocence, freedom, and youthful joy.

2. The speaker sees the Garden overtaken by religious structures, symbolizing lost freedom.

3. Joyful “flowers” are replaced by “graves” – symbolizing a loss of life and love.

4. They represent how religion suppresses natural desires and human expression.

5. It suggests the Church is restricting personal happiness and passion.

6. The poem’s three stanzas mirror the progression from joy to control to oppression.

7. The tone is mournful and frustrated, revealing deep emotional pain.

8. Its symbols, structure, and social critique make it ideal for Paper 2 poetry exams.

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POEM 4: “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare

Full Poem Text:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st;

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

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CAPS Poetry Analysis

• Theme: Immortality through poetry.

• Tone: Admiring, celebratory, eternal.

• Mood: Romantic and powerful.

• Literary Devices: Sonnet form, metaphor, personification, imagery.

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Exam-Type Questions (8)

1. What does the poet mean by comparing the subject to summer?

2. Identify two flaws in summer mentioned by the poet.

3. What is “eternal summer” referring to?

4. Explain “Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade.”

5. What is the structure of this poem?

6. What is the function of the final couplet?

7. Why is this poem studied in the Grade 10 CAPS curriculum?

8. What is the lasting message of the sonnet?

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✅ Model Answers

1. He’s suggesting that the subject is better and more enduring than summer.

2. Summer is too short and unpredictable (e.g., “too hot,” “rough winds”).

3. “Eternal summer” means unfading beauty or perfection preserved in verse.

4. Death cannot claim the subject because they live on through the poem.

5. It’s a Shakespearean sonnet—14 lines, iambic pentameter, ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

6. The couplet affirms the power of poetry to immortalize.

7. It teaches sonnet form, timeless beauty, and metaphor—core Paper 2 concepts.

8. Art (poetry) preserves beauty and love beyond death.

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✅ CONCLUSION

This CAPS-aligned Grade 10 English poetry guide prepares learners for English Paper 2 success with:

• Full poems,

• Rich literary analysis,

• High-level questions and model answers