The Topper's guide for good marks

THE POEM: 1) Palem Apokpi, mother who gave birth to me, to be a man how I hated leaving home ten years ago. Now these hills have grown on me. But I’m still your painfully shy son with a ravenous appetite, the boy who lost many teeth after emptying your larder. And I am also your dreamy-eyed lad who gave you difficult times during his schooldays, romancing every girl he wanted, even when he still wore half-pants.     2) You told your children that money and time do not grow on trees, and I could never learn to keep up with them. It isn’t that I’ve forgotten what you’ve come to mean to me though I abandoned much and left so little of myself for others to remember me.     3) I know how you work your fingers to the bone as all mothers do, for unmarried sons, ageing husband and liberated daughters-in-law. Worried about us, for a long time your lips couldn’t burgeon in a smile, lines have furrowed your face and first signs of snow are on your hair.     4) Today, as on every day you must have

THE POEM : It started as a pilgrimage Exalting minds and making all The burdens light, The second stage Explored but did not test the call. The sun beat down to match our rage. We stood it very well, I thought, Observed and put down copious notes On things, the peasants sold and bought The way of serpents and of goats. Three cities where a sage had taught But when the differences arose On how to cross a desert patch, We lost a friend whose stylish prose Was quite the best of all our batch. A shadow falls on us and grows. Another phase was reached when we Were twice attacked, and lost our way. A section claimed its liberty To leave the group. I tried to pray. Our leader said he smelt  the sea We noticed nothing as we went, A straggling crowd of little hope, Ignoring what the thunder meant, Deprived of common needs like soap. Some were broken, some merely bent. When, finally, we reached the place, We hardly know why w

THE POEM: 1:There is a house now far away where once                                           2: I received love……. That woman died, 3: The house withdrew into silence, snakes moved 4:Among books, I was then too young 5: To read, and my blood turned cold like the moon                                 6: How often I think of going 7: There, to peer through blind eyes of windows or 8: Just listen to the frozen air, 9: Or in wild despair, pick an armful of 10: Darkness to bring it here to lie                                                  11: Behind my bedroom door like a brooding 12: Dog…you cannot believe, darling, 13:Can you, that I lived in such a house and 14: Was proud, and loved…. I who have lost My way and beg now at strangers' doors to                                          15: Receive love, at least in small change? EXAM NOTES WITH CRITICAL ANALYSES SUMMARY & POET BACKGROUND WITH THEMES : 1) POET BACKGROUND : ·           1:  Kamala

THE POEM: Have you ever tried meditation? Struggling hard to concentrate, and keeping your mind as blank as a whitewashed wall by closing your eyes, nose, ears; and shutting out every possible thought. Every thing. And, the only failure, that ever came, the only gross betrayal— was from your own skin. You will have known this. Do you still remember, how, the first distractions arose? And you blamed skin as a sinner; how, when your kundalini was rising, shaken, you felt the cold concrete floor skin rubbing against skin, your saffron robes, how, even in a far-off different realm— your skin anchored you to this earth. Amidst all that pervading emptiness, touch retained its sensuality. You will have known this. Or if you thought more variedly, about taste, you would discount it—as the touch of the tongue. Or, you may recollect how a gentle touch, a caress changed your life multifold, and you were never the person you should have been. Feeling with y

FIRST STANZA: 1:They flee from me that sometime did me seek. 2: With naked foot ,stalking in my chamber  3: I have seen them gentle ,tame & meek 4: That now are wild and do not remember. 5:That sometime they put himself in danger. 6:To take bread at my hand: & now they range. 7:Busily seeking with a continual change. SECOND STANZA: 8:Thanked be fortune it hath been otherwise 9: Twenty times better , but once in special 10:In thin array after a pleasant guise 11: When her loose gown from her shoulders did fall  12: And she caught me in her arms long and small 13:Therewith all sweetly did me kiss And softly said "dear heart how lol you thi" THIRD STANZA: 14:It was no dream: I lay broat waking 15:But all is turned thorough my gentleness 16:Into strange fashion of foresaking 17: And I have leave to go to her goodness 18:And she also ,to use newfangleness. 19:But since that I so kindly am

THE  POEM: 1: WHOSO LIST TO HUNT, I KNOW WHERE IS AN HIND. 2: BUT AS FAR AS FOR ME HELAS ,I MAY NO MORE  3: THE VAIN TRAVAIL HATH WEARIED ME SO SORE. 4: I AM OF THEM THAT FARTHEST COMTH BEHIND 5: YET MAY I BY NO MEANS MY WEARIED MIND 6: DRAW FROM THE DEER BUT AS SHE FLEETH AFORE 7: FAINTING I FOLLOW. I LEAVE OFF THEREFORE,  8: SITHENS IN A NET I SEEK TO HOLD THE WIND 9: WHO LIST HIM, I OUT HIM OUT OF DOUBT. 10: AS WELL AS I MAY SPEND HIS TIME IN VAIN. 11: AND GRAVEN WITH DIAMONDS IN LETTERS PLAIN . 12: THERE IS WRITTEN ,HER FAIR NECK ROUND ABOUT . 13: NOLI ME TANGERE FOR CAESER'S I AM 14: AND WILD FOR TO HOLD THOUGH I SEEM TAME. SUMMARY: The poem starts from the poet's aspirations to pursue and present his love for his beloved reportedly Anne Boleyn the queen at the court of monarch Henry VIII. 1 :The beginning verses of the poem portrays us the image of a poet as tired and sick of pursuing his love ( Anne Boleyn). Whom he