SECTION A: POETRY 
Prescribed Poetry: Answer ANY TWO questions.

QUESTION NO. 

QUESTION 

MARKS 

PAGE NO.

1. 'First Day after the War' 

Essay question 

10 

6

2. 'Remember' 

Contextual question 

10 

7

3. 'somewhere i have never  travelled,gladly beyond'

Contextual question 

10 

8

4. 'An African Elegy' 

Contextual question 

10 

9

AND 

Unseen Poem: COMPULSORY question

5. 'Autumn' 

Contextual question 

10 

10

SECTION B: NOVEL 

Answer ONE question.*

6. The Picture of Dorian Gray 

Essay question 

25 

11

7. The Picture of Dorian Gray 

Contextual question 

25 

11

8. Life of Pi 

Essay question 

25 

13

9. Life of Pi 

Contextual question 

25 

13

SECTION C: DRAMA 

Answer ONE question.*

10.Hamlet 

Essay question 

25 

15

11. Hamlet 

Contextual question 

25 

15

12. Othello 

Essay question 

25 

19

13.Othello 

Contextual question 

25 

19

14. The Crucible 

Essay question 

25 

22

15. The Crucible 

Contextual question 

25 

22

SECTION 

QUESTION  NUMBERS

NO. OF  QUESTIONS  ANSWERED

TICK 

(✔)

A: Poetry 

(Prescribed Poetry) 

1–4 

2

A: Poetry 

(Unseen Poem) 

5 

1

B: Novel  

(Essay OR Contextual) 

6–9 

1

C: Drama  

 (Essay OR Contextual) 

10–15 

1

FIRST DAY AFTER THE WAR – Mazisi Kunene 

1. We heard the songs of a wedding party. 
2. We saw a soft light
3. Coiling round the young blades of grass 
4. At first we hesitated, then we saw her footprints, 
5. Her face emerged, then her eyes of freedom!  
6. She woke us up with a smile saying,
7. 'What day is this that comes suddenly?'
8. We said, 'It is the first day after the war'. 
9. Then without waiting we ran to the open space 
10. Ululating to the mountains and the pathways  
11. Calling people from all the circles of the earth. 
12. We shook up the old man demanding a festival 
13. We asked for all the first fruits of the season. 
14. We held hands with a stranger 
15. We shouted across the waterfalls  
16. People came from all lands 
17. It was the first day of peace. 
18. We saw our Ancestors travelling tall on the horizon.

REMEMBER – Christina Rossetti 

1. Remember me when I am gone away, 
2.  Gone far away into the silent land; 
3.  When you can no more hold me by the hand,
4. Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay. 
5. Remember me when no more day by day 
6. You tell me of our future that you plann'd: 
7.  Only remember me; you understand 
8. It will be late to counsel then or pray. 
9. Yet if you should forget me for a while 
10.  And afterwards remember, do not grieve: 
11.  For if the darkness and corruption leave 
12.  A vestige of the thoughts that once I had, 
13. Better by far you should forget and smile 
14. Than that you should remember and be sad.

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond – ee cummings  

1. somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond 
2. any experience,your eyes have their silence: 
3. in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me, 
4. or which i cannot touch because they are too near 
5. your slightest look easily will unclose me  
6. though i have closed myself as fingers, 
7. you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
8. (touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose 
9. or if your wish be to close me,i and 
10. my life will shut very beautifully,suddenly, 
11. as when the heart of this flower imagines 
12. the snow carefully everywhere descending; 
13. nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals 
14. the power of your intense fragility:whose texture 
15. compels me with the colour of its countries,  
16. rendering death and forever with each breathing 
17. (i do not know what it is about you that closes 
18. and opens;only something in me understands 
19. the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses) 
20. nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands 

AN AFRICAN ELEGY – Ben Okri 

1. We are the miracles that God made 
2. To taste the bitter fruit of Time. 
3. We are precious. 
4. And one day our suffering 
5. Will turn into the wonders of the earth.  
6. There are things that burn me now 
7. Which turn golden when I am happy. 
8. Do you see the mystery of our pain? 
9. That we bear poverty 
10. And are able to sing and dream sweet things 
11. And that we never curse the air when it is warm
12. Or the fruit when it tastes so good 
13. Or the lights that bounce gently on the waters?
14. We bless things even in our pain. 
15. We bless them in silence.  
16. That is why our music is so sweet. 
17. It makes the air remember. 
18. There are secret miracles at work 
19. That only Time will bring forth. 
20. I too have heard the dead singing. 
21. And they tell me that 
22. This life is good 
23. They tell me to live it gently 
24. With fire, and always with hope. 
25. There is wonder here  
26. And there is surprise 
27. In everything the unseen moves. 
28. The ocean is full of songs. 
29. The sky is not an enemy. 
30. Destiny is our friend. 

AUTUMN – Douglas Ridley Beeton 

1. Patterns of old green-gold trees, 
2. Patterns of aloes dipped in blood; 
3. The khaki veld hums, a long singing 
4. Late-noon dream. And I shall come 
5. Up to the house and its purple shades,
6. And talk to my father, and he will 
7. Tell me of the world that has been,  
8. And I shall tell him of the world 
9. That will come, and he will tell me 
10. That it is wrong, wrong, and I 
11. Shall think that he is wrong, old and wrong.
12. But when I emerge into the khaki veld 
13. And feel the fine air stabbing out at me, 
14. And the night that is sweeping up 
15. Across the world, I shall sometimes 
16. Think that he is right, young and right.

'Good God, Dorian, what a lesson! What an awful lesson!' There was no answer, but  he could hear the young man sobbing at the window. 'Pray, Dorian, pray,' he  murmured. 'What is it that one was taught to say in one's boyhood? "Lead us not into  temptation. Forgive us our sins. Wash away our iniquities." Let us say that together.  The prayer of your pride has been answered. The prayer of your repentance will be  5  answered also. I worshipped you too much. We are both punished.' Dorian Gray turned slowly around, and looked at him with tear-dimmed eyes. 'It is too  late, Basil,' he faltered. 'It is never too late, Dorian. Let us kneel down and try if we cannot remember a prayer.  Isn't there a verse somewhere, "Though your sins be as scarlet, yet I will make them  10 as white as snow?" ' 'Those words mean nothing to me now.' 'Hush! Don't say that. You have done enough evil in your life. My God! Don't you see  that accursed thing leering at us?' Dorian Gray glanced at the picture, and suddenly an uncontrollable feeling of hatred for  15 Basil Hallward came over him, as though it had been suggested to him by the image  on the canvas.  

[Chapter 13] 

It was a lovely night, so warm that he threw his coat over his arm, and did not even put  his silk scarf round his throat. As he strolled home, smoking his cigarette, two young  men in evening dress passed him. He heard one of them whisper to the other, 'That is  Dorian Gray.' He remembered how pleased he used to be when he was pointed out, or  stared at, or talked about. He was tired of hearing his own name now. Half the charm  5  of the little village where he had been so often lately was that no one knew who he  was. He had often told the girl whom he had lured to love him that he was poor, and  she had believed him. He had told her once that he was wicked, and she had laughed  at him, and answered that wicked people were always very old and very ugly. What a  laugh she had! – just like a thrush singing. And how pretty she had been in her cotton  10 dresses and her large hats! She knew nothing, but she had everything that he had lost. ... 
[He] began to think over some of the things that Lord Henry had said to him. Was it really true that one could never change? He felt a wild longing for the unstained  purity of his boyhood – his rose-white boyhood, as Lord Henry had once called it. He  knew that he had tarnished himself, filled his mind with corruption, and given horror to  15 his fancy; that he had been an evil influence to others, and had experienced a terrible  joy in being so; and that, of the lives that had crossed his own, it had been the fairest  and the most full of promise that he had brought to shame. But was it all irretrievable?  Was there no hope for him? 

[Chapter 20] 

The elements allowed me to go on living. The lifeboat did not sink. Richard Parker kept  out of sight. The sharks prowled but did not lunge. The waves splashed me but did not  pull me off.  I watched the ship as it disappeared with much burbling and belching. Lights flickered  and went out. I looked about for my family, for survivors, for another lifeboat, for  5 anything that might bring me hope. There was nothing. Only rain, marauding waves of  black ocean and the flotsam of tragedy. … I inched my way along the oar till my feet were against the bow of the boat. I had to  proceed with extreme caution. My guess was that Richard Parker was on the floor of  the lifeboat beneath the tarpaulin, his back to me, facing the zebra, which he had no  10  doubt killed by now.  … Of greater significance to me was the strange fact that Richard Parker had not killed it.  In the normal course of things he should have killed the zebra. That's what predators  do: they kill prey. In the present circumstances, where Richard Parker would be under  tremendous mental strain, fear should have brought out an exceptional level of  15  aggression. The zebra should have been properly butchered. 
The reason behind its spared life was revealed shortly. It froze my blood – and then  brought a slight measure of relief. A head appeared beyond the end of the tarpaulin.  It looked at me in a direct, frightened way, ducked under, appeared again, ducked  under again, appeared once more, disappeared a last time. It was the bear-like,  20 balding-looking head of a spotted hyena. 

[Chapter 41] 

The smell of vegetation was extraordinarily strong. As for the greenness, it was so  fresh and soothing that strength and comfort seemed to be physically pouring into my  system through my eyes. … I heard a growl. I turned. Richard Parker was observing me from the lifeboat. He was  looking at the island, too. He seemed to want to come ashore but was afraid. Finally,  5  after much snarling and pacing, he leapt from the boat. I brought the orange whistle to  my mouth. But he didn't have aggression on his mind. Simple balance was enough of  a challenge; he was as wobbly on his feet as I was. When he advanced, he crawled  close to the ground and with trembling limbs, like a newborn cub. Giving me a wide  10  berth, he made for the ridge and disappeared into the interior of the island.  I passed the day eating, resting, attempting to stand and, in a general way, bathing in  bliss. I felt nauseous when I exerted myself too much. And I kept feeling that the  ground was shifting beneath me and that I was going to fall over, even when I was  sitting still.  …  [Richard Parker] killed beyond his need. He killed meerkats that he did not eat.  15 In animals, the urge to kill is separate from the urge to eat. To go for so long without  prey and suddenly to have so many – his pent-up hunting instinct was lashing out with  a vengeance. 

[Chapter 92] 

GUILDENSTERN  But we both obey, 
And here give up ourselves in the full bent, 
To lay our service freely at your feet 
To be commanded. 
CLAUDIUS 
Thanks Rosencrantz, and gentle Guildenstern. 5 
GERTRUDE 
Thanks Guildenstern, and gentle Rosencrantz, 
And I beseech you instantly to visit 
My too much changéd son. Go some of you 
And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is. 
GUILDENSTERN 
Heavens make our presence and our practices 10 
Pleasant and helpful to him! 
GERTRUDE 
 Ay, amen! 
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern off 
Enter Polonius. He speaks apart with the king. 
POLONIUS 
The ambassadors from Norway, my good lord, 15
Are joyfully returned. 
CLAUDIUS 
Thou still hast been the father of good news. 
POLONIUS 
Have I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege, 
I hold my duty as I hold my soul, 
Both to my God and to my gracious king, 20 
And I do think, or else this brain of mine 
Hunts not the trail of policy so sure 
As it hath used to do, that I have found 
The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy. 
CLAUDIUS 
O speak of that! That do I long to hear. 25 
POLONIUS 
Give first admittance to th'ambassadors. 
My news shall be the fruit to that great feast. 
CLAUDIUS 
Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in. 
Polonius off 
He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found 30 
The head and source of all your son's distemper. … 
[Re-enter Polonius] 
POLONIUS 
You know sometimes he walks four hours together 
Here in the lobby. 
GERTRUDE 
 So he does, indeed. 35
POLONIUS 
At such a time I'll loose my daughter to him. 
Be you and I behind an arras then. 
Mark the encounter.  

[Act 2, Scene 2] 

CLAUDIUS 
O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven; 
It hath the primal eldest curse upon't, 
A brother's murder! Pray can I not, 
Though inclination be as sharp as will. 
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent. 5 … 
Enter Hamlet and pauses, seeing the King 
HAMLET 
(Approaches the entry to the lobby) Now might I do it pat, now he is   
a-praying – 
And now I'll do't (He draws his sword) and so he goes to heaven, 10 
And so am I revenged. That would be scanned. 
A villain kills my father, and for that 
I his sole son do this same villain send 
To heaven. 
Why, this is bait and salary, not revenge. 15 
He took my father grossly, full of bread, 
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May, 
And how his audit stands who knows save heaven? 
But in our circumstance and course of thought, 
'Tis heavy with him. And am I then revenged 20 
To take him in the purging of his soul, 
When he is fit and seasoned for his passage? 
No. 
He sheathes his sword 
Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent, 25 
When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, 
Or in th'incestuous pleasure of his bed, 
At game, a-swearing, or about some act 
That has no relish of salvation in't, 
Then trip him that his heels may kick at heaven, 30 
And that his soul may be as damned and black 
As hell whereto it goes. My mother stays. 
This physic but prolongs thy sickly days. 
Off 
CLAUDIUS 
(Rises) My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. 
Words without thoughts never to heaven go. 35

[Act 3, Scene 3] 

DUKE  
I think this tale would win my daughter too … 
Good Brabantio, 
Take up this mangled matter at the best. 
Men do their broken weapons rather use 
Than their bare hands. 5 

BRABANTIO 
 I pray you hear her speak.  
If she confess that she was half the wooer,  
Destruction light on me if my bad blame  
Light on the man! Come hither, gentle mistress.  
Do you perceive in all this company  10 
Where most you owe obedience? 

DESDEMONA 
My noble father,  
I do perceive here a divided duty.  
To you I am bound for life and education. 
My life and education both do learn me  15 
How to respect you. You are lord of all my duty;  
I am hitherto your daughter. But here's my husband, 
And so much duty as my mother showed  
To you, preferring you before her father,  
So much I challenge that I may profess  20 
Due to the Moor, my lord. 

BRABANTIO 
God bu'y! I ha' done.  
Please it your Grace, on to the state affairs. 
I had rather to adopt a child than get it.  
Come hither, Moor.  25
I here do give thee that with all my heart  
Which, but thou hast already, with all my heart  
I would keep from thee. For your sake, jewel,  
I am glad at soul I have no other child,  
For thy escape would teach me tyranny  30 
To hang clogs on them. I have done, my lord.  … 

DUKE 
The Turk with a most mighty preparation makes for Cyprus. Othello,  
the fortitude of the place is best known to you; and though we have  
there a substitute of most allowed sufficiency, yet opinion,
a more  sovereign mistress of effects, throws a more safer voice on you. You 35
must therefore be content to slubber the gloss of your new fortunes  
with this more stubborn and boisterous expedition. 

[Act 1, Scene 3] 

OTHELLO  
O monstrous, monstrous!  
IAGO 
Nay, this was but his dream.  
OTHELLO 
But this denoted a foregone conclusion. 
IAGO 
'Tis a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream: 
And this may help to thicken other proofs  5 
That do demonstrate thinly. 
OTHELLO 
I'll tear her all to pieces!  
IAGO 
Nay, but be wise. Yet we see nothing done;  
She may be honest yet. Tell me but this. 
Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief, 10
Spotted with strawberries, in your wife's hand? 
OTHELLO 
I gave her such a one; 'twas my first gift. 
IAGO  
I know not that, but such a handkerchief 
(I am sure it was your wife's) did I today  
See Cassio wipe his beard with.  15 
OTHELLO 
If it be that– 
IAGO 
If it be that, or any that was hers, 
It speaks against her, with the other proofs. 
OTHELLO 
O, that the slave had forty thousand lives!  
One is too poor, too weak for my revenge.  20 
Now do I see 'tis true. Look here, Iago– 
All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven …  
'Tis gone.  
Arise, black vengeance, from thy hollow cell!  
Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne  25 
To tyrannous hate! Swell, bosom, with thy fraught,
 For 'tis of aspics' tongues!  
IAGO 
Pray be content.  
OTHELLO 
O, blood, Iago, blood! 
IAGO  
Patience, I say. Your mind perhaps may change.  30

[Act 3, Scene 3] 

TITUBA : (already taking a step backward): My Betty be hearty soon? 
PARRIS Out of here! 
TITUBA (backing to the door): My Betty not goin' die … 
PARRIS (scrambling to his feet in a fury): Out of my sight! (She is gone.) Out of my – (He is overcome with sobs. He clamps his teeth against them and  5 closes the door and leans against it, exhausted.) Oh, my God! God help me! (Quaking with fear, mumbling to himself through his sobs, he  goes to the bed and gently takes Betty's hand.) Betty. Child. Dear child.  Will you wake, will you open up your eyes! Betty, little one … He is bending to kneel again when his niece, ABIGAIL WILLIAMS, 10 seventeen, enters – a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an  endless capacity for dissembling. Now she is all worry and  apprehension and propriety. 
ABIGAIL Uncle? (He looks to her.) Susanna Walcott's here from Doctor Griggs. … 
SUSANNA Aye, sir, he have been searchin' his books since he left you, sir. But he  15  bid me tell you, that you might look to unnatural things for the cause  of it. 
PARRIS (his eyes going wide): No – no. There be no unnatural cause here. Tell  him I have sent for Reverend Hale of Beverly, and Mr Hale will surely  confirm that. Let him look to medicine and put out all thought of  20 unnatural causes here. There be none. 
SUSANNA  Aye, sir. He bid me tell you. (She turns to go.) 
ABIGAIL  Speak nothin' of it in the village, Susanna. 
PARRIS  Go directly home and speak nothing of unnatural causes. 
SUSANNA  Aye, sir. I pray for her. (She goes out.) 25
ABIGAIL Uncle, the rumour of witchcraft is all about; I think you'd best go down  and deny it yourself. The parlour's packed with people, sir. 

[Act 1] 

DANFORTH Who is this man? 
FRANCIS Francis Nurse, Your Excellency. 
HALE His wife's Rebecca that were condemned this morning. 
DANFORTH Indeed! I am amazed to find you in such uproar. I have only good report  of your character, Mr Nurse. 5 
HATHORNE I think they must both be arrested in contempt, sir. 
DANFORTH (to Francis): Let you write your plea, and in due time I will – 
FRANCIS Excellency, we have proof for your eyes; God forbid you shut them to it.  The girls, sir, the girls are frauds.
DANFORTH What's that? 10 
FRANCIS We have proof of it, sir. They are all deceiving you. 
DANFORTH is shocked, but studying Francis. 
HATHORNE This is contempt, sir, contempt! 
DANFORTH Peace, Judge Hathorne. Do you know who I am, Mr Nurse? 
FRANCIS I surely do, sir, and I think you must be a wise judge to be what you  are. 15 
DANFORTH And do you know that near to four hundred are in the jails from  Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my signature?
FRANCIS I – 
DANFORTH And seventy-two condemned to hang by that signature? 20
FRANCIS Excellency, I never thought to say it to such a weighty judge, but you  are deceived. 

[Act 3]