Prescribed Poetry Texts
What this domain tests
The prescribed Karbi poems: literal sense, imagery, poetic device, mood, and the poet's message. Expect short answers on device and effect, reference-to-context items, and a brief appreciation.
Core rules
- Learn each poem's shape: stanza pattern, refrain line, and where the turn or climax falls.
- Karbi verse in the reader keeps oral features - repetition, parallelism (paired lines on the same frame), vocables, and a returning refrain. Name them, then say what they do: a refrain fixes mood and marks stanza boundaries; parallelism balances two ideas.
- Device names to have ready: simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, refrain, repetition, imagery.
- Answer in two moves: "The poet uses X" → "to show / so that Y".
- For appreciation, cover theme, device, mood, and one personal response tied to the text.
Worked example
Question: "What is the effect of the line repeated at the end of each stanza?" Reasoning: (1) confirm it returns verbatim - that makes it a refrain, not mere repetition; (2) note its position, closing every stanza; (3) state the effect - it binds the stanzas and keeps the central image before the listener. Answer: "The line is a refrain. Placed at each stanza's close, it unifies the poem and keeps the central image before the reader, giving the verse a song-like movement."
Traps that cost marks
- Naming a device and stopping there; the effect carries the mark.
- Confusing simile with metaphor - check whether like/as framing is present in the Karbi line.
- Reading a folk poem as the poet's autobiography.
- Paraphrasing the poem instead of answering the set question.