Poetry (Khasi literature): Comprehension and Appreciation
What the poetry section tests
Poetry questions test your ability to hear a poem as well as explain it. You may be asked about the central idea, the poet’s tone, a repeated line, an image, or the effect of a figure of speech. Khasi poetry often draws on oral tradition, nature, love, loss, and community memory, so read for sound and feeling, not only information.
Core terms and moves
- Speaker and poet: the voice in the poem is not always the writer.
- Tone and mood: decide whether the poem is tender, grieving, hopeful, ironic, or celebratory; support this with word choice.
- Imagery: identify the picture created and the sense it appeals to.
- Simile and metaphor: in Khasi, kum often introduces a comparison, as in an illustrative line such as Ka jingieit ka long kum ka um ba tuid (love is like flowing water). The comparison has a tenor (love) and a vehicle (water), and its point is movement, nourishment, or uncontrollability.
- Repetition and refrain: note what changes around a repeated line; the change often carries the argument.
- Form: stanza, line length, rhyme, and rhythm contribute to pace and emphasis.
Worked example
For the illustrative line above, a question asks why the comparison is effective. A weak answer says only that love is being compared to water. A stronger answer explains that flowing water suggests something constant yet changing, and that the verb tuid (flow) gives love motion rather than fixity. The reasoning links the image to the poem’s idea, not just to the dictionary meaning of the words.
Traps that cost marks
Do not paraphrase the poem as a story and ignore its form. Do not label every comparison a metaphor; check whether kum makes it explicit. Do not invent a symbolic meaning without support from the line. Do not ignore a shift in tone between stanzas. Do not quote a refrain without saying how its meaning changes.
Exam habit
Before answering, mark the rhyme words, the repeated words, and the strongest image. These three features usually point to the question the examiner will ask.