IGNOU DCE-05 Writing Poetry - Latest Solved Assignment

SECTION A

1. Write short notes on any two of the following topics. (200 words each)

(a) Free verse
(b) Cliche in poetry
(c) Simile and Metaphor
(d) Connotation and Denotation

2. List some techniques necessary to make poems on social themes interesting and appealing. (450 words)

3. How do you define personae? Does it help the poet to depersonalize xperience? Explain with the help of a poem.

4. The unity of a poem is the most important factor in writing poetry. How does a poet make a poem ‘one harmonious whole’?

5 What is a cliche? Why should cliches be avoided in poetry? Can there be a poetic use of cliche? Give reasons for your answer.

SECTION B

6. Read the following poems and answer the questions below each

Meeting at Night — Robert Browning

I

The grey sea and the long black land;
And the yellow half-moon large and low;
And the startled little waves that leap
In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
And quench its speed i’ the slushy sand.

II

Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
Three fields to cross till a farm appears;
A tap at the pane, die quick sharp scratch
And a blue spurt of a lighted match
And a voice less loud, thro’ its joys and fears,
Than the two hearts beating each to each!

a) Is there any suggestion of expectancy or suspense in the poem? How does the poet create this effect? (200 words)
b) What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? Discuss the use of poetic persona.

7. Read the following poems and answer the questions given below.

A BOUNDLESS MOMENT
Robert Frost
” He halted in the wind, and – what was that
far in the maples, pale, but not a ghost?
He stood there, bringing March against his thought,
And yet too ready to believe the most
“Oh that’s the paradise-in bloom”, I said;
And truly it was fair enough for flowers
had we but in us to assume in March
Such white luxuriance of May for ours.
We stood a moment so in a strange world,
Myself as one his own pretense deceives;
And then I said the truth (and we moved on).
young beech clinging to its last year’s leaves.

a) Comment on the opening of the poem.
b ) Explain: ‘We stood a moment so in a strange world’.
c) Comment on diction in this poem.
d) What is the central idea of the poem?
e) Discuss the rhyme scheme used here.

8.
The Lost Word’
Esther Morgan
She’s lost a word
and searches for it every where behind the sofa, at the back
of dusty cupboards and drawers.
She picks through the rubbish sacks.
Under the carpet she finds lots of other
she’d forgotten she’d swept under there
but not the one she’s looking for.
The trouble is it’s small -only two letters
though no less valuable for that.
She stands racking her brain
for the last time she used it
but all that comes to mind are failed attempts
of someone else’s tongue.

a) Comment on the central metaphor in this poem. How does it help in achieving ‘unity’ of impression? (200 words)
b) Is the word ‘tongue’ in the last line used in more than one sense? (100 words)
c) What kind of opening does the poem have? How do the opening few lines set the tone/ mood of the poem? (150 words)

9. Write a poem on any one of the following :

a) Noise
b) Love
c) Memory
d) Loneliness
e) Prayer