Everything has changed (except for graves)

The speaker returns to his childhood home in

• Durban

• Lushington, PE

• Natal

• Limpopo

Tick the applicable boxes about the type and form of the poem.

• The poem is written in free verse

• There is only two stanzas

• The first stanza is in narrative form

• The last stanza is written in the present tense

This poem is written about a true account of Mzi Mahola revisiting his childhood town after

• 50 years

• 20 years

• 53 years

• 40 years

"I stood at the ruins

of my former school

where I was patiently moulded;

wild plants owned every space now'

my soul was paralyzed"

The school has been abandoned and in a _____ condition.

"I stood at the ruins

of my former school

where I was patiently moulded;

wild plants owned every space now'

my soul was paralyzed"

• personification, school is personified as helping him.

• Metaphor, he is being compared to a moulding process where you carefully cut something out, i.e. teachers used patience/time to teach him.

• Hyperbole, to mould is to cut out

"I stood at the ruins

of my former school

where I was patiently moulded;

wild plants owned every space now'

my soul was paralyzed"

• Personification- wild plants have the ability to own the school, this is to emphasise that the yard was overgrown with weeds.

• Metaphor, wild plants are compared to a person owning the school.

• Hyperbole, he exaggerates the state of the school.

"I stood at the ruins

of my former school

where I was patiently moulded;

wild plants owned every space now'

my soul was paralyzed"

• He was in awe

• He was in a state of shock after witnessing the neglect

• He was angry

• He felt nothing

"What happened to the roofs

the doors and the windows?

Can these dumb lonely walls still recognise me?" Select applicable boxes

• rhetorical question

• vandalism

• theft

• confusion

What happened to the roofs

the doors and the windows?

Can these dumb lonely walls still recognise me?

• Metaphor, walls compared to lonely and dumb to emphasise ruins

• Personification, wall personified dumb and lonely to emphasise they cannot speak (dumb) and is abandoned and empty (lonely).

• simile, walls compared to lonely and dumb to emphasise ruins

What happened to the roofs

the doors and the windows?

Can these dumb lonely walls still recognise me?

The poet is feeling

• insecure

• a sense of loss

• angry

• betrayed