Get your creative juices flowing
Beryl Clarke, Contributor

Wow, a new school year, and you and your friends are together again. You have had time to talk about your holidays, the places you visited, the things you did and the excitement of the World Athletics Championships, and by this time you should have stopped the moaning and groaning about the reopening of school. Well, I don't have to remind you that you have to put in the groundwork if you want to be successful. By the way, I hope you have not only talked about our athletes' overwhelming performances, but you have created songs and poems and plays in celebration. Your creative juices should have been flowing and you should have been writing. Have fun!

Here now, as promised, is some more information on the syllabus. The exam consists of two papers.

Paper 01

This paper consists of questions on all three literary genres/modes - drama, poetry and prose. All the questions set on this paper are compulsory! The total marks allocated is 45-15 for each mode.

Paper 02

This paper is divided into three sections:

Section one : Drama. Shakespeare and modern drama. You will have to answer one question from the four questions which will be set, two on each text.

Section two: Poetry. Two comparative questions will be set and you must do one.

Section three: Prose. You must do one of the four comparative questions set. Each question will ask for a comparison between a West Indian and a non-West Indian text.

Paper 02 requires you to do a total of three questions and is worth 105 marks.

As you study drama, you need to be able to differentiate among the genre/modes of literature. This means that you should know what literary elements are specific to drama, to poetry and to prose. Of course, you already know of those elements that they have in common, for example, character and theme. Drama has elements such as stage directions, dialogue, spectacle, unities of time, place and action, acts, scenes, asides, costumes and props.

When you study poetry, there are certain elements you should know. These include rhyme, rhythm and the relationship between the sound of the words the poets use and the effect they have on meaning. You must also be able to recognise figurative language and the contribution it makes to the poem; that is, you must be able to say why the poet uses repetition or simile or paradox or rhythm. The poet does not include literary devices to provoke or annoy you, or because he could not do any better, but because he wishes to create a specific effect. It is your job to identify the effect. More will be said about this in the future.

The prose texts on the syllabus are very interesting and you will enjoy them. As you learn them, do focus on the technique used in telling the story and who tells the story, whether it is someone involved in the action or someone outside of the action. You see, you can have a first- or third-person narrator. Consider too, the way in which the story is organised/put together. It may be one unbroken narrative or it could be in chapters or sections.

If you have not got your own copy of the English A and the literatures in English syllabus (they are put together in one booklet), then please keep this lesson for reference. It is your responsibility to discuss the syllabus with your teacher to ensure that you know all that is required of you!

Below are some literary terms which you should learn:

Alliteration

Repetition of the first or opening sounds in a series of words, for example: ... and how the silence surged softly backwards when the plunging hoofs were gone from 'The Listener'.

Allusion

Reference to something that is well known from the Bible, literature, history, Greek or Roman mythology primarily, but any other mythology as well. An example of this is 'the Cross'.

Antagonist

The villain or the person who is opposed to the (good) chief character.

Apostrophe

Directly addressing an absent character, object or force as if it were present and can understand, for example, in the poem, 'An Athlete Dying Young'.

Aside

A few brief words, spoken by a character onstage, that are meant for the audience. The other actors pretend not to hear.

Assonance

When vowel sounds are repeated in a series of words, for example, 'the deep, seep began to creep down ...'

Atmosphere

The tone or mood established by the setting or the language. It is that emotion that develops in a reader about a work. If you stop and read Claude McKay's 'The Lynching' you are sure to understand.

Ballad

Story poem developed from an oral custom. It is usually arranged in four-line stanzas with an ABCB rhyming pattern.

I am not hungry for berries.
I am not hungry for bread.
But hungry hungry for a house
Where at night a man in bed

May never hear the plaster
Stir as if in pain.
May never hear the roaches
Falling like fat rain.

Blank verse

Lines of iambic pentameter (you'll hear more of this later) that do not rhyme.

In succeeding weeks I will share more of these terms with you. Hold your head high as you move towards your goal. God bless!

Beryl Clarke is an independent contributor. Send questions and comments to kerry-ann.hepburn@gleanerjm.com

It was twice as nice for Member of Parliament for East Central St James and Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett as twins Cherisa (left) and Chelesa Walker accept their scholarships from the East Central St James Education Council at Wexford Hotel in Montego Bay last Wednesday, September 9. - Sheena Gayle photo