His Naked Skin Clothed in the Torrid Mist

The Serf – Roy Campbell

His naked skin clothed in the torrid mist

That puffs in smoke around the patient hooves,

The ploughman drives, a slow somnambulist,

And through the green his crimson furrow grooves

His heart, more deeply than he wounds the plain,5

Long by the rasping share of insult torn,

Red clod, to which the war-cry once was rain

And tribal spears the fatal sheaves of corn,

Lies fallow now. But as the turf divides

I see in the slow progress of his strides10

Over the toppled clods and falling flowers,

The timeless, surly patience of the serf

That moves the nearest to the naked earth

And ploughs down palaces, and thrones and towers.

1.1“Serf”

1.1.1What is your understanding of a ‘serf’?(1)

1.2True / False

This poem is a sonnet.(1)

1.3“…naked skin clothed in the torrid mist” (line 1)

1.3.1Why was the serf naked? (Refer to 1.3)(2)

1.3.2What poetic device is found in line 1?(1)

1.3.3Supply a reason for your answer in 1.3.2. (1½)

1.4“…around the patient hooves” (line 2)

1.4.1What is the poet referring to when he speaks about ‘patient hooves’?(1)

1.5“slow somnambulist” (line 3)

1.5.1What figure of speech is found in the above extract? (Refer to 1.5)(1)

1.5.2What is a ‘somnambulist’?(1)

1.6“crimson furrow grooves” (line 4)

1.6.1Explain the ambiguityfound in 1.6.(2)

1.7“And tribal spears…” (line 8)

1.7.1From which African tribe did the serf originate?(1)

1.7.2Quote from line 8 to show what is being compared to ‘tribal spears’?(1)

1.8“And…fallow now.” (lines 7-8)

1.8.1Name the poetic device that creates the run on lines into the sestet of the

poem.(1)

1.9Quote the two words that show howthe poet brings commonality between

lines 3 and 12 with regards to the serf’s patience.(2)

1.10“…palaces, thrones and towers.”

1.10.1True / False

The quote in 1.10 refers to authority or the government.(1)

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MEMORANDUM

1.1.1A farm worker / peasant √(1)

1.2True√(1)

1.3.1It was very hot √ and he had to remove his top. √(2)

1.3.2Metaphor√(1)

1.3.3The dust is being compared to clothing covering his naked body.√ (1½)

1.4.1The horse (ox) pulling the plough. √(1)

1.5.1Alliteration√(1)

1.5.2Someone who walks in his sleep√(1)

1.6.1The colour of blood √, but also the colour of the soil in that place. √(2)

1.7.1The Zulu tribe√(1)

1.7.2‘Sheaves of corn’√ (Quotation marks MUST be shown when quoting.)(1)

1.8enjambment √(1)

1.9The poet is bringing similarity by using the words ‘slow’√ and ‘timeless’. √(2)

1.10True√(1)

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