RI H2 Literature 9509 P1 Prelim 2024

[Turn over RAFFLES INSTITUTION 2024 YEAR 6 PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION HIGHER 2 LITERATURE IN ENGLISH 9509/01 Paper 1 Reading Literature Tuesday 10 September 2024 3 hours 1330-1630 No Additional Materials are required. Set texts may be taken into the examination room. They may bear underlining or highlighting. Any kind of folding or flagging of papers in texts (e.g. use of post-its, tape flags or paper clips) is not permitted. READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST Writing paper will be provided. If you need additional paper ask the invigilator. Write your name and CT group on all the work you hand in. Answer three questions: one question from Section A, one question from Section B, and one question from Section C. You are reminded of the need for good English and clear presentation in your answers. At the end of the examination tie your answer sheets to each section securely. Hand in your answers separately. All questions in this paper carry equal marks. This document consists of 9 printed pages and 1 blank page.

2 ©RI 2024 H2 P1 RI LIT PRELIM 9509/01/24 Section A 1 Either (a) Write a critical comparison of the following poems, considering in detail ways in which language, style and form contribute to each poet’s portrayal of a father-son relationship. A THE HARP When he was my age and I was already a boy my father made a machine in the garage. A wired piece of steel with many small and beautiful welds ground so smooth they resembled rows of pearls. He went broke with whatever it was. He held it so carefully in his arms. He carried it foundry to foundry. I think it was his harp, I think it was what he longed to make with his hands for the world. He moved it finally from the locked closet to the bedroom to the garage again where he hung it on the wall until I climbed and pulled it down and rubbed it clean and tried to make it work. 5 10 15 Bruce Weigl (born 1949) B ORNAMENT My father has few things to protect. In our house where laughter flirts effortlessly with a history of loneliness, sometimes edifying each other, as two people stranded on an island may behave, the magnificent koi pond is his honour and glory. Cut in black marble, water unloosed over imposing shoulders of an obsidian1 wall, it seems, as I grow older, to be more perfect for my father’s affections than I can ever be, how virtuous its talent for turning the commonplace beautiful. On nights when my father is somewhere else I stoop over its edge, cautious as deer approaching the open, water so still it could be land, my body r