JAMB Set Poems - Non-African Poetry

This study guide covers the eight Non-African poems prescribed for the JAMB UTME Literature In English examination (2022-2026 cycle). The collection spans five centuries of English-language poetry, from the early seventeenth-century Metaphysical tradition of John Donne through the Romantic lyricism of Lord Byron, the Modernist voices of T. S. Eliot and D. H. Lawrence, the passionate resistance of Dylan Thomas, the quiet social observation of Wilfred Wilson Gibson and Fleur Adcock, and the celebrated freedom imagery of Maya Angelou.

Together the poems offer students a rich survey of poetic forms (sonnet, villanelle, dramatic monologue, free verse, narrative ballad), major themes (love, death, faith, freedom, nature, illusion versus reality), and techniques (metaphor, personification, irony, repetition, contrast). Each poem rewards close reading and comparison with its African counterparts in the companion collection.