Poetry Review_Extended
Student Name: ___________________________________Date: ______ Period: _____
Review: Define the following.
1. Stanza
2. Shift
3. Rhyme Scheme
4. Alliteration
5. Imagery
6. Anaphora
New: Write down the definitions of the following poetry terms.
1. Enjambment
2. End Stop
3. Caesura (PAUSE)
The Raven (excerpt)
by Edgar Allan Poe
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door Only this, and nothing more."
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore Nameless here for evermore.
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
"'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; This it is, and nothing more,"
Now, the writing process.
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Prompt: Why does the author compare the two photos in the poem “History Lesson?” Support your answer with
evidence from the poem.
History Lesson
by Natasha Trethewey
I am four in this photograph, standing
on a wide strip of Mississippi beach,
my hands on the flowered hips
of a bright bikini. My toes dig in,
curl around wet sand. The sun cuts
the rippling Gulf in flashes with each
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tidal rush. Minnows dart at my feet
glinting like switchblades. I am alone
except for my grandmother, other side
of the camera, telling me how to pose.
It is 1970, two years after they opened
the rest of this beach to us,
forty years since the photograph
where she stood on a narrow plot
of sand marked colored, smiling
her hands on the flowered hips
of a cotton meal-sack dress.
Best Evidence 1:
Best Evidence 2:
Thesis:
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Prompt: After reading “The Sower” by Victor Hugo, what is the speaker’s attitude toward the old man? Support your
answer with evidence from the poem.
The Sower by Victor Hugo (translated by George Murray)
Peaceful and cool, the twilight grey
Draws a dim curtain o’er the day,
While in my cottage-porch I lurk
And watch the last lone hour of work.
The fields around are bathed in dew,
And, with emotion filled, I view
An old man clothed in rags, who throws
The seed amid the channeled rows.
His shadowy form is looming now
High o’er the furrows of the plough;
Each motion of his arm betrays
A boundless faith in future days.
He stalks along the ample plain,
Comes, goes, and flings abroad the grain;
Unnoted, through the dreamy haze
With meditative soul I gaze.
At last, the vapours of the night
Dilate to heav’n the man’s height,
Till every gesture of his hand
Seems to my eyes sublimely grand!
Best Evidence 1:
Best Evidence 2:
Thesis:
Prompt: In the poem “I Ask My Mother to Sing,” what message is conveyed about the relationship between parents and
children? Support your answer with evidence from the poem.
I ASK MY MOTHER TO SING
Li-Young Lee
She begins, and my grandmother joins her.
Mother and daughter sing like young girls.
If my father were alive, he would play
His accordion and swing like a boat.
I've never been in Peking, or the Summer Palace,
nor stood on the great Stone Boat to watch
the rain begin on Kuen Ming Lake, the picnickers
running away in the grass.
But I love to hear it sung:
how the waterlilies fill with rain until
they overturn, spilling water into water,
then rock back, and fill with more.
Both women have begun to cry,
But neither stops her song.
Best Evidence 1:
Best Evidence 2:
Thesis:
Prompt: After reading the poem “Hidden Flame,” what conflicting emotions is the narrator trying to express? Use
evidence from the passage to defend your answer.
“Hidden Flame” by John Dryden
I FEED a flame within, which so torments me
That it both pains my heart, and yet contents me:
'Tis such a pleasing smart, and I so love it,
That I had rather die than once remove it. 4
Yet he, for whom I grieve, shall never know it;
My tongue does not betray, nor my eyes show it.
Not a sigh, nor a tear, my pain discloses,
But they fall silently, like dew on roses. 8
Thus, to prevent my Love from being cruel,
My heart 's the sacrifice, as 'tis the fuel;
And while I suffer this to give him quiet,
My faith rewards my love, though he deny it. 12
On his eyes will I gaze, and there delight me;
While I conceal my love no frown can fright me.
To be more happy I dare not aspire,
Nor can I fall more low, mounting no higher. 16
Best Evidence 1:
Best Evidence 2:
Thesis: