Background Derek Walcott, a Caribbean poet and playwright, was raised with his twin brother and sister on the island of Saint Lucia in the West Indies. Of African and European descent, Walcott and his twin brother lost their father, a painter, before they were born. As a young man, Walcott studied writing because he was “madly in love with English,” and he published his first poem at the age of 14. Nearly fifty years later, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Walcott dedicates this poem to the well-known English poet Stephen Spender, whose poetry, like Walcott’s, often focuses on themes of social injustice. Elsewhere Poem by Derek Walcott ª)PVHIUPO.JGGMJO)BSDPVSU1VCMJTIJOH$PNQBOZt*NBHF$SFEJUT1IPUPCZ7JUUPSJP;VOJOP$FMPUUP(FUUZ*NBHFTª#PSU/4IVUUFSTUPDL 1. As you read lines 1–12, begin to collect and cite text evidence. t Circle each use of the word somewhere. t Underline the example of personification in lines 5–8. t In the margin, analyze how the image it creates contributes to the tone of the poem. (For Stephen Spender) Somewhere a white horse gallops with its mane plunging round a field whose sticks are ringed with barbed wire, and men break stones or bind straw into ricks. 5 Somewhere women tire of the shawled sea’s weeping, for the fishermen’s dories still go out. It is blue as peace. Somewhere they’re tired of torture stories. 49 That somewhere there was an arrest. 10 Somewhere there was a small harvest of bodies in the truck. Soldiers rest somewhere by a road, or smoke in a forest. Somewhere there is the conference rage at an outrage. Somewhere a page 15 is torn out, and somehow the foliage no longer looks like leaves but camouflage. Somewhere there is a comrade, a writer lying with his eyes wide open on a mattress ticking, who will not read 20 2. this, or write. How to make a pen? Reread lines 1–12. What is the speaker emphasizing by repeating the word somewhere? How does the repetition of this word choice affect the meaning and tone of the poem? Support your answer with explicit textual evidence. __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. As you read lines 13–20, continue to cite textual evidence. • Circle the simile in lines 13–16. • In the margin, explain the image that this simile creates. • Underline the subject of lines 17–20. In the margin, state the point the poet is making about this person. 50 © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company __________________________________________________________________________________________ Somewhere there is a comrade . . . who will not read this, or write. And here we are free for a while, but elsewhere, in one-third, or one-seventh of this planet, a summary rifle butt breaks a skull into the idea of a heaven 25 where nothing is free, where blue air is paper-frail, and whatever we write will be stamped twice, a blue letter, its throat slit by the paper knife of the state. Through these black bars 30 hollowed faces stare. Fingers grip the cross bars of these stanzas © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company and it is here, because somewhere else 4. 5. With a small group, discuss the tone of the poem so far. What is the speaker’s attitude toward the subject? As you read lines 21–40, continue to cite textual evidence. • Circle what is happening “here,” in line 21. • Underline what is happening “elsewhere.” • In the margin, compare what is happening “here” with what is happening “elsewhere.” What does this comparison say about freedom? 51 their stares fog into oblivion thinly, like the faceless numbers 35 that bewilder you in your telephone diary. Like last year’s massacres. The world is blameless. The darker crime is to make a career of conscience, to feel through our own nerves the silent scream 40 6. of winter branches, wonders read as signs. As you reread lines 33–40, • in the margin, explain the two images in lines 33–36. • underline the personification in the last stanza. SHORT RESPONSE Cite Text Evidence Analyze the impact of specific word choices, including figurative and connotative meanings of words, on the meaning and tone of the poem. Cite text evidence in your response. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 52 © Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company _____________________________________________________________________________________________
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