Mastering
CLOSE
reading
99 Practice Passages on
Motif, Subject, and Theme
Kara Mopps
•
Caitlin Joyner
www.maupinhouse.com
Mastering Close Reading
99 Practice Passages on Motif, Subject, and Theme
By Caitlin Joyner and Kara Mopps
© 2012 Caitlin Joyner and Kara Mopps
All rights reserved.
Cover design: Studio Montage
Book design and composition: Rick Soldin
“Hate” from Mainstream Ethics by Tato Laviera ©1988 and “A Voice” from My Own True Name by
Pat Mora ©2000 are reprinted with permission from the publisher, Arte Público Press, University of
Houston.
Maupin House publishes professional resources for K-12 educators. Contact us for tailored, in-school
training or to schedule an author for a workshop or conference. Visit www.maupinhouse.com for free
lesson plan downloads.
Maupin House Publishing, Inc.
2416 NW 71 Place
Gainesville, FL 32653
www.maupinhouse.com
800-524-0634
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Acknowledgments
We gratefully and humbly thank the following authors for granting us permission to use their inspired
literature in this book: Brod Bagert, Tato Laviera, Pat Mora, Joyce Moyer Hostetter, and Margriet Ruurs.
Frieda, your inspiration speaks volumes.
Also, we sincerely thank the Maupin House family for making our dream come true.
iii
Dedication
We’d like to dedicate this book to the loves of our lives—most notably, our patient and devoted
husbands, Charles and David, and our beautiful children who inspire us everyday, Gabriel,
Elizabeth, Austin, and Miles. Also, we are forever indebted to our parents, who raised us to
honor and believe in our dreams.
We also dedicate this book to our students. Your inspired insights and sincere support have
given us the voice with which we speak.
v
Contents
ix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Transformative Power of Close Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
What You Will Find in This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Skills Mastered within the Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Some Instructional Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Other Ways to Use This Resource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Chapter 1: Understanding the Journey from Motif to Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Defining Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Motif . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Subject Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Journey from Motif to Theme: Prose Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Journey from Motif to Theme: Poetic Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1
1
2
2
3
3
4
Chapter 2: Motif and Subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Motif . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Exercises 1–11: Support and Classify Given Motifs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Exercises 12–22: Identify Motifs to Support a Given Subject . . . . . . . 19
Exercises 23–33: Generate Motifs and Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Chapter 3: The Subject Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
42
Subject Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Exercises 34–52: Generate Subjects and
Subject Phrases after Tracking Motif . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Exercises 53–66: Generate Subjects and
Subject Phrases before Tracking Motif . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Contents vii
Chapter 4: Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
81
Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Exercises 67–77: Support a Given Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Exercises 78–88: Construct a Thematic Statement
with a Guided Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Exercises 89–99: Construct Authentic Thematic Statements . . . . . . 109
Teacher Notes: Suggested Responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Chapter Two: Motif and Subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Chapter Three: The Subject Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Chapter Four: Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Student Handouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Character Trait List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Subject List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
How to Create a Subject Phrase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Adjective List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Noun Phrase List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
How to Create a Thematic Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Active Verb List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Motif Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Compare/Contrast Motif Chart 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Compare/Contrast Motif Chart 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Character Motif Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Speaker Motif Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Works Cited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Index of Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
viii Mastering Close REading
Introduction
Each August, the names on our rosters changed, but the challenges remained the same. We realized that
our students had no background in the process of thematic analysis. They were listlessly scanning the
text for the answers, rather than actively reading and searching the text to unearth profound patterns.
Not only did our at-risk ninth graders struggle to read analytically and provide authentic insights, but
our Advanced Placement Literature students also struggled because they did not have the tools to read
critically in order to voice their own assertions. Fortunately, the conjoining doors to our classrooms
united two compatriots in the cause, and the building process began.
We soon learned that the process needed to start at the beginning—our students needed close-reading
practice. They needed our permission—our praise—for reading s-l-o-w-l-y. How else were they going
to catch all the nuances in the literature? Our students needed thinking caps, and with them, they
needed time to think. With each new day, we started building the foundation of critical reading by
finding, interpreting, and synthesizing patterns in literature. Gradually, our students learned that with
the right tools to progressively build upon their initial analytical skills, they too could become inspired,
insightful, and enlightened readers. Mastering Close Reading supplies those tools.
The Transformative Power of Close Reading
Students are seldom accustomed to reading a piece of literature closely. Instead, they read quickly, hoping
to zoom through the text, so they can move on to what they believe is the important part—the actual
“assignment.” Our goal is to make students slow down and become active participants as they read.
As they hunt for motifs, recognize significant patterns, and chart character development, they will
be startled to see just how much they have been missing. Thanks to their budding interpretive skills,
reading won’t be such a mindless chore anymore—especially since students will clearly understand the
goal for this careful reading: crafting original and insightful thematic statements.
Once students can use their active analytical strategies to discern a work’s message, they will have been
transformed from disengaged readers to enlightened thinkers. Ultimately, we hope that this newfound
appreciation for the beauty and complexity of quality literature will extend beyond these exercises.
Introduction ix
What You Will Find in This Book
Mastering Close Reading uses a systematic, skill-building approach to address motif and subject, subject
phrase, and theme in three chapters. Each chapter includes pertinent student definitions and a set of
thirty-three ready-made, differentiated exercises taken from canonical (and accessible!) prose and poetry.
Use the exercises flexibly as bell ringers, full-period explications, homework assignments, or even a mix
of all three. These individual and cooperative learning activities support standards-based skills and
strategies in reading, writing, discussion, interpretation, synthesis, and critical thinking to help students
complete end-of-course examinations, state assessments, and college entrance tests.
Each exercise is divided into three parts:
• Mark It Up! contains the excerpt and identification questions.
• Step It Up! explores comprehension and analysis questions.
• Get in the Game! fosters higher-level analysis with evaluative questions.
As you can see, the line of questioning intensifies with each part of the exercise to develop stronger
critical readers in your classroom. Additionally, each set of exercises begins with easier questions, easier
skills, and easier excerpts to slowly walk students through the analytical process; the initial exercises
prepare them for the more challenging exercises in the latter half of each chapter. By each chapter’s end,
your students should be running—no, not for the hills!—but toward insightful discourse!
Essential student handouts for practice and mastery, along with teacher notes, suggested responses for
each exercise, and an index of the literature used, are found at the end of the book.
Skills Mastered within the Exercises
The three parts of each exercise allow you to fully customize your standards-based teaching to your
students’ ability levels. Use them progressively, or teach at one or more levels to meet the needs of your
students.
Mark It Up! contains the prose or poetry excerpt. Students are asked to identify, classify, and assess
motifs, subjects, or subject phrases. As the name implies, an active-reading approach is encouraged,
promoting student annotation as they read and re-read. Graphic organizers are included to help
students classify and synthesize.
This section also includes:
• Pre-reading tips: Students practice annotating text and highlighting details.
• Directed skills: Students paraphrase and trace character action and motivation; characterize,
find, and identify motifs; list and classify supporting details; track shifts and developments; and
synthesize information to determine subject or subject phrase.
• Instructional tools: Teachers will find graphic organizers to help your initial full-class activities
of modeling active reading and re-reading; annotating and charting with graphic organizers;
classifying information; and honoring multiple and varied responses.
• Further enrichment: Students determine main idea and explicate for literary elements.
x Mastering Close REading
Step It Up! contains analysis questions, in which students are asked to interpret details to characterize,
reveal the function of literary elements, and compare and contrast. As the name implies, students should
take a second, third, or fourth look at the excerpt to find new analytical insights!
This section also includes:
• Pre-analyzing tips: Students paraphrase the excerpt and review collected data.
• Directed skills: Students interpret character; compare and contrast; infer and construct
meaning; analyze the excerpt; identify and determine the function of motif/subject in the excerpt;
synthesize information to determine subject or subject phrase; and synthesize interpretations to
begin the evaluation process.
• Instructional tools: Teachers will find methodical lines of questioning that assist in the practice
of: analyzing with your whole class or in small groups; differentiating between similar questions;
extending questions; illustrating how to strengthen analysis by modeling sample answers; and
strengthening the correlation between language and character.
• Further enrichment: Students analyze character and interpret figurative/symbolic elements.
Get in the Game! contains application and evaluative activities where students are asked to assert
their personal, literary, or societal statements in journals, debates, or discussions. We hope this section
inspires your students to actively engage with literature—to tackle the words on the page, leap to new
understandings, defeat their literary fears, and become champions of their own intellectual insights!
This section also includes:
• Pre-evaluation tips: Students review character and subject-related analysis.
• Directed skills: Students extend critical reading skills; evaluate and judge the excerpt and its
meaning; journal personal responses; connect to society; assert and justify responses; work
cooperatively; discuss and debate assertions; compare and contrast excerpts; and construct
thematic assertions.
• Instructional tools: Teachers utilize guided-class discussion to extend literature beyond the text
and into society to elicit stronger themes; illustrate a variety of thematic statements by modeling
sample answers; provide discussion techniques; and honor personal connections and varied
responses.
• Further enrichment: Students ascertain author’s purpose.
Some Instructional Notes
Who doesn’t love a one-stop resource that facilitates instruction for your struggling ninth graders as
well as your gifted twelfth graders? Regardless of your students’ varied grade levels and abilities, we have
found it wise to begin instruction by modeling the active-reading process with your students. Let them
see you mark up and annotate a text. Involve them as you track motifs throughout a poem or a novel.
Chart character development and growth together, and engage them in thought-provoking discussion as
you synthesize concepts and arrive at thematic conclusions. Students learn the most when they can first
experience and practice these new skills with you. You can differentiate the teaching of these exercises by
approaching them in the varied ways listed below. Since all students benefit from the natural progression
of these instructional techniques or settings, we recommend teaching each of the chapters in the
following order:
Introduction xi
Start with whole-class instruction. Begin each chapter by completing an exercise together. This
helps you immediately see the analytical strengths and deficits in each class. Read the literary excerpt
out loud using dramatic inflection. Identify and mark significant motifs as a class. Then, discuss each
question and write down important findings that relate to each question. For best results, model how to
synthesize the different findings into a unified response that addresses the complexities of each question.
Think-pair-share with cooperative learning. When you think your students can attempt an exercise
(or parts of an exercise) without your constant guidance, putting them in pairs is an effective way to
begin to gradually release the reins. After giving students time to draft responses to the exercise on
their own, pair them up (with someone of similar or differing ability) to discuss the excerpt and their
responses. For best results, the pair should blend their answers into one cohesive response. This gives
the pair a chance to practice the critical skill of synthesizing and merging different ideas. If time allows,
engage the class in a discussion so that each pair, or selected pairs, can share a significant finding.
Organize small groups for learning. Small groups can be organized by similar ability (which allows
you to choose the question that each group will answer) or mixed ability (where the group discusses
all of the questions). We’ve found that students will contribute to the group more readily if they have
carefully read the passage or poem first (and even begun to formulate their own responses). Ideally,
each group should also be synthesizing individual responses into one unified answer, which again gives
students the chance to practice blending different ideas and perspectives. Each group should be able to
share the results of their inquiry in a class discussion. It is crucial for students to feel the worth of their
individual voices in your classroom, so give them ample opportunities to discuss their findings. Then,
you can blend their varied ideas into a cohesive whole.
Have students practice individually. After students show a comfort level with the skills covered in a
chapter, they can attempt to complete an exercise on their own during class. After giving them ample
time to actively read, reflect, and respond to the questions, move to a class discussion of the excerpt. For
best results, culminate this activity by guiding the entire class to blend their varied answers into higherlevel observations and conclusions about the excerpt and the accompanying questions.
Assess students’ skills. This evaluative step will help you to assess your students’ mastery of different skills
covered in a chapter. A specific exercise could be assigned for homework, or it could take place as an in-class,
graded assignment. This step is most effective and informative after students have had sufficient practice
with the skill that you are evaluating (such as motif, subject, subject phrase, or theme). For best results, write
commentary on their completed exercise, and be sure to include specific praise and constructive criticism.
Also, it is always best to discuss the exercise once you hand back their graded assignment because students
will be eager to compare their responses to those of their peers. This practice will help them to broaden their
understanding of the excerpt in addition to clarifying the grade that they received.
Much like an individual, each class has a unique personality with certain quirks and strengths. The exercises
are designed to be modified to suit the specific needs of your class. For example, if your students are not
prepared for sophisticated analysis, only complete the “Mark It Up!” section together. Model how to use
the student handouts and graphic organizers to build students’ comprehension and interpretive skills. If
your class is not particularly vocal, revise the Get in the Game! prompts so students can individually journal
their evaluative responses as opposed to sharing their thoughts in a large-group setting. As you can see, the
options for modification and adaptation are plentiful and will allow you to reach all levels of students.
xii Mastering Close REading
Other Ways to Use This Resource
Connect to outside reading. Bridging the skills and assignments found in this book with your current
reading list can bring continuity to your curriculum and ease to your lesson planning. Instead of
assigning your students to simply read the first chapter of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, have
them actively read with their “Subject List” (see Student Handouts) in hand in order to comprise a
list of all the possible subjects in Twain’s first chapter. Ask your students to chart recurring motifs with
the graphic organizers found in this book. Students can keep the “Character Trait List” (see Student
Handouts) handy to track Huck’s character traits/emotions/feelings in the chapter. You could also
divide your class into small groups and provide each group with a specific motif to chart as they read
through the text, or ask your students to pull out an excerpt from the text to facilitate a class discussion
of Twain’s use of motifs, subjects, and themes.
You will save time planning lessons and rejoice in the assurance that your students are continually
practicing their learned skills! Furthermore, your students will appreciate showcasing their literary
prowess by applying their new skills to their outside reading—really!
Use as bell ringers. Imagine the sound of the bell ushering in waves of peace and tranquility, as students
settle in their seats, promptly addressing the daily motif/subject/ theme exercise in their journals or
daily logs. After your students have worked individually on the exercises, you can facilitate a quick class
discussion of one or more of the questions to determine your students’ level of skill.
Use excerpts for compare and contrast. To give your students practice with the skill of comparing
and contrasting two distinct excerpts, consider pulling out pairs of ready-made excerpts to examine
commonalities and differences in language, motif, character analysis, subject phrase, or theme. The
following excerpts pair well for compare and contrast:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
“Lake Isle of Innisfree” and “Stopping by Woods” (pages 33 and 35)
“Thanatopisis” and “Self-Dependence” (pages 97 and 95)
“A Dirge” and “The Raven” (pages 5 and 117)
“We Wear the Mask” and “The Minister’s Black Veil” (pages 19 and 15)
“Sonnet 130” and “She Walks in Beauty” (pages 121 and 24)
“Sympathy” and “Stanzas on Freedom” (pages 52 and 106)
“If We Must Die” and Les Miserables (pages 89 and 56)
“The Story of an Hour” and “Free” (pages 48 and 93)
“Hate” and “Righteous Wrath” (pages 22 and 113)
The Awakening and A Doll’s House (pages 23 and 90)
Use excerpts for explication practice. Consider explicating the excerpts in the exercises to further
your students’ skills with literary elements, such as diction, figurative language, syntax, and tone. Have
your students analyze the function and employment of the literary devices present in the excerpt and
interpret how each develops character, theme, or author’s purpose—a perfect adaptation of the book for
vertical-teaming Advanced Placement programs!
Use exercises for remediation purposes. It’s happened to all of us—a new student gets added to our
rosters in February! The excerpts and exercises can help you evaluate student ability, target specific skills,
or provide necessary extra assignments that allow new or struggling students to catch up. For remedial
Introduction xiii
classes, the exercises in this book can provide a strong literary foundation for your students. The short
excerpts and graphic organizers can help students focus and visualize their way to success.
Assign as homework. Reinforce the material you are already teaching by assigning specific exercises
to your students that correspond to the skills or works you are reading in your curriculum. Consider
starting an exercise in class to ensure that all students are prepared for success on their own, and then
assign the “Step It Up!” or “Get in the Game!” sections for homework. Reconvene as a full class the next
day to develop your students’ analytical and evaluative skills, measure student success, and authenticate
the assignment.
Use as plans for a substitute teacher. Few of us haven’t woken up to a tiny voice uttering, “I don’t feel
well.” Whether it’s your own inner voice or your child’s, you are going to need plans for a substitute
teacher. Fortunately, with Mastering Close Reading, you have your plans already made! You can rest with
ease knowing that your students are completing worthwhile activities in your absence—provided they
haven’t convinced the substitute that there is a field trip to the student parking lot today!
Let the journey begin!
xiv Mastering Close REading
Chapter
1
Understanding the Journey
from Motif to Theme
Defining Terms
Motif, subject, and theme are commonly used terms in our English classrooms; however, definitions can
vary. We’ve begun by defining the terms that you will meet in this resource. Student definitions of these
terms introduce Chapters Two through Four, and accompanying student resources are located in the
Student Handouts.
Motif
A motif is a recurring object, idea, structure, or image found in the details of a work. Often, an author
will use repetition or synonyms to elicit a particular motif. Several motifs may be used in a single work.
When looked at as a whole, motifs help to reveal the subject of a work and lead to understanding the
work’s theme.
To find motifs in a work, look for repeated or significant objects, ideas, or images. Some examples found
in Shakespeare’s Macbeth:
• Words: “blood,” “king,” “crown,” “dagger,” and “tyrant”
• Phrases: “fair is foul, and foul is fair;” “Out, damned spot!”
• Abstract ideas: betrayal, ambition, grief, insanity, and power
Motifs can also be found by examining character. An author can establish a pattern of character actions
and reactions to elicit a particular motif. To find motifs in a work, such as Macbeth, look for how the
character is portrayed and how others perceive the character by examining:
• Character actions: Macbeth murders several people (murder is a motif ).
• Character traits/emotions/feelings: Macbeth feels paranoid (paranoia is a motif ).
• Character motivation: Macbeth is driven by his ambition to be king and to be ruler forever
(ambition is a motif ).
To assist your students with the complex process of characterization, we have compiled a “Character
Trait List,” located in the Student Handouts.
1
Chapter : Understanding the Journey from Motif to Theme 1
Subject
A subject unifies a work’s motifs into a single word or phrase and is often considered a main topic or
main idea of a work. Sometimes, motifs can literally double as a subject in a poem or prose passage.
While literary pieces contain several subjects, it is important to note that each subject should be
supported by several motifs. You can find a comprehensive list of common literary subjects in the
Student Handouts.
For example, in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the motifs combine to create possible subjects, such as violence,
confusion, and guilt. Some motifs that double as the work’s subject are: betrayal, ambition, grief,
insanity, power, and paranoia.
Subject Phrase
A subject phrase is a phrase that describes the subject of an excerpt in order to further define the
subject’s role in the piece. Consider the subject of betrayal. How do we know if the excerpt expresses
betrayal’s power, the ramifications of betrayal, or justifiable betrayal? The subject phrase helps clarify this
for us.
For example, in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the list of subjects may include betrayal, ambition, grief, insanity,
violence, power, and paranoia. Several subject phrases that help clarify these subjects may include:
betrayal’s power, thwarted ambition, the shackles of grief, insanity’s solitude, oppressive violence, and the
journey to paranoia.
Generally, there are three easy ways to narrow the subject of an excerpt into a subject phrase. One way
to further narrow a subject is to combine two subjects from the “Subject List” handout (see the Student
Handouts). For example, betrayal and power are two separate subjects in Macbeth; however, these two
subjects can combine to generate a narrowed and specified subject phrase for the work: betrayal’s power.
Another way to further narrow a subject is to describe the subject with an adjective from the “Adjective
List” handout (see the Student Handouts). First, students consider how the subject is described in
the poem or passage. Next, they choose an adjective that further defines how the subject is being used
in the piece. To create a subject phrase, students place the adjective before the subject. For example, to
further clarify and define the role of ambition in Macbeth, an appropriate subject phrase may be thwarted
ambition.
Describing the subject with a noun phrase is yet another technique for formulating the subject phrase.
Again, students can choose a descriptive noun phrase (see the Student Handouts) that further defines
how the subject is portrayed in the excerpt. Then, they place the subject at the end of the noun phrase
to create a subject phrase. In Macbeth, if a student has chosen the subject of grief, he may formulate the
subject phrase, the shackles of grief, after reviewing his motifs.
You will find a resource entitled “How to Create a Subject Phrase” in the Student Handouts that
provides specific directions for your students on generating subject phrases.
2 Mastering Close REading
Theme
A theme is a declarative statement that asserts the role of a dominant subject in a work. A thematic
statement contains two critical components: first, a theme must uphold the values and principles
contained within a work’s motifs and subjects and, second, a thematic statement must apply these
textual insights to the outside world or humanity as a whole. Consequently, a theme makes an
enlightened observation about a subject. Each literary work or excerpt contains multiple themes for
the reader to unearth. You will find a resource in the Student Handouts entitled “How to Create a
Thematic Statement” that provides specific directions on generating themes.
In thematic statements, the subject phrase can be linked to an action verb; this allows the student to
reveal the role of the subject phrase in the piece as a whole. For example, in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the
subject phrase of thwarted ambition could encourage the following theme: Thwarted ambition leads to
one’s personal downfall rather than gain. Similarly, the subject phrase of the shackles of grief could lead to
the following theme: The shackles of grief impede one’s ability to engage in rational thought. To assist your
students in this process, we have included an “Active Verb List” in the Student Handouts.
Some of your students might be comfortable deviating from a subject phrase/active verb format and,
in turn, craft more sophisticated themes. For example, the subject phrase of insanity’s solitude could lead
to the following theme: The suffering caused by insanity’s solitude permanently damages the human psyche.
Using the subject phrase of the journey to paranoia, a student may generate the following theme: Guilt,
regret, and fear define one’s journey and downward spiral into the wrenching claws of paranoia. You will find
the resource “How to Create a Thematic Statement” in the Student Handouts to guide your students in
writing these advanced thematic statements.
Note how, in all thematic assertions, the character and the plot are not mentioned specifically but are instead
used to represent a larger concept that reveals a deeper truth about human behavior or human nature. Journey from Motif to Theme: Prose Sample
Each chapter of this book highlights and develops specific skills in detail for your students to become
proficient readers in the thematic process. We have modeled the identification and application of motifs,
subjects, subject phrases, and themes in the following prose excerpt from Somerset Maugham:
“Your mamma’s gone away. You won’t ever see her any more.” Philip did not know what she meant.
“Why not?”
“Your mamma’s in heaven.” [. . .]
Philip opened a large cupboard filled with dresses and, stepping in, took as many of them as
he could in his arms and buried his face in them. They smelt of the scent his mother used. Then he
pulled open the drawers, filled with his mother’s things, and looked at them: there were lavender
bags among the linen, and their scent was fresh and pleasant. The strangeness of the room left it,
and it seemed to him that his mother had just gone out for a walk. She would be in presently and
would come upstairs to have nursery tea with him. And he seemed to feel her kiss on his lips.
It was not true that he would never see her again. It was not true simply because it was
impossible. He climbed up on the bed and put his head on the pillow. He lay there quite still. ~W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage
1
Chapter : Understanding the Journey from Motif to Theme 3
The first step of the thematic process (covered extensively in Chapter Two and throughout the remaining
chapters) allows your students to engage in the critical steps of examining, identifying, and classifying
motifs in prose. Some examples of repeated or significant words, phrases, and images from the passage
are: “mamma,” “gone away,” “heaven,” “buried his face,” “mother,” “her kiss on his lips,” and “not true.” Several
abstract ideas from the passage are: “fresh and pleasant,” “strangeness,” truth, “never see her again,” death,
“impossible,” and possibilities. Your students will also examine motifs via character actions, character traits/
emotions/feelings, and character motivation. In the passage, the character questions why he won’t see his
mother again, “buries” his face in his mother’s clothes, smells “his mother’s things,” feels his mother’s “kiss on
his lips,” and lays “still” with his head on her “pillow.” The young character is grief-stricken, disillusioned, and
innocent to death’s reality. The child is motivated by his desire for his mother’s presence.
The next step of this analytical process (covered in Chapter Two and throughout the remaining chapters)
asks your students to use their inferential skills to determine the subject of an excerpt. Students will
examine their motifs in the passage to ascertain main ideas or topics for the excerpt as a whole. The
goal of a subject is to unify and merge the motifs into a word or idea that is emphasized throughout the
literary piece. Some examples in the Maugham passage of subjects revealed via repeated and significant
words or phrases are: death, loss, mother and son relationships, denial, truth, and innocence. Several
subjects gathered from analyzing the character in the passage are: doubt, grief, disillusionment, denial,
affection, and despair. Indeed, some motifs duly function as subjects, such as grief and disillusionment.
In Chapter Three, students will generate a subject phrase to further define and narrow the role of the subject
in the passage. For example, in the Maugham excerpt, possible subject phrases may include: inconsolable grief,
unexpected death, the effect of death, a son’s love for his mother, the intimate bond of parent and child relationships,
loss of innocence, the power of denial, the denial of truth, and the disillusionment of death’s reality.
The journey of the thematic process culminates in Chapter Four as students craft their own themes for
passages. Analyzing and synthesizing their motifs, subjects, and subject phrases, students will assert
thematic statements that showcase their close, critical-reading skills. For example, by synthesizing
motifs, subjects, and subject phrases from the Maugham excerpt, one can craft the following themes: A
parent’s unexpected death is an inexplicable event for a child; The effect of death kills childhood innocence; The
intimate bond between a parent and a child transcends death; Lost innocence impacts a child’s development;
The power of denial preserves a child’s youthful outlook; In denial of truth, a child never reconciles the loss of a
parental figure; and The disillusionment of death’s reality safeguards the innocent from pain.
Journey from Motif to Theme: Poetic Sample
Rough wind, that moanest loud
Grief too sad for song;
Wild wind, when sullen cloud
Knells all the night long;
Sad storm whose tears are vain,
Bare woods, whose branches strain,
Deep caves and dreary main,—
Wail, for the world’s wrong!
~“A Dirge” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
4 Mastering Close REading
The first step of the thematic process (covered extensively in Chapter Two and throughout the
remaining chapters) allows your students to engage in the critical steps of examining, identifying, and
classifying motifs in poetry. Some examples of repeated or significant words, phrases, and images from
Shelley’s poem “A Dirge” are: “Rough wind,” “moanest loud,” “wild wind,” “sullen cloud,” “knells,” “sad
storm,” “tears,” “bare woods,” “branches strain,” “caves,” “dreary main,” “wail,” “grief,” “world’s wrong,” despair,
and hopelessness. Your students will also examine motifs via speaker actions, speaker traits/emotions/
feelings, and speaker motivation. In the poem, the speaker “wails, for the world is wrong,” and he also
sees his grief mirrored in the natural world that surrounds him. The speaker is sad, depressed, hopeless,
and helpless. He clearly feels distraught and overwhelmed by loss. The speaker is motivated by his desire
to tangibly express his grief and sadness.
The next step of this analytical process (covered in Chapter Two and throughout the remaining
chapters) asks your students to use their inferential skills to determine the subject of an excerpt.
Students will examine their motifs in the poem to ascertain main ideas or topics for the excerpt as a
whole. The goal of a subject is to unify and merge the motifs into a word or idea that is emphasized
throughout the literary piece. Some examples of subjects revealed via repeated and significant words or
phrases in “A Dirge” are death and nature. Subjects gathered from analyzing the speaker in the poem are
pain and loss. Additionally, some motifs duly function as subjects, such as grief and despair.
In Chapter Three, students will generate a subject phrase to further define and narrow the role of the
subject in the poem. For example, in “A Dirge,” possible subject phrases may include: the impact of grief;
the isolating nature of grief; unrelenting pain; crippling despair; tragic loss; imprisoning despair; the inequity of
death; the ramifications of death; and the turbulence of nature.
The journey of the thematic process culminates in Chapter Four as students craft their own themes
for poems. Analyzing and synthesizing their motifs, subjects, and subject phrases, students will assert
thematic statements that showcase their close, critical-reading skills. For example, by synthesizing
motifs, subjects, and subject phrases from “A Dirge,” one can craft the following themes: The impact of
grief alters the way that one perceives the world; The isolating nature of grief results in feelings of despair and
hopelessness; Unrelenting pain terrorizes and shackles the human spirit; Crippling despair robs the world of
color and joy; Tragic loss serves as a catalyst for inward combustion; The imprisoning despair of hopelessness
transforms one’s current reality; The inequity of death creates a spiritual crisis within an individual; Despair,
dejection, and misery are among the multiple ramifications of death; and The turbulence of nature mirrors our
deepest emotional pain.
1
Chapter : Understanding the Journey from Motif to Theme 5
Chapter
2
Motif and Subject
Motif
A motif is a recurring object, idea, structure, or image found in literature. Usually, a literary work
contains many different motifs. When looked at as a whole, motifs help to reveal the subject of a work
and lead to understanding the work’s theme.
To find motifs in a piece of literature, look for repeated or significant words, synonyms, phrases, images,
or abstract ideas. Read the following excerpt from The Three Little Pigs:
When the second little pig saw the wolf coming, he ran inside his house and shut the door.
The wolf knocked on the door and said, “Little pig, little pig, let me come in.”
“No, no,” said the little pig. “By the hair of my chinny chin chin, I will not let you come in.”
“Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in,” said the wolf.
So he huffed and he puffed and he huffed and he puffed. The house of sticks fell down and
the wolf ate up the second little pig.
The next day the wolf walked further along the road. He came to the house of bricks which
the third little pig had built.
When the third little pig saw the wolf coming, he ran inside his house and shut the door.
The wolf knocked on the door and said, “Little pig, little pig, let me come in.”
“No, no,” said the little pig. “By the hair of my chinny chin chin, I will not let you come in.”
“Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in,” said the wolf.
So he huffed and he puffed and he huffed and he puffed. But the house of bricks did not fall
down.
The wolf was very angry, but he pretended not to be. He thought, “This is a clever little pig. If
I want to catch him I must pretend to be his friend.”
Now, carefully examine the language in the passage. You may have noticed repeated or significant words
and important phrases, images, or abstract ideas. With your findings, you could complete the following
motif chart:
6 Words/Phrases
“door”; “little pig, little pig, let me come in”; “no”; “chinny chin chin”; “huff”;
“puff”; “fell down”; “house”; “friend”; “angry”; “pretended”; and “clever”
Abstract Ideas
The wolf is hunting his prey.
Mastering Close REading
Motif can also be found by examining character. An author can establish a pattern of character actions
and reactions to reinforce a particular motif.
To find motifs in a work, such as The Three Little Pigs, look for how the characters are portrayed and
how others perceive the characters by examining character actions, character traits/emotions/feelings,
and character motivation. With your findings, you could complete the following motif chart.
Second Little Pig
Character Actions “saw the wolf,” “ran
inside,” “shut the door,”
and denied the wolf’s
entrance
Third Little Pig
Wolf
“saw the wolf,” “ran
inside,” “shut the door,”
and denied the wolf’s
entrance
“knocked on the door,”
“huffed and puffed,” “ate
up the second little pig,”
tried the same tactics for
the third pig, resolves to
trick the third pig
He feels panic, fear,
and threatened. He is
anxious and cautious,
but he is well prepared.
He feels angry and
hungry. He is determined,
forceful, perceptive, and
sly.
Character Traits/
Emotions/
Feelings
He feels panic, fear, and
threatened.
He is anxious and
cautious.
Character
Motivation
desires self-preservation, desires self-preservation, desires to hunt, outsmart,
survival, and safety
survival, and safety
and eat his prey
Look at your “Character Trait List” handout for more ideas!
Subject
A subject unifies a work’s motifs into a single word or phrase and is often considered a main topic or
main idea of a work. Sometimes, motifs can literally double as a subject in a poem or passage. All literary
pieces contain several subjects. It is important to note that each subject should be supported by several
of your motifs.
Significant/repeated words: Using the information you have gathered from your motif chart, you can
combine certain words or ideas to create possible subjects. For example, in The Three Little Pigs, the
repeated words, such as “door,” “huff,” “puff,” “house,” and “fell down,” can combine to create these possible
subjects: destruction, violence, strife, and opposition. Significant words in the passage, such as “clever”
and “friend,” suggest the following subjects: manipulation and betrayal.
Character/speaker analysis: Using the information you have gathered from your motif chart, you can
combine certain character traits to create possible subjects. Motifs revealed by examining character
from The Three Little Pigs’ motif chart, such as “ran inside,” fear, and anxious, can combine to create
the following subjects: insecurity, angst, and oppression. Other motifs, such as forceful and prey, can
combine to create subjects such as: abuse, assault, and death.
Motifs as subjects: Sometimes, motifs can double as an excerpt’s subject. In The Three Little Pigs, motifs
that double as the excerpt’s subject are survival, self-preservation, and determination.
Remember to use your “Subject List” handout to generate more topics!
2
Chapter : Motif and Subject 7
Exercise
1
Mark It Up!
Open the cover of the book in your hands,
bridge to unknown and wonderful lands.
Travel through countries of wisdom and fun,
nights full of darkness, days full of sun.
Turn each page full of wonder,
follow its road to up yonder
where mountain tops talk to the sky
whispering a wondering “why?”
Treasure chest of make-believe places,
meeting new and familiar faces.
Reach for a book on the shelf—
Discover the world, discover yourself.
~Margriet Ruurs, “Treasure Chest,” Virtual Maniac:
Silly and Serious Poems for Kids
1. The speaker uses a journey motif throughout the poem. Complete the chart finding words/phrases
and abstract ideas in the poem that support this motif.
Journey
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
Step It Up!
2. How does the speaker figuratively use the journey motif? Use support from the poem in your
response. What metaphorical journeys could the poem imply?
3. What is the speaker’s attitude in the poem? Use support from the poem in your response, and use
the “Character Trait List” for assistance.
Get in the Game!
Journal about one of your favorite books to read. Explain how you “discovered the world, discovered
yourself.”
8 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
2
Mark It Up!
[. . .] “Where is the count, my friend? Take me to him.”
Jacopo pointed to the horizon.
“Why! What do you mean?” Valentine asked. “Where is the count? Where is Haydee?”
“Look,” said Jacopo.
The two young people looked in the direction towards which the sailor was pointing and,
on the dark-blue line on the horizon that separated the sky from the Mediterranean, they saw a
white sail, as large as a gull’s wing.
“He is gone!” cried Morrel. “Gone! Farewell, my friend! My father!”
“Yes, he is gone,” Valentine muttered. “Farewell, my friend! Farewell, my sister!”
“Who knows if we shall ever see them again?” Morrel said, wiping away a tear.
“My dearest,” said Valentine, “has the count not just told us that all human wisdom was
contained in these two words—‘wait’ and ‘hope’?”
~Alexandre Dumas, Chapter 117, The Count of Monte Cristo
1. In this passage, Dumas uses a journey motif, which can double as a subject for the passage.
Complete the chart to track how Dumas uses the journey motif throughout the passage. Use the
“Character Trait List” for assistance.
Words/Phrases
Characters’ Actions
Characters’ Traits/
Emotions/ Feelings
Step It Up!
2. What is the literal journey that the count and Haydee embark upon?
3. How are the people on land going through a metaphorical journey?
Get in the Game!
In your opinion, which two words are the building blocks of human wisdom? Discuss your response
with a partner.
2
Chapter : Motif and Subject 9
Exercise
3
Mark It Up!
The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand;
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in. [. . .]
~Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach,” New Poems
1. Complete the chart to track how Arnold uses the sea motif throughout the poem.
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
Actions of the Sea
Step It Up!
2. Using support from your chart, determine how the speaker characterizes the sea in the beginning of
the poem. Use the “Character Trait List” for assistance.
3. How does the speaker’s depiction of the sea shift by the end of the poem? Use support from the
poem in your response.
Get in the Game!
Examine figurative language: What does the sea represent to the speaker? Journal about what kind of
meditative thoughts the ocean provokes in you.
10 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
4
Mark It Up!
Sherlock Holmes was transformed when he was hot upon such a scent as this. Men who had
only known the quiet thinker and logician of Baker Street would have failed to recognise him.
His face flushed and darkened. His brows were drawn into two hard black lines, while his eyes
shone out from beneath them with a steely glitter. His face was bent downward, his shoulders
bowed, his lips compressed, and the veins stood out like whipcord in his long, sinewy neck. His
nostrils seemed to dilate with a purely animal lust for the chase, and his mind was so absolutely
concentrated upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell unheeded upon his ears,
or, at the most, only provoked a quick, impatient snarl in reply. Swiftly and silently he made
his way along the track which ran through the meadows, and so by way of the woods to the
Boscombe Pool. It was damp, marshy ground, as is all that district, and there were marks of many
feet, both upon the path and amid the short grass which bounded it on either side. Sometimes
Holmes would hurry on, sometimes stop dead, and once he made quite a little detour into the
meadow. Lestrade and I walked behind him, the detective indifferent and contemptuous, while
I watched my friend with the interest which sprang from the conviction that every one of his
actions was directed towards a definite end.
~Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Boscombe Valley Mystery,”
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: Adventure IV
1. Complete the chart to track how Doyle uses a predator motif throughout the passage.
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
Step It Up!
2. Using your “Character Trait List,” find three character traits that describe Sherlock Holmes.
3. Why do you think Doyle uses this motif to characterize Detective Sherlock Holmes?
Get in the Game!
Using the “Character Trait List,” how would an objective observer characterize you? Support your
findings by writing two sentences about how others perceive you.
2
Chapter : Motif and Subject 11
Exercise
5
Mark It Up!
Is this a holy thing to see
In a rich and fruitful land,
Babes reduced to misery,
Fed with cold and usurous* hand?
*usurous: lending money at a high rate of interest
Is that trembling cry a song?
Can it be a song of joy?
And so many children poor?
It is a land of poverty!
And their sun does never shine,
And their fields are bleak and bare,
And their ways are filled with thorns:
It is eternal winter there.
For where‘er the sun does shine,
And where‘er the rain does fall,
Babes should never hunger there,
Nor poverty the mind appall.
~William Blake, “Holy Thursday,” Songs of Innocence and Experience
1. In this poem, the motif of poverty doubles as the poem’s subject. Complete the chart to track how
Blake uses the poverty motif throughout the poem.
Poverty
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
Step It Up!
2. In the second stanza, what does the speaker question? What do these questions reveal about his attitude?
3. How does the speaker use nature to contrast his ideas about wealth and poverty in the poem? Use
support from the poem in your response.
Get in the Game!
Connect to society: Do we have a moral obligation to help those who are stuck in an “eternal winter” of
despair, poverty, or injustice? Justify your response using an example from current society, and discuss
your findings in small groups.
12 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
6
Mark It Up!
Mr. Hooper, a gentlemanly person, of about thirty, though still a bachelor, was dressed with due
clerical neatness, as if a careful wife had starched his band, and brushed the weekly dust from his
Sunday‘s garb. There was but one thing remarkable in his appearance. Swathed about his forehead, and
hanging down over his face, so low as to be shaken by his breath, Mr. Hooper had on a black veil. [. . .]
Mr. Hooper had the reputation of a good preacher, but not an energetic one: he strove to win his
people heavenward by mild, persuasive influences, rather than to drive them thither by the thunders of the
Word. The sermon which he now delivered was marked by the same characteristics of style and manner as
the general series of his pulpit oratory. But there was something, either in the sentiment of the discourse
itself, or in the imagination of the auditors, which made it greatly the most powerful effort that they had
ever heard from their pastor‘s lips. It was tinged, rather more darkly than usual, with the gentle gloom of
Mr. Hooper‘s temperament. The subject had reference to secret sin, and those sad mysteries which we
hide from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our own consciousness, even forgetting
that the Omniscient can detect them. A subtle power was breathed into his words. Each member of the
congregation, the most innocent girl, and the man of hardened breast, felt as if the preacher had crept
upon them, behind his awful veil, and discovered their hoarded iniquity of deed or thought. Many spread
their clasped hands on their bosoms. There was nothing terrible in what Mr. Hooper said, at least, no
violence; and yet, with every tremor of his melancholy voice, the hearers quaked. An unsought pathos
came hand in hand with awe. So sensible were the audience of some unwonted attribute in their minister,
that they longed for a breath of wind to blow aside the veil, almost believing that a stranger‘s visage would
be discovered, though the form, gesture, and voice were those of Mr. Hooper.
~Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Twice-Told Tales
1. Complete the chart to track how Hawthorne uses a secrecy motif throughout the passage.
Secrecy
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
Step It Up!
2. How does secrecy physically, emotionally, and spiritually impact the congregation? Use support from
the excerpt in your response.
3. Track how the perception of the minister develops throughout the passage. Use support from the
passage and the “Character Trait List” for assistance.
Get in the Game!
What power does secrecy hold? Can we ever truly free ourselves from the fetters of secrecy? Discuss
your responses with a partner.
2
Chapter : Motif and Subject 13
Exercise
7
Mark It Up!
[. . .] What was after the universe?
Nothing. But was there anything round the universe to show where it stopped before the
nothing place began?
It could not be a wall; but there could be a thin thin line there all round everything. It was
very big to think about everything and everywhere. Only God could do that. He tried to think
what a big thought that must be; but he could only think of God. [. . .]
It pained him that he did not know well what politics meant and that he did not know where
the universe ended. He felt small and weak. When would he be like the fellows in poetry and
rhetoric? They had big voices and big boots and they studied trigonometry. That was very far
away. First came the vacation and then the next term and then vacation again and then again
another term and then again the vacation. It was like a train going in and out of tunnels and that
was like the noise of the boys eating in the refectory when you opened and closed the flaps of the
ears. Term, vacation; tunnel, out; noise, stop. How far away it was!
~James Joyce, Chapter 1, Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man
1. Joyce uses a lack-of-knowledge motif to establish the character’s youth. Complete the chart to track how
Joyce uses a lack-of-knowledge motif throughout the passage. Use the “Character Trait List” for assistance.
Lack of Knowledge
Words/Phrases
Character’s Actions
Character’s Traits/
Emotions/Feelings
Step It Up!
2. How does the lack-of-knowledge motif affect the main character’s perception of himself? Use
support from the passage in your response.
3. How does the character’s lack of knowledge influence how we, the readers, perceive the character?
How does knowledge motivate the character?
Get in the Game!
Analyze language: How does Joyce’s use of language effectively illustrate the youthfulness of his main
character? Discuss a time when your lack of knowledge made you feel “small and weak.” How did the
experience motivate you? Share your response with a small group.
14 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
8
Mark It Up!
In our house there are doors—
A front door,
A back door,
A door to the patio.
Doors that open to the light.
But there’s another door—
A door that moves on rusty hinges
To steps that sink through silence,
Past the whisper of broken promises,
Into the dust of forbidden memory.
In my house there are a lot of doors,
And among them
There is one door
I can never open again.
~Brod Bagert, “The Door Unopened,” Hormone Jungle:
Coming of Age in Middle School
1. The poet uses the recurring motif of a door in this poem. Complete the chart to track the different
words and images used to describe the doors in stanza one (the first part of the poem) versus stanza
two (the second part of the poem).
“Doors” in Stanza One
“Doors” in Stanza Two
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
Step It Up!
2. How is the primary door described in the second stanza different than the other doors in the poem?
3. How does the primary door in the second stanza help to characterize the speaker? Use your
“Character Trait List” for assistance.
Get in the Game!
Using support from the poem, discuss what you think is behind the speaker’s door that “can never [be]
open[ed] again?” Afterward, journal about how you would describe the doors in your house.
2
Chapter : Motif and Subject 15
Exercise
9
Mark It Up!
At two o’clock the Symphony Orchestra was to give a Wagner program, and I intended to take my
aunt; though, as I conversed with her I grew doubtful about her enjoyment of it[. . .]
When the musicians came out and took their places, she gave a little stir of anticipation and looked
with quickening interest down over the rail at that invariable grouping, perhaps the first wholly familiar
thing that had greeted her eye since she had left old Maggie and her weakling calf. I could feel how all
those details sank into her soul, for I had not forgotten how they had sunk into mine when. I came fresh
from plowing forever and forever between green aisles of corn, where, as in a treadmill, one might walk
from daybreak to dusk without perceiving a shadow of change. [. . .]
The first number was the Tannhauser overture. When the horns drew out the first strain of the
Pilgrim’s chorus my Aunt Georgiana clutched my coat sleeve. Then it was I first realized that for her
this broke a silence of thirty years; the inconceivable silence of the plains. With the battle between the
two motives, with the frenzy of the Venusberg theme and its ripping of strings, there came to me an
overwhelming sense of the waste and wear we are so powerless to combat; and I saw again the tall, naked
house on the prairie, black and grim as a wooden fortress; the black pond where I had learned to swim,
its margin pitted with sun-dried cattle tracks; the rain-gullied clay banks about the naked house, the four
dwarf ash seedlings where the dishcloths were always hung to dry before the kitchen door. The world
there was the flat world of the ancients; to the east, a cornfield that stretched to daybreak; to the west, a
corral that reached to sunset; between, the conquests of peace, dearer bought than those of war. [. . .]
Soon after the tenor began the “Prize Song,” I heard a quick drawn breath and turned to my aunt.
Her eyes were closed, but the tears were glistening on her cheeks, and I think, in a moment more, they
were in my eyes as well. It never really died, then—the soul that can suffer so excruciatingly and so
interminably; it withers to the outward eye only; like that strange moss which can lie on a dusty shelf
half a century and yet, if placed in water, grows green again.
~Willa Cather, “A Wagner Matinee”
1. Complete the chart to track how Cather uses both pastoral and musical motifs throughout the passage.
Pastoral Images
Musical Images
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
Step It Up!
2. How do the two motifs interrelate in the passage? Use support from the excerpt in your response.
3. How does the relationship between the narrator and her aunt develop as the music plays? What
does the narrator learn from her aunt?
Get in the Game!
Journal about music’s ability to evoke personal memories and strengthen relationships with others.
16 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
10
Mark It Up!
WE wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
~Paul Laurence Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask,”
Lyrics of Lowly Life
1. The poet juxtaposes, or contrasts, pleasure and pain motifs. Complete the chart to track how
Dunbar describes the appearances, causes, and effects of pleasure and of pain.
Pleasure
Pain
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
Step It Up!
2. The image of the mask is another recurring motif in the poem. How does it relate to the pleasure
and pain motifs Dunbar crafts?
3. What does the necessity for a mask suggest about the speakers’ attitude? About their situation in
their daily lives?
Get in the Game!
Journal about a time you had to wear a mask. What feelings did you hide and from whom? Why did you
feel it necessary to wear a mask? Afterward, brainstorm historical or current groups of people who have
to wear a metaphorical mask in society. Discuss your findings with a partner.
2
Chapter : Motif and Subject 17
Exercise
11
Mark It Up!
Friar
So smile the heavens upon this holy act
That afterhours with sorrow chide us not!
Romeo
Amen, amen! But come what sorrow can,
It cannot countervail the exchange of joy
That one short minute gives me in her sight.
Do thou but close our hands with holy words,
Then love-devouring death do what he dare—
It is enough I may but call her mine.
Friar
These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume. The sweetest honey
Is loathsome in his own deliciousness
And in the taste confounds the appetite.
Therefore love moderately: long love doth so;
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.
~William Shakespeare, Act 2, Scene 6, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
1. Shakespeare uses both positive and negative motifs to discuss many aspects of love in this excerpt. Complete
the chart to track how Shakespeare uses both positive and negative motifs throughout the passage.
Positive Images
Negative Images
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
Step It Up!
2. Why does Romeo feel that he can safely tempt sorrow and death? Use support from the excerpt in
your response.
3. According to the Friar, what happens to passionate love? Why does the Friar warn Romeo to “love
moderately?”
Get in the Game!
Formulate a critical response: How do we determine when love becomes a destructive force? Agree or
disagree with the Friar’s notion that loving moderately is the key to long-lasting love. Provide support
for your response.
18 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
12
Mark It Up!
While we were fearing it, it came—
But came with less of fear
Because that fearing it so long
Had almost made it fair —
There is a Fitting—a Dismay—
A Fitting—a Despair
‘Tis harder knowing it is Due
Than knowing it is Here.
~Emily Dickinson, “While we were fearing it,”
Third Series
1. The recurring, abstract image of fear in the poem can also double as the poem’s subject. Complete
the chart to track how Dickinson redefines fear in the first stanza (the first four lines of the poem).
Fear
Line One
Line Two
Line Three
Line Four
Words/Phrases
Step It Up!
2. What are the different denotations, or definitions, of fair? How can fear be fair?
3. How does the speaker feel as she awaits what she is fearing? Use evidence from the poem in your
response.
Get in the Game!
Examine the last two lines of the poem. Why is it harder to fear something coming than to actually
confront it once “it is Here?” Journal about a time when your fears besieged your rational thought.
2
Chapter : Motif and Subject 19
Exercise
13
Mark It Up!
watch
out
for
the
venom
of
its
first
bite.
~Tato Laviera, “Hate,” Mainstream Ethics
1. The title of the poem doubles as the poem’s subject: hate. List the words and actions that support
the subject.
Step It Up!
2. How does hate act as a predator in the poem? Use support from the poem in your response.
3. How is hate “venom[ous]” to an individual?
4. Why would the final stanza caution readers about the “first bite” of hate as opposed to its “bite” in
general?
Get in the Game!
When has the “venom” of hate governed our world? Is there an antidote to the “venom” of hate? Discuss
your responses with another student.
20 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
14
Mark It Up!
“You will take cold out there,” he said, irritably. “What folly is this? Why don’t you come in?”
“It isn’t cold; I have my shawl.”
“The mosquitoes will devour you.”
“There are no mosquitoes.”
She heard him moving about the room; every sound indicating impatience and irritation. Another time she
would have gone in at his request. She would, through habit, have yielded to his desire; not with any sense of
submission or obedience to his compelling wishes, but unthinkingly, as we walk, move, sit, stand, go through the
daily treadmill of the life which has been portioned out to us.
“Edna, dear, are you not coming in soon?” he asked again, this time fondly, with a note of entreaty.
“No; I am going to stay out here.”
“This is more than folly,” he blurted out. “I can’t permit you to stay out there all night. You must come in the
house instantly.”
With a writhing motion she settled herself more securely in the hammock. She perceived that her will had blazed
up, stubborn and resistant. She could not at that moment have done other than denied and resisted. She wondered if
her husband had ever spoken to her like that before, and if she had submitted to his command. Of course she had; she
remembered that she had. But she could not realize why or how she should have yielded, feeling as she then did.
“Léonce, go to bed,” she said. I mean to stay out here. I don’t wish to go in, and I don’t intend to. Don’t speak to
me like that again; I shall not answer you.”
~Kate Chopin, Chapter XI, The Awakening
1. A possible subject for this passage could be feminism. Complete the chart to track how Chopin
develops this subject throughout the passage. Use the “Character Trait List” for assistance.
Feminism
Edna’s Actions
Edna’s Traits/
Emotions/ Feelings
Step It Up!
2. Examine Léonce’s diction, or word choice. How does he speak to his wife? Use support from the
passage in your response.
3. According to the passage, how has Edna altered her reactions to Léonce’s requests?
4. What does the interchange between the married couple generally suggest about relationships on the
cusp of the twentieth century?
Get in the Game!
Justify thematic implications: What consequences occur when a person’s individual values are in conflict
with her society? Justify whether the consequences are worth personal freedoms. Debate your responses
with your peers.
2
Chapter : Motif and Subject 21
Exercise
15
Mark It Up!
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow’d to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
~Lord Byron, “She Walks in Beauty,”
The Complete Works of Lord Byron
1. A possible subject for the poem could be beauty. Complete the chart to track how Byron develops
this subject throughout the poem.
Beauty
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
Step It Up!
2. How does a nature motif help the speaker define this kind of beauty? Use support from the poem in
your response.
3. How does the poem progress from outer to inner beauty?
Get in the Game!
Hypothesize how well the speaker knows the beautiful girl in the poem. Justify your response with
support from the poem. Then, journal about a time when someone’s physical beauty influenced your
perception of his or her personality or character. Were you deceived by outer beauty?
22 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
16
Mark It Up!
“Describe it, Jane.”
“It seemed, sir, a woman, tall and large, with thick and dark hair hanging long down her back.
I know not what dress she had on: it was white and straight; but whether gown, sheet, or shroud, I
cannot tell.” [. . .]
“It drew aside the window-curtain and looked out; perhaps it saw dawn approaching, for, taking
the candle, it retreated to the door. Just at my bedside, the figure stopped: the fiery eyes glared upon
me—she thrust up her candle close to my face, and extinguished it under my eyes. I was aware her
lurid visage flamed over mine, and I lost consciousness: for the second time in my life—only the
second time—I became insensible from terror.”
“Who was with you when you revived?”
“No one, sir, but the broad day. I rose, bathed my head and face in water, drank a long draught;
felt that though enfeebled I was not ill, and determined that to none but you would I impart this
vision. Now, sir, tell me who and what that woman was?”
“The creature of an over-stimulated brain; that is certain. I must be careful of you, my treasure:
nerves like yours were not made for rough handling.”
“Sir, depend on it, my nerves were not in fault; the thing was real: the transaction actually took
place.”
~Charlotte Bronte, Chapter XXV, Jane Eyre
1. A possible subject for this passage could be real versus imaginary. Complete the chart to track how
Bronte develops this subject throughout the passage. Use the “Character Trait List” for assistance.
Jane
The Woman Jane Sees
Character’s Actions
Character’s Traits/
Emotions/Feelings
Step It Up!
2. What does the man believe to be the source of Jane’s vision?
3. How does Jane’s assessment of her experience differentiate her from most Victorian women? Find
the line in the passage that most clearly defines this attitude.
Get in the Game!
Connect to the subject: How can the line blur between what is real and what is imaginary? Journal
about a time when you experienced a conflict over the real versus the imaginary in your own life. What
did you learn from this experience?
2
Chapter : Motif and Subject 23
Exercise
17
Mark It Up!
Rough wind, that moanest loud
Grief too sad for song;
Wild wind, when sullen cloud
Knells all the night long;
Sad storm whose tears are vain,
Bare woods, whose branches strain,
Deep caves and dreary main,—
Wail, for the world’s wrong!
~Percy Bysshe Shelley, “A Dirge,”
The Triumph of Life
1. A possible subject for this poem could be despair. Complete the chart to track how Shelley develops
this subject throughout the poem.
Despair
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
Step It Up!
2. How do the actions of nature support the subject? Use support from the poem in your response.
3. How does the final line in the poem function as the emotional climax for the speaker?
Get in the Game!
Explore setting: How can a physical setting reinforce a specific mood? Journal about a time when you
sought refuge in a particular setting because the world felt “wrong.” How did this setting help you cope?
24 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
18
Mark It Up!
Marianne would have thought herself very inexcusable had she been able to sleep at all the first
night after parting from Willoughby[. . .] She was awake the whole night, and she wept the greatest
part of it. She got up with a headache, was unable to talk, and unwilling to take any nourishment;
giving pain every moment to her mother and sisters, and forbidding all attempt at consolation from
either. Her sensibility was potent enough!
When breakfast was over she walked out by herself, and wandered about the village of
Allenham, indulging the recollection of past enjoyment and crying over the present reverse for the
chief of the morning.
The evening passed off in the equal indulgence of feeling. She played over every favourite song
that she had been used to play to Willoughby, every air in which their voices had been oftenest
joined, and sat at the instrument gazing on every line of music that he had written out for her, till
her heart was so heavy that no farther sadness could be gained; and this nourishment of grief was
every day applied. She spent whole hours at the pianoforte alternately singing and crying; her voice
often totally suspended by her tears. In books too, as well as in music, she courted the misery which
a contrast between the past and present was certain of giving. She read nothing but what they had
been used to read together.
Such violence of affliction indeed could not be supported for ever; it sunk within a few days into
a calmer melancholy; but these employments, to which she daily recurred, her solitary walks and
silent meditations, still produced occasional effusions of sorrow as lively as ever.
~Jane Austen, Volume I, Chapter XVI, Sense and Sensibility
1. A possible subject for this passage could be the pain of love. Complete the chart to track how the
character of Marianne both physically and emotionally reacts to the pain of love throughout the passage.
Physical
Emotional
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
Step It Up!
2. Using your “Character Trait List,” find three traits that describe Marianne.
3. Explain what drives Marianne to act in this manner. What does Marianne ultimately wish for?
Get in the Game!
Analyze motifs: Determine how Austen depicts the stages of grieving in the passage. Then, discuss with
a partner how the pain of love impacts multiple areas of one’s life.
2
Chapter : Motif and Subject 25
Exercise
19
Mark It Up!
‘TIS the last rose of summer,
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred,
No rose-bud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh.
I’ll not leave thee, thou lone one!
To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go sleep thou with them.
Thus kindly I scatter
Thy leaves o’er the bed,
Where thy mates of the garden
Lie scentless and dead.
So soon may I follow,
When friendships decay,
And from Love’s shining circle
The gems drop away.
When true hearts lie wither’d,
And fond ones are flown,
Oh! who would inhabit
This bleak world alone?
~Thomas Moore, “‘Tis the Last Rose of Summer,”
The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore
1. A possible subject for this poem could be loneliness. Complete the chart to track how Moore
develops this subject throughout the poem.
Loneliness
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
26 Mastering Close REading
Step It Up!
2. Using support from the poem, discern how the speaker feels about loneliness.
3. Why does the speaker “kindly. . .scatter” the rose petals?
4. What are the speaker’s hopes for his own future?
Get in the Game!
Respond to the poem: Journal positive ways you combat loneliness. Then, use your journal response to
craft a reply to the speaker who asks, “Oh! who would inhabit / This bleak world alone?”
2
Chapter : Motif and Subject 27
Exercise
20
Mark It Up!
Helena
[. . .]O, teach me how you look, and with what art
You sway the motion of Demetrius’ heart.
Hermia
I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.
Helena
O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!
Hermia
I give him curses, yet he gives me love.
Helena
O that my prayers could such affection move!
Hermia
The more I hate, the more he follows me.
Helena
The more I love, the more he hateth me.
Hermia
His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.
Helena
None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine!
~William Shakespeare, Act I, Scene 1, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
1. A possible subject for the passage could be relationships. Complete the chart to track how Helena and
Hermia develop this subject throughout the dramatic verse. Use the “Character Trait List” for assistance.
Helena
Hermia
Character’s Actions
Character’s Traits/
Emotions/Feelings
Step It Up!
2. Contrast the ultimate motivation of Helena and Hermia.
3. Identify Helena’s attitude toward Hermia. Use support from the passage in your response.
4. What does this passage reveal about the nature of relationships?
Get in the Game!
What must exist for a relationship to thrive? Conversely, what destroys relationships?
Journal about a time when your actions either fortified or ruined a relationship.
28 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
21
Mark It Up!
Chingachgook became once more the object of the common attention. He had not yet spoken, and
something consolatory and instructive was expected from so renowned a chief on an occasion of such
interest. Conscious of the wishes of the people, the stern and self-restrained warrior raised his face, which
had latterly been buried in his robe, and looked about him with a steady eye. His firmly compressed and
expressive lips then severed, and for the first time during the long ceremonies his voice was distinctly audible.
“Why do my brothers mourn?” he said, regarding the dark race of dejected warriors by whom he was
environed; “why do my daughters weep? that a young man has gone to the happy hunting-grounds; that
a chief has filled his time with honor? He was good; he was dutiful; he was brave. Who can deny it? The
Manitou had need of such a warrior, and He has called him away. As for me, the son and the father of Uncas,
I am a blazed pine, in a clearing of the pale faces. My race has gone from the shores of the salt lake and the
hills of the Delawares. But who can say that the serpent of his tribe has forgotten his wisdom? I am alone—”
“No, no,” cried Hawkeye, who had been gazing with a yearning look at the rigid features of his
friend, with something like his own self-command, but whose philosophy could endure no longer; “no,
Sagamore, not alone. The gifts of our colors may be different, but God has so placed us as to journey in
the same path. I have no kin, and I may also say, like you, no people. He was your son, and a red-skin by
nature; and it may be that your blood was nearer—but, if ever I forget the lad who has so often fou’t at
my side in war, and slept at my side in peace, may He who made us all, whatever may be our color or our
gifts, forget me! The boy has left us for a time; but, Sagamore, you are not alone.”
~James Fenimore Cooper, Chapter 33, The Last of the Mohicans
1. Complete the chart to track the development of the character of Chingachgook. Use the “Character
Trait List” for assistance.
Chingachgook’s Actions
Chingachgook’s Traits/
Emotions/Feelings
Step It Up!
2. How does the loss of Uncas impact Chingachgook? His people?
3. What “philosophy” does Hawkeye impart to Chingachgook?
4. Consider the characters’ motivations in the passage and list three possible subjects for the passage.
Use the “Subject List” for assistance.
Get in the Game!
Determine what experiences unify the characters in the passage. Further explore how our shared
experiences dispel cultural differences. Journal about a time a shared experience has helped your
understanding of another.
2
Chapter : Motif and Subject 29
Exercise
22
Mark It Up!
ARE you the new person drawn toward me?
To begin with, take warning—I am surely far different from what you suppose;
Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal?
Do you think it so easy to have me become your lover?
Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloy’d satisfaction?
Do you think I am trusty and faithful?
Do you see no further than this façade—this smooth and tolerant manner of me?
Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man?
Have you no thought, O dreamer, that it may be all maya, illusion?
~Walt Whitman, “Are You the New Person Drawn Toward Me?,” Leaves of Grass
1. Complete the chart to track the development of the speaker. Use the “Character Trait List” for
assistance. Then, in a complete sentence, explain what motivates, or drives, the speaker to act in this
manner.
Speaker’s Actions
Speaker’s Traits/Emotions/
Feelings
Speaker’s Motivation
Step It Up!
2. What façade or illusion does the speaker present to the new person? Use support from the poem in
your response.
3. Consider the speaker’s motivations in the poem and list two possible subjects for the passage. Use
the “Subject List” for assistance.
Get in the Game!
Analyze language: Why does the speaker refer to the new person as a “dreamer”?
Connect to society: What are the social pressures that lead us to hiding our true identities? Discuss your
findings with a small group.
30 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
23
Mark It Up!
Suddenly the world was so quiet I could hear the grasshoppers clicking around in the yard.
A crow cawed just like it was any other day when I was in the garden or hanging out the wash.
I sat down on the porch beside my dead brother and listened to the birds and insects. A fly
walked across Bobby’s eyelids. I shooed it away. It came back, but I stayed right there and waved
my hand over his face every time it tried to land.
I looked at Bobby’s thin little body that had lost all its chubbiness while he was shut up in
that iron lung. I seen up close what polio can do to a person.
How was I going to explain this to my daddy? Somehow I knew if he was here, he would’ve
stopped it. But he put me in charge and I messed everything up.
I thought how Daddy told Bobby to play some every day and Bobby was doing his best to
listen to him. But I made him work till he dropped.
My tears started dripping onto Bobby’s face and running down his cheeks and into his ears.
I didn’t wipe them off because I knew he was cold and I couldn’t bear to feel the coldness. I just
wanted to remember him warm and snuggly.
~Joyce Moyer Hostetter, Chapter 12, Blue
1. Complete the chart to track the development of the narrator. Use the “Character Trait List” for
assistance.
Narrator’s Actions
Narrator’s Traits/Emotions/
Feelings
Step It Up!
2. How does the narrator respond to Bobby’s death? Use support from the passage in your response.
3. How has Bobby’s death also resulted in a “death” for the narrator?
4. Determine a subject for the passage based on your narrator motif chart. Use the “Subject List” for
assistance.
Get in the Game!
Journal about a time when you, like the narrator of this passage, wanted to go back in time in order to
alter your present reality. What would you have done differently?
2
Chapter : Motif and Subject 31
Exercise
24
Mark It Up!
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.
~William Butler Yeats, “Lake Isle of Innisfree,” The National Observer
1. Complete the chart to track the development of the speaker. Use the “Character Trait List” for
assistance. Then, in a complete sentence, explain what motivates the speaker to act in this manner.
Speaker’s Actions
Speaker’s Traits/
Emotions/Feelings
Speaker’s Motivation
Step It Up!
2. Once the speaker arrives at Innisfree, what forces begin to transform him? Use support from the
poem in your response.
3. How does the effect of Innisfree live on in the speaker?
4. Determine a subject for the passage. Use the “Subject List” for assistance.
Get in the Game!
How has technology made our lives both simpler and more complicated? What would be the benefits of
taking a respite from being constantly “plugged in”? Discuss your responses with a small group.
32 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
25
Mark It Up!
“Come over here, Helene, dear,” said Anna Pavlovna to the beautiful young princess who was
sitting some way off, the center of another group.
The princess smiled. She rose with the same unchanging smile with which she had first
entered the room—the smile of a perfectly beautiful woman. With a slight rustle of her white
dress trimmed with moss and ivy, with a gleam of white shoulders, glossy hair, and sparkling
diamonds, she passed between the men who made way for her, not looking at any of them
but smiling on all, as if graciously allowing each the privilege of admiring her beautiful figure
and shapely shoulders, back, and bosom—which in the fashion of those days were very much
exposed—and she seemed to bring the glamour of a ballroom with her as she moved toward
Anna Pavlovna. Helene was so lovely that not only did she not show any trace of coquetry, but
on the contrary she even appeared shy of her unquestionable and all too victorious beauty. She
seemed to wish, but to be unable, to diminish its effect.
~Leo Tolstoy, Book One, War and Peace
1. Complete the chart to track how Tolstoy uses similar words or phrases in the passage to develop
strong motifs. Then, determine a subject for the passage based on your motif chart. Use the “Subject
List” for assistance.
Words/Phrases
Subject
Step It Up!
2. How would you define Helene’s attitude toward the subject? Use support from the passage in your
response.
3. How do Helene’s actions in the passage contrast with her ultimate motivation?
Get in the Game!
Explore thematic implications: How does a person’s appearance influence the way that he or she is
perceived by others? What are the dangers of using appearance as a means to judge someone’s character?
2
Chapter : Motif and Subject 33
Exercise
26
Mark It Up!
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
~Robert Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” New Hampshire
1. Complete the chart to track Frost’s development of the speaker. Use the “Character Trait List” for
assistance. Then, in a complete sentence, explain what motivates the speaker to act in this manner.
Speaker’s Actions
Speaker’s Traits/Emotions/
Feelings
Speaker’s Motivation
Step It Up!
2. How does the speaker’s horse react to the speaker’s sudden detour? Use support from the poem in
your response.
3. How does the title represent a deeper longing in the speaker?
4. Determine a subject for the passage. Use the “Subject List” for assistance.
Get in the Game!
Compare and contrast: How does nature function for the speaker in this poem in comparison to the
speaker in Yeats’ “Lake Isle of Innisfree?”
34 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
27
Mark It Up!
Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps. I would look for hours at South
America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration. At that time
there were many blank spaces on the earth, and when I saw one that looked particularly inviting
on a map (but they all look that) I would put my finger on it and say, ‘When I grow up I will go
there.’ The North Pole was one of these places, I remember. Well, I haven’t been there yet, and
shall not try now. The glamour’s off. Other places were scattered about the hemispheres. I have
been in some of them, and . . . well, we won’t talk about that. But there was one yet—the biggest,
the most blank, so to speak—that I had a hankering after.
True, by this time it was not a blank space any more. It had got filled since my boyhood with
rivers and lakes and names. It had ceased to be a blank space of delightful mystery—a white
patch for a boy to dream gloriously over. It had become a place of darkness.
~Joseph Conrad, Part One, Heart of Darkness
1. Complete the chart to track how Conrad uses similar words or phrases in the passage to develop
strong motifs. Then, determine a subject for the passage based on your motif chart. Use the “Subject
List” for assistance.
Words/Phrases
Subject
Step It Up!
2. Highlight words that reveal the character’s attitude toward the subject throughout the passage.
3. Contrast the character’s attitude toward the subject in the first and second paragraph.
Get in the Game!
Characterize further: Consider how time and progress have transformed the character and his world.
Share your findings with your classmates.
2
Chapter : Motif and Subject 35
Exercise
28
Mark It Up!
TRUE! nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why WILL you say that I am
mad? The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. Above all was the sense of
hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How then am
I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily, how calmly, I can tell you the whole story.
It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain, but, once conceived, it haunted me day and
night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved the old man. He had never wronged me.
He had never given me insult. For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! One
of his eyes resembled that of a vulture—a pale blue eye with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me my
blood ran cold, and so by degrees, very gradually, I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and
thus rid myself of the eye for ever.
Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should have seen me.
You should have seen how wisely I proceeded—with what caution—with what foresight, with what
dissimulation, I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I
killed him. And every night about midnight I turned the latch of his door and opened it oh, so gently!
And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern all closed, closed so
that no light shone out, and then I thrust in my head. Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly
I thrust it in! I moved it slowly, very, very slowly, so that I might not disturb the old man’s sleep. It took
me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed.
Ha! would a madman have been so wise as this?
~Edgar Allen Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” The Pioneer
1. Complete the chart to track how Poe develops strong motifs in the passage. Then, determine a
subject for the passage based on your motif chart. Use the “Subject List” for assistance.
Words/Phrases
Narrator’s Actions
Subject
Step It Up!
2. How does the narrator characterize himself? Use the “Character Trait List” for assistance.
3. Why does the narrator speak with a persuasive sense of pride? Of what does he hope to convince?
Whom does he hope to convince?
Get in the Game!
Analyze language: Determine how the narrator’s language and thought process prove his irrationality.
Then, journal what qualifies an individual as a “madman.” Share your responses with a classmate.
36 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
29
Mark It Up!
I ask but one thing of you, only one,
That always you will be my dream of you;
That never shall I wake to find untrue
All this I have believed and rested on,
Forever vanished, like a vision gone
Out into the night. Alas, how few
There are who strike in us a chord we knew
Existed, but so seldom heard its tone
We tremble at the half-forgotten sound.
The world is full of rude awakenings
And heaven-born castles shattered to the ground,
Yet still our human longing vainly clings
To a belief in beauty through all wrongs.
O stay your hand, and leave my heart its songs!
~Amy Lowell, “To A Friend,” Dome of Many-Coloured Glass
1. List the possible subjects contained in the poem. Use your “Subject List” for assistance.
Step It Up!
2. Complete the speaker chart. Use your “Character Trait List” for assistance. Then, in a complete
sentence, explain what motivates the speaker to act in this manner.
Speaker’s Actions
Speaker’s Traits/Emotions/
Feelings
Speaker’s Motivation
Get in the Game!
Develop subject: Choose one of your subjects from “Mark It Up!” and determine how the speaker feels
about the subject. Afterward, work with a partner to hypothesize why the speaker could possibly feel
this way. Refer to specific lines from the poem in your responses.
2
Chapter : Motif and Subject 37
Exercise
30
Mark It Up!
“She is completely uncultivated,” Winterbourne went on. “But she is wonderfully pretty, and, in
short, she is very nice. To prove that I believe it, I am going to take her to the Chateau de Chillon.”
“You two are going off there together? I should say it proved just the contrary. How long had
you known her, may I ask, when this interesting project was formed? You haven’t been twentyfour hours in the house.”
“I have known her half an hour!” said Winterbourne, smiling.
“Dear me!” cried Mrs. Costello. “What a dreadful girl!”
Her nephew was silent for some moments. “You really think, then,” he began earnestly, and
with a desire for trustworthy information—“you really think that—” But he paused again.
“Think what, sir?” said his aunt.
“That she is the sort of young lady who expects a man, sooner or later, to carry her off?”
“I haven’t the least idea what such young ladies expect a man to do. But I really think that
you had better not meddle with little American girls that are uncultivated, as you call them. You
have lived too long out of the country. You will be sure to make some great mistake. You are too
innocent.”
“My dear aunt, I am not so innocent,” said Winterbourne, smiling and curling his mustache.
~Henry James, Part One, Chapter Two, Daisy Miller
1. List the possible subjects contained in the passage. Use your “Subject List” for assistance.
Step It Up!
2. Complete the character chart for Winterbourne. Use your “Character Trait List” for assistance.
Character’s Actions/
Intended Actions
Character’s Traits/Emotions/
Feelings
3. What are Winterbourne’s intentions concerning the American girl? How do his intentions influence
his decisions?
4. What is meant by the term “uncultivated” in the passage? Why does Mrs. Costello refer to the
American girl as “uncultivated” but not use the term to describe her own nephew?
Get in the Game!
Debate with your classmates whether society creates a double standard for males and females in terms
of what is considered appropriate dating etiquette.
38 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
31
Mark It Up!
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may go marry:
For having lost but once your prime
You may for ever tarry.
~Robert Herrick, “To the Virgins, to
Make Much of Time,” Hesperides
1. List the possible subjects contained in the poem. Use your “Subject List” for assistance.
Step It Up!
2. Choose one subject and chart the motifs that support your subject.
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
3. What do you think the author is expressing about this subject?
Get in the Game!
Discover thematic implications: Consider what lesson the poem provides. Share your responses with a
partner.
2
Chapter : Motif and Subject 39
Exercise
32
Mark It Up!
Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled
dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever can be got with least
thought or trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound. If left to himself,
he would have whistled life away in perfect contentment; but his wife kept continually dinning in
his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, and the ruin he was bringing on his family. Morning,
noon, and night, her tongue was incessantly going, and everything he said or did was sure to
produce a torrent of household eloquence. Rip had but one way of replying to all lectures of the
kind, and that, by frequent use, had grown into a habit. He shrugged his shoulders, shook his
head, cast up his eyes, but said nothing. This, however, always provoked a fresh volley from his
wife; so that he was fain to draw off his forces, and take to the outside of the house—the only
side which, in truth, belongs to a hen-pecked husband.
Rip’s sole domestic adherent was his dog Wolf, who was as much hen-pecked as his master;
for Dame Van Winkle regarded them as companions in idleness, and even looked upon Wolf
with an evil eye, as the cause of his master’s going so often astray. True it is, in all points of spirit
befitting an honorable dog, he was as courageous an animal as ever scoured the woods—but what
courage can withstand the ever-during and all-besetting terrors of a woman’s tongue? The moment
Wolf entered the house his crest fell, his tail drooped to the ground, or curled between his legs, he
sneaked about with a gallows air, casting many a sidelong glance at Dame Van Winkle, and at the
least flourish of a broom-stick or ladle, he would fly to the door with yelping precipitation.
Times grew worse and worse with Rip Van Winkle as years of matrimony rolled on; a tart
temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with
constant use.
~Washington Irving, “Rip Van Winkle,” The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
1. List the possible subjects contained in the passage. Use your “Subject List” for assistance.
Step It Up!
2. Contrast the characters of Rip Van Winkle and Dame Van Winkle. Use support from the passage in
your response.
3. How does Dame Van Winkle’s attitude impact Rip Van Winkle and his dog, Wolf?
Get in the Game!
Connect to subject and theme: How does Washington Irving use his characters to further develop one
of the subjects from your list? Furthermore, what did Irving hope to teach his audience regarding this
subject? Share your findings with your classmates.
40 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
33
Mark It Up!
Tell me not, Sweet, I am unkind
That from the nunnery
Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind,
To war and arms I fly.
True, a new mistress now I chase,
The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith embrace
A sword, a horse, a shield.
Yet this inconstancy* is such
As you too shall adore;
I could not love thee, Dear, so much,
Loved I not Honour more.
*inconstancy: infidelity
~Richard Lovelace, “To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars,” Lucasta
1. List the possible subjects contained in the poem. Use your “Subject List” for assistance.
Step It Up!
2. How does war function as a “mistress” for the speaker? Use support from the poem in your response.
3. Explain how the speaker uses his “inconstancy” to reveal an important truth to his lover.
Get in the Game!
Discover thematic implications: Choose a subject from your list. What did Lovelace hope to teach his
readers regarding this subject? Identify the line(s) from the poem that best highlight this lesson.
2
Chapter : Motif and Subject 41
Chapter
3
The Subject Phrase
Subject Phrase
A subject phrase is a group of words that describes, specifies, or narrows the subject of an excerpt. The
purpose of the subject phrase is to further define the subject’s role in a piece of literature.
For example, after reading the excerpt from The Three Little Pigs, you may have generated the following
list of subjects: destruction, violence, abuse, opposition, oppression, determination, survival, and
manipulation.
When the second little pig saw the wolf coming, he ran inside his house and shut the door.
The wolf knocked on the door and said, “Little pig, little pig, let me come in.”
“No, no,” said the little pig. “By the hair of my chinny chin chin, I will not let you come in.”
“Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in,” said the wolf.
So he huffed and he puffed and he huffed and he puffed. The house of sticks fell down and the
wolf ate up the second little pig.
The next day the wolf walked further along the road. He came to the house of bricks which the
third little pig had built.
When the third little pig saw the wolf coming, he ran inside his house and shut the door.
The wolf knocked on the door and said, “Little pig, little pig, let me come in.”
“No, no,” said the little pig. “By the hair of my chinny chin chin, I will not let you come in.”
“Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in,” said the wolf.
So he huffed and he puffed and he huffed and he puffed. But the house of bricks did not fall
down.
The wolf was very angry, but he pretended not to be. He thought, “This is a clever little pig. If I
want to catch him I must pretend to be his friend.”
Several subjects that help to clarify the role of these subjects in the passage may include: destructive
violence, abusive opposition, crippling oppression, cunning determination, the desire for survival, and
the danger of manipulation.
Generally, there are three easy ways to narrow the subject of an excerpt into a subject phrase: combining
subjects, adding an adjective, or making a noun phrase.
Use your “How to Create a Subject Phrase” handout to assist you in
making an awesome subject phrase!
42 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
34
Mark It Up!
The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.
To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.
Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.
Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:
Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.
So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.
And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl’s.
~A.E. Housman, “To an Athlete Dying Young,”
A Shropshire Lad
1. A possible subject for the poem could be death. One way to further narrow the subject of death in
the poem is to combine two subjects from the “Subject List” handout. This specified subject is also
known as a subject phrase. A possible subject phrase for this poem could be dying young. Chart
motifs in the poem that help to determine death and youth as two key subjects in the subject phrase.
Death
Youth
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
3
Chapter : The Subject Phrase 43
Step It Up!
2. Track the transformation of the “smart lad,” or the athlete, in each stanza.
3. How does the speaker’s attitude toward the lad change in each stanza?
Get in the Game!
What wisdom about dying young does the speaker impart? To whom does he impart this message?
44 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
35
Mark It Up!
AFTER the fierce midsummer all ablaze
Has burned itself to ashes, and expires
In the intensity of its own fires,
There come the mellow, mild, St. Martin days
Crowned with the calm of peace, but sad with haze.
So after Love has led us, till he tires
Of his own throes, and torments, and desires,
Comes large-eyed friendship: with a restful gaze,
He beckons us to follow, and across
Cool verdant vales we wander free from care.
Is it a touch of frost lies in the air?
Why are we haunted with a sense of loss?
We do not wish the pain back, or the heat;
And yet, and yet, these days are incomplete.
~Ella Wheeler Wilcox, “Friendship after Love,” Poems of Passion
1. A possible subject for the poem could be love. One way to further narrow the subject of love in the
poem is to describe the subject with an adjective from the “Adjective List” handout. This specified
subject is also known as a subject phrase. A possible subject phrase for this poem could be dwindling
love. Chart motifs in the poem that help to determine dwindling love as a subject phrase.
Dwindling Love
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
Step It Up!
2. Use support from the poem to demonstrate how love began and ended for the speaker in the poem.
3. What are the effects of personifying friendship and love in the poem?
Get in the Game!
Discover thematic inferences: What understanding about love, as it turns to friendship, does the speaker
regretfully impart? Debate if friendship can fulfill individuals after love.
3
Chapter : The Subject Phrase 45
Exercise
36
Mark It Up!
She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death;
the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw
beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely.
And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.
There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There
would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women
believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a
cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of
illumination.
And yet she had loved him—sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could
love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she
suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!
“Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering.
~Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour,” Vogue
1. A possible subject for the passage could be freedom. One way to further narrow the subject of
freedom in the passage is to describe the subject with an adjective from the “Adjective List” handout.
This specified subject is also known as a subject phrase. A possible subject phrase for this passage
could be absolute freedom. Chart motifs in the passage that help to determine absolute freedom as a
subject phrase.
Absolute Freedom
Words/Phrases
Character’s Actions
Character’s Traits/
Emotions/ Feelings
Step It Up!
2. How does the character define absolute freedom in the passage?
3. How is the character’s frame of mind and attitude affected by this idea of absolute freedom?
Get in the Game!
Why does the character value her freedom so intensely? How is an individual’s self-assertion bound by
his or her relationships? By societal standards? Discuss your findings in small groups.
46 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
37
Mark It Up!
Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass,—
The finger-points look through like rosy blooms:
Your eyes smile peace. The pasture gleams and glooms
‘Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass.
All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,
Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge
Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge.
‘Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass.
Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky: —
So this wing’d hour is dropt to us from above.
Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower,
This close-companioned inarticulate hour
When twofold silence was the song of love.
~Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Silent Noon,” Ballads and Sonnets
1. A possible subject for the poem could be silence. One way to further narrow the subject of silence
in the poem is to describe the subject with a noun phrase from the “Noun Phrase” handout. This
specified subject is also known as a subject phrase. A possible subject phrase for this poem could be
the beauty of silence. Chart motifs in the poem that help to determine beauty and silence as the two
key ideas for the subject phrase.
Beauty
Silence
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
Step It Up!
2. How does nature evoke an emotional response within the speaker? Use support from the poem in
your answer.
3. How does the beauty of silence inspire the speaker in this poem?
Get in the Game!
Assess setting: How does a physical setting conjure strong emotions in us?
With a partner, justify whether “twofold silence” is indeed the “song of love.”
3
Chapter : The Subject Phrase 47
Exercise
38
Mark It Up!
“[. . .] I cannot express it; but surely you and everybody have a notion that there is or should
be an existence of yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation, if I were entirely
contained here? My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff ’s miseries, and I watched
and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and
he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the
universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it.—My love for Linton
is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees.
My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but
necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He’s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more
than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. [. . .]”—Catherine Earnshaw
~Emily Bronte, Chapter Nine, Wuthering Heights
1. A possible subject for the passage could be love. One way to further narrow the subject of love in
the passage is to describe the subject with a noun phrase from the “Noun Phrase” handout. This
specified subject is also known as a subject phrase. A possible subject phrase for this passage could
be the transcending power of love. List the many ways in which the speaker, Catherine, describes her
intense love for Heathcliff.
Catherine’s Intense Love for Heathcliff
Step It Up!
2. Examining your list in “Mark It Up!,” how is Catherine’s intense love for Heathcliff not defined by
time or her physical self? How is Catherine’s love transcendent?
3. How does Catherine use a nature motif to effectively contrast her love for Heathcliff from her love
for Linton?
4. Why is this motif particularly poignant for Catherine’s message?
Get in the Game!
Analyze character: Using evidence from the passage, justify whether Catherine is in a healthy
relationship with Heathcliff. Consider how an individual’s soul is altered by the love of another.
48 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
39
Mark It Up!
And all the time the dog ran with him, at his heels. When he fell down a second time, it curled
its tail over its forefeet and sat in front of him facing him curiously eager and intent. The warmth
and security of the animal angered him, and he cursed it till it flattened down its ears appeasingly.
This time the shivering came more quickly upon the man. He was losing in his battle with the
frost. It was creeping into his body from all sides. The thought of it drove him on, but he ran no
more than a hundred feet, when he staggered and pitched headlong. It was his last panic. When
he had recovered his breath and control, he sat up and entertained in his mind the conception
of meeting death with dignity. However, the conception did not come to him in such terms. His
idea of it was that he had been making a fool of himself, running around like a chicken with its
head cut off—such was the simile that occurred to him. Well, he was bound to freeze anyway, and
he might as well take it decently. With this new-found peace of mind came the first glimmerings
of drowsiness. A good idea, he thought, to sleep off to death. It was like taking an anesthetic.
Freezing was not so bad as people thought. There were lots worse ways to die.
~Jack London, “To Build a Fire,” The Century Magazine
1. List the possible subjects contained in the passage. Then, complete the character motif chart to track
how London develops the main character in the passage.
Possible Subjects
Character’s Actions
Character’s Traits/Emotions/
Feelings
Step It Up!
2. Using the information from your character chart, identify the motivating goal of the narrator in the
passage.
3. Choose one subject to create a narrowed subject phrase for the passage. Attempt to use your subject
in a noun phrase, place an adjective before your subject, or combine two subjects together to better
define how the subject functions in the passage. Refer to the “How to Create a Subject Phrase”
handout for assistance.
Get in the Game!
Analyze character: Using evidence from the passage, justify whether the narrator is victorious in the
situation. Debate your findings with your classmates.
3
Chapter : The Subject Phrase 49
Exercise
40
Mark It Up!
I KNOW what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals—
I know what the caged bird feels!
I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting—
I know why he beats his wing!
I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings—
I know why the caged bird sings!
~Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Sympathy,”
Lyrics of the Hearthside
1. List the possible subjects contained in the poem. Then, complete the character motif chart to track
how Dunbar develops the caged bird in the poem.
Possible Subjects
Caged Bird’s Actions
Caged Bird’s Traits/Emotions/
Feelings
50 Mastering Close REading
Step It Up!
2. According to the speaker, what motivates the caged bird to sing? Use support from the poem in your
response.
3. The speaker does not explicitly state his own experiences to reveal why or how he sympathizes
with the caged bird. Track the bird’s experiences in each stanza and determine how they may be
figuratively shared by the speaker. Why does the speaker choose to compare himself to a caged bird?
4. Choose one subject to create a narrowed subject phrase for the poem. Attempt to use your subject
in a noun phrase, place an adjective before your subject, or combine two subjects together to better
define how the subject functions in the poem. Refer to the “How to Create a Subject Phrase”
handout for assistance.
Get in the Game!
Interpret figurative language: Brainstorm how the caged bird can become a metaphor or a symbol for
different groups or specific experiences in society. Share your findings with your classmates.
3
Chapter : The Subject Phrase 51
Exercise
41
Mark It Up!
When I found that I was a prisoner a sort of wild feeling came over me. I rushed up and down
the stairs, trying every door and peering out of every window I could find, but after a little the
conviction of my helplessness overpowered all other feelings. When I look back after a few
hours I think I must have been mad for the time, for I behaved much as a rat does in a trap.
When, however, the conviction had come to me that I was helpless I sat down quietly, as quietly
as I have ever done anything in my life, and began to think over what was best to be done. I am
thinking still, and as yet have come to no definite conclusion. Of one thing only am I certain.
That it is no use making my ideas known to the Count. He knows well that I am imprisoned,
and as he has done it himself, and has doubtless his own motives for it, he would only deceive
me if I trusted him fully with the facts. So far as I can see, my only plan will be to keep my
knowledge and my fears to myself, and my eyes open. I am, I know, either being deceived, like a
baby, by my own fears, or else I am in desperate straits, and if the latter be so, I need, and shall
need, all my brains to get through.
~Bram Stoker, Chapter III, Dracula
1. List the possible subjects contained in the passage. Complete the character motif chart to track how
Stoker develops the narrator in the passage.
Possible Subjects
Narrator’s Actions
Narrator’s Traits/Emotions/Feelings
Step It Up!
2. Using the information from your character chart, identify the motivating goal of the narrator in the
passage.
3. Choose one subject to create a narrowed subject phrase for the passage. Attempt to use your subject
in a noun phrase, place an adjective before your subject, or combine two subjects together to better
define how the subject functions in the passage. Refer to the “How to Create a Subject Phrase”
handout for assistance.
Get in the Game!
Predict using language: Using evidence from the passage, determine if the narrator will fall prey to his
predator.
52 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
42
Mark It Up!
Someone was before me at my water-trough,
And I, like a second comer, waiting.
He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do,
And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do,
And flickered his two-forked tongue from his lips, and mused a moment,
And stooped and drank a little more,
Being earth-brown, earth-golden from the burning bowels of the earth
On the day of Sicilian July, with Etna smoking.
The voice of my education said to me
He must be killed,
For in Sicily the black, black snakes are innocent, the gold are venomous.
And voices in me said, If you were a man
You would take a stick and break him now, and finish him off.
But must I confess how I liked him,
How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough
And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless,
Into the burning bowels of this earth?
Was it cowardice, that I dared not kill him?
Was it perversity, that I longed to talk to him?
Was it humility, to feel so honoured?
I felt so honoured.
~D. H. Lawrence, “Snake,” Dial
1. List the possible subjects contained in the poem. Then, complete the character motif chart to track
how Lawrence develops the speaker in the poem.
Possible Subjects
Speaker’s Actions
Speaker’s Traits/Emotions/Feelings
Step It Up!
2. How does the speaker’s attitude toward the snake shift throughout the poem?
3. How does the snake’s visit impact the speaker’s perception of nature?
4. Choose one subject to create a subject phrase for the poem. Refer to the “How to Create a Subject
Phrase” handout for assistance.
Get in the Game!
Discover thematic inferences: What does the speaker learn about the value of one’s inner voice?
3
Chapter : The Subject Phrase 53
Exercise
43
Mark It Up!
Citizens, do you picture the future to yourselves? The streets of cities inundated with light, green
branches on the thresholds, nations sisters, men just, old men blessing children, the past loving
the present, thinkers entirely at liberty, believers on terms of full equality, for religion heaven,
God the direct priest, human conscience become an altar, no more hatreds, the fraternity of the
workshop and the school, for sole penalty and recompense fame, work for all, right for all, peace
over all, no more bloodshed, no more wars, happy mothers! To conquer matter is the first step;
to realize the ideal is the second.
~Victor Hugo, Chapter V, Les Miserables
1. List three possible subjects contained in the passage.
Step It Up!
2. Craft two possible subject phrases for the passage. Make one a noun phrase, and make one an
adjective phrase. Refer to your “How to Create a Subject Phrase” handout for assistance. Then, using
textual support from the passage, fill in the chart for one of your subject phrases.
Narrowed
Subject Phrases
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
Get in the Game!
What are the ideals that should constitute a Utopian society? Compare your findings with your peers.
54 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
44
Mark It Up!
I by the lapping of my household fire,
You in the trenches, starved and stiff for cold,
You by fatigue in few days grey and old,
I with my strength no needs, no calls require:
I wrapt in all the peace of heaven entire,
You with Hell’s powers of darkness fold on fold,
You lacking all that life most dear can hold,
And I with all my utmost heart’s desire.
But God shall strike the balance: I have had
My good in this my lifetime—all and more,
Have selfish sucked advantage from your strife,
While you, brave heroes, on that further shore
Shall find all good has equalised all bad;
Death may be mine—you win eternal life.
~H.D. Rawnsley, “A Contrast,” Lest We Forget
1. List the possible subjects contained in the poem.
2. The poem contrasts the speaker and the “heroes.” Complete the motif chart to illustrate the contrast.
Speaker
“Heroes”
Actions
Traits/Emotions/Feelings
Step It Up!
3. Using the information from your motif chart, identify the attitude of the speaker. How is this
attitude impacted by the heroes’ actions and feelings?
4. Choose one subject, and create a subject phrase to further define or clarify your chosen subject’s role
in the poem. Refer to the “How to Create a Subject Phrase” handout for assistance.
Get in the Game!
Using evidence from the sonnet, determine what constitutes a hero. Share your definition with a small
group.
3
Chapter : The Subject Phrase 55
Exercise
45
Mark It Up!
It was a rimy morning, and very damp. I had seen the damp lying on the outside of my little
window, as if some goblin had been crying there all night, and using the window for a pockethandkerchief. Now, I saw the damp lying on the bare hedges and spare grass, like a coarser sort
of spiders’ webs; hanging itself from twig to twig and blade to blade. On every rail and gate, wet
lay clammy, and the marsh mist was so thick, that the wooden finger on the post directing people
to our village—a direction which they never accepted, for they never came there—was invisible
to me until I was quite close under it. Then, as I looked up at it, while it dripped, it seemed to
my oppressed conscience like a phantom devoting me to the Hulks.
The mist was heavier yet when I got out upon the marshes, so that instead of my running
at everything, everything seemed to run at me. This was very disagreeable to a guilty mind. The
gates and dikes and banks came bursting at me through the mist, as if they cried as plainly as
could be, “A boy with Somebody’s else’s pork pie! Stop him!” The cattle came upon me with like
suddenness, staring out of their eyes, and steaming out of their nostrils, “Halloa, young thief!”
One black ox, with a white cravat on,—who even had to my awakened conscience something
of a clerical air,—fixed me so obstinately with his eyes, and moved his blunt head round in such
an accusatory manner as I moved round, that I blubbered out to him, “I couldn’t help it, sir! It
wasn’t for myself I took it!” Upon which he put down his head, blew a cloud of smoke out of his
nose, and vanished with a kick-up of his hind-legs and a flourish of his tail.
~Charles Dickens, Chapter 3, Great Expectations
1. List the possible subjects contained in the passage. Then, choose one subject and identify the words,
phrases, and character actions that support your chosen subject.
Step It Up!
2. In the first paragraph, how does the imagery used to describe the setting reveal the narrator’s state of
mind?
3. Construct a subject phrase to further define or clarify your chosen subject’s role in the passage. Refer
to the “How to Create a Subject Phrase” handout for assistance.
Get in the Game!
Discover thematic implications: Looking closely at the passage, determine how our conscience can
influence the way that we perceive the world around us. Refer to specific lines from the passage as you
discuss your findings with a small group of students.
56 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
46
Mark It Up!
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
“Good-morning,” and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich—yes, richer than a king,
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
~Edwin Arlington Robinson, “Richard Cory,”
Collected Poems
1. List the possible subjects contained in the poem. Then, choose one subject and identify the words,
phrases, and actions from the speakers/Richard Cory that support your chosen subject.
Step It Up!
2. Use support from the poem and the “Character Trait List” to reveal how the speakers perceive
Richard Cory.
3. Contrast the speakers and Richard Cory. Use support from the poem in your response.
4. Construct a narrowed subject phrase to further define or clarify your chosen subject’s role in the
poem. Refer to the “How to Create a Narrowed Subject Phrase” handout for assistance.
Get in the Game!
Analyze tone with a partner: What is the speakers’ tone in the last stanza? Hypothesize why Robinson
chose this tone to relay the events in this last stanza. How does Cory’s death impact the speakers?
3
Chapter : The Subject Phrase 57
Exercise
47
Mark It Up!
Mrs. Morel was alone, but she was used to it. Her son and her little girl slept upstairs; so, it
seemed, her home was there behind her, fixed and stable. But she felt wretched with the coming
child. The world seemed a dreary place, where nothing else would happen for her—at least until
William grew up. But for herself, nothing but this dreary endurance—till the children grew up.
And the children! She could not afford to have this third. She did not want it. The father was
serving beer in a public house, swilling himself drunk. She despised him, and was tied to him.
This coming child was too much for her. If it were not for William and Annie, she was sick of it,
the struggle with poverty and ugliness and meanness.
She went into the front garden, feeling too heavy to take herself out, yet unable to stay
indoors. The heat suffocated her. And looking ahead, the prospect of her life made her feel as if
she were buried alive.
~D.H. Lawrence, Chapter 1, Sons and Lovers
1. List the possible subjects contained in the passage. Then, choose one subject and identify the words,
phrases, and character actions that support your chosen subject.
Step It Up!
2. What is the effect of your chosen subject on the character?
3. Construct a narrowed subject phrase to further define or clarify your chosen subject’s role in the
passage. Refer to the “How to Create a Narrowed Subject Phrase” handout for assistance.
Get in the Game!
Connect character with theme: Closely examine the main character’s actions, traits, emotions, attitude,
and situation in the passage. Using support from the excerpt, judge whether Mrs. Morel is a victim of
outside circumstances or the determiner of her own fate.
Discover thematic inferences: Looking closely at the passage, discuss with a partner what the excerpt
suggests about women’s roles. Refer to specific lines from the passage as you discuss.
58 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
48
Mark It Up!
My doll Janie has no waist
and her body is like a tub with feet on it.
Sometimes I beat her
but I always kiss her afterwards.
When I have kissed all the paint off her body
I shall tie a ribbon about it
so she shan’t look shabby.
But it must be blue—
it mustn’t be pink—
pink shows the dirt on her face
that won’t wash off.
~Lola Ridge, “Betty,” Sun-Up and Other Poems
1. List the possible subjects contained in the poem. Then, choose one subject and identify the words,
phrases, and speaker’s actions that support your chosen subject.
Step It Up!
2. Track how the speaker cares for her doll.
3. Hypothesize what motivates the young speaker to care for Janie in this manner. Use support from
the poem in your response.
4. Construct a narrowed subject phrase to further define or clarify your chosen subject’s role in the
poem. Refer to the “How to Create a Narrowed Subject Phrase” handout for assistance.
Get in the Game!
Connect language to theme: Closely re-read the last four lines of the poem. How can these lines be
read metaphorically? What lessons has the young speaker learned about women and their complex
relationships?
3
Chapter : The Subject Phrase 59
Exercise
49
Mark It Up!
But Hetty seemed to have made up her mind that something was wanting, for she got up and
reached an old black lace scarf out of the linen-press, and a pair of large ear-rings out of the
sacred drawer from which she had taken her candles. It was an old old scarf, full of rents, but it
would make a becoming border round her shoulders, and set off the whiteness of her upper arm.
And she would take out the little ear-rings she had in her ears—oh, how her aunt had scolded
her for having her ears bored!—and put in those large ones. They were but coloured glass and
gilding, but if you didn’t know what they were made of, they looked just as well as what the
ladies wore. And so she sat down again, with the large ear-rings in her ears, and the black lace
scarf adjusted round her shoulders. She looked down at her arms: no arms could be prettier
down to a little way below the elbow—they were white and plump, and dimpled to match her
cheeks; but towards the wrist, she thought with vexation that they were coarsened by buttermaking and other work that ladies never did.
~George Eliot, Adam Bede
1. List the possible subjects contained in the passage.
Step It Up!
2. How are the items that Hetty uses to adorn herself described? Use support from the passage in your
response.
3. What motivates Hetty to beautify herself?
4. Construct a narrowed subject phrase to further define or clarify your chosen subject’s role in the
passage. Use the “How to Create a Subject Phrase” handout for assistance.
Get in the Game!
Connect to character and society: What truly vexes Hetty about her life? How is the construction of our
identity influenced by our economic status? Discuss your response with a partner.
60 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
50
Mark It Up!
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
“Stay where you are until our backs are turned!”
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
“Why do they make good neighbours? Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
~Robert Frost, “Mending Wall,” North of Boston
1. List the possible subjects contained in the poem.
Step It Up!
2. Identify the speaker’s attitude toward “fences.”
3. Identify and contrast the neighbor’s attitude toward “fences” from the speaker’s.
4. Construct a narrowed subject phrase to further define or clarify your chosen subject’s role in the
poem. Use the “How to Create a Narrowed Subject Phrase” handout for assistance.
Get in the Game!
Analyze motif ’s purpose: For what purpose does man use nature in the poem? What does this reveal
about the nature of man?
3
Chapter : The Subject Phrase 61
Exercise
51
Mark It Up!
“. . . I am not romantic, you know. I never was. I ask only a comfortable home; and considering
Mr. Collins’s character, connections, and situation in life, I am convinced that my chance of
happiness with him is as fair as most people can boast on entering the marriage state.”
Elizabeth quietly answered, “Undoubtedly”—and after an awkward pause, they returned to
the rest of the family. Charlotte did not stay much longer, and Elizabeth was then left to reflect
on what she had heard. It was a long time before she became at all reconciled to the idea of so
unsuitable a match. The strangeness of Mr. Collins’s making two offers of marriage within three
days was nothing in comparison of his being now accepted. She had always felt that Charlotte’s
opinion of matrimony was not exactly like her own, but she could have supposed it possible
that when called into action, she would have sacrificed every better feeling to worldly advantage.
Charlotte the wife of Mr. Collins was a most humiliating picture!—And to the pang of a friend
disgracing herself and sunk in her esteem was added the distressing conviction that it was
impossible for the friend to be tolerably happy in the lot she had chosen.
~Jane Austen, Chapter 22, Pride and Prejudice
1. List the possible subjects contained in the passage. Choose one subject and identify the words,
phrases, and characters’ actions that support your chosen subject.
Step It Up!
2. Contrast Elizabeth and Charlotte’s values. Use support from the passage in your response.
3. Construct a subject phrase to further define or clarify your chosen subject’s role in the passage. Use
the “How to Create a Subject Phrase” handout for assistance.
Get in the Game!
Connect to character and society: What does the contrast between the characters suggest about young
women in the Victorian era?
Furthermore, when is it appropriate and inappropriate to voice concern for a friend’s choices?
Discuss your responses with a small group.
62 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
52
Mark It Up!
Ay, tear her tattered ensign* down!
Long has it waved on high, And many an eye has danced to see That banner in the sky; Beneath it rung the battle shout, And burst the cannon’s roar; The meteor of the ocean air Shall sweep the clouds no more! *ensign: flag
Her deck, once red with heroes’ blood, Where knelt the vanquished foe, When winds were hurrying o’er the flood And waves were white below, No more shall feel the victor’s tread, Or know the conquered knee; The harpies of the shore shall pluck The eagle of the sea! Oh, better that her shattered hulk Should sink beneath the wave; Her thunders shook the mighty deep, And there should be her grave; Nail to the mast her holy flag, Set every threadbare sail, And give her to the God of storms, The lightning and the gale!
~Oliver Wendell Holmes, “Old Ironsides,”
Boston Daily Advertiser
1. List the possible subjects contained in the poem. Choose one subject and identify the words,
phrases, and actions of Old Ironsides that support your chosen subject.
3
Chapter : The Subject Phrase 63
Step It Up!
2. How does the speaker characterize Old Ironsides?
3. The “harpies of the shore” allude to those who supported the secretary of the Navy’s decision to
scrap the old ship since it was no longer fit for service. Using support from the poem, contrast how
the speaker and the “harpies” believe that Old Ironsides should meet her end.
4. Construct a subject phrase to further define or clarify your chosen subject’s role in the poem. Use the
“How to Create a Subject Phrase” handout for assistance.
Get in the Game!
Analyze language: Why would the speaker refer to Old Ironsides as “The eagle of the sea”?
Discover thematic implications: Why does the preservation of historical icons or the creation of
memorial sites ignite controversy in our nation?
64 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
53
Mark It Up!
Cinderella gave them the best advice in the world and offered to dress their hair, which they
very much wanted her to do.
“Cinderella,” they asked, as she was fixing their hair, “wouldn’t you like to be going to the ball?”
“Oh, ladies! You’re making fun of me. It wouldn’t be proper for me to go.”
“You’re right. People would laugh if they saw a cinderbottom heading to the ball.” And
anyone but Cinderella, hearing this, would have left their hair in a tangle. But she was so goodnatured she coiffed them to perfection.
~Charles Perrault, “Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper,” Stories or
Tales from Times Past, with Morals: Tales of Mother Goose
1. List the possible subjects contained in the passage. Choose one subject, and craft a subject phrase
that further defines the subject’s role in the passage. Refer to the “How to Create a Subject Phrase”
handout for assistance.
Step It Up!
2. Complete the character motif chart to track how Perrault contrasts Cinderella and her stepsisters.
Cinderella
Cinderella’s Stepsisters
Characters’ Actions
Characters’ Traits/Emotions/
Feelings
3. What does Cinderella’s reaction to her stepsisters reveal about her character?
Get in the Game!
Connect character with theme: How is Cinderella a role model? Moreover, what traits or values are
necessary to live “happily ever after”? Discuss your findings with a partner.
3
Chapter : The Subject Phrase 65
Exercise
54
Mark It Up!
If I when my wife is sleeping
and the baby and Kathleen
are sleeping
and the sun is a flame-white disc
in silken mists
above shining trees,—
if I in my north room
dance naked, grotesquely
before my mirror
waving my shirt round my head
and singing softly to myself:
“I am lonely, lonely.
I was born to be lonely,
I am best so!”
If I admire my arms, my face,
my shoulders, flanks, buttocks
against the yellow drawn shades,—
Who shall say I am not
the happy genius of my household?
~William Carlos Williams, “Danse Russe,”
Al Que Quiere!
1. List the possible subjects contained in the poem. Choose one subject, and craft a subject phrase that
further defines the subject’s role in the poem. Refer to the “How to Create a Subject Phrase” handout
for assistance.
Step It Up!
2. How does the speaker contrast the outdoor nature imagery with the action occurring indoors? Use
support from the poem in your response.
3. How does the speaker react to his claim that he is “lonely”? Why does the speaker believe that he is
the “happy genius” of his household? Use textual support in your response.
Get in the Game!
Connect to society: How do the media and society today deplete and deflate our self-esteem? Journal
which steps individuals should take to become “happy geniuses” in their own lives.
66 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
55
Mark It Up!
“I don’t like girls in the daytime,” he said shortly, and then, thinking this a bit abrupt, he
added: “But I like you.” He cleared his throat. “I like you first and second and third.”
Myra’s eyes became dreamy. What a story this would make to tell Marylyn!—here on the
couch with this wonderful-looking boy—the little fire—the sense that they were alone in the
great building—
Myra capitulated. The atmosphere was too appropriate.
“I like you the first twenty-five,” she confessed, her voice trembling, “and Froggy Parker
twenty-sixth.”
Froggy had fallen twenty-five places in one hour. As yet he had not even noticed it.
But Amory, being on the spot, leaned over quickly and kissed Myra’s cheek. He had never
kissed a girl before, and he tasted his lips curiously, as if he had munched some new fruit. Then
their lips brushed like young wild flowers in the wind.
“We’re awful,” rejoiced Myra gently. She slipped her hand into his; her head drooped against
his shoulder [. . .]
Amory rose and stared at her helplessly, as though she were a new animal of whose presence
on the earth he had not heretofore been aware.
~F. Scott Fitzgerald, Book One, Chapter One, This Side of Paradise
1. List the possible subjects contained in the passage. Choose one subject, and craft a subject phrase
that further defines the subject’s role in the passage. Refer to the “How to Create a Subject Phrase”
handout for assistance.
Step It Up!
2. How exactly does Myra “capitulate” in the passage? Why would she “rejoice” after admitting that she
and Amory just did something “awful”?
3. Why does Amory stare at Myra “helplessly, as though she were a new animal” at the end of the passage?
4. What is the effect of your chosen subject phrase on Amory? On Myra? Use support from the
passage in your response.
Get in the Game!
Discover thematic implications: Do some forces render individuals powerless, or do we always have the
ability to control our responses? Additionally, what role does morality play in determining our reaction
in these situations? Discuss your responses with a small group.
3
Chapter : The Subject Phrase 67
Exercise
56
Mark It Up!
And having answered so I turn once more to those who
sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer
and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing
so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on
job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the
little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning
as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding.
~Carl Sandburg, “Chicago,” Chicago Poems
1. List the possible subjects contained in the poem. Choose one subject, and craft a subject phrase that
further defines the subject’s role in the poem. Refer to the “How to Create a Subject Phrase” handout
for assistance.
Step It Up!
2. How does the speaker characterize the people of Chicago?
3. What is the speaker’s attitude toward Chicago?
Get in the Game!
Examine figurative language: What tools does the speaker deem most necessary in confronting
adversity?
How does one’s attitude toward struggle define his or her character? Share your responses with a
partner.
68 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
57
Mark It Up!
Every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door. The blind was
pulled down to within an inch of the sash so that I could not be seen. When she came out on
the doorstep my heart leaped. I ran to the hall, seized my books and followed her. I kept her
brown figure always in my eye and, when we came near the point at which our ways diverged, I
quickened my pace and passed her. This happened morning after morning. I had never spoken to
her, except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood.
Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance. On Saturday
evenings when my aunt went marketing I had to go to carry some of the parcels. We walked
through the flaring streets, jostled by drunken men and bargaining women, amid the curses of
labourers, the shrill litanies of shop-boys who stood on guard by the barrels of pigs’ cheeks, the
nasal chanting of street-singers, who sang a come-all-you about O’Donovan Rossa, or a ballad
about the troubles in our native land. These noises converged in a single sensation of life for me:
I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes. Her name sprang to my lips at
moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand. My eyes were often
full of tears (I could not tell why) and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself out
into my bosom. I thought little of the future. I did not know whether I would ever speak to her
or not or, if I spoke to her, how I could tell her of my confused adoration. But my body was like
a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.
~James Joyce, “Araby,” The Dubliners
1. List the possible subjects contained in the passage. Choose one subject, and craft a subject phrase
that further defines the subject’s role in the passage. Refer to the “How to Create a Subject Phrase”
handout for assistance.
Step It Up!
2. How does the girl affect the narrator? Use support from the passage in your response.
3. How does the narrator contrast the reality of the marketplace with the image of the girl? Use
support from the passage in your response.
Get in the Game!
How do our personal relationships reconstruct our current realities? Moreover, how can our illusions of
reality be beneficial? Dangerous?
3
Chapter : The Subject Phrase 69
Exercise
58
Mark It Up!
[. . .] What passion cannot Music raise and quell?
The trumpet’s loud clangor
Excites us to arms,
With shrill notes of anger
And mortal alarms.
The double double double beat
Of the thundering drum
Cries, “Hark, the foes come!
Charge, charge, ‘t is too late to retreat!”
The soft complaining flute
In dying notes discovers
The woes of hopeless lovers,
Whose dirge is whispered by the warbling lute.
Sharp violins proclaim
Their jealous pangs and desperation,
Fury, frantic indignation,
Depth of pains and height of passion,
For the fair disdainful dame.
But oh! what art can teach,
What human voice can reach
The sacred organ’s praise?
Notes inspiring holy love,
Notes that wing their heavenly ways
To mend the choirs above.
~John Dryden, “A Song for Saint Cecilia’s Day,”
Examen Poeticum
1. List the possible subjects contained in the poem. Choose one subject, and craft a subject phrase that
further defines the subject’s role in the poem. Refer to the “How to Create a Subject Phrase” handout
for assistance.
Step It Up!
2. How does each instrument listed in the poem elicit human emotion? Use support from the poem in
your response.
3. According to the speaker, what is the ultimate function of music?
Get in the Game!
Formulate a critical response: How does music allow humanity to transcend everyday life?
70 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
59
Mark It Up!
A man kneeling at the water’s edge stared after us. Right away I could see the leprosy tumors that
covered his face. That’s why Kamaka was dragging me away!
The disease of leprosy was spreading across Hawai‘i’s islands. My mother’s sister had had it. And
now, seeing that man’s face, I remembered my aunt’s death.
Kamaka urged me to the other side of the water and we crawled onto a rock. I looked back for the
man with leprosy, but he had disappeared into the forest.
“Don’t stare!” said Kamaka as if he thought I would catch the disease by just looking at it.
“That man,” I panted. “He had leprosy.”
Suddenly Kamaka was as serious as a missionary. His dark eyes blazed and he gripped my arm. He
narrowed his eyes into little slits and set his brown jaw in a hard line. “That man must be hiding in the
mountains so the authorities won’t ship him to Moloka‘i.”
“Moloka‘i! I’ve heard that if you go to Moloka‘i you can’t come back again. That man should die at
home with his family! Kamaka, we should help him!”
“No!” Kamaka nearly shouted when he said it, and his voice sounded the way it had during the night
when he was dreaming. Almost like he was frightened.
I knew that the foreigners were afraid of leprosy. But most of our people were not.
“Our king has to protect the rest of us,” said Kamaka. “If they don’t go away, their disease will kill us
all. Leprosy is con­tagious. You don’t want to get it, do you?”
Kamaka was right. I did not want to get leprosy. What would happen to me if I did? I shuddered just
thinking about being sent away to Moloka‘i.
But Kamaka steadied me with his strong arm. “Don’t worry, Pia,” he said. “I will protect you.”
Of course it was true. Kamaka had always protected me. Still, in spite of his promise, I felt for a
moment like the earth was shaking.
~Joyce Moyer Hostetter, Chapter 3, Healing Water
1. List three possible subjects/subject phrases contained in the passage. Refer to the “How to Create a
Subject Phrase” handout for assistance.
Step It Up!
2. Why did Pia feel like the “earth was shaking”?
3. How does Pia’s concept of humanity change by the end of the passage? Support your answer with
textual evidence.
Get in the Game!
Develop and analyze subject: Determine how one subject from your list is affected by the lesson Pia
learns in the passage. Discuss your response with your classmates.
3
Chapter : The Subject Phrase 71
Exercise
60
Mark It Up!
Even the lights on the stage unrelenting
as the desert sun couldn’t hide the other
students, their eyes also unrelenting,
students who spoke English every night
as they ate their meat, potatoes, gravy.
Not you. In your house that smelled like
rose powder, you spoke Spanish formal
as your father, the judge without a courtroom
in the country he floated to in the dark
on a flatbed truck[. . .]
You told me only once about the time you went
to the state capitol, your family proud as if
you’d been named governor. But when you looked
around, the only Mexican in the auditorium,
you wanted to hide from those strange faces.
Their eyes were pinpricks, and you faked
hoarseness. You, who are never at a loss
for words, felt your breath stick in your throat
like an ice-cube. “I can’t,” you whispered.
“I can’t.” Yet you did. Not that day but years later.
You taught the four of us to speak up.
This is America, Mom. The undo-able is done
in the next generation. Your breath moves
through the family like the wind
moves through the trees.
~Pat Mora, “A Voice,” My Own True Name
1. List the possible subjects contained in the poem. Choose one subject, and craft a subject phrase that
further defines the subject’s role in the poem.
72 Mastering Close REading
Step It Up!
2. How did the mother’s home life differ from most of her classmates?
3. How was the mother’s journey to the state capitol a defining experience for her? Use support from
the poem in your response.
4. How has the mother’s journey transformed the life of her own children?
Get in the Game!
Do you agree that “the undo-able is done / in the next generation”? Use an example from history to
explain your response.
Justify thematic implications: Is America truly a land of equal opportunity? Share your responses with a
small group.
3
Chapter : The Subject Phrase 73
Exercise
61
Mark It Up!
Going into his cold dark “study” he placed the lantern on the table and, stooping to its light,
read the message again and again. It was the first time that Mattie had ever written to him, and
the possession of the paper gave him a strange new sense of her nearness; yet it deepened his
anguish by reminding him that henceforth they would have no other way of communicating
with each other. For the life of her smile, the warmth of her voice, only cold paper and dead
words!
Confused motions of rebellion stormed in him. He was too young, too strong, too full of the
sap of living, to submit so easily to the destruction of his hopes. Must he wear out all his years
at the side of a bitter querulous woman? Other possibilities sacrificed, one by one, to Zeena’s
narrow-mindedness and ignorance. And what good had come of it? She was a hundred times
bitterer and more discontented than when he had married her: the one pleasure left her was to
inflict pain on him. All the healthy instincts of self-defense rose up in him against such waste. . .
~Edith Wharton, Chapter VIII, Ethan Frome
1. List the possible subjects contained in the passage. Choose one subject, and craft a subject phrase
that further defines the subject’s role in the passage.
Step It Up!
2. Contrast how the characters of Mattie and Zeena affect the main character, Ethan. Use support
from the passage in your response.
3. How does the passage reveal Ethan’s character? What motivates Ethan? Use support from the
passage in your response.
Get in the Game!
Analyze language: Who and what does Ethan refer to as “such waste . . .”? Discuss multiple
interpretations of the phrase in your response.
How do we determine when a consequence is worth a risky decision?
74 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
62
Mark It Up!
[. . .]There was ease in Casey’s manner as he stepped into his place;
There was pride in Casey’s bearing and a smile lit Casey’s face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,
No stranger in the crowd could doubt ‘twas Casey at the bat.
Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt.
Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt.
Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,
Defiance flashed in Casey’s eye, a sneer curled Casey’s lip.
And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
And Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped—
“That ain’t my style,” said Casey. “Strike one!” the umpire said. [. . .]
With a smile of Christian charity great Casey’s visage shone;
He stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on;
He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the dun sphere flew;
But Casey still ignored it, and the umpire said “Strike two!”
“Fraud!” cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered “Fraud!”
But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed.
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
And they knew that Casey wouldn’t let that ball go by again.
The sneer has fled from Casey’s lip, the teeth are clenched in hate;
He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate.
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey’s blow.
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out.
~Ernest Thayer, “Casey at the Bat,” San Francisco Examiner
1. List the possible subjects contained in the poem. Choose one subject, and craft a subject phrase that
further defines the subject’s role in the poem.
3
Chapter : The Subject Phrase 75
Step It Up!
2. Determine Casey’s defining character traits. Use support from the poem in your response.
3. How does Casey’s attitude and focus shift throughout his time at bat? Use examples from the poem
in your response.
4. How does Casey’s “visage” control the emotional climate?
Get in the Game!
Explore thematic implications: What lesson is the speaker hoping to impart to the readers of this poem?
Why do athletics play such a significant role in American society?
76 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
63
Mark It Up!
During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the
clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through
a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening
drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was—but, with the
first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable;
for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment, with
which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. I
looked upon the scene before me—upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features
of the domain—upon the bleak walls—upon the vacant eye-like windows—upon a few rank
sedges—and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees—with an utter depression of soul which
I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon
opium—the bitter lapse into everyday life—the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was
an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart—an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no
goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. What was it—I paused to
think—what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher? It was a
mystery all insoluble; nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I
pondered. I was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond doubt,
there are combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus affecting us,
still the analysis of this power lies among considerations beyond our depth.
~Edgar Allan Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine
1. List the possible subjects contained in the passage. Choose one subject, and craft a subject phrase
that further defines the subject’s role in the passage.
Step It Up!
2. How does the House of Usher provoke an emotional response within the narrator? Use textual
support from the passage in your response.
3. Ultimately, what was it that “so unnerved” the speaker about the House of Usher?
Get in the Game!
Explore and assess setting: What does the House of Usher represent to the speaker?
What modern-day settings would evoke an emotional response similar to the narrator’s? Share your
responses with a partner.
3
Chapter : The Subject Phrase 77
Exercise
64
Mark It Up!
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts, the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I sitting heard the learned astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the
lecture room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
~Walt Whitman, “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer,” Drum-Taps
1. List the possible subjects contained in the poem. Choose one subject, and craft a subject phrase that
further defines the subject’s role in the poem.
Step It Up!
2. How does the speaker react to the astronomer’s lecture? Use support from the poem in your
response.
3. What does the speaker’s reaction reveal about his attitude toward science?
4. What does the outdoor setting inspire in the speaker?
Get in the Game!
How does the acquisition of knowledge inspire awe? Conversely, how can this acquisition disenchant an
individual?
78 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
65
Mark It Up!
In a Churchyard amongst the bones of the dead
Hamlet
To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may
not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander*,
till he find it stopping a bung-hole?
Horatio
‘Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so.
Hamlet
No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with
modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: as
thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried,
Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of
earth we make loam*; and why of that loam, whereto he
was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel?
Imperious Caesar*, dead and turn’d to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:
O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a wall to expel the winter flaw!
*Alexander the Great: Greek
king and military strategist
*loam: earthen clay
*Caesar: Roman military and
political leader
~William Shakespeare, Act V, Scene i, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
1. List the possible subjects contained in the play. Choose one subject, and craft a subject phrase that
further defines the subject’s role in the play.
Step It Up!
2. Track the journey of Alexander’s afterlife that Hamlet paints for the audience. What is ironic about
the Greek king’s final resting place?
3. What realization about royal bones does Hamlet glean as he sifts through the bones in a church
graveyard?
4. Considering Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark, how is this realization especially poignant?
Get in the Game!
Discover thematic inferences: How does our perspective of death affect our choices and decisions in life?
Discuss your response with a partner.
3
Chapter : The Subject Phrase 79
Exercise
66
Mark It Up!
Fear death?—to feel the fog in my throat,
The mist in my face,
When the snows begin, and the blasts denote
I am nearing the place,
The power of the night, the press of the storm,
The post of the foe;
Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form,
Yet the strong man must go:
For the journey is done and the summit attained,
And the barriers fall[. . .]
I was ever a fighter, so—one fight more,
The best and the last!
I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore,
And bade me creep past.
No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers
The heroes of old,
Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life’s arrears
Of pain, darkness and cold.
For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave,
The black minute’s at end,
And the elements’ rage, the fiend-voices that rave,
Shall dwindle, shall blend,
Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain,
Then a light, then thy breast,
O thou soul of my soul!* I shall clasp thee again,
And with God be the rest!
*soul of my soul:
Browning’s wife
~Robert Browning, “Prospice,” Atlantic Monthly
1. List the possible subjects contained in the poem. Choose one subject, and craft a subject phrase that
further defines the subject’s role in the poem.
Step It Up!
2. How is death characterized in the poem?
3. Track the speaker’s response to death throughout the poem. What transforms the darkness to “light”
for the speaker at the end of the poem? Use support from the poem in your response.
Get in the Game!
Respond to the poem: Who is the ultimate victor at the poem’s end: the speaker or death?
Explore thematic implications: How does the approach of death both humble and inspire humanity?
80 Mastering Close REading
Chapter
4
Theme
Theme
A theme is a statement that asserts the role of a main subject in a work. A thematic statement contains
two important features: first, a theme must express the values and principles contained within a work’s
motifs and subjects and, second, a thematic statement must apply these values and principles to the
outside world or humanity as a whole. Therefore, a theme makes an enlightened observation about a
subject. Each literary work or excerpt contains multiple themes for the reader to unearth. To craft a theme, consider the subject phrases you have generated from your lists of subjects and motifs.
For example, after reading an excerpt from The Three Little Pigs, you may have generated the following
subject phrases: destructive violence, abusive opposition, crippling oppression, cunning determination, the
desire for survival, and the danger of manipulation.
When the second little pig saw the wolf coming, he ran inside his house and shut the door.
The wolf knocked on the door and said, “Little pig, little pig, let me come in.”
“No, no,” said the little pig. “By the hair of my chinny chin chin, I will not let you come in.”
“Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in,” said the wolf.
So he huffed and he puffed and he huffed and he puffed. The house of sticks fell down and the
wolf ate up the second little pig.
The next day the wolf walked further along the road. He came to the house of bricks which the
third little pig had built.
When the third little pig saw the wolf coming, he ran inside his house and shut the door.
The wolf knocked on the door and said, “Little pig, little pig, let me come in.”
“No, no,” said the little pig. “By the hair of my chinny chin chin, I will not let you come in.”
“Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in,” said the wolf.
So he huffed and he puffed and he huffed and he puffed. But the house of bricks did not fall
down.
The wolf was very angry, but he pretended not to be. He thought, “This is a clever little pig. If I
want to catch him I must pretend to be his friend.”
Several themes you could develop from your subject phrases to reveal the passage’s principles are:
Destructive violence destroys one’s sense of security; Abusive opposition compels an individual to seek selfpreservation; and Crippling opposition diminishes society’s ability to thrive. These themes start with the
subject phrase and end with the subject phrase’s impact on the individual, society, or humanity. Each
sentence links these ideas with a powerful verb.
4
Chapter : Theme 81
You can vary your sentence structure to incorporate your own voice and style in themes. For example,
in The Three Little Pigs, you may use your subject phrases, motifs, and subjects to craft the following
themes: To survive in this world one must practice cunning determination; Threatening situations heighten
our innate and instinctive desire for survival; and Betrayal, oppression, and strife result from the dangers of
manipulation.
Note how, in a thematic statement, the character and the plot are not mentioned specifically but are
instead used to represent a larger concept that reveals a deeper truth about human behavior or human
nature that is supported by textual evidence.
Remember to use your “How to Create a Thematic Statement” handout
and your “Active Verb List” to craft impressive themes!
82 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
67
Mark It Up!
“Your hand, Miss March!” was the only answer her mute appeal received, and too proud
to cry or beseech, Amy set her teeth, threw back her head defiantly, and bore without flinching
several tingling blows on her little palm. They were neither many nor heavy, but that made no
difference to her. For the first time in her life she had been struck, and the disgrace, in her eyes,
was as deep as if he had knocked her down.
“You will now stand on the platform till recess,” said Mr. Davis, resolved to do the thing
thoroughly, since he had begun.
That was dreadful. It would have been bad enough to go to her seat, and see the pitying faces
of her friends, or the satisfied ones of her few enemies, but to face the whole school, with that
shame fresh upon her, seemed impossible, and for a second she felt as if she could only drop
down where she stood, and break her heart with crying. A bitter sense of wrong and the thought
of Jenny Snow helped her to bear it, and, taking the ignominious place, she fixed her eyes on the
stove funnel above what now seemed a sea of faces, and stood there, so motionless and white
that the girls found it hard to study with that pathetic figure before them.
During the fifteen minutes that followed, the proud and sensitive little girl suffered a shame
and pain which she never forgot. To others it might seem a ludicrous or trivial affair, but to her it
was a hard experience, for during the twelve years of her life she had been governed by love alone,
and a blow of that sort had never touched her before. The smart of her hand and the ache of her
heart were forgotten in the sting of the thought, “I shall have to tell at home, and they will be so
disappointed in me!”
~Louisa May Alcott, Chapter 7, Little Women
1. A possible theme for the passage is: The sting of shame affects one’s pride. Find motifs that support the
passage’s theme.
Shame
Pride
4
Chapter : Theme 83
Step It Up!
2. Which line(s) from the passage most poignantly reveal how the shame of Amy’s actions affects her
sense of pride?
3. Reveal how the passage intimates that Amy’s punishment is contrary to her usual behavior. Use
support from the passage in your response.
4. What does Amy learn about herself from the incident?
Get in the Game!
Characterize further: How do the consequences of Amy’s actions betray her innocence?
Justify thematic implications: Does the fear of reprisal impact our ability to act? Share your responses
with a small group.
84 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
68
Mark It Up!
The opening kickoff,
I take it at the twenty,
A hole opens to my right.
I find a lane down the sideline,
I’m in the clear at the thirty,
I can smell the goal.
A thousand voices roar at the glory of my athletic ability,
And that sound is the last thing I remember.
That was Friday night.
It’s Saturday morning now,
And Nurse Attila the Hun just read me the sports page,
How their kicker,
Their one hundred thirty-two pound kicker,
Obliterated the home team’s star running back
On the opening kickoff.
Attila the Hun* says it’s a very old story—
“One person’s pain is another one’s glory.”
*Attila the Hun: Fifth-century king of the Huns, who was known for his barbarism
and brutality and sought to conquer all of Western Europe.
~Brod Bagert, “Glory and Defeat,” Hormone Jungle: Coming of Age in Middle School
1. A clear theme for the poem is: One person’s pain is another one’s glory. Find motifs that support the
poem’s theme.
Pain
Glory
Step It Up!
2. Reveal what emotionally shifts in the speaker from Friday night to Saturday morning.
3. Hypothesize why the poet would allude to Attila the Hun throughout the poem.
Get in the Game!
How do our reactions to life’s turning points shape our journey toward adulthood?
4
Chapter : Theme 85
Exercise
69
Mark It Up!
A man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water
twenty feet below. The man’s hands were behind his back, the wrists bound with a cord. A rope
closely encircled his neck. [. . .]
He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his wife and children. The water,
touched to gold by the early sun, the brooding mists under the banks at some distance down
the stream, the fort, the soldiers, the piece of drift—all had distracted him. And now he became
conscious of a new disturbance. Striking through the thought of his dear ones was a sound
which he could neither ignore nor understand, a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the
stroke of a blacksmith’s hammer upon the anvil; it had the same ringing quality. He wondered
what it was, and whether immeasurably distant or near by—it seemed both. Its recurrence
was regular, but as slow as the tolling of a death knell. He awaited each stroke with impatience
and—he knew not why—apprehension. The intervals of silence grew progressively longer, the
delays became maddening. With their greater infrequency the sounds increased in strength and
sharpness. They hurt his ear like the thrust of a knife; he feared he would shriek. What he heard
was the ticking of his watch.
~Ambrose Bierce, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Tales of Soldiers and Civilians
1. A possible theme for the passage is: The approach of death produces both fear and anxiety. Find motifs
that support the passage’s theme.
Character’s Actions
Character’s Traits/Emotions/
Feelings
Step It Up!
2. Bierce utilizes a motif of sound throughout the passage. Track this motif throughout the passage.
How does the man’s response to this motif escalate and intensify?
3. What does the man’s reaction reveal about his attitude toward death?
Get in the Game!
Analyze figurative language: How could the simple “ticking of his watch” cause such a strong emotional
response in the man?
In times of crisis or panic, why does time seem to stand still? How do our sharpened senses during these
moments contribute to our heightened emotional state?
86 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
70
Mark It Up!
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! We must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one death blow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
~Claude McKay, “If We Must Die,” The Liberator
1. A possible theme for the poem might be: Authentic courage confronts adversity. Find motifs that
support the subject phrase and the poem’s concept of society.
Words That Support the Subject Phrase
(Authentic Courage)
Words That Support the Poem’s Concept of
Society (Adversity)
Step It Up!
2. Identify the speaker’s attitude in the poem.
3. What does the speaker hope to achieve with this attitude? Provide evidence from the poem to
explain why.
Get in the Game!
How does an individual’s reaction to injustice reveal his or her true character? Discuss your response
with a partner.
4
Chapter : Theme 87
Exercise
71
Mark It Up!
Nora
For eight whole years—longer, in fact—ever since we first met, we have never talked
seriously to each other about a single serious thing.
Helmer
You mean I should forever have been telling you about worries you couldn’t have helped me
with anyway? [. . .]
Nora
(shakes her head) You never loved me—neither Daddy nor you. You only thought it was fun
to be in love with me.
Helmer
But Nora—what an expression to use!
Nora
That’s the way it has been, Torvald. When I was home with Daddy, he told me all his
opinions, and so they became my opinions too. If I disagreed with him I kept it to myself, for
he wouldn’t have liked that. He called me his little doll baby, and he played with me the way I
played with my dolls. Then I came to your house—
Helmer
What a way to talk about our marriage!
Nora
(imperturbably) I mean that I passed from Daddy’s hands into yours. You arranged everything
according to your taste, and so I came to share it—or I pretended to; I’m not sure which. I
think it was a little of both, not one and not the other. When I look back on it now, it seems to
me I’ve been living here like a pauper—just a hand-to-mouth kind of existence. I have earned
my keep by doing tricks for you, Torvald. But that’s the way you wanted it. You have great sins
against me to answer for, Daddy and you. It’s your fault that nothing became of me.
~Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House
1. A possible theme for this play could be: The repression of one’s beliefs and desires destroys a marriage.
Support the play’s theme with Nora and Helmer’s actions and feelings.
Nora
Character’s Actions
Character’s Traits/Emotions/
Feelings
88 Mastering Close REading
Helmer
Step It Up!
2. How was Nora treated like a “little doll baby” by both her father and Helmer?
3. What does Helmer’s reaction to Nora reveal about his attitude toward their marriage?
4. What critical realization does Nora arrive at by the conclusion of this interchange? Use support
from the play in your response.
Get in the Game!
Connect character and theme: Is it the fault of Helmer and Nora’s father that “nothing became of [her]”?
Why or why not?
Is marriage ever a truly equal partnership? Justify your response to another classmate.
4
Chapter : Theme 89
Exercise
72
Mark It Up!
Thy voice is on the rolling air;
I hear thee where the waters run;
Thou standest in the rising sun,
And in the setting thou art fair.
What art thou then? I cannot guess;
But though I seem in star and flower
To feel thee some diffusive power,
I do not therefore love thee less:
My love involves the love before;
My love is vaster passion now;
Though mixed with God and Nature thou,
I seem to love thee more and more.
Far off thou art, but ever nigh;
I have thee still, and I rejoice;
I prosper, circled with thy voice;
I shall not lose thee though I die.
~Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “In Memoriam,
A.H.H,” Poems
1. A possible theme for the poem could be: Death cannot dampen the power of true love. Find motifs that
support the poem’s theme.
The Speaker
The Speaker’s Deceased Lover
Character’s Actions
Character’s Traits/
Emotions/ Feelings
Step It Up!
2. Identify the speaker’s emotional and spiritual revelations in each stanza. Use support from the poem
in your response.
3. Interpret the final line in the poem where the speaker claims that “I shall not lose thee though I die.”
Get in the Game!
Explore thematic implications: What additional message does the speaker hope to impart to the readers
of this poem?
Does death end both human lives and relationships? Share your responses in a class discussion.
90 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
73
Mark It Up!
Also his children, who thought him dependent on her and happy with her; his servants and
her and his friends thinking the same thing, and yet he really was not. It was all a lie. He was
unhappy. Always he had been unhappy, it seemed, ever since he had been married—for over
thirty-one years now. Never in all that time, for even so much as a single day, had he ever done
anything but long, long, long, in a pale, constrained way—for what, he scarcely dared think—not
to be married anymore—to be free—to be as he was before ever he saw Mrs. Haymaker.
And yet being conventional in mood and training and utterly domesticated by time and
conditions over which he seemed not to have much control—nature, custom, public opinion,
and the like, coming into play as forces—he had drifted, had not taken any drastic action. No, he
had merely drifted, wondering if time, accident or something might not interfere and straighten
out his life for him, but it never had. Now weary, old, or rapidly becoming so, he condemned
himself for his inaction. Why hadn’t he done something about it years before? Why he hadn’t he
broken it up before it was too late, and saved his own soul, his longing for life, color? But no, he
had not. Why complain so bitterly now?
~Theodore Dreiser, “Free,” Free and Other Stories
1. A possible theme for the passage could be: The fetters of convention bind us to inaction. Support the
passage’s theme by completing the motif chart.
Convention
Inaction
Words/Phrases
Character’s Traits/Emotions/
Feelings
Step It Up!
2. To what self-revelation does Mr. Haymaker come? What circumstances have led Mr. Haymaker to
this realization? Use support from the passage in your response.
3. Using support from the passage, justify whether Mr. Haymaker is likely to create the change he
desires in his life.
Get in the Game!
Is a failure to act a result of external societal circumstances or of one’s personal will? Support your response.
Do the consequences of one’s lack of actions impact one in the same manner as the consequences of
one’s actions? Support your response and discuss with a partner.
4
Chapter : Theme 91
Exercise
74
Mark It Up!
A big greyish rounded bulk, the size, perhaps, of a bear, was rising slowly and painfully out
of the cylinder. As it bulged up and caught the light, it glistened like wet leather.
Two large dark-coloured eyes were regarding me steadfastly. The mass that framed them,
the head of the thing, was rounded, and had, one might say, a face. There was a mouth under
the eyes, the lipless brim of which quivered and panted, and dropped saliva. The whole creature
heaved and pulsated convulsively. A lank tentacular appendage gripped the edge of the cylinder,
another swayed in the air.
Those who have never seen a living Martian can scarcely imagine the strange horror of its
appearance. The peculiar V-shaped mouth with its pointed upper lip, the absence of brow ridges,
the absence of a chin beneath the wedgelike lower lip, the incessant quivering of this mouth,
the Gorgon groups of tentacles, the tumultuous breathing of the lungs in a strange atmosphere,
the evident heaviness and painfulness of movement due to the greater gravitational energy
of the earth—above all, the extraordinary intensity of the immense eyes—were at once vital,
intense, inhuman, crippled and monstrous. There was something fungoid in the oily brown skin,
something in the clumsy deliberation of the tedious movements unspeakably nasty. Even at this
first encounter, this first glimpse, I was overcome with disgust and dread.
Suddenly the monster vanished. It had toppled over the brim of the cylinder and fallen into
the pit, with a thud like the fall of a great mass of leather. I heard it give a peculiar thick cry, and
forthwith another of these creatures appeared darkly in the deep shadow of the aperture.
I turned and, running madly, made for the first group of trees, perhaps a hundred yards
away; but I ran slantingly and stumbling, for I could not avert my face from these things.
~H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds
1. A possible theme for this passage is: Harsh judgment can generate both disgust and fear. Find motifs
that support the passage’s theme.
Judgment
92 Mastering Close REading
Disgust
Fear
Step It Up!
2. How does the narrator’s attitude escalate and intensify throughout the passage? Provide evidence
from the passage in your response.
3. What literal and figurative “things” could the narrator not “avert [his] face from” at the end of the
excerpt?
Get in the Game!
Connect to society: How does labeling and stereotyping color the way that we view and interpret our
world? Furthermore, how can we transcend the labels that define individuals and groups? Discuss your
findings with your classmates.
4
Chapter : Theme 93
Exercise
75
Mark It Up!
Weary of myself, and sick of asking
What I am, and what I ought to be,
At this vessel’s prow I stand, which bears me
Forwards, forwards o’er the starlit sea.
And a look of passionate desire
O’er the sea and to the stars I send:
“Ye who from my childhood up have calmed me,
Calm me, ah, compose me to the end!
“Ah, once more,” I cried, “ye stars, ye waters,
On my heart your mighty charm renew;
Still, still let me, as I gaze upon you,
Feel my soul becoming vast like you!” [. . .]
O air-born voice! long since, severely clear,
A cry like thine in mine own heart I hear:
“Resolve to be thyself; and know that he
Who finds himself loses his misery!”
~Matthew Arnold, “Self-Dependence,”
Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems
1. The poem states a theme in the final two lines: He who “finds himself ” in nature “loses his misery.”
Find motifs that support the poem’s theme.
The Journey
Nature
Step It Up!
2. Detail the speaker’s insights in the first three stanzas of the poem. Use support from the poem in
your response.
3. How does nature transform the speaker at the end of the poem?
Get in the Game!
Develop subject: Discuss how nature impacts and influences an individual’s mind, body, and spirit.
Why is it such a challenge to “resolve to be thyself ” in the world today? Share your responses in a class
discussion.
94 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
76
Mark It Up!
Certain it is, that, some fifteen or twenty years after the settlement of the town, the wooden jail
was already marked with weather-stains and other indications of age, which gave a yet darker
aspect to its beetle-browed and gloomy front. The rust on the ponderous ironwork of its oaken
door looked more antique than anything else in the new world. Like all that pertains to crime,
it seemed never to have known a youthful era. Before this ugly edifice, and between it and the
wheel-track of the street, was a grassplot, much overgrown with burdock, pig-weed, apple-peru,
and such unsightly vegetation, which evidently found something congenial in the soil that had
so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison. But, on one side of the portal, and
rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush, covered, in this month of June, with its
delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner
as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the
deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him.
~Nathaniel Hawthorne, Chapter I, The Scarlet Letter
1. A possible theme for the passage is: The heart of nature both pities and warms a criminal’s spirit. Find
motifs that support the passage’s theme.
Criminal
Pity
Nature
Step It Up!
2. How does Nature act in this passage? Use support from the passage in your response.
3. What impact does Nature have on the harsh setting that Hawthorne paints for the reader?
Get in the Game!
How can Nature inject beauty into a seemingly hopeless society?
4
Chapter : Theme 95
Exercise
77
Mark It Up!
[. . .]When thoughts
Of the last bitter hour come like a blight
Over thy spirit, and sad images
*shroud: cover *pall: coffin
Of the stern agony, and shroud*, and pall*,
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,
Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart;—
*list: listen
Go forth under the open sky, and list*
To Nature’s teachings, while from all around—
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air,—
Comes a still voice[. . .]
So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, that moves
To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but sustain’d and sooth’d
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
~William Cullen Bryant, “Thanatopsis,” The North American Review
1. A possible theme for the poem is: The inevitability of death should soothe an individual’s soul. Find
motifs that support the poem’s theme:
Death
Peace
Step It Up!
2. How do “Nature’s teachings” cause a shift in the way death is perceived in the poem?
3. How does Nature function as a maternal figure in the poem?
Get in the Game!
Compare and contrast: How do “Nature’s teachings” in this poem compare to Nature’s influence in
Matthew Arnold’s “Self-Dependence”?
Discuss how Nature impacts and influences an individual’s mind, body, and spirit. Share your responses
with a partner.
96 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
78
Mark It Up!
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on;”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run—
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man my son!
~Rudyard Kipling, “If,” Rewards and Fairies
1. Track three values the speaker advises in the poem. Use motifs from the poem to support your response.
Step It Up!
2. Combine the values from “Mark It Up” to generate a single subject for the poem. Using the subject
that you chose, create a subject phrase for the poem.
3. For what reason does the speaker impart these values?
Get in the Game!
Construct a thematic statement for the poem. If needed, use this fill-in template for assistance, or
generate an original thematic statement on your own.
(Subject Phrase) + (Active Verb) + (Poem’s Concept of Adulthood)
What advice can positively shape an individual’s journey toward adulthood?
4
Chapter : Theme 97
Exercise
79
Mark It Up!
“Your mamma’s gone away. You won’t ever see her any more.” Philip did not know what she
meant.
“Why not?”
“Your mamma’s in heaven.” [. . .]
Philip opened a large cupboard filled with dresses and, stepping in, took as many of them
as he could in his arms and buried his face in them. They smelt of the scent his mother used.
Then he pulled open the drawers, filled with his mother’s things, and looked at them: there were
lavender bags among the linen, and their scent was fresh and pleasant. The strangeness of the
room left it, and it seemed to him that his mother had just gone out for a walk. She would be in
presently and would come upstairs to have nursery tea with him. And he seemed to feel her kiss
on his lips.
It was not true that he would never see her again. It was not true simply because it was
impossible. He climbed up on the bed and put his head on the pillow. He lay there quite still. ~W. Somerset Maugham, Chapter II, Of Human Bondage
1. Choose a subject contained in the passage, and further define this subject with a subject phrase.
Step It Up!
2. Track Philip’s actions throughout the entire passage. Make a conclusion about Philip’s emotional
journey.
3. What is the significance of Philip choosing to “lay there quite still” at the end of the passage? What
dies within Philip?
Get in the Game!
Construct a thematic statement for the passage. If needed, use this fill-in template for assistance, or
generate an original thematic statement on your own.
(Subject Phrase) + (Active Verb) + (Passage’s Concept of Childhood)
How do individuals reconcile a great loss? Discuss your findings with your classmates.
98 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
80
Mark It Up!
I need so much the quiet of your love,
After the day’s loud strife;
I need your calm all other things above,
After the stress of life.
I crave the haven that in your dear heart lies,
After all toil is done;
I need the starshine of your heavenly eyes,
After the day’s great sun!
~Charles Hanson Towne, “At Nightfall,”
The Quiet Singer and Other Poems
1. Choose a subject contained in the poem, and further define this subject with a subject phrase.
Step It Up!
2. Closely examine the motifs that help to juxtapose, or contrast, day and night for the speaker. How
does the speaker define a typical day in society?
3. Using support from the poem, justify why the speaker desires this subject and how it transforms
him/her.
Get in the Game!
Construct a thematic statement for the poem. If needed, use this fill-in template for assistance, or
generate an original thematic statement on your own.
(Subject Phrase) + (Active Verb) + (Poem’s Concept of Society)
In small groups, discuss how people are transformed through their relationships with others.
4
Chapter : Theme 99
Exercise
81
Mark It Up!
From a sloping hill came the sound of cheerings and clashes. Smoke welled slowly through
the leaves.
Batteries were speaking with thunderous oratorical effort. Here and there were flags, the
red in the stripes dominating. They splashed bits of warm color upon the dark lines of
troops.
The youth felt the old thrill at the sight of the emblem. They were like beautiful birds
strangely undaunted in a storm.
As he listened to the din from the hillside, to a deep pulsating thunder that came from afar
to the left, and to the lesser clamors which came from many directions, it occurred to him that
they were fighting, too, over there, and over there, and over there. Heretofore he had supposed
that all the battle was directly under his nose.
As he gazed around him the youth felt a flash of astonishment at the blue, pure sky and the
sun gleamings on the trees and fields. It was surprising that Nature had gone tranquilly on with
her golden process in the midst of so much devilment.
~Stephen Crane, Chapter 5, Red Badge of Courage
1. Choose a subject contained in the passage, and further define this subject with a subject phrase.
Step It Up!
2. What strength does the young soldier, the youth, gain from the flags? What is the symbolic meaning
of comparing the flags to birds?
3. Track the use of sound imagery throughout the passage. What is significant about where the author
does not use sound imagery?
4. What mystifies the youth about nature?
Get in the Game!
Construct a thematic statement for the passage. If needed, use this fill-in template for assistance, or
generate an original thematic statement on your own.
(Subject Phrase) + (Active Verb) + (World’s Mystery)
How do the youth’s perceptions depict him as a young artist?
How does nature restore the nature of man?
100 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
82
Mark It Up!
I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us—don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.
How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!
~Emily Dickinson, “I’m Nobody,”
Series Two
1. List three subjects contained in the poem.
Step It Up!
2. Infer from the poem why being “somebody” is not desirable in society. Use support from the poem in
your response.
3. Closely examine Dickinson’s word choice, and determine what motif(s) she uses in the poem and
why they are effective.
4. What power does being “nobody” hold in society? Use support from the poem in your response.
5. Choose one subject and further narrow this subject by creating a subject phrase for the poem.
Get in the Game!
Construct a thematic statement for the poem. If needed, use this fill-in template for assistance, or
generate an original thematic statement on your own.
(Subject Phrase) + (Active Verb) + (Poem’s Concept of Society)
In small groups, discuss how our perceptions of others can be misleading.
4
Chapter : Theme 101
Exercise
83
Mark It Up!
Miss Margie was no longer a girl. Most of the girls of her set who had frolicked and gone to
school with her had married and moved away. Yet, though she had passed that dread meridian of
thirty, and was the village schoolmistress to boot, she was not openly spoken of as an old maid.
[. . .]
She was a tall woman, finely, almost powerfully built and admirably developed. She
carried herself with an erect pride that ill accorded with the humble position as the village
schoolmistress. Her features were regular and well cut, but her face was comely chiefly because
of her vivid coloring and her deeply set gray eyes, that were serious and frank like a man’s. She
was one of those women one sometimes sees, designed by nature in her more artistic moments,
especially fashioned for all the fullness of life; for large experiences and the great world where a
commanding personality is felt and valued, but condemned by circumstances to poverty, obscurity
and all manner of pettiness. There are plenty of such women, who were made to ride in carriages
and wear jewels and grace first nights at the opera, who, through some unaccountable blunder of
stage management in this little comédie humaine, have the wrong parts assigned them, and cook for
farm hands, or teach a country school like this one, or make gowns for ugly women and pad them
into some semblance of shapeliness, while they themselves, who need no such artificial treatment,
wear cast-offs; women who were made to rule, but who are doomed to serve.
~Willa Cather, “A Resurrection,” The Home Monthly
1. Choose a subject contained in the passage, and further define this subject with a subject phrase.
Step It Up!
2. Using support from the passage, contrast the specific characterization of Miss Margie to the general
characterization of women similar to Miss Margie (“one of those women”). With what attitude does
Miss Margie approach her life?
3. According to the passage, what aspect(s) of society determine a woman’s station in life?
Get in the Game!
Construct a thematic statement for the passage. If needed, use this fill-in template for assistance, or
generate an original thematic statement on your own.
(Subject Phrase) + (Active Verb) + (Passage’s Concept of Society)
What aspects within an individual allow her to defy society’s set definition of her life? Share your
responses with a classmate.
102 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
84
Mark It Up!
Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.
In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song
Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong
To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside
And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.
So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour
With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.
~D. H. Lawrence, “The Piano,” New Poems
1. Choose a subject contained in the poem, and further define this subject with a subject phrase.
Step It Up!
2. Detail the speaker’s actions in each stanza. Use support from the poem in your response.
3. How would you define the speaker’s emotional journey from the beginning to the end of this poem?
Why does the speaker weep at the conclusion of the poem?
Get in the Game!
Construct a thematic statement for the poem. If needed, use this fill-in template for assistance, or
generate an original thematic statement on your own.
(Subject Phrase) + (Active Verb) + (Poem’s Concept of the Past/Present)
How does music heighten and activate our senses and emotions? Explain music’s ability to transfer us to
another place and time.
4
Chapter : Theme 103
Exercise
85
Mark It Up!
The next day was a long one. She walked about her little garden, up and down the same
walks, stopping before the beds, before the espalier, before the plaster curate, looking with
amazement at all these things of once-on-a-time that she knew so well. How far off the
ball seemed already! What was it that thus set so far asunder the morning of the day before
yesterday and the evening of to-day? Her journey to Vaubyessard had made a hole in her life,
like one of those great crevices that a storm will sometimes make in one night in mountains. Still
she was resigned. She devoutly put away in her drawers her beautiful dress, down to the satin
shoes whose soles were yellowed with the slippery wax of the dancing floor. Her heart was like
these. In its friction against wealth something had come over it that could not be effaced.
The memory of this ball, then, became an occupation for Emma.
Whenever the Wednesday came round she said to herself as she awoke, “Ah! I was there a
week—a fortnight—three weeks ago.”
And little by little the faces grew confused in her remembrance.
She forgot the tune of the quadrilles; she no longer saw the liveries and appointments so
distinctly; some details escaped her, but the regret remained with her.
~Gustave Flaubert, Part I, Chapter 8, Madame Bovary
1. Choose a subject contained in the passage, and further define this subject with a subject phrase.
Step It Up!
2. How does the ball and its memory impact Emma? Use support from the passage in your response.
3. How has Emma’s heart changed? Additionally, what life lesson does Emma learn about memories in
general?
Get in the Game!
Construct a thematic statement for the passage. If needed, use this fill-in template for assistance, or
generate an original thematic statement on your own:
(Subject Phrase) + (Active Verb) + (Life’s Lesson)
When does illusion alter reality? Furthermore, how do new perspectives alter our self-identities?
Discuss your responses with a small group.
104 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
86
Mark It Up!
Men! whose boast it is that ye
Come of fathers brave and free,
If there breathe on earth a slave,
Are ye truly free and brave?
If ye do not feel the chain,
When it works a brother’s pain,
Are ye not base slaves indeed,
Slaves unworthy to be freed?
Women! who shall one day bear
Sons to breathe New England air,
If ye hear, without a blush,
Deeds to make the roused blood rush
Like red lava through your veins,
For your sisters now in chains,—
Answer! are ye fit to be
Mothers of the brave and free?
Is true Freedom but to break
Fetters for our own dear sake,
And, with leathern hearts, forget
That we owe mankind a debt?
No! true freedom is to share
All the chains our brothers wear
And, with heart and hand, to be
Earnest to make others free!
They are slaves who fear to speak
For the fallen and the weak;
They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing, and abuse,
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think;
They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.
~James Russell Lowell, “Stanzas on Freedom,”
The Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell
1. Choose a subject contained in the poem, and further define this subject with a subject phrase.
4
Chapter : Theme 105
Step It Up!
2. According to the speaker, who are the “[s]laves unworthy to be freed”?
3. How does the speaker define and contrast freedom and slavery? Use support from the poem in your
response.
Get in the Game!
Craft a thematic statement for the poem. If needed, use this fill-in template for assistance, or generate an
original thematic statement on your own.
(Subject Phrase) + (Active Verb) + (Poem’s Concept of Society)
What constitutes “true freedom”? How can our actions either liberate or enslave us?
106 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
87
Mark It Up!
Miss Watson, your runaway nigger Jim is down here two mile below Pikesville, and Mr. Phelps has
got him and he will give him up for the reward if you send.
HUCK FINN.
I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could
pray now. But I didn’t do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking—thinking how good
it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. And went on thinking. And
got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me all the time: in the day and in the nighttime, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a-floating along, talking and singing and laughing. But
somehow I couldn’t seem to strike no places to harden me against him, but only the other kind. I’d see him
standing my watch on top of his’n, ‘stead of calling me, so I could go on sleeping; and see him how glad he was
when I come back out of the fog; and when I come to him again in the swamp, up there where the feud was;
and such-like times; and would always call me honey, and pet me and do everything he could think of for me,
and how good he always was; and at last I struck the time I saved him by telling the men we had small-pox
aboard, and he was so grateful, and said I was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world, and the only one
he’s got now; and then I happened to look around and see that paper.
It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a-trembling, because I’d got to decide,
forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says
to myself:
“All right, then, I’ll go to hell”—and tore it up.
~Mark Twain, Chapter 31, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1. The first three lines of this passage disclose a letter that Huckleberry Finn writes Miss Watson
and the consequential feelings the letter evokes in Huck regarding the runaway slave, Jim. Read the
entire passage and choose a subject contained in it. Further define this subject with a subject phrase.
Step It Up!
2. What prompts Huck to decisively tear up the letter to Miss Watson? Use support from the passage
in your response.
3. What does Huck willingly sacrifice for Jim? Why?
4. What wisdom does Huck, an uncivilized child, impart about humanity?
Get in the Game!
Construct a thematic statement for the passage. If needed, use this fill-in template for assistance, or
generate an original thematic statement on your own.
(Subject Phrase) + (Active Verb) + (Aspect of Society/Humanity)
What personal sacrifices are necessary to fight social injustices? Discuss your response with classmates.
4
Chapter : Theme 107
Exercise
88
Mark It Up!
Adieu, farewell earth’s bliss,
This world uncertain is:
Fond* are life’s lustful joys,
Death proves them all but toys*.
None from his darts can fly.
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!
Rich men, trust not in wealth,
Gold cannot buy you health;
Physic* himself must fade,
All things to end are made.
The plague full swift goes by;
I am sick, I must die.
Lord, have mercy on us!
*fond: foolish
*toys: trifles
*Physic: Doctor
~Thomas Nashe, “A Litany in Time of Plague,”
Summer’s Last Will and Testament
1. Construct a subject phrase for the poem.
Step It Up!
2. How does the speaker characterize Death in the first stanza? Use support from the poem in your
response.
3. What advice does the speaker give to the reader in the second stanza?
4. For what purpose does the speaker repeat “Lord, have mercy on us”?
Get in the Game!
Construct a thematic statement for the poem. If needed, use this fill-in template for assistance, or generate
an original thematic statement on your own.
(Subject Phrase) + (Active Verb) + (Poem’s Concept of Life/Death)
How does the approach of death redefine the way we interpret our world? Share your thoughts with a
partner.
108 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
89
Mark It Up!
All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy
knew was this. One day when she was two years old she was playing in a garden, and she plucked
another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful,
for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, “Oh, why can’t you remain like this for
ever!” This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that
she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.
~J.M. Barrie, “Peter Pan,” The Little White Bird
1. Determine a subject contained in the passage, and further define your subject with a subject phrase.
Step It Up!
2. Hypothesize why Barrie uses a garden motif in the passage.
3. How does the garden motif impact the subject?
4. What begins to “end” at two?
Get in the Game!
Craft a thematic statement for the passage.
What rites of passages, or critical moments, occur in young childhood to propel us forward into our
later youth? Brainstorm responses with a small group.
4
Chapter : Theme 109
Exercise
90
Mark It Up!
Strephon kissed me in the spring,
Robin in the fall,
But Colin only looked at me
And never kissed at all.
Strephon’s kiss was lost in jest,
Robin’s lost in play,
But the kiss in Colin’s eyes
Haunts me night and day.
~Sara Teasdale, “The Look,” Love Songs
1. Construct a subject phrase for the poem.
Step It Up!
2. How does the subject phrase impact the speaker’s thoughts and feelings?
3. What lesson does the speaker learn?
Get in the Game!
Craft a thematic statement for the poem.
How do our past experiences influence our present and future decisions?
110 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
91
Mark It Up!
Little Horace was walking home from school, brilliantly decorated by a pair of new red mittens. A
number of boys were snowballing gleefully in a field. They hailed him. “Come on, Horace! We’re having a
battle.”
Horace was sad. “No,” he said, “I can’t. I’ve got to go home.” At noon his mother had admonished
him: “Now, Horace, you come straight home as soon as school is out. Do you hear? And don’t you get
them nice new mittens all wet, either. Do you hear?” [. . .]
Some of them immediately analyzed this extraordinary hesitancy. “Hah!” they paused to scoff,
“afraid of your new mittens, ain’t you?” Some smaller boys, who were not yet so wise in discerning
motives, applauded this attack with unreasonable vehemence. “A-fray-ed of his mit-tens! A-fray-ed of
his mit-tens.” They sang these lines to cruel and monotonous music which is as old perhaps as American
childhood, and which it is the privilege of the emancipated adult to completely forget. “Afray-ed of his
mit-tens!”
Horace cast a tortured glance towards his playmates, and then dropped his eyes to the snow at his
feet. Presently he turned to the trunk of one of the great maple-trees that lined the curb. He made a
pretence of closely examining the rough and virile bark. To his mind, this familiar street of Whilomville
seemed to grow dark in the thick shadow of shame. The trees and the houses were now palled in purple.
“A-fray-ed of his mit-tens!” The terrible music had in it a meaning from the moonlit war-drums of
chanting cannibals.
At last Horace, with supreme effort, raised his head. “‘Tain’t them I care about,” he said, gruffly. “I’ve
got to go home. That’s all.”
~Stephen Crane, “His New Mittens,” The Monster and Other Stories
1. Choose a subject contained in the passage, and further define your subject with a subject phrase.
Step It Up!
2. How did “this familiar street of Whilomville” seem “to grow dark in the thick shadow of shame” for
Horace? Use support from the passage in your response.
3. Was Horace truly “afraid of his mittens,” or was he afraid of something else?
4. What does Horace’s final reaction to the bullies suggest about his character?
Get in the Game!
Craft a thematic statement for the passage.
Does an adult ever “completely forget” the “cruel and monotonous” music of childhood? Why or why
not? Discuss your response with a partner.
4
Chapter : Theme 111
Exercise
92
Mark It Up!
There are many kinds of hatred, as many kinds of fire;
And some are fierce and fatal with murderous desire;
And some are mean and craven, revengeful, sullen, slow,
They hurt the man that holds them more than they hurt his foe.
And yet there is a hatred that purifies the heart:
The anger of the better against the baser part,
Against the false and wicked, against the tyrant’s sword,
Against the enemies of love, and all that hate the Lord.
O cleansing indignation, O flame of righteous wrath,
Give me a soul to feel thee and follow in thy path!
Save me from selfish virtue, arm me for fearless fight,
And give me strength to carry on, a soldier of the Right!
~Henry Van Dyke, “Righteous Wrath,”
Golden Stars and Other Verses
1. Determine a subject for the poem.
Step It Up!
2. How does the speaker redefine the subject throughout the poem?
3. How does the speaker’s attitude shift each time the subject is redefined?
4. Construct a subject phrase for the poem.
Get in the Game!
Craft a thematic statement for the poem.
How do individuals reconcile their actions or emotions when they defy their own personal moral code?
112 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
93
Mark It Up!
Harvy was among the guests at the wedding; and he sought her out in a rare moment when
she stood alone.
“Your husband,” he said, smiling, “has sent me over to kiss you.”
A quick blush suffused her face and round polished throat. “I suppose it’s natural for a man
to feel and act generously on an occasion of this kind. He tells me he doesn’t want his marriage
to interrupt wholly that pleasant intimacy which has existed between you and me. I don’t know
what you’ve been telling him,” with an insolent smile, “but he has sent me here to kiss you.”
She felt like a chess player who, by the clever handling of his pieces, sees the game taking the
course intended. Her eyes were bright and tender with a smile as they glanced up into his; and
her lips looked hungry for the kiss which they invited.
“But, you know,” he went on quietly, “I didn’t tell him so, it would have seemed ungrateful,
but I can tell you. I’ve stopped kissing women; it’s dangerous.”
Well, she had Brantain and his million left. A person can’t have everything in this world; and
it was a little unreasonable of her to expect it.
~Kate Chopin, “The Kiss,” Vogue
1. Determine a subject contained in the passage, and further define your subject with a subject phrase.
Step It Up!
2. How does the woman react to Harvy’s advances? What does her reaction reveal about her feelings
toward Brantain? Use support from the passage in your response.
3. Why does Harvy fail to kiss the woman? Is this a playful, flirtatious choice, or an honorable action?
Justify your response.
Get in the Game!
Craft a thematic statement for the passage.
Does happiness come from “hav[ing] everything in this world”? Why or why not? Discuss your answers
with a peer.
4
Chapter : Theme 113
Exercise
94
Mark It Up!
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken,”
Mountain Interval
1. Choose a subject contained in the poem, and further define this subject with a subject phrase.
Step It Up!
2. For what reasons does the speaker choose his path?
3. Reveal the speaker’s conflicting attitude toward the paths. Use support from the poem in your
response.
4. How could the poem be read metaphorically to suggest a life lesson?
Get in the Game!
Craft a thematic statement for the poem.
What does an individual gain by challenging the status quo?
114 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
95
Mark It Up!
Nothing is more painful to the human mind than, after the feelings have been worked
up by a quick succession of events, the dead calmness of inaction and certainty which follows
and deprives the soul both of hope and fear. Justine died, she rested, and I was alive. The
blood flowed freely in my veins, but a weight of despair and remorse pressed on my heart
which nothing could remove. Sleep fled from my eyes; I wandered like an evil spirit, for I had
committed deeds of mischief beyond description horrible, and more, much more (I persuaded
myself ) was yet behind. Yet my heart overflowed with kindness and the love of virtue. I had
begun life with benevolent intentions and thirsted for the moment when I should put them
in practice and make myself useful to my fellow beings. Now all was blasted; instead of that
serenity of conscience which allowed me to look back upon the past with self-satisfaction, and
from thence to gather promise of new hopes, I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt,
which hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures such as no language can describe.
~Mary Shelley, Chapter 9, Frankenstein
1. Construct a subject phrase for the passage.
Step It Up!
2. How does the subject phrase impact the narrator’s thoughts, feelings, and actions? Use support from
the passage in your response.
3. Explain the character’s transformation(s) in the passage.
Get in the Game!
Craft a thematic statement for the passage.
How does man’s ability to freely choose his own actions influence his relationship with good and evil?
Discuss your responses with your classmates.
4
Chapter : Theme 115
Exercise
96
Mark It Up!
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,’
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
‘Sir,’ said I, ‘or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you’—here I opened wide the door;—
Darkness there, and nothing more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, ‘Lenore!’
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, ‘Lenore!’
Merely this and nothing more.
~Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven,” The Raven and Other Poems
1. Determine a subject contained in the poem, and further define your subject with a subject phrase.
116 Mastering Close REading
Step It Up!
2. Trace the emotional journey of the speaker in each stanza of the poem. Use support from the poem
in your response.
3. How does the repetition of “nothing more” haunt the speaker?
4. What lesson does the speaker learn as a result of this experience?
Get in the Game!
Craft a thematic statement for the poem.
How do grief and loss influence the way we perceive ourselves and our surrounding environment?
Discuss your responses with the entire class.
4
Chapter : Theme 117
Exercise
97
Mark It Up!
Darkness and silence ruled everywhere around. Above them rose the primeval yews and oaks of
The Chase, in which there poised gentle roosting birds in their last nap; and about them stole the
hopping rabbits and hares. But, might some say, where was Tess’s guardian angel? where was the
providence of her simple faith? Perhaps, like that other god of whom the ironical Tishbite spoke, he
was talking, or he was pursuing, or he was in a journey, or he was sleeping and not to be awaked.
[. . .]
“What are you crying for?” he coldly asked.
“I was only thinking that I was born over there,” murmured Tess.
“Well—we must all be born somewhere.”
“I wish I had never been born—there or anywhere else!”
“Pooh! Well, if you didn’t wish to come to Trantridge why did you come?”
She did not reply.
“You didn’t come for love of me, that I’ll swear.”
“‘Tis quite true. If I had gone for love o’ you, if I had ever sincerely loved you, if I loved you still, I
should not so loathe and hate myself for my weakness as I do now!...My eyes were dazed by you for
a little, and that was all.”
He shrugged his shoulders. She resumed—
“I didn’t understand your meaning till it was too late.”
“That’s what every woman says.”
“How can you dare to use such words!” she cried, turning impetuously upon him, her eyes
flashing as the latent spirit (of which he was to see more some day) awoke in her. “My God! I could
knock you out of the gig! Did it never strike your mind that what every woman says some women
may feel?”
~Thomas Hardy, Part I, Chapter 11, Tess of the D’Urbervilles
1. Determine a subject contained in the passage, and further define your subject with a subject phrase.
Step It Up!
2. Track Tess’s emotional journey throughout the passage. Use support from the passage in your
response.
3. Which motifs in the first paragraph support the impending assault on Tess?
4. What truth does Tess try to teach the man in the passage?
Get in the Game!
Craft a thematic statement for the passage.
Literally and figuratively, how is a woman’s empowerment of voice critical to her survival?
118 Mastering Close REading
Exercise
98
Mark It Up!
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in the old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are,
One equal-temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
~Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Ulysses,” Poems
1. Determine a subject contained in the poem, and further define your subject with a subject phrase.
Step It Up!
2. What does the speaker “seek” in this poem?
3. What is the speaker’s attitude toward his journey? Use support from the poem in your response.
4. What wisdom does the speaker impart to the readers of this poem?
Get in the Game!
Craft a thematic statement for the poem.
How is the meaning of life derived from the journey, not the destination? Share your response with a
partner.
4
Chapter : Theme 119
Exercise
99
Mark It Up!
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask’d, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
~William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 130,”
The Sonnets of William Shakespeare
1. Determine a subject contained in the sonnet.
Step It Up!
2. How does the speaker contrast the nature motif with his mistress’ physical beauty? Use support
form the poem in your response.
3. What conclusion does the speaker draw in the final couplet of the sonnet?
4. Construct a subject phrase for the poem.
Get in the Game!
Craft a thematic statement for the poem.
Is true beauty defined by physical perfection? Why or why not? Share your responses with a small group.
120 Mastering Close REading
Teacher Notes:
Suggested Responses
Chapter Two: Motif and Subject
Exercise 1: 1. Words/Phrases: “unknown and wonderful lands,” “travel through countries,” “follow its
road to up yonder,” “Treasure chest of make-believe places,” “discover the world,” etc. Abstract Ideas:
“unknown,” “wonder,” “discover yourself,” etc. 2. Examples: The poet suggests that “opening the cover of
the book in your hands” will bring you on a journey. Reading allows one to embark on the same journey
as the characters. Metaphorically, the speaker reveals that the journey one takes as she reads leads her
to “discover the world, discover” herself; thus, the journey is one of personal enlightenment. The more
we read, the more we learn about others and about ourselves. 3. Examples: The speaker is excited as she
encourages us to “travel through countries of wisdom and fun;” she is directive and adventurous about
the “wonders” and “discoveries” available for us as opportunities in the world and in our minds. Get in
the Game: Journal responses will vary.
Exercise 2: 1. Words/Phrases: “white sail,” “He is gone,” “Farewell, my friend,” “horizon,” etc. Character
Actions: “Take me to him,” “pointed,” “wiping away a tear,” etc. Character Traits/Emotions/Feelings:
Sadness; Wistfulness; Reflective; Curious; etc. 2. Examples: The count and Haydee are literally leaving
Jacopo, Valentine, and Morrel. They are venturing to a new land. 3. Examples: The characters on land
are now journeying toward acceptance and a new beginning. While Jacopo, Valentine, and Morrel are
saddened by the departure of the count and Haydee, they will learn how to transition to daily life without
these people, which may thusly lead to an introspective awakening for them. Get in the Game: In the
excerpt, “wait” and “hope” are noted, in part, because, in order to wait, one must delay gratification, and
this makes the acquisition of the desired thing all the greater. Hope allows us to always feel like there is an
opportunity for a desired outcome. Students may suggest such words as: honesty, integrity, faith, love, etc.
Exercise 3: 1. Words/Phrases: “calm,” “tide,” “glimmering and vast,” “waves,” “tremulous cadence,” etc.
Abstract Ideas: “calm,” “tranquil,” “eternal note of sadness,” etc. Actions of the Sea: “Waves draw back,”
“fling,” “Begin, and cease, and then begin again,” etc. 2. Examples: The sea is painted as something “calm,”
“tranquil,” and soothing. Its “glimmering” beauty and “vast” size delight the speaker. 3. Example: The sea
comes to life by the end of the poem. It becomes a living, moving entity that “roars” and “flings”—violent
verbs that signify an upheaval of peace. By the end of the poem, the waves move with a “tremulous
cadence” and an “eternal note of sadness,” thus revealing the effect of the turbulence that just occurred.
Get in the Game: Examples: The sea represents the ups and downs of life to the speaker; since the sea
moves between cycles of peace and turbulence, it echoes the tumultuous highs and lows of the human
Teacher Notes: Suggested Responses 121
experience; the sea represents sadness to the speaker because its rhythmic movements are always
governed by the “tremulous cadence” and threat of upheaval. Student journals will vary.
Exercise 4: 1. Words/Phrases: “Bowed,” “compressed,” “dilate,” “animal,” “snarl,” “swiftly,” “silently,” “detour,”
“indifferent,” “contemptuous,” “sprang.” Abstract Ideas: “Lust for the chase,” “every one of his actions
was directed towards a definite end.” 2. Examples: determined, focused, goal-oriented, mysterious, etc.
3. Example: Doyle uses the predatory motif to characterize Sherlock Holmes in order to reveal Holmes’
passion for solving mysteries. Like a crafty predator who hunts down his prey, Holmes will not rest until
he solves the mystery and uncovers the truth. Get in the Game: Responses will vary.
Exercise 5: 1. Words/Phrases: “babes reduced to misery,” “trembling cry,” “children poor,” “land of poverty,”
“bleak,” “bare,” etc. Abstract Ideas: “cold and usurous hand,” “their ways are filled with thorns,” “eternal
winter,” etc. 2. Example: He questions if the children’s “trembling cries” and “songs” are supposed to be
joyful—because aren’t children supposed to be filled with innocent happiness? However, the speaker uses
an exclamatory sentence to express his outburst that “so many children” are poor; thus, their songs are
cries for hunger and for help. 3. Example: The speaker contrasts two settings: one where the sun “never
shines,” fields are “bleak and bare”—a land that is “filled with thorns” and in a state of “eternal winter.” These
negative images of disparity and dejection paint the bleak world of poverty. However, in the final stanza,
the speaker illustrates a world where the sun “does shine” and the “rain does fall,” nourishing the earth and
providing bounty for everyone. In this idyllic place, babies will “never hunger,” and poverty will never “appall”
the mind. The speaker longs for this latter setting to become reality. Get in the Game: Responses will vary.
It may be helpful to point out that Blake was critiquing the church in this poem. He felt that organized
religion was not doing enough to help the poor with the money that they would collect (hence the
reference to the “cold, usurous hand”). Blake believed that a country can’t ever be rich when certain groups
of people are suffering, and he most certainly felt that we all had an obligation to help the needy.
Exercise 6: 1. Words/Phrases: “veil,” “secret sin,” “sad mysteries,” “hide,” “fain conceal,” “preacher had
crept upon them,” “hoarded iniquity of deed or thought,” etc. Abstract Ideas: “reputation,” “influences,”
“imagination,” “powerful effort,” gentle gloom,” “secret sin,” “mysteries,” “consciousness,” etc. 2. Example:
Physically: Each member of the congregation feels the personal power of the minister and his sermon “creep
upon them,” causing them to “quake” in their pews for fear of their secrets being revealed. Emotionally:
The congregation held their hands “on their bosoms,” feeling the strain of secrecy affecting their hearts.
“An unsought pathos” and “awe” spilled forth from the congregation. Spiritually: The parishioners are
ultimately reminded that their secrets have been detected by “the Omniscient.” 3. Example: Initially, the
minister is generally described as a “gentlemanly person,” “neat,” “mild” and reserved; in short, Mr. Hooper
was an ordinary man, impacting no true consequence. On this particular day, however, he dons a black veil
and is perceived as “gloomy” in “temperament.” As he begins his sermon, he gains authority with the “subtle
power” of “his words.” By the passage’s end, the ordinary minister becomes extraordinary, ubiquitous, and
omniscient, like his god, able to discern the secrets of each member. Get in the Game: Responses will vary.
Exercise 7: 1. Words/Phrases: “What,” “Nothing,” “there could be,” “He tried to think what a big
thought that must be,” “he did not know,” etc. Actions: Questions the limitations and expansiveness of
the universe; thinks about God; feels the pain of inadequacy and ignorance; feels “small and weak,” etc.
Traits/Emotions/Feelings: Contemplative, pensive, ignorant, insignificant, “small and weak,” wishful,
child-like, innocent, etc. 2. Example: “[F]eeling small and weak,” the character suffers from low selfesteem due to his lack of knowledge. He recognizes his inadequacies at school, realizes his insignificance
122 Mastering Close REading
in the universe, and confesses that his growth, maturity, and experience of knowledge are “very far away.”
3. Example: As readers, we perceive a young child hungry for academic knowledge and desperate for
the passage of time. The innocent child wants to experience life’s knowledge. Examples of motivation:
Due to the character’s insatiability for knowledge, we can infer that he is motivated to learn as much
as he can, as quickly as he can; the character is inspired to learn though his keen senses of observation,
wonder, and analysis. Get in the Game: Examples: Joyce uses a series of questions to illustrate the
child’s sense of curiosity, as well as repetitive phrases to relay childhood fixations; the sentence lengths
vary from quite short (to show the quick-assessing child) to the long thoughts that blend associations of
a thought-provoked child. Personal responses will vary.
Exercise 8: 1. Words/Phrases: Stanza one: “Front,” “back,” “To the patio,” “open to the light,” “House.”
Stanza two: “Another,” “moves on rusty hinges / to steps that sink through silence, past the whisper of
broken promises, into the dust of forbidden memory,” “a lot of,” “I can never open again,” “Rusty hinges,”
“dust,” “house.” Abstract Ideas: Stanza two: “Silence,” “broken promises,” “forbidden memory.” 2. Example:
The first stanza describes physical doors in a house; the second stanza describes an emotional door to
the speaker’s soul, conscience, or mind. 3. Example: The speaker feels like the door; she/he is isolated,
broken-spirited, and lonely as a result of this “rusty,” “dusty,” unspeakable memory. Get in the Game:
Responses will vary. Most students will focus on “broken,” “forbidden,” and “I can never open again”
to suggest issues of abuse or divorce. Journal responses will vary. For a creative authentic assessment,
encourage poetic or metaphorical responses from students.
Exercise 9: 1. Pastoral: Words/Phrases: “old Maggie and her weakling calf,” “plowing forever,” “green
aisles of corn,” “silence of the plains,” etc. Abstract Ideas: “shadow of change,” “silence,” “waste and wear,”
“powerless to combat,” “grim,” “conquests of peace,” etc. Music: Words/Group of Words: “tenor,” “‘Prize
Song,’” “Symphony Orchestra,” “Wagner,” “musicians,” etc. Abstract Ideas: “first strain of the Pilgrim’s
chorus,” “battle between the two motives,” “ripping of strings,” “waste and wear,” “powerless to combat,”
etc. 2. Example: The music evokes memories of the prairie for the narrator and her aunt. During the
Tannbauser overture, personal memories of the “plains,” “the black pond,” and the “cattle” rush into the
mind’s eye. As the music continues, the emotions and the “conquests of peace” associated with the
landscape overtake the narrator, allowing her to become a part of its historical fabric. 3. Example:
Initially, the narrator is “doubtful” that her aunt would enjoy the symphony, suggesting that the narrator
believes that the two are culturally different. However, as Aunt Georgiana sees the orchestra, she “stirs
with anticipation,” and the narrator believes that her aunt must be connecting the event to the farmland
she has “freshly” left. While the narrator does not grant her aunt the same artistic sophistication she
holds, she does remember how the symphony’s music embraced her when she “was fresh from plowing.”
As the music continues, Aunt Georgiana’s reactions intensify, and her “silent” memories are voiced to the
narrator through the music. The shared experience inexplicably connects the two women. Ironically, the
tears her aunt sheds by the passage’s end sophisticates the narrator to culture and time. Example of what
she learns: The narrator learns “the soul that can suffer so excruciatingly and so interminably” does not
die within a person; rather, one’s ability to express heights of emotions is simply better concealed by age.
Ironically, the cultured narrator learns wisdom and maturity from her “unsophisticated” aunt. Get in
the Game: Journal responses will vary. Consider playing various genres of music as students journal. Do
different kinds of music evoke different memories? Unify or strengthen different kinds of people?
Exercise 10: 1. Pleasure: Words/Phrases: “grins,” “smile,” “sing,” “arise,” “dream,” “myriad subtleties,” etc.
Abstract Ideas: “arise,” “dream.” Pain: Words/Phrases: “lies,” “debt,” “tears,” “sighs,” “cries,” “vile,” “hides our
Teacher Notes: Suggested Responses 123
cheeks and shades our eyes,” “human guile,” “torn and bleeding hearts,” “tortured souls,” “long the mile,”
etc. Abstract Ideas: “lies,” “guile,” “subtleties.” 2. Example: With pleasurable smiles, the mask hides the
pain from being observed by others. 3. Example: The speakers are proud, defiant, self-reliant, optimistic,
spiritual, and careful people. They recognize the necessity for a mask because their daily lives are
physically and emotionally demanding; they feel continually “tortured” and imprisoned by their society.
Clearly, the speakers feel the need to protect their true identities from others. Get in the Game: Journal
responses will vary; for a creative authentic assessment, encourage poetic or metaphorical responses
from students. Brainstorming responses will vary. Most students will focus on derisive religious, racial,
gender, and sexuality groups, acts, or events in history. Consider providing background on Dunbar for
more specified answers.
Exercise 11: 1. Positive: Words/Phrases: “smile the heavens,” “holy act,” “exchange of joy,” “holy words,”
etc. Abstract Ideas: “delights,” “triumph,” “deliciousness,” etc. Negative: Words/Phrases: “sorrow,” “chide,”
“death do what he dare,” “violent,” etc. Abstract Ideas: “sorrow,” “death,” “loathsome,” etc. 2. Example: The
“one short minute,” or slightest hint of love, Romeo has experienced with Juliet is worth any sorrow or
death the union of their two families may bring. His belief in love causes him to “dare” the destruction
that may follow after he “calls her mine.” 2. Example: According to the Friar, passionate love, or “violent
delights,” ends violently. The Friar warns Romeo to “love moderately,” because too “delightful,” too
“triumphant” of a love will extinguish and “die” quickly. He fears the love that comes too “swiftly” or too
“slowly” will not be “long” lasting. Get in the Game: Responses will vary. It may be helpful to provide
insight into the tragic end of Romeo and Juliet. Consider asking the students if the play has relevance to
today’s relationships. Encourage students to agree on a definition or the principles of “loving moderately,”
as most students will cite personal relationships as examples.
Exercise 12: 1. Line one: “fearing”; line two: “less of fear”; line three: “fearing it so long”; line four: “made
it fair.” 2. Fair: just; beautiful; rational; good; fine; etc. Examples: When that which one has feared finally
does arrive, one is resigned to meet it justly and righteously with conviction. The reality of that which
was feared may be less fearsome than thought, which therefore restores one to serenity or a sense of
beauty. Rationality of the mind is restored after the event is over. 2. Example: The speaker has “fits” of
“Dismay” and “Despair” as she awaits. Get in the Game: Examples: The speaker uses her imagination
to exaggerate and dwell on the possibilities of what she fears; fear of the unknown destroys a person’s
mental and emotional state; what we do not know or understand is often scarier than what we do know.
Journal responses will vary.
Exercise 13: 1. Words and Actions: “watch out,” “venom,” “first bite.” 2. Example: Hate is like a snake
that patiently waits to strike out at its prey and poison it with its “venom.” 3. Examples: Hate poisons
and toxifies the soul. It clouds judgment and misaligns our priorities and focus. Ultimately, hate can
overtake us and kill our soul and spirit. 4. Examples: Since the snake is a biblical symbol for evil, the
“first bite” could be an allusion to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Eve’s first bite catapulted the
world into a state of original sin. The first bite is the most toxic of all because hate becomes a learned
behavior. Once its poison enters a human body, it can alter its chemistry forever. Get in the Game:
Responses will vary. Many will discuss wartime and hate-inspired crimes of intolerance.
Exercise 14: 1. Actions: Edna decidedly does not yield to her husband’s wishes to “come in.” She feels her
individual and free “will had blazed up.” She reflects on similar interchanges and firmly reproaches her
husband for his tone and diction. Traits/Emotions/Feelings: Edna feels uninhibited, unrestricted from
124 Mastering Close REading
societal and marital pressures. She is “stubborn and resistant,” definitive and purposeful in her responses
to Leonce, exercising her free “will” and feelings of independence. Reflecting on past behaviors, Edna
affirms that she will never bend her “will” for another again. Her new strength is asserted in her rebuke
toward Leonce’s commanding, belittling speech. 2. Example: While Leonce speaks “fondly” at times to
Edna, he questions the worth of her choices, referring twice to her “folly.” He decides her actions for
her, commanding her to “come in the house instantly.” His tone reveals his belief that he is superior to
Edna, not equal. 3. Example: Edna reflects that previously she would have “yielded to his desire,” simply
out of “habit.” Currently, she wonders “why or how she should have [ever] yielded.” Thus, perhaps for
the first time, she asserts herself and her independence in the marriage. 4. Examples: Women played a
submissive role to men in most marriages. Inequality and oppression were acceptable, even “habitual,” in
society. At the turn of the century, many women were questioning this habit, asserting their own will and
independence and redefining their relationships. Get in the Game: Examples: Psychological and physical
ramifications may occur, such as alienation, exile, imprisonment, isolation, depression, intolerance, failed
relationships, integrity, dignity, righteousness, personal value, self-worth, etc. Debate responses will vary.
Exercise 15: 1. Words/Phrases: “beauty,” “all that’s best. . .meet in her eyes,” “nameless grace which waves in
every tress,” “smiles that win,” etc. Abstract Ideas: “beauty,” “grace,” “pure,” “goodness,” “peace,” “love is innocent,”
etc. 2. Example: Only the “best” and “calm” aspects of nature are used to describe the girl’s beauty; even the
“day” is too “gaudy” to accurately describe the speaker’s vision of beauty. The extreme comparison leads the
reader to believe that the speaker’s concept of beauty is an ideal. 3. Example: The speaker begins the poem
describing the girl’s wondrous action of “walking in beauty.” He further describes her physical features:
eyes, hair, cheek, brow, and smile. The poem’s final two lines relay the girl’s inner beauty as perceived in her
peaceful “mind” and “heart whose love is innocent!” Get in the Game: Responses will vary. Some students
will suggest that since the speaker concludes the poem with emotional attributes, the speaker must have
a strong personal relationship with the girl. Other students will determine that the speaker does not truly
know the girl, since he idealizes the physical beauty of the girl with hyperbolic natural images and uses the
girl’s physical beauty to influence her purity of heart. Journal responses will vary.
Exercise 16: 1. Jane: Actions: “saw a woman, tall and large,” “I lost consciousness,” “I rose,” “bathed my
head and face in water,” “drank a long draught,” “to none but you I would impart this vision,” etc. Traits/
Emotions/Feelings: “I became insensible from terror,” “I felt enfeebled but not ill,” “my nerves were not in
fault,” afraid, rational, certain, etc. The woman Jane sees: Actions: “drew aside the window curtains and
looked out,” “taking the candle,” “retreated to the door,” “the figure stopped,” “the fiery eyes glared upon me,”
“she thrust up her candle close to my face; extinguished it under my eyes,” “lurid visage flamed over mine.”
Traits/Emotions/Feelings: ghostly, curious, monstrous, etc. 2. Example: The man believes that Jane’s vision
was caused by her overly active imagination. He thinks that her fear and panic caused her to see something
that wasn’t really there, or he believes that the events she detailed were part of a nightmare. 3. Example:
Jane remains true to her own belief that what she saw was real, even when a man was disagreeing with her.
Normally, Victorian women were coddled and considered to be frail, hysterical creatures. Jane, however,
refuses to succumb to self-doubt and trusts her instincts by insisting that the woman/ghost/beast in her
room was terrifyingly real. Students will likely point to the last line of the passage as evidence of Jane’s
assertive declaration. Get in the Game: Examples: The line can easily blur between the real and the
imaginary; everyone perceives an experience differently, and our emotions impact how we process different
stimuli; sometimes, an imaginary world (like a dream) creates such a strong reaction within us that it feels
real; whether real or imagined, any experience that creates a powerful response in us will always impact us
both physiologically and psychologically. Journal responses will vary.
Teacher Notes: Suggested Responses 125
Exercise 17: 1. Words/Phrases: “Rough wind,” “moanest loud,” “sullen cloud,” “knells,” “sad storm,” etc.
Abstract Ideas: “grief,” “vain,” “world’s wrong,” etc. 2. Example: Nature is gloomy, sullen, and untamed in
the poem, and it is in the midst of a turbulent state. The “rough wind” “moanest loud grief ”; the “wild
wind” represents a loss of control; the “sullen cloud knells” a funereal sound; the “sad storm” weeps;
the “branches strain” in the bare woods, barren and lifeless; and the mainland is “dreary,” all of which
reinforces the sadness and despair of the speaker. 3. Example: The speaker is commanding nature to
“Wail,” which connotes the strongest emotional image in the poem (versus “moan,” “sad,” or “tears”). This
final exclamatory line is the peak of the speaker’s emotional crescendo and signifies the acuity of his
devastation in response to a tragedy or loss. The entire world feels “wrong,” and nature seems to echo
and mirror his internal pain. He feels like nature is the only entity that can express the depth of his grief.
Get in the Game: Responses will vary. Students will most likely focus on nature/weather and link it
to mood since those were the central images used in this poem. However, this is a great time to pull an
opening paragraph from a text you are reading as a class (or have already read). Look for key descriptive
words, and discuss how they help to reinforce dominant ideas in the text. Help students to bridge the
significance of setting to the patterns and thematic messages in literature. Journal responses will vary.
Exercise 18: 1. Words/Phrases: Physical: “Headache,” “gazing,” “wandered,” “sunk,” “Awake the whole
night,” “unable to talk,” “unwilling to take any nourishment,” etc. Emotional: “Wept,” “potent,” “Forbidding
all attempt at consolation,” “nourishment of grief,” “violence of affliction,” etc. Abstract Ideas: Physical:
“Crying over the present reverse,” “played over every favourite song,” etc. Emotional: “Giving pain every
moment to her mothers and sisters,” “indulging the recollection of past enjoyment,” “no farther sadness
could be gained,” etc. 2. Traits: heartbroken; depressed; devastated; nostalgic; dramatic; contemplative;
lonely; perplexed; etc. 3. Example: Marianne’s grief and sadness are driven by her longing to be with her
former lover, Willoughby. She aches for his presence and his companionship because, without him, she
feels completely devoid of life, passion, and hope. Marianne has one ultimate wish: to be reunited with
Willoughby so they can rekindle their broken relationship. Marianne moves toward acceptance toward
the end of the passage; therefore, her ultimate wish is to accept that she and Willoughby will no longer
be together so she can free herself of the crippling sorrow that overwhelms her soul. Get in the Game:
Examples: Austen sees grief as an entity that both physically and emotionally cripples an individual;
Austen notes that grief is worst at the beginning, but that ultimately, one begins to accept the tragedy
and find more peace; Austen believes that an emotional trauma will always affect one’s spirit and that the
grief and pain never completely disappear. Discussion examples: The pain of love impacts an individual’s
physical and emotional responses along with his/her relationships with other people; grief and sadness
can stifle the human spirit and rob one’s ability to find joy or fulfillment; the pain of love is horrific, but
it always leads to intense introspection and personal growth, etc.
Exercise 19: 1. Words/Phrases: “last,” “alone,” “all. . .companions faded and gone,” “thou lone one,” “pine,”
etc. Abstract Ideas: “scentless and dead,” “friendships decay,” etc. 2. Example: The speaker fears the pain of
loneliness and questions its purpose: “Oh! who would inhabit / This bleak world alone?” Ultimately, the
speaker rejects the impending nature of loneliness. 3. Example: The speaker scatters the petals of the rose to
save it from being alone. 4. Example: The speaker hopes that he will not be left alone when his “friendships
decay” and “fond ones are flown.” Undoubtedly, he wishes for someone to “kindly” pluck him from his “stem”
of life. Get in the Game: Responses will vary; expect creative, authentic answers from the students.
Exercise 20: 1. Actions: Helena: “teach me how you look, and with what art you sway Demetrius’
heart”; “O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill”; “O that my prayers could such affection
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move!”; “The more I love, the more he hateth me”; etc. Hermia: “I frown upon him”; “I give him
curses”; “The more I hate, the more he follows me”; etc. Traits/Emotions/Feelings: Helena: desperate,
heart-broken, eager for love, envious of Hermia’s beauty, affectionate, etc. Hermia: annoyed, beautiful,
unhappy, eager to lose the love of Demetrius, etc. 2. Example: Ultimately, Helena wants Demetrius to
love her. Hermia wants Demetrius to leave her alone. 3. Examples: Helena is envious of Hermia’s ability
to enchant Demetrius. She wants to learn from Hermia, so she can use the same gifts to woo him. She
wants Hermia to “teach” her how to “sway Demetrius’ heart.” She hopes to learn how to “look,” how to
“smile,” and how to “move” his “affection”—all things that Hermia does without trying. 4. Examples:
Relationships can be messy, especially when love is unreturned or when the wrong person is the
recipient of love; a friendship can be compromised over a love relationship; unwanted advances can bring
out our worst self. Get in the Game: Examples: To thrive, a relationship needs open communication,
trust, loyalty, passion, and above all else, two willing participants; betrayal, jealousy, anger, and lack of
mutual love/affection can all ruin a relationship. Journal responses will vary.
Exercise 21: 1. Actions: Chingachgook illustrates that he is “[c]onscious of his people” and comforts
his people as he speaks elegiacally about his son, Uncus. Chingachgook’s last few statements speak to
his omniscient wisdom in his sadness and loneliness, as he recognizes the loss of his bloodline. His
ceremonial speech ends with the utterance: “I am alone—,” signifying Chingachgook’s feelings of loss.
Traits/Emotions/Feelings: Chingachgook is described as: “so renowned a chief,” considerate of the
“wishes of the people,” “stern and self-restrained,” and a warrior.” Throughout the passage, the Chief
reveals himself as gracious, religious, brave, honorable, lonely, and grieving. 2. Example: Chingachgook
realizes the death of the Mohicans, with the death of his beloved son, Uncus; thus, the Chief grieves for
a personal and cultural loss. His loss is immeasurable, and he is truly alone—“a blazed pine, in a clearing
of the pale faces.” Hence, while the “renowned” chief attempts to comfort those around him, by the end
of the first paragraph, he is the one in need of comfort. The people in the passage “mourn” and “weep” for
the loss of Uncus as well. Hawkeye, however, fiercely voices his loyalty to the Chief and his son by blood,
regardless of “color” or “gift.” Grief unifies Hawkeye and Chingachgook, two men without “kin,” as one. 3.
Examples: Hawkeye explains that since he and Uncus “fou’t” together in times of war and “slept” together
in times of peace, he will honor Uncus with remembrance. Hawkeye looks past “color,” “blood,” and “kin”
to denote family; rather, he embraces shared experiences, and thus, pledges to Chingachgook that he will
never be “alone.” 4. Examples: death, culture, family, kinship, loyalty, mourning, loneliness, war, comfort,
brotherhood, fatherhood, race, and other similar answers. Get in the Game: Examples: The characters
are primarily unified through grief, but kinship, race, common foes, peace, and spiritual gifts are also
noted as unifying forces. Journal responses will vary. Students will cite specific ways in which our shared
experiences allow us to realize that we have more similarities than differences with others of difference.
Exercise 22: 1. Actions: The speaker questions, warns, and confronts the new person. Traits/Emotions/
Feelings: Disagreeable, confessional, confrontational, self-doubt, cunning, etc. Examples: The speaker is
motivated to continue his façade because he fears the new person will not like who he really is—a person
with flaws. The “real” speaker is “different from what you suppose,” for he confesses that he is not ideal.
2. Example: The speaker creates an ideal façade, one attracting “love,” “friendship,” “trust,” “faithfulness,”
and a “tolerant manner.” 3. Examples: appearance vs. reality, identity, deception, fitting in, popularity,
peer pressure, fiction vs. reality, etc. Get in the Game: Examples: The speaker considers the new person
a “dreamer,” because he perceives that the person has idealized the speaker’s personality; perhaps the
speaker finds culpability with the new person for this idealized view or for indirectly causing the speaker
to perpetuate this ideal. Discussion findings will vary. Students will most likely point to peer pressures.
Teacher Notes: Suggested Responses 127
Exercise 23: 1. Narrator’s Actions: “sat down on the porch,” “listened to the birds and insects,” “I
shooed it away,” “waved my hand over his face,” etc. Narrator’s Traits/Emotions/Feelings: reflective,
guilt-ridden, remorseful, sad, powerless, and other similar choices. 2. Example: At first, the narrator
is reflective and protective of her brother’s corpse. She keeps “shooing” away insects that try to land on
Bobby’s face. Then, she faces the reality of his disease: she notes that his “thin little body” lost all of its
baby “chubbiness,” and she matter-of-factly states that she knows what “polio can do to a person.” The
narrator then questions how she was going to explain Bobby’s loss to her daddy—a man she respects
and worships. She feels as if she has let him down because she “messed everything up” once he put
her in charge. At the end of the passage, all she wants is to remember Bobby warm, “snuggly,” and alive
because she cannot bear to feel the “coldness” of his permanent absence. 3. Examples: The narrator
has experienced a metaphorical death in this passage because she has lost her innocence. She feels like
she has failed her brother and did not adequately protect him, so she assumes responsibility for his
loss. This is a burden that is far too heavy for any child to carry, which results in a death of her former
self—a young girl who saw the world as a place of hope and possibility. 4. Examples: guilt, despair,
nostalgia, loss of innocence, childhood, disease, death, and other similar choices. Get in the Game:
Journal responses will vary.
Exercise 24: 1. Actions: “arise,” “go to Innisfree,” “a small cabin build there,” “nine bean-rows I will have
there,” “live alone,” etc. Traits/Emotions/Feelings: desire to escape, peaceful, meditative, soothed by
nature, introspective, etc. Motivation example: The speaker wants to get away from the chaos of life and
retreat into the simplicity and peace of nature. 2. Examples: The forces of nature begin to transform the
speaker. Once he arrives at Innisfree, he “builds” his own cabin, and he plants his own food. He is eager
to “live alone” and live off the land—much like Henry David Thoreau. Once he is amidst the beauty of
Innisfree, “peace comes dropping slow” as the morning begins and the “cricket sings.” He also describes
the serene images of each time of day, from the “glimmer” of midnight to the “purple glow” of noon. The
abounding tranquility in the setting rejuvenates the speaker’s soul and spirit. 3. Examples: Even after
he returns to his other life, he believes that Innisfree “always” lives on in him. He will forever hear the
meditative water “lapping” in his “heart’s core,” proving that Innisfree has profoundly transformed the
way he interprets the world. 4. Examples: peace, nature, introspection, inspiration, self-dependence,
simplicity, transformation, etc. Get in the Game: Responses will vary. Since current students are
addicted to technology, they will easily see the benefits of cell phones, texting, instant messaging, video
games, and social networking sites. Encourage them to consider how they are not able to fully live in the
present because they are always multi-tasking, which takes a toll on the mind and spirit. Perhaps even
challenge your classes to partake in an experiment where they drastically limit their time spent with
technology and have them journal about the challenges and benefits. It could be a paradigm-shifting
experience for them! Consider reading Thoreau, Emerson, and other Transcendentalist writers to help
them see the benefits of living simply.
Exercise 25: 1. Words: “beautiful,” “young,” “princess,” “smile,” etc. Groups of Words: “center of another
group,” “perfectly beautiful woman,” “white dress,” “white shoulders,” etc. Subject: Examples: femininity,
beauty, appearance, youth, power, purity, identity, and other similar choices. 2. Example: For the subject
of beauty, students may choose words/phrases such as: “smiled,” “graciously,” “bring the glamour of a
ballroom with her,” “she did not show any trace of coquetry,” etc. 3. Examples: Helene acts as if she is
comfortable with her glorious beauty. She moves gracefully and regally, and she even displays parts of
herself that most women kept hidden at the time. This would suggest that Helene was eager to show
off her womanly shape and assets. However, upon closer inspection of Helene’s demeanor, it becomes
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evident that Helene is embarrassed by her stunning loveliness. She is humbled by her own gift and
wishes to “diminish its effect.” Perhaps she just wants to blend in with her peers, or maybe she wants
to be noticed for her other virtues and talents. Get in the Game: Responses will vary. Most students
will assert that appearance is overly valued, especially in today’s culture. With beauty comes power,
desirability, and success or fame. As we know, appearances can be deceiving. Outward beauty can conceal
internal ugliness.
Exercise 26: 1. Actions: “stopping here,” “watch his woods fill up with snow,” “I have promises to keep,”
“miles to go before I sleep,” etc. Traits/Emotions/Feelings: contemplative, peaceful, meditative, soothed
by nature, restored by nature, etc. Motivation examples: The speaker wants to restore himself in the
midst of his busy schedule. Watching the snow brings him peace and comfort. 2. Examples: The horse
thinks it is “queer” and strange for the speaker to suddenly stop, especially since it was dark and bitterly
cold. Also, the horse is used to moving from task to task, so he tries to pull the speaker out of his reverie
by giving his “harness bells a shake.” He is confused by his speaker’s decision to stop and watch the snow.
3. Examples: The speaker wants to do more than merely “stop” by the woods; he is clearly entranced
by the “lovely” and “dark” woods, and he is mesmerized by the beauty of the snow’s “downy flake”; the
speaker must leave this lovely place because he has “promises to keep,” and the repetition of having “miles
to go” before he sleeps reveals the drudgery and obligation that weigh down the speaker; the woods
and the snow help him to restore his depleted spirit. 4. Examples: nature, restoration, journey, beauty,
serenity, and other similar choices. Get in the Game: Examples: Both speakers want to escape the
obligations of their world, and they seek nature as a respite from the burdens of daily life. The speaker
in “Innisfree” wants to literally build his own home in this beautiful place of solitude and plant roots,
but the speaker in “Woods” only wants to watch the wonders of nature. While the speaker in “Innisfree”
ends by saying that the peace of nature will be within him always, the speaker in “Woods” concludes
with the obligations that now shackle his mind and soul; therefore, he is no longer filled with the same
serenity and contentment.
Exercise 27: 1. Words/Phrases: “maps,” “earth,” “inviting,” “hemispheres,” “hankering,” “passion for maps,”
“lose myself,” “glories of explorations,” “blank spaces,” etc. Subject examples: adventure/exploration,
journey, curiosity, innocence/experience, childhood/adulthood, growing up, dreams unfulfilled,
transformation, and other similar choices. 2. Example: for the subject of adventure/exploration, students
may choose words such as: “Passion for maps,” “lose myself,” “glories of exploration,” “blank spaces on
earth,” etc. 3. Example: The character’s attitude toward adventure/exploration is eager, impassioned, and
optimistic in the first paragraph. However, in the second paragraph, the speaker has grown up, and his
tone shifts to deflation, dejection, and disappointment. Get in the Game: Responses will vary. Answers
may focus around the concepts of how growing up changes one’s perspective, the loss of innocence, and
the benefits and detriments of progress/industrialization.
Exercise 28: 1. Words/Phrases: “nervous,” “mad,” “heard,” “old man,” etc. Actions: The narrator attempts
to justify that he is not mad. He relays how he conceived the notion to kill the old man. Subject
examples: insanity, madness, murder, persuasion, irrationality, and other similar choices. 2. Example:
While the narrator admits that he is “nervous,” he considers himself intellectual, healthy, calm, cautious,
cunning, and clear-minded. 3. Example: The narrator is proud of maintaining his wits while killing the
old man. He hopes to persuade his audience, perhaps the jury, police, or us, that he is sane, “wise,” and of
sound mind. Get in the Game: Example: The narrator implements incongruous language tools in the
passage: he repeatedly questions our assessment of him as “mad,” as he reiterates how “wisely” he acted.
Teacher Notes: Suggested Responses 129
Furthermore, the event he details so “calmly” is that of “wisely” killing an “old man” for no justifiable
reason. The contradictory reasoning illustrates the narrator’s efforts as absurd by the end of the passage,
truly characterizing him as irrational, insane, and unwise. Journal responses will vary.
Exercise 29: 1. Examples: friendship, fear, love lost and gained, loyalty vs. disillusionment, and other
similar choices. 2. Speaker’s Actions: The speaker asks for one thing from her friend. She wants to believe
that this friend will always be true and loyal. Speaker’s Traits/Emotions/Feelings: The speaker is asking
a friend to be there for her always, to stay true, and to never betray her trust. Motivation examples:
The speaker is driven by a need for companionship and stability. She needs the comfort and security
that a good friend brings. Get in the Game: Examples for the subject of friendship: The speaker values
friendship and is afraid of losing friendship. Example for the subject of companionship: The speaker
desires companionship and doesn’t want to be alone. Example for fear: The speaker recognizes the folly
of her unrealistic expectations yet remains afraid of the future. Example for love lost and gained: The
speaker sees the futility of holding onto the present. Hypothesizing examples: The speaker has been part
of abusive relationships; the speaker has been scorned/betrayed; the speaker speaks broadly about the
ugliness of human nature instead of beauty and goodness because she is philosophical in nature.
Exercise 30: 1. Examples: innocence, experience, stereotypes, relationships, romantic relationships, men
and women, jumping to conclusions, cultural stereotypes, sexual objectification, youth vs. maturity, etc.
2. Winterbourne’s Actions: speaks to his aunt, plans to take the young girl on vacation, contemplates
the intentions of the young girl, and fantasizes about the young girl’s free spirit. Winterbourne’s
Traits/Emotions/Feelings: smitten with the young girl, indignant in his response to his aunt’s
objections, “earnest with desire for trustworthy information,” and cunning, deceitful, scheming, and
sly as he intimates his guilty and pleasurable intentions with the young girl. 3. Example: As connoted
in the last line of the passage, Winterbourne does not intend to honor the innocence of the young
girl. His intentions are selfish, if not diabolical, as illustrated by his “smiling and curling [of ] his
mustache”; hence, he disregards the girl’s reputation and her true intentions. 4. Example of definitions:
“Uncultivated” is referenced by Winterbourne to suggest uncultured or unrefined. His aunt, however,
suggests the term to mean a girl with little to no sexual restraint. Example of the terms’ use: Ironically,
Mrs. Costello warns her nephew of the girl’s possible irreverence to sexual mores, while she clearly
recognizes her nephew’s pleasurable intentions. She does not chastise her nephew for his loose morals,
nor does she think to warn the American girl of her nephew; rather, Mrs. Costello’s actions suggest that
prurient women are problematic for men, but prurient men are of little concern, perhaps commonplace,
or even expected in society. Get in the Game: Most students will suggest that there is a very strong and
clear double standard, as illustrated by Mrs. Costello.
Exercise 31: 1. Examples: youth vs. old age, power of love, seize the day, nature, awakening/realization,
passion vs. apathy, wisdom, life lessons, and other similar choices. 2. For the subject of youth vs. old age:
Words/Phrases: “Old,” “today,” “setting,” “age,” “Old Time,” “Tomorrow will be dying,” “That age is best,”
etc. Abstract Ideas: “Time,” “dying,” “Age,” “prime,” “tarry,” etc. 3. Example for the subject of youth vs. old
age: Herrick suggests that, like the setting sun, youth is fleeting. Get in the Game: Examples: Students
may express that the poem teaches us to make use of our time, to enjoy our youth, or to love/marry
while we have our prime beauty to attract others.
Exercise 32: 1. Examples: marriage, relationships, abuse, oppression, peace/angst, gender roles, and
other similar choices. 2. Examples: Rip Van Winkle is an easygoing man who is a “happy mortal.” He
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doesn’t take the world very seriously, and because of this constant “contentment,” he isn’t a very motivated
individual. He would rather enjoy the moment instead of “working for a pound,” and this “carelessness”
has brought hardship to his family. Dame Van Winkle is the opposite of a quiet, subservient wife. She is
angry and constantly attacks her husband’s “idleness.” Her “tongue was incessantly going,” and her words
are always harsh and vitriolic. 3. Example: Dame Van Winkle’s verbal and physical abuse cause great
distress in Rip Van Winkle and his dog, Wolf. Rip never fights back; instead, he “shrugs his shoulders”
and “shakes his head,” but he “says nothing.” Similarly, his dog Wolf also retreats in the face of Dame’s
cruelty. Wolf was “courageous” outside of the house as he hunted in the woods, but upon entering
the house, Wolf ’s tail would “droop to the ground” in fear. Just like his master, Wolf would also run
outdoors in order to escape the wrath of Dame Van Winkle. Get in the Game: Example for the subject
of relationships: The volatile relationship between Rip and Dame Van Winkle is caused by differences in
personality and temperament. Also, the tension between both characters is a result of Rip’s laziness and
Dame’s temper. Teaching examples: Irving wanted to teach his audience that destructive relationships
cause unhappiness for both people; we need to help and support one another instead of hurting or
ignoring one another; violence will never produce positive results in a relationship.
Exercise 33: 1. Examples: honor, love, bravery, sacrifice, war, loyalty, and other similar choices.
2. Examples: The speaker leaves the embrace of his innocent, “Sweet” love and runs into the figurative
and literal “arms” of war. Now with weapon in hand instead of lover, he “chases” a new mistress—a “foe”
that he hopes to conquer and vanquish. As he passionately hunts down the enemy, the speaker now
lovingly “embrace[s]” three things that will help to preserve his own life—his “sword,” “horse,” and “shield.”
3. Examples: The speaker willingly left his love for his mistress—“war”—but he was proving his honor
and integrity. He believes that he must love those virtues above all else, even above his love for her, or he
would not be a chivalrous man who deserves her love and adoration. He uses his devotion to his country
to showcase his nobility and willingness to sacrifice himself for a cause greater than himself, all of which
make him more capable of loving his lady with such fervor. Get in the Game: Example for the subject of
honor: We must put our own desires on hold while pursuing noble endeavors in order to be honorable.
Example for the subject of love: One must value morality and ethics above his/her love for others.
Chapter Three: The Subject Phrase
Exercise 34: 1. Death: Words/Phrases: “threshold,” “stiller,” “withers,” “Shoulder high,” “slip betimes
away,” “Eyes the shady night has shut,” “earth has stopped the ears,” “name died,” etc. Abstract Ideas:
“glory,” “withered,” “silence,” “honours,” “renown,” “echoes,” “still-defended,” “strengthless,” “unwithered,” etc.
Youth: Words/Phrases: “boy,” “lad,” “curls,” “early though the laurel grows,” “fleet foot,” “early-laurelled
head,” etc. Abstract Ideas: “early,” “briefer,” etc. 2. Example: Stanza one: The heroic lad wins a race for the
town; they lift the boy on their shoulders in pride. Stanza two: The boy transforms from life to death;
the townsmen carry his casket on their shoulders. Stanza three: The speaker discusses generally that
fame is fleeting. Stanza four: The boy’s body is descended into the ground. He will not see someone
beat his athletic record. Stanza five: The town celebrates the boy’s life. Stanza six: The boy transcends
into the spiritual world. 3. Example: The speaker glorifies the boy in the first and last stanza, lifting his
body and soul upwards. The internal stanzas are elegiac in tone, honoring the athlete. Get in the Game:
Examples: The speaker signifies that dying young is fortunate for the boy, for it ensures the athlete’
eternal fame and therefore his immortality; the speaker talks on behalf of the town, perhaps literally
eulogizing the athlete; the speaker also directs his message to the readers of the poem.
Teacher Notes: Suggested Responses 131
Exercise 35: 1. Friendship: Words/Phrases: “large-eyed friendship,” “restful gaze,” “cool verdant vales” etc.
Abstract Ideas: “free from care,” etc. Love: Words/Phrases: “intensity of its own fires,” “throes,” “torments,”
etc. Abstract Ideas: “throes,” “torments,” “desires,” etc. 2. Example: The poet uses nature motifs to contrast
friendship from love. Where love is fiery, filled with “heated” flames and “ashes,” friendship is “cool verdant
vales,” untouched by nature’s fire, untouched by man’s love. 3. Example: Personifying love and friendship
gives these emotions the power to directly influence the speaker, as well as give the author more power
to describe the emotions’ actions and reactions. Get in the Game: Example: The last four lines of the
octave intimate that the speaker’s heart is “incomplete” and saddened with the “loss” of love. Friendship,
as it appears to the speaker, cannot fill the heart and soul as love can. Debate responses will vary. Many
students will suggest that relying on friendship can help mend a broken heart, but that a lover cannot
necessarily successfully return to simply being a friend, as the speaker of the poem has determined.
Exercise 36: 1. Words/Phrases: “belong to her absolutely”; “she would live for herself ”; “possession
of self-assertion”; “Free! Body and soul free”; etc. Character’s Actions: The character sees “beyond”
the death of her lover to the “years to come.” She contemplates a person’s ability to truly feel free. She
considers her lover and decidedly values “self-assertion” over love. At the passage’s end, she revels in
her new and absolute freedom. Character’s Traits/Emotions/Feelings: shocked, hopeful, thrilled,
reflective, introspective, free, etc. 2. Example: The character comes to a philosophical and emotional
definition of absolute freedom. She determines that living for one’s self without feeling submissive to
another (whether a “kind intention or a cruel intention”) is absolute freedom. Emotionally, she defines
absolute freedom as the essence of her being. 3. Example: The character is clearly a rational, methodical,
philosophical thinker. She reasons through her revelation, as denoted by the objective, second
paragraph. However, as the notion of absolute freedom becomes more of a reality for the character, her
responses are quick and excitable. Her whispers are exclamatory, as she grows more impassioned and
alive with the idea of her new freedom. Get in the Game: Example: The character values her freedom
so intensely because she has had her free will “imposed” upon in the past, most likely by her lover, whom
“often she had not” loved. Most students will recognize that relationships require compromise, and
hence, a bending of one’s will; although, responses will vary.
Exercise 37: 1. Words/Phrases: Beauty: “long fresh grass,” “rosy blooms,” “gleams,” “golden king-cup
fields,” etc. Abstract Ideas: “eyes smile peace,” “hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky,” “wing’d
hour is dropt to us from above,” etc. Words/Phrases: Silence: “inarticulate hour,” “twofold silence,” etc.
Abstract Ideas: “visible silence,” “still as the hour-glass,” “song of love,” etc. 2. Example: The speaker uses
nature to further describe the beauty of his love. He compares her to “rosy blooms” and links her “smile”
to the “peace” that emanates from the magical setting. As he details the “golden” fields that surround
them, he likens their resting place to a “nest”—a protected haven that nature has created for them.
Lastly, he compares the “dragon-fly” as a perfect relic that was “loosened from the sky” to the “wing’d
hour” that he is able to share with his love in this majestic place. 3. Example: The beauty of silence
evokes a moment of enlightenment in the speaker. He realizes that perfect “twofold silence” represents
the “song of love” because the bliss of that person’s companionship and proximity is enough to inspire
a state of total Zen and contentment. Get in the Game: Examples: A physical setting controls our
emotions in powerful ways; if the setting is beautiful, it inspires peace, wonder, and awe; if the setting
is ugly or destitute, it evokes feelings of unrest, disgust, and sometimes guilt (over what we have versus
what others do not have). Setting can be tied into personal associations, so for some, a place like the
beach will always trigger feelings of happiness and independence—feelings that stem from spending
much of one’s childhood on the sandy shores. Justifying responses will vary, but students will likely focus
132 Mastering Close REading
on how being still and silent in another’s presence is a sign of complete comfort. However, they may not
align comfort and contentment with love.
Exercise 38: 1. Examples: Catherine shares her “miseries” with Heathcliff; Catherine’s “great thought
in living is” Heathcliff; she could live if only he existed; etc. 2. Example: Catherine transcends the
physical present by expressing a spiritual love with Heathcliff. Together they share the same body,
the same space, the same essence. 3. Example: Catherine recognizes that her love for Linton will
change and die, like foliage through the seasons. Conversely, her love for Heathcliff is “eternal,” like the
Earth—immutable. The natural images illustrate the vast contrast between the two loves. 4. Example:
Ironically, Bronte uses a nature motif to further reinforce the undying love between the two characters.
While nature is mutable, the nature of love that Catherine expresses is not, for it transcends the laws
of nature—laws of man and the nature of man. Hence, in comparing her love to natural images beyond
the face of the normal landscape, Catherine is able to relay her message of the transcendent power of
love. Get in the Game: Examples: Unhealthy: Catherine believes she is Heathcliff and therefore has lost
herself in another. Her soul does not belong to herself; rather, her soul is one with Heathcliff ’s. Indeed,
her everlasting soul and her immediate presence have been forever altered by the meeting of Heathcliff.
Healthy: Catherine recognizes the pain and beauty in love. She sees love realistically, not ideally, as a
“source of little visible delight, but necessary.” She sees her soul as entwined with Heathcliff ’s; together
they form an unbreakable union.
Exercise 39: 1. Subject examples: death, dignity, nature, relationships, suicide, bravery vs. fear, courage,
awakening/realization, introspection, peace vs. angst, comfort vs. discomfort, survival of the fittest,
adversity, and other similar choices. Character’s Actions: running, staggering in the snow and frost,
falling to the ground, shivering, cursing the dog, panicking, deciding to die decently. Character’s Traits/
Emotions/Feelings: abusive, brave, dignified, uncomfortable, scared, introspective, resigned, accepting,
adversarial, etc. 2. Examples: The narrator wants to die with dignity. The character is motivated to die
decently. The character’s goal is to die peacefully despite the horrific weather conditions. 3. Examples:
the acceptance of death, the dignified death, the courageous death, the release in death, the peace of
death, and other similar choices. Get in the Game: Response may vary. Examples: Victorious: Some
may cite the character’s peaceful conclusion as his victory over death’s harsh reality; others may suggest
the character’s personal transformation in the passage as victorious for the human spirit. Not victorious:
The character’s inability to survive the weather is his physical defeat, or the character’s quiet awareness
of his own mortality is his psychological defeat.
Exercise 40: 1. Subject examples: freedom, restraint, free will, sympathy, empathy, and other similar
choices. Bird’s Actions: reacts to enchanting spring, “beats his wings” until he bleeds, “flies back to his
perch and clings,” etc. Traits/Emotions/Feelings: desires flight of freedom, throbs with pain of restraint,
bruised will, etc. 2. Example: The bird is not motivated to sing by “joy,” but rather, sings as a “prayer”
or a “plea” for freedom. 3. Example: The speaker recognizes the ills of restraint, as does the caged bird.
Stanza one: As the bird flutters with joy at the beauty the world has to offer him, so does the speaker.
Optimism abounds. Stanza two: The bird bloodies himself attempting to take part in the world beyond
his cage and feels the pain of ostracism. The speaker, too, has clearly tried to be an active participant in
his outer world, but, like the bird, has felt the pain of restraint and ostracism. Stanza three: The bird is
“bruised” from trying to break free from the fetters of his life. He prays and pleads for freedom; these are
the melodious sounds we mistake as joyful singing. The speaker is emotionally and physically “bruised”
from his trials as well. He relies on prayers and pleas to free his body, soul, and mind from societal
Teacher Notes: Suggested Responses 133
restraints; hence, his poetic words. Example: The speaker feels akin to the caged bird because they both
feel the pains of restraint and the desires of freedoms. 4. Examples: the pain of restraint, the desire for
freedom, the power of voice, and other similar choices. Get in the Game: Responses will vary. Many
students will suggest groups or individuals that are unjustly metaphorically imprisoned by society or
societal prejudices.
Exercise 41: 1. Subject examples: panic, fear, insanity, introspection, betrayal, truth/fiction, angst,
entrapment, predator/prey, and other similar choices. Character’s Actions: “rushed up and down the
stairs,” “trying every door,” “peering out of every window,” “sat down quietly,” etc. Character’s Traits/
Emotions/Feelings: terrified, trapped, helpless, overwhelmed, introspective, insane, scheming, watchful,
vigilant, rational, etc. 2. Example: The motivating goal for the narrator is to determine if he is indeed
being held captive. He also wants to maintain his sanity so he can react with rational thought to protect
himself. 3. Examples: the effect of panic, the need for introspection, the horror of entrapment, crippling
fear, temporary insanity, or other similar choices. Get in the Game: Responses will vary. Some may
cite that the narrator will succumb to his clever captor since fear and panic have crippled him in the
past. Also, he seems to doubt if he truly is being held captive, so he doesn’t trust his own intuition.
Others may believe that the narrator will ultimately outsmart the Count, especially since he is much
more rational by the passage’s end and is trying to come up with a plan for survival. He realizes the
importance of keeping his wits and using his intelligence to preserve his own life.
Exercise 42: 1. Subject examples: nature, free will, man vs. nature, cowardice vs. bravery, honor,
education, masculinity, and other similar choices. Speaker’s Actions: observes the snake at the trough,
contemplates killing the snake, and thinks of the snake honorably. Traits/Feelings/Emotions: fearful,
hostile, cowardly, perverse, and humble. 2. Examples: The speaker feels like a “second comer” to the
snake. He fears the snake’s venom and his power to circumvent the speaker’s education and masculinity.
The speaker confesses that the snake’s charm condemns him into a “perverse” “coward” while brightly
providing him the humility to honor nature. The speaker is humbled. 3. Example: The snake’s presence
makes the speaker question that which separates man from beast: education and society’s mores; hence,
his perception of nature’s power alters, as he recognizes the insignificance of man in the power of nature.
4. Examples: the insignificance of man, the power of nature, the power of one’s inner voice, and other
similar choices. Get in the Game: Example: The speaker learns that separating and oppressing nature is
unnatural to one’s essence.
Exercise 43: 1. Examples: freedom, bravery/courage, ambition, community, revolution, peace/angst, real
or ideal, and other similar choices. 2. Examples of noun phrases: the power of community, the effect of
courage, the thrill of revolution, the serenity of peace, the beauty of the ideal, and other similar choices.
Examples of adjective phrases: the unrealistic ideal, the romantic ideal, true courage, idealistic ambition,
the impassioned community, and other similar choices. Example using the thrill of revolution: Words/
Phrases: “altar, “fame,” “Old men blessing children,” “no more hatreds,” “work for all,” “no more wars,” etc.
Abstract Ideas: “picture the future to yourselves,” “streets of cities inundated with light,” “nations sisters,”
“the past loving the present,” etc. Get in the Game: Responses will vary. For example, students may
say that a Utopian society should be peaceful and harmonious with equal opportunities for all citizens
or that a Utopian society would be a place where all citizens have a voice that is valued and heard.
Others may conclude that a Utopian community is free of hardship or strife. However, since everyone
has a different definition of perfection, some may believe that an ideal society is not possible because
conflicting beliefs would cause tension.
134 Mastering Close REading
Exercise 44: 1. Examples: patriotism, sacrifice, war, death, similarities and differences, bravery, courage,
afterlife, gratitude, discomfort/comfort, heroes, and other similar choices. 2. Actions: Speaker: sitting
by the fire, doesn’t ask for help, “wrapt in peace,” will die. Heroes: “starved and stiff,” “fatigued,” “lacking
all,” “strife,” will find good, will win “eternal life.” Traits/Emotions/Feelings: Speaker: strong, selfish.
Heroes: “fatigued,” “grey,” “old,” “brave.” 3. Examples: thankful, grateful, gracious, patriotic, etc. Examples:
The speaker recognizes the sacrifice the soldiers endure for him to feel peaceful at night. He honors
the soldiers as “brave heroes,” valuing their courage over his own selfish needs. 4. Examples using the
subject of sacrifice: the necessity for sacrifice, the effects of sacrifice, the soldier’s sacrifice, brave sacrifice,
courageous sacrifice, and other similar choices. Get in the Game: Responses will vary. For example,
some may cite motifs of war, suggesting soldiers are heroes. Some may cite examples of how the speaker
lives in contrast to how the heroes live. Other students may focus on the actions of the heroes. Most
students will cite the last line of the sonnet as evidence.
Exercise 45: 1. Examples: guilt, conscience, deceit, real/imaginary, angst, injustice, morality, and other
similar choices. For the subject of conscience, students may choose motifs such as: “crying,” “wooden
finger,” “oppressed conscience,” “phantom devoting me to the Hulks,” “everything seemed to run at me,”
“disagreeable,” “guilty mind,” “bursting at me,” “cried,” “cloud of smoke,” and other similar findings. The
narrator is embarking on a journey and had to take something that was not his, which has created
feelings of guilt and paranoia within him. 2. Examples: The imagery paints a dreary landscape that is
“damp” and wet, which paints a picture of sadness and despair. Clearly, the narrator is filled with fear
and trepidation. The “thick mist” demonstrates the narrator’s hope to conceal his act of thievery, and
the “spider webs” symbolize the weaving of his own web of deceit and trickery. 3. Examples: the power
of guilt, the ugliness of deceit, a burdened conscience, intolerable angst, and other similar choices.
Get in the Game: Examples: Our conscience, especially a guilty one, can cause us to misinterpret the
world around us. The narrator is so afraid of being caught that he fears that everything is “watching”
or “running at” him—like the ox who “fixed [him] so obstinately with his eyes”—and he even feels
moved to assert his innocence to the animal! His conscience makes him act irrationally, and he cannot
accurately view his surroundings through the haze of his guilt and apprehension.
Exercise 46: 1. Examples: suicide, class systems, poverty, wealth, appearances vs. reality, and other similar
choices. Example using the subject of wealth: “gentleman from sole to crown,” “crown,” “clean favored,”
“glittered,” and other similar choices. Richard Cory cares for his appearance, was “human when he talked,”
and “glittered when he walked.” He presented himself as “schooled” and “graceful.” He committed suicide.
2. Example: The speakers are envious of Cory’s wealth and strength of character; they often “wish[ed]
that [they] were in his place.” 3. Example: Robinson contrasts the economic situation of the speakers
and Cory. While the people on “the pavement” “worked” and “went without meat,” they “looked” up to
Cory, coveting his wealthy appearance that “glittered” like gold. 4. Examples using wealth as a subject: the
appearance of wealth, the effects of wealth, the pressures of wealth, the façade of wealth, and other similar
choices. Get in the Game: Example of tone: The speakers’ tone in the first two lines of the stanza can be
considered resentful, bitter, and angry. The tone shifts in the second half of the stanza, however, to that
of “calm,” like the “summer night.” Students may suggest that the speakers even use a detached, matterof-fact, or composed tone in the last two lines. Examples of why the tone was chosen: Perhaps Robinson
chose a calming tone to relay Cory’s suicide to maintain Cory’s “quiet” character, who appeared to never
have had to struggle; perhaps the matter-of-fact tone is to offend the reader, thereby encouraging the
reader to take a closer look at the poem’s message; perhaps Robinson uses a detached tone when relaying
Cory’s suicide to further illustrate how detached from reality the speakers’ perceptions of the wealthy man
Teacher Notes: Suggested Responses 135
truly were. Examples of impact: The speakers are clearly impacted by the suicide because they retell the
events after Cory’s death to warn against making snap judgments based on appearances; as the poem is
told in past tense, perhaps the speakers have learned to be less envious of others; the lasting tone of the
poem indicates that the speakers are not impacted by Cory’s death.
Exercise 47: 1. Examples: women’s roles, oppression, suicide, dreams unfulfilled, discomfort, angst,
ugliness/beauty, sadness/despair, introspection, parent-child relationships, and other similar choices.
Example using the subject of oppression: “used to” being “alone,” “felt wretched” in pregnancy, cannot
“afford” another child, “despised” husband, “the world seemed a dreary place,” “swilling himself drunk,”
etc. Mrs. Morel thinks about the burden of raising children without her husband’s or any financial
support. She “takes herself out,” perhaps literally or figuratively committing suicide. 2. Example
using oppression: Mrs. Morel finds her station in life oppressive. Her unhealthy marriage, unwanted
pregnancy, poverty, and lack of a role other than as a mother make her feel as if her life is unbearable.
3. Examples using oppression: the oppression of women’s roles, the despair of oppression, the
pervasiveness of oppression, the mental instability of oppression, crippling oppression, and other similar
choices. Get in the Game: Responses will vary. Students may cite Mrs. Morel’s complex situation as
support for labeling her a victim of circumstance, while others may cite her attitude as support for
labeling her a determiner of her own fate. While justifying responses will vary, students may perceive
that the passage intertwines motherhood with women’s roles. As her name suggests, Mrs. Morel has no
identity of her own; she is an extension of her children and her husband.
Exercise 48: 1. Examples: abuse, motherhood, male-female relationships, family, childhood, innocence
vs. experience, and other similar choices. Example using the subject of abuse: “I beat her,” “shabby,” “dirt
on her face/that won’t wash off,” etc. The speaker “beats” her doll and then “kisses” her doll “afterwards.”
She repeats this pattern, wearing the paint off the doll. She plans to “tie a ribbon” around the doll to
appease Janie. She does not want people to see the “dirt” on Janie’s face. 2. Examples: The speaker beats
and kisses the doll. While the doll looks like a “tub,” it does not occur to the speaker to wash the “dirt” off
her doll. The speaker does intend to beautify the doll with a ribbon. 3. Example: We can surmise that
the speaker is modeling the domestic abuse she sees in her home. She appears well versed in the cycle
of abuse and is fully aware of how to hide the signs of neglect or physical abuse by wearing “blue”—a
color of sadness. The doll, and perhaps the narrator, cannot properly wash away the effects of abuse.
4. Examples using abuse: domestic abuse, the effects of abuse, the cycle of abuse, the inevitability of
abuse, learned abuse, and other similar choices. Get in the Game: Responses will vary. Metaphorical
example: The female speaker rejects her femininity, refusing the “pink” that attracts the “dirt,” the bruises
of abuse that scar a girl and “won’t wash off.” Lesson examples: The young speaker has learned that
women in complicated and abusive domestic relationships cannot protect their babies from inheriting
the same pain; the young speaker has learned that the abuse of a mother is felt for generations; the
young speaker learns the stain of abuse.
Exercise 49: 1. Examples: poverty, identity, wealth, beauty, illusion, appearances vs. reality, and other
similar choices. 2. Examples: Each item is a façade of beauty or wealth: the scarf is “old old” but frames
Hetty becomingly. The earrings “were but coloured glass” but appeared to be gemstones. 3. Example:
Hetty desires to be seen as a “lady.” She adorns herself to appear like one of the non-working ladies.
4. Examples: the illusion of wealth, the illusion of beauty, the construction of one’s identity, the pain of
poverty, the façade of beauty, the complex relationship between beauty and wealth, and other similar
choices. Get in the Game: Example: Hetty is truly vexed by the limitations of her economic status as it
136 Mastering Close REading
defines her social limitations and her identity. Economic influence responses will vary; honor the voices
of diverse economic populations in your classroom for a valuable discussion.
Exercise 50: 1. Examples: separation, relationships, intolerance, tolerance, realizations, introspection,
nature, truth vs. fiction, individual and community, status quo, and other similar choices. 2. Example:
The speaker questions and contemplates the necessity for fences. 3. Example: Contrary to the speaker,
the neighbor affirms the benefits of fences, preferring his privacy. 4. Examples: good neighbors, rules
of community, the consequences of separation, the effects of separation, the nature of man, and other
similar choices. Get in the Game: Example: The poem illustrates how man uses nature to separate and
individualize himself in a community. Man’s nature examples: Man’s nature is to manipulate nature to fit
his own purposes; man’s nature is to seek his independence from his community.
Exercise 51: 1. Examples: marriage, friendship, life’s choices, decisions, women’s roles, introspection,
similarities and differences, love lost and gained, awakening/realization, disillusionment, life fulfillment,
happiness, passion/apathy, and other similar choices. Example using the subject of choices: Words/
Phrases: “I ask only,” “considering,” “I am convinced,” “left to reflect,” “It was a long time until she became
at all reconciled to the idea,” “distressing conviction.” Actions: Two friends discuss a marriage proposal.
Charlotte “sacrifices” happiness and chooses to settle for an unsuitable man to marry. Elizabeth
introspectively recognizes the different values she and her friend hold and indirectly reflects upon her
own ideals of marriage. 2. Examples: Charlotte values contentment over passion. She prefers to be
“comfortable” rather than “romantic.” She values her partner’s “character, connections, and situation in
life,” wishing them to be “fair” and reasonable. She does not mention love as necessary for marriage,
and in fact, this is Elizabeth’s primary objection, for Mr. Collins appears to be settling for his second
choice, as well. Elizabeth values happiness in marriage and feels that without love and joy, a marriage
is unsuitable. 3. Example using choices as a subject: defining choices, the effect of choices, the
consequences of life’s choices, the complexity of choices, and other similar selections. Get in the Game:
Responses will vary. The contrast suggests that some young women feel as if they have very few choices
for individual success or happiness and thusly value contentment and security in marriage. Some women
are willing to wait for true happiness, but they appear to keep their values private.
Exercise 52: 1. Examples: nature, power, strength, dignity, disillusionment, justice/injustice, sacrifice, past
vs. present, loyalty, respect, awe, and other similar choices. Example using the subject of sacrifice: “tear,”
“rung the battle shout,” “shall sweep the clouds no more,” “ knelt the vanquished foe,” “the harpies of the
shore shall pluck the eagle of the sea,” “sink beneath the wave,” etc. Old Ironsides has overcome numerous
hurdles in her lifetime. She represents nobility and pride for the nation because of her rich history and
stalwart construction. 2. Examples: Old Ironsides is a strong, sturdy icon of history that symbolizes
bravery and resilience. The ship has endured many battles and has always emerged intact and victorious.
3. Examples: The “harpies” want to “pluck” Old Ironsides out of the sea and destroy her. However, the
speaker urges them to let the sea be her final resting place. He would rather the ship “sink beneath a wave,”
because “there should be her grave.” The boat should be given to the “God of storms,” not the hands of man.
4. Examples: the need for respect, the tragedy of injustice, omnipotent nature, unjust sacrifice, glorious
power, and other similar choices. Get in the Game: Examples: The eagle is a symbol of courage, pride, and
our nation. Old Ironsides embodies all of these traits, and it served our nation in numerous battles; While
the ship is old and “tattered,” it is still priceless and noble; The creation of memorial sites can cause pain to
those who lost a loved one because it forces them to relive their tragic loss; the preservation of historical
sites allows individuals to honor those who have made sacrifices for our freedom; etc.
Teacher Notes: Suggested Responses 137
Exercise 53: 1. Examples of subjects: beauty, bullying, kindness, class systems, self-esteem, and
other similar choices. Examples of subject phrases: inner and outer beauty, the effects of bullying, the
ramifications of poverty, sibling rivalries, and other similar choices. 2. Cinderella’s Actions: gives advice,
fixes the stepsisters’ hair, reaffirms that she should not go to the ball, etc. Cinderella’s Traits/Emotions/
Feelings: kind, “good-natured,” humble, etc. Stepsisters’ Actions: mock Cinderella, etc. Stepsisters’
Traits/Emotions/Feelings: cruel, superior, intolerant, etc. 3. Example: Cinderella does not reproach
her stepsisters, nor does she seek revenge due to anger for their cruel words and intentions. Cinderella,
rather, continues to act kindly to the sisters, suggesting that her character is one of honor, peace, and
love. Get in the Game: Examples: Cinderella makes an excellent role model because she does not
engage in the belittling, bullying, intolerant banter of her sisters; Her kindness in the face of disgust
demonstrates her integrity and inner beauty, illustrating to young children how honorable characters
react to intolerance; Important traits or values that lead to happily ever after include inner beauty,
kindness, integrity, etc.
Exercise 54: 1. Examples of subjects: self-love, happiness, self-acceptance, wisdom, and other similar
choices. Examples of subject phrases: the power of self-love, authentic happiness, the glory of selfacceptance, and other similar choices. 2. Example: Outside, the images are awe-inspiring and sensual.
The moon, a “flame-white” symbol of purity, sends its light over the “shining” trees in “silken mists.”
However, inside the house, the speaker dances “grotesquely” while nude. Before his mirror, he is “waving
his shirt” and “singing” to himself— images of uninhibited wildness. 3. Example: He is not sad that he is
lonely; it is instead a declaration of his love for himself. He believes that he was “born to be lonely” and
is at his “best” when by himself. He then “admires” his physical body, proving that he is comfortable—
and happiest—in his own skin. Examples: He is the “happy genius” because he understands the secret
to a fulfilled life—self-love. Since he loves and accepts himself, he has conquered an obstacle that most
people never surmount. By celebrating himself, he transcends his physical self and achieves spiritual
bliss. Get in the Game: Responses will vary. Most will focus on the idealized images in the media and
how they represent an unattainable ideal. Consequently, these images of physical perfection remind us
of what we will never become. Journals will vary. Perhaps encourage them to do a “celebration of self ”
assignment where they find an imperfection (physical or emotional) and write a poem or love song to
this supposed shortcoming. The goal is for students to realize that our imperfections make us who we
are—and that is what makes us unique and beautiful.
Exercise 55: 1. Examples of subjects: love, innocence/experience, awakening, conscience, relationships,
desire, lust, and other similar choices. Examples of subject phrases: the thrill of lust, lack of conscience,
intoxicating desire, etc. 2. Example: Myra gives in to her desire in the passage. Instead of staying true
to her beau, Froggy Parker, she decides to seize the moment and kiss Amory. She “rejoices” because she
loves the adrenaline rush from doing something forbidden. She may also rejoice because she has already
developed strong feelings for Amory, even though she has done something “awful” by betraying Froggy.
3. Example: Amory experiences an awakening at the end of the passage. After kissing Myra, a new
world opens within him, and he is helpless to the force of love and desire. This realization brings forth
his primal urges, which conjures images of an “animal” that he is eager to hunt and conquer. 4. Example:
Myra responds to the thrill of lust by “confessing” her adoration with a “trembling” voice. She quickly
forgets about her current boyfriend and eagerly gives into the romantic “atmosphere.” Afterwards, she
“rejoices” and responds by “slipping her hand into his,” since they are now a duo in her eyes. Amory
reacts more philosophically to the thrill of lust. While he confidently woos Myra in the passage, he
is overwhelmed by his senses as he kisses Myra for the first time. He took a bite of the forbidden
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“fruit”—“fruit” that was not his to sample—and he then stares at her “helplessly.” The passage ends
with Amory’s awareness of his loss of innocence because he is now aware of a woman’s power and of his
own instinctual urges. Get in the Game: Examples: Love renders us powerless because it is something
that we cannot control; Pain strips us of power because we will do anything to make it stop; We are
powerless when it comes to matters of the heart because we simply cannot choose who we love; We
always have a choice and, while the heart may want something, it is simply immoral and hedonistic to
give in to our every urge and desire.
Exercise 56: 1. Examples of subjects: pride, patriotism, loyalty, adversity, resilience, and other similar
choices. Examples of subject phrases: standing up to adversity, survival of the fittest, resilience in
adversity, the power of pride, the call to patriotism, and other similar choices. 2. Example: The speaker
clearly admires the resilient spirit of the people of Chicago, for he “proudly” asserts their “coarse and
strong and cunning” values to those who “sneer” at his city. The speaker depicts the city dwellers as
hardworking, robust, magical, fierce, cunning, destructive, and reconstructive. 3. Example: The speaker
defends Chicago. He speaks with an insatiable passion for his city. Get in the Game: Example: The
speaker deems “coarseness,” “strength,” and “cunningness” as necessary tools when meeting adversity. Like
the “fierce dog” and the “cunning” “savage,” one must act on his primal urges while exercising his intellect
for the purpose of resurrection after destruction. Examples: If we approach adversity with a courageous
spirit, we will show the integrity of our character to all; If we fail to believe in ourselves and our capacity
to win, we fail to become the character that is within our power to become.
Exercise 57: 1. Examples of subjects: infatuation, obsession, love, illusion, reality, spirituality, and
other similar choices. Examples of subject phrases: the power of infatuation, love’s illusion, spiritual
gifts, redefining reality, and other similar choices. 2. Example: The girl affects the narrator emotionally,
physiologically, and spiritually. The narrator’s young mind is consumed by the thoughts of the girl: “every
morning [he watches] her door” so that he may alter his morning routine to walk next to the girl. While
the strength of his emotions prohibits him from talking with the girl, he can feel the physical affects of his
body at the whisper of her name. The thought of the girl alters his perception of the city streets, providing
him a sense of inflated spiritual purpose to maintain her purity amongst impurity; she is like a golden
“chalice” amongst the unseemliness of humanity, the “throng of foes” on the city streets. The girl inspires
the narrator to emotional tears and physical manipulations; he is but a “harp” to her “fingers.” 3. Example:
The marketplace contains the dregs of society: “drunken men and bargaining women,” impoverished
children, cursing proletariats, and shrill singers. The narrator depicts the scene to illustrate the baseness of
society. In sharp contrast, the narrator paints images of “chalices,” “harps,” “strange prayers and praises,” and
a “flood from [the] heart” to describe the girl and her spiritual effect on him. The hyperbolic language lifts
the illusion of the girl, glorifying her angelically above the base reality of the market. Get in the Game:
Responses will vary. Many students may suggest that our ability to love fills us with hope, lifting us above
our filthy reality. Other students may suggest that relationships cause us to lose our grip on reality.
Exercise 58: 1. Examples of subjects: music, spirituality, passion, the making of art, and other similar
choices. Examples of subject phrases: the power of music, the language of music, the beauty of music,
the poetry of spirituality, the harmony of spirituality, and other similar choices. 2. Example: Trumpet:
“excites us to arms” because of its loud, blaring call. Drum: the “thundering,” booming sound serves
as the battle cry of a united force. Flute: the “soft” sound imitates that of “hopeless lovers,” signifying
sadness and funereal feelings. Violins: their passionate, “sharp” sound exposes the range of human
emotion. From “jealous pangs” to “fury” to the “depths of pains” and “height of passion,” the varying string
Teacher Notes: Suggested Responses 139
sounds cause both euphoria and despair. Organ: the most “holy” of instruments, it evokes a “sacred”
and “heavenly” feeling of “inspired,” celestial love. 3. Examples: Music’s most fundamental function is to
serve as a vehicle for emotion and to represent the highs and lows of the human experience. Music is the
conduit from which the most powerful feelings originate, such as passion, despair, hope, and love. Also,
music brings us closer to our spirituality and God’s love and power. Get in the Game: Example: Music
evokes strong feelings in all listeners. This allows an individual to rise above the monotony of earthly life
and to commune with both fellow human beings and the spiritual, godly realm.
Exercise 59: 1. Examples: loss of innocence, fear, protection, death, conscience, tolerance/intolerance,
safety/security, individual versus community, isolation/alienation, survival of the fittest, and other
similar choices. 2. Examples: Pia may feel like the earth is shaking because he is now aware that life is
not fair. He sees how his community is ravaged by leprosy, a terrifying disease that ends with a painful
death. 3. Examples: Pia’s concept of humanity changes when Kamaka chooses not to save the diseased
man that they encountered at the water’s edge: “[. . .] I could see the leprosy tumors [. . .] That’s why
Kamaka was dragging me away!” Pia wants to help the diseased man avoid exile and wants him to
“die at home with his family,” but Kamaka firmly denies his request, telling him that “Our king has to
protect the rest of us.” Perhaps Pia identifies with the fearful leper, and he “shudders” as he imagines
being “sent away to Moloka’i” while Kamaka leaves him to perish. Even though Kamaka has “always
protected [him],” he realizes that Kamaka couldn’t save him—nobody could—if he were to contract the
disease. This revelation sickens and frightens him. Get in the Game: Examples using various subjects:
Loss of innocence: Pia loses his childlike view of the world when he realizes that life is not fair and that
people will not always do the right thing. Protection: Pia learns that Kamaka cannot protect him from
every danger in the world, even though he knows that he will try. He now feels vulnerable and fearful
instead of invincible. Conscience: Pia sees that making the decision to save himself may come at the
consequence of ignoring someone else in need, which violates the morals that he was taught to live by.
Exercise 60: 1. Examples of subjects: courage, discovery, family, strength, tradition, legacy, fear, wisdom,
inspiration, experience, and other similar choices. Examples of subject phrases: the power of inspiration,
the discovery of voice, overcoming fear, an inspired legacy, the wisdom of experience, and other similar
choices. 2. Example: Her life was different because her parents only spoke Spanish at home and infused
the home with Mexican traditions. All of the mother’s classmates “spoke English every night” with their
families, so she felt torn between two vastly different worlds. 3. Example: The mother’s family was
extremely “proud” when she journeyed to the state capitol. However, when the mother “looked around,”
she realized that she was the “only Mexican in the auditorium,” which made her want to “hide from those
strange faces.” She felt alien, like she did not belong. She “faked hoarseness” because her breath stuck
“like an ice-cube” in her throat, caused by the fear and terror of being so different. 4. Examples: Even
though the mother did not speak at the capitol, her arduous journey to become part of two worlds greatly
influenced her own family. Her children claim that she taught “the four of us to speak up,” probably
because she remembered how awful it felt to let fear take her own voice. Her children believe that they
have incredible opportunities now because of their mother’s experience. Thanks to the mother’s hardship,
the “next generation” has the chance to do the things that the prior generation could not achieve; hence,
her “breath” moves through the family like the “wind” through the “trees”—a constant force to create and
inspire refreshing change. Get in the Game: Responses will vary. Many will agree and cite examples of
intolerance (women’s liberation, the civil rights movement, etc.) and explain that the next generation
knows better. Some students will focus on more literal examples (like technology) to illustrate how the
next generation has advantages that the prior did not. Small-group responses will vary.
140 Mastering Close REading
Exercise 61: 1. Examples of subjects: life’s choices, despair, infatuation, obsession, love, carpe diem,
illusion, reality, disillusionment, and other similar choices. Examples of subject phrases: the pain of
love, the impact of life’s choices, the horror of one’s reality, painful disillusionment, lost opportunity, and
other similar choices. 2. Mattie signifies lost opportunity and lost love for Ethan. Her smile and voice
provide Ethan with the “warmth” of “life” missing from his current situation, and the realization of loss
turns him bitter toward Zeena and their marriage. Zeena’s depiction is contrary to that of Mattie’s.
Zeena signifies the “submission” and “destruction of his hopes.” Her “narrow-mindedness and ignorance”
have emasculated Ethan’s power to control his own life. While he states that his wife is “discontented”
and “bitter,” the passage reveals that, in fact, it is Ethan who is resentful. His resentment fuels his
powerful desires to change his life’s course. 3. Examples: Ethan is depicted as impassioned, forlorn,
pained, “anguished,” in the first paragraph. His sense of loss empowers him, however. In the second
paragraph, Ethan is resentful, reflective, and “defensive.” Ethan’s thought process reveals him as regretful
and impetuous for lost opportunities. His strength, however, is diminished by his selfish motivations
for desire. Ethan is motivated by loss, anger, and desire. Get in the Game: Examples: Ethan could be
referring to the waste of his own “youth,” “strength, and “sap of living,” or he could be referring to his lost
love with Mattie. Additionally, Ethan could be referring to Zeena and her desire to “inflict pain on him.”
Individual responses will vary.
Exercise 62: 1. Examples of subjects: adversity, disillusionment, dreams unfulfilled, disappointment,
the real vs. the ideal, failure, hubris, and other similar choices. Examples of subject phrases: the
disappointment of unfulfilled dreams, the pain of disillusionment, the disparity between the real and the
ideal, the embarrassment of failure, the consequence of hubris, etc. 2. Examples: self-assured: “There was
ease in Casey’s manner as he stepped into his place”; confident: “There was pride in Casey’s bearing and
a smile lit Casey’s face”; violent: “Defiance flashed in Casey’s eye, a sneer curled Casey’s lip”; cocky: “’That
ain’t my style’”; and other similar choices. 3. Example: Casey is very confident in the opening of the
poem. He is self-assured and certain that he will be victorious. Then, he shifts his focus inward, away
from the noise of the crowd. He focuses intently on the ball, and he decides to nonchalantly let the first
ball fly by. Even though it was called a strike by the umpire, Casey remains unruffled. He even controls
the roars of the crowd with his shining “visage.” When the next pitch is classified as “strike two,” the
crowd is ready to pounce. However, Casey once again calms them with a “scornful” look, and he focuses
with great intensity. Instead of serenity, violent impulses surge through him as he readies to crush the
ball. . .which results in another strike, so Casey struck out. 4. Example: Casey is consistently able to quiet
the crowd with his looks and gestures. When they begin to get frantic and frustrated with the umpire,
he is able to “still the rising tumult.” However, once Casey strikes out, there is “no joy” in Mudville. His
failure at the bat has created an atmosphere of despair—a place where no children “are laughing” and
no hearts “are light.” Get in the Game: Examples: The readers learn that we don’t always get what we
want because life is not fair; We learn that an excess of pride will result in ultimate failure; We learn that
athletics should not be taken so seriously because baseball is just a game. Individual responses will vary.
Students may focus on the cathartic role of athletics, since sporting events allow an important emotional
release for many individuals—especially men. Also, athletics can unify people and serves as a catalyst for
strong emotional responses—either euphoria or despair. Watching a close game creates an adrenaline
rush that is addictive.
Exercise 63: 1. Examples of subjects: fear, introspection, contemplation, depression, realization,
appearance vs. reality, discomfort, angst, and other similar choices. Examples of subject phrases: the
source of fear, the effect of fear, the gloom of depression, the impact of discomfort, and other similar
Teacher Notes: Suggested Responses 141
choices. 2. Example: The narrator is terrified by the House of Usher and reacts with revulsion to its
outward appearance. From his first glimpse, “insufferable gloom” filled the narrator. Looking at the “bleak
walls” and “decayed trees” brought on an “utter depression of his soul.” 3. Examples: The speaker claims
that he doesn’t fully understand why he reacts this way to the house—it was a “mystery all insoluble.”
However, he claims that some “simple natural objects” have the power to affect us intensely, and the
House of Usher has provoked feelings of dread and fear within him. He believes that something terrible
is going to happen to him or someone else in the house, and now he feels the “eyes” of the windows
watching his every move. Get in the Game: Example: The House of Usher represents both death and
doom to the speaker. Every image he uses to describe the house involves decay and despair, all of which
conjure fear and gloom in the speaker. Perhaps the speaker feels as if he is facing the inevitability of death
while staring at the “desolate” house—a revelation that produced a “sickening of the heart” within him.
Individual responses will vary. Some may choose settings where tragedy occurred (like the Twin Towers
or a cemetery; others may choose more personal settings that have a tragic, depressing significance.
Exercise 64: 1. Examples of subjects: education, disillusionment, nature, curiosity, knowledge,
mystery, and other similar choices. Examples of subject phrases: the majesty of nature, the downside of
knowledge, the beauty of mystery, and other similar choices. 2. Example: The speaker is disturbed by
the “learned astronomer” who spouts “proofs” and “figures” about the universe. The speaker begins to
feel “tired and sick,” and the only cure was to leave the stifling lecture and to retreat and look in “perfect
silence” up at the “stars” to restore his sense of wonder. 3. Examples: The speaker clearly dislikes science
because the reduction of the universe to “columns,” “charts,” and “diagrams” made the speaker feel ill. He
wants to preserve the mystery of the stars and the sky because scientific analysis can greatly diminish
the glorious wonder and beauty of a natural phenomenon. 4. Examples: The “mystical” night air greets
the overwhelmed speaker and helps to settle his frayed nerves. Instead of applying the science of what
he has learned about the stars, the speaker prefers to look up “in perfect silence,” merely admiring and
absorbing the natural beauty of the universe. He is restored by the natural beauty and serenity of nature
and does not wish to analyze the particulars of the stars and sky. Get in the Game: Responses will vary.
Exercise 65: 1. Examples of subjects: death, life, afterlife, usefulness, introspection, realizations, and
other similar choices. Examples of subject phrases: the insignificance of death, the commonality of man,
the reality of death, the cycle of death, and other similar choices. 2. Examples: Alexander dies, is buried,
and decomposes into dust. Alexander’s dust becomes one with the earthen dirt, and clay is made from
this dirt. The clay is formed into a plug for the bottom of a beer barrel. Alexander the Great now stops
beer from leaking out of a barrel. Alexander the Great is one of the most famous historical figures;
one would usually consider his final resting place as matching his level of greatness achieved in life or
matching the level of fame he has since achieved. Hamlet, however, does not glorify the King’s bones,
but imagines them decomposed and realistically repurposed. Shakespeare ironically places Alexander
the Great at the bottom of the barrel. 3. Example: Hamlet realizes that each bone decomposes like
another—despite courtly or peasant marrow. Death, therefore, becomes the great equalizer. 4. Example:
This realization is especially poignant for the prince, for he recognizes the inconsequence of his own
bloodline. Get in the Game: Responses will vary. Many students may suggest that faith and the
consequence of the spiritual body after death affect life choices and decisions.
Exercise 66: 1. Examples of subjects: death, love, acceptance, fate, enlightenment, spirituality, resilience,
devotion, and other similar choices. Examples of subject phrases: inevitability of death, acceptance
of death, the release in death, the strength of love, the power of devotion, impassioned resilience, and
142 Mastering Close REading
other similar choices. 2. Example: Death is described with nature imagery early in the poem—“fog,”
“mist,” and “snow,” all of which symbolize sadness, ominous mystery, and coldness. Then, death grows
into a larger entity: it morphs into the “power of the night” and “the press of he storm,” insinuating that
death exerts unstoppable force. Even the “strong man” must submit when death arrives. 3. Examples:
The speaker begins with a rhetorical question—should he “fear death?” Then, he describes the feeling
of being enveloped in a “fog” as he nears the “place”—the “post of the foe,” which sets up death as an
opponent. He wills himself to engage in one last fight—“the best and the last.” Courageously, he invites
the experience of death and wants to “taste the whole of it”—to “bear the brunt” of the “pain” that is
inevitable. However, the speaker knows that after this initial “black minute,” the “rage” of death “dwindles”
and transforms into “peace.” The “light” at the poem’s end is his deceased wife, who he is now able to
“clasp again.” She is the source of his strength and bravery. As he reunites with the “soul of my soul,” he
prays that the other departed souls can at least be with “God.” Get in the Game: Examples: While death
has more overt power, the speaker is the victor because he finds hope in a hopeless situation; Death is
the ultimate victor because he is all-powerful and dominates mankind. Individual responses will vary.
Chapter Four: Theme
Exercise 67: 1. Shame: “disgrace, in her eyes,” “with that shame fresh upon her,” “that pathetic figure,” etc.
Pride: “too proud to cry or beseech,” “defiantly,” “so motionless,” “the proud and sensitive,” etc. 2. Example:
Amy feels shamed and “disgraced” by being “struck.” The notion of facing the “whole school” embarrasses
and shames her deeply. However, the “thought” her family will be disappointed in her evokes the most
shame in Amy. 3. Line: “The smart of her hand and the ache of her heart were forgotten in the sting
of the thought, ‘I shall have to tell at home, and they will be so disappointed in me!’” Examples: The
line indicates that while Amy will forget the physical effects of her shameful punishment, she will
never forget the emotional and psychological effects of her shameful moment. While Amy takes her
punishment honorably, she does not feel proud of herself or her actions and recognizes that her family
will not be proud of her either. Thus, she fears their disappointment. 4. Examples: Amy learns that she
is not above the rules at school, and therefore, she must accept the punishment for her wrongdoings.
Amy values her family and their feelings. Get in the Game: Examples: By nature, Amy is a “proud” girl
who, having never “been struck,” usually elicits the same love “she had been governed by.” The proud child
“defiantly” refuses to show her pain upon being struck, takes strength from “a bitter sense of wrong,” and
fears the “sting” to her ego. Amy, however, is humbled by the experience, “pitied” by her peers, distraught
with the notion of hurting others, and humanized by the narrator. As the passage develops, so develops
Amy’s humility and maturity. She is no longer an innocent child, but a young woman who must meet
her consequences with grace, including being the cause of another’s disappointment. Small-group
responses will vary.
Exercise 68: 1. Pain: “Attila the Hun,” “Obliterated,” “pain,” etc. Glory: “I’m in the clear,” “A thousand
voices roar,” “glory,” “my athletic ability,” etc. 2. Examples: The speaker is newly grounded in the reality of
his defeat; the speaker is introspective. The speaker recognizes that the sting of defeat is more painfully
felt emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. 3. Examples: The allusion serves to compare Attila the Hun to
the speaker. The speaker realizes that the dream of endless conquests and eternal glory is unachievable.
Alluding to Hun as the nurse who brings the harshness of reality to the speaker introduces irony in the
poem. The allusion serves to anchor the speaker’s trials within the framework of history to further assert
that the lesson is a rite of passage. Get in the Game: Responses will vary.
Teacher Notes: Suggested Responses 143
Exercise 69: 1. Actions: “He closed his eyes,” “became conscious of a new disturbance,” “He awaited each
stroke with impatience,” “They hurt his ear like the thrust of a knife,” etc. Traits/Emotions/Feelings:
apprehensive, distracted, curious, impatient, irritated, fearful, etc. 2. “a new disturbance,” “a sound he
could neither ignore nor understand,” “a sharp, distinct metallic percussion,” “stroke of a blacksmith’s
hammer upon the anvil,” etc. Examples: The sound becomes stronger and more distressing to the man.
What was first a “disturbance” became more panic inducing—almost like the roll of drums before a
hanging occurs—and then the sound slowed down and became the tolling of a “death knell.” He knew
that his time to die was near, and the sound came less frequently. These delays were “maddening,”
because the infrequent sound increased in “strength and sharpness,” which disturbed the man to his core.
3. Examples: Inevitably, the sound hurt his ear like the “thrust of a knife,” and with sharpened senses, he
feared he would “shriek” with terror and distress as his death approached. He was fearful and anxious
about facing death—a situation over which he had no control. Get in the Game: Examples: The “ticking
of his watch” represents his final moments on Earth—a strong reminder that his time is fleeting. He
is now faced with the reality that time is running out, and he has no way to extricate himself from this
distressing scenario. Individual responses will vary. Students may focus on the adrenaline rush that
accompanies moments of panic or fear, which can heighten and sharpen our senses. Since our body
shifts into survival mode, we tend to notice our environment with greater acuity for the purpose of
self-preservation.
Exercise 70: 1. Words That Support the Subject Phrase: “nobly die,” “precious blood may not be shed
in vain,” “honor us though dead,” “meet the common foe,” etc. Words That Support the Poem’s Concept
of Society: “Hunted and penned,” “inglorious spot,” “round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,” “Making
their mock at our accursed lot,” etc. 2. Example: The speaker is bold, impassioned, and fearless. 3.
Example: The speaker aims to inspire the men to fight for their lives, even though they will likely perish
at the hands of the villains. He wants his men to know that victory is defined by how they fight, not by
the end result of the battle. Evidence will vary; however, most students will cite such lines as, “If we must
die, O let us nobly die.” Get in the Game: Responses will vary.
Exercise 71: 1. Actions: Nora: “never talked seriously to each other,” “you never loved me,” “told me
all of his opinions, and so they became my opinions too,” “if I disagreed with him I kept it to myself,”
etc. Helmer: “I should have been telling you about worries you couldn’t have helped me with anyway?”
“What a way to talk about our marriage!” Traits/Emotions/Feelings: Nora: angry, frustrated,
disenchanted, enlightened, etc. Helmer: upset, shocked, protective, indignant, etc. 2. Example: Nora
wasn’t treated like an individual with her own thoughts and opinions; hence, she felt like she was an
inanimate doll that was meant to stay quiet and simply look pretty. 3. Example: Helmer’s attitude
toward Nora is at first defensive. He doesn’t see anything wrong with not sharing the intimate details
of his workday with her because he doesn’t value her thoughts or input. Then, he reacts with horror
and indignation. He is in disbelief that Nora is talking about their marriage with such candor, which
reveals that he does not want to hear the truth. 4. Nora realizes that she has been voiceless for her
entire life. She feels like she has been living like a “pauper” with her husband—just a “hand to mouth”
kind of existence—because their relationship has no depth and her life has no meaning. She blames
her husband and her dad for rendering her voiceless—something that is a great “sin” against her. Get
in the Game: Responses will vary. Those who believe it is the fault of Helmer and Nora’s father will
discuss how they never gave Nora the chance to freely express herself and kept her in a repressed state
on purpose. However, those who believe it is Nora’s fault will likely claim that we are responsible for our
own happiness and will assert that it is up to Nora to speak up for herself.
144 Mastering Close REading
Exercise 72: 1. Character’s Actions: The speaker: “I hear thee,” “I cannot guess,” “To feel thee,” “I rejoice,”
etc. The speaker’s deceased lover: “voice is on the rolling air,” “I hear thee where the waters run,” “Thou
standest in the rising sun,” etc. Character’s Traits/Emotions/Feelings: The speaker: “I do not love
thee less,” “I seem to love thee more and more,” “I rejoice,” “I prosper,” peaceful, triumphant; connected,
introspective, etc. The speaker’s deceased lover: omnipresent, holy, spiritual, part of the universe and
heavens, etc. 2. Examples: First stanza: The speaker can feel his lost love’s presence in nature. All around
him, he can sense his companion in the “air,” “water,” and “sun,” and he believes her to be beautiful, even
in her “setting”—death. Second stanza: He continues to establish that he can feel his lover’s company
in the glorious parts of nature—the celestial “stars” and beautiful “heavens.” Even though he cannot see
his lover, he claims that he does not “love her less” because he feels like she is always with him. Third
stanza: The speaker reflects that his love has actually grown for his lover since her death. It is a “vaster
passion” now, especially since his love is now part of such majestic entities: “God and Nature.” Fourth
stanza: The speaker believes that he “[has her] still,” and he chooses to “rejoice” and “prosper,” despite her
physical absence. He shall never “lose” her again. 3. Examples: The speaker will never lose her, even when
he dies because their spirits will always be joined in nature. The speaker has completely transformed
as a result of these conclusions, but the death of his former beliefs will only bring him and his beloved
closer. Get in the Game: Example: He wants his audience to understand that loss and death are part of
life, and that most importantly, those we love will always be part of our surroundings; He instructs us,
his readers, to look for our deceased partners in the miracle of nature because they are whispering to us
always. Individual and group responses will vary.
Exercise 73: 1. Words/Phrases: Convention: “children,” “servants,” “friends,” “married,” “being
conventional in mood,” “training,” “utterly domesticated,” etc. Inaction: “always he had been unhappy,” “for
over thirty-one years,” “Never. . .had he ever done anything but long. . .for what he scarcely dared think. . .,”
“had not taken any drastic action,” etc. Traits/Emotions/Feelings: Convention: “complain so bitterly,”
frustrated, “unhappy,” etc. Inaction: “Condemns” self, curses self, frustrated with self, feels as if too much
time has passed, etc. 2. Examples: Mr. Haymaker realizes that he has not led the life he envisioned for
himself, but rather, has allowed societal conventions—“nature, custom, public opinion”—to control his
destiny. He has been “wondering if time, accident, or something” might change the circumstances of his
life without his action, and unhappily, he now recognizes that he needed to create his own life change.
Mr. Haymaker fears that he has waited too long. Example: As Mr. Haymaker reflects on his marriage,
he is prompted to recognize his dreams deferred. 3. Examples: While Mr. Haymaker allows his mind
to utter his desires for freedom, “condemns himself for his [own] inaction, questions emphatically why
he hasn’t “done something,” he concludes the passage with the passive belief that he has waited too long
to act; hence, “Why complain so bitterly now?” His dejected stance suggests that he will continue the
passive role in his own life rather than creating the change he so desires. Get in the Game: Responses
will vary. Most will suggest that it is our lack of will to react to difficult circumstances that cause failure.
Individual responses will vary. Consider pairing the passage with the Langston Hughes poem “Dreams
Deferred” to further develop student responses.
Exercise 74: 1. Judgment: “the thing,” “the horror of its appearance,” “inhuman,” “peculiar,” etc. Disgust:
“bulged up,” “dropped saliva,” “tentacular appendage,” “fungoid,” etc. Fear: “heaved and pulsated
convulsively,” “unspeakably nasty,” “monster,” “running madly,” etc. 2. Examples: At first, he is merely
observing the martian and provides details about its appearance. However, as he closely examines the
martian, his reaction turns to one of disdain and disgust, and the adjectives he uses conjure up images
of a monstrous, vile creature. By the end of the passage, the narrator is horrified and filled with terror.
Teacher Notes: Suggested Responses 145
After the “monster vanished” and “another of these creatures appeared,” the narrator runs away from
the beings that he now finds “unspeakably nasty.” 3. Examples: The narrator literally runs away from
the martians, the foreign creatures that fill him with a sense of doom and fear. Figuratively, the narrator
cannot avert his face from the truth that these beings may overtake the Earth and that his life, and the
lives of all humans, may be forever altered. However, the narrator could also be averting his face from
his greatest fear, which is losing control and power. Since the martians are foreign creatures, it is easy to
personify them as the villains and evildoers, even when they have done nothing to suggest that they have
malicious intentions. Get in the Game: Examples: It is easy to falsely label someone since stereotypes
are often inaccurate; we often fear the unfamiliar; etc. Individual responses will vary. Example: We can
avoid snap judgments and really get to know someone instead of buying into their label.
Exercise 75: 1. The Journey: “At this vessel’s prow I stand,” “bears me forwards, forwards o’er the starlit
sea,” “compose me to the end,” “feel my soul becoming vast like you,” etc. Nature: “starlit sea,” “o’er the
sea and to the stars I send,” “vast like you,” “air-born voice,” etc. 2. Examples: First stanza: The speaker
is “weary” and defeated, and he is tired of asking “what I ought to be.” He feels lost and is looking for
direction, but he feels some sense of hope because he is moving “forwards” on the sea. Second stanza:
The sea and stars inspire passion and feeling in the speaker, and he asks both entities to “calm” him and
“compose” him until the “end”—which we assume is either his enlightenment or his death. Third stanza:
The speaker is beginning to feel an inner transformation from being part of nature. As he “gazes” upon
the stars and the waters, he asks for his soul to “becom[e] vast” and open to the inevitable peace and
calm that nature brings. 3. Examples: Once the speaker hears nature’s voice—an “air-born voice” that is
“clear” and comes from his “own heart,” he realizes that nature is now speaking through him. The speaker
feels serenity from the knowledge that he and nature are inextricably linked together, and he is now
filled with wisdom and self-acceptance. Get in the Game: Responses will vary. Students may note that
nature evokes a sense of harmony, contentment, and connectedness. Nature may arouse wonder and awe
within an individual from her beauty and raw power. Also, nature can inspire philosophical musings and
provide enlightenment (as it did for Thoreau, Emerson, and many other Transcendentalists). Individual
and class responses will vary.
Exercise 76: 1. Criminal: “wooden jail,” “darker aspect,” “prison,” “condemned,” etc. Pity: “never to have
known a youthful era,” “offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in,” “and to the
condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom,” “the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to
him,” etc. Nature: “grassplot,” “black flower,” “wild rose-bush,” “delicate gems,” etc. 2. Examples: Nature
acts with “pity” and “kind[ness]” toward the criminals who come in and out of the prison. Nature does
not judge; it serves instead to inspire serenity and beauty in the downtrodden souls who are fettered
to the “ugly edifice.” 3. Example: In this passage, nature serves as a reminder that something beautiful
always exists, even at the threshold of horror and ugliness. Even though the grass outside of the prison
is “overgrown” with weeds and other undesirable vegetation, nature chose to erect a rose bush, filled with
“delicate gems,” at the entrance to this prison—a reminder that there is always hope, and there is always
a chance to reveal our hidden beauty. Get in the Game: Examples: Nature reminds us that despite our
own personal trials, true beauty surrounds us always; nature’s glorious domain creates a place for people
to gain inspiration and hope, even in the darkest hours.
Exercise 77: 1. Death: “last bitter hour,” “blight,” “sad images,” “stern agony,” etc. Peace: “Earth and her
waters,” “depths of air,” “still voice,” “innumerable caravan,” etc. 2. Example: In the first part of the poem,
the speaker is afraid of death. The images associated with death are negative and fearful, and the speaker
146 Mastering Close REading
seems to dread the approach of death. However, after nature’s “voice” fills the air, the speaker sees that
death is a peaceful surrender and likens dying to falling into a blissful, comfortable sleep. 3. Examples:
Nature functions as a maternal figure because she soothes the speaker’s worries and fears. After
“Mother Earth” imparts her wisdom to the speaker, the tension and terrifying images are replaced with
harmonious and calming thoughts. Like a child who wakes up from a horrifying nightmare, the speaker
clings to the newfound comfort that nature imparts, which allows him to let go of his paranoia and
anxiousness. Get in the Game: Examples: The voice of nature serves a similar purpose in both poems.
In “Thanatopsis,” Nature soothes the speaker’s fears concerning death. She acts like a parental figure by
figuratively wrapping the speaker in comfort and reassurance. She helps the speaker transition from a
state of fear to peace and acceptance of his inevitable fate. In “Self-Dependence,” nature also transforms
the speaker and serves as a catalyst for inner peace and tranquility. However, in “Self-Dependence,”
nature doesn’t merely comfort the speaker; she also inspires the speaker to live more fully and to accept
himself as he is. Unlike “Thanatopsis,” nature uses her wisdom to bridge both death and life in “SelfDependence.” Individual responses will vary.
Exercise 78: 1. Possible values: perseverance, resilience, humility, etc. Motifs: “lose and start again,”
“Hold on,” “nor lose the common touch,” etc. 2. Examples of subjects: advice, counsel, wisdom, intellect,
maturity, values, morals, and other similar choices. Examples of subject phrases: coming of age, pearls
of wisdom, life lessons, sound values, etc. 3. Examples: The speaker imparts these values to provide
wisdom as to how to be honest and true to one’s self, to be an upstanding man in life, and to be of
honorable character in society. The speaker provides his lessons of “masculinity” to his son and to his
readers. Get in the Game: Examples: Sound values define the man you will become; Strong morals
shape a boy’s sense of masculinity; A young boy needs the lessons of his father to sculpt his masculine
mores. Individual responses will vary. Many students may cite advice concerning one’s integrity, morals,
intellect, and community spirit.
Exercise 79: 1. Examples of subjects: death, innocence/experience, denial, parent/child relationships,
disillusionment, and other similar choices. Examples of subject phrases: the effect of death, lost
innocence, the intimate bond of parent/child relationships, the power of denial, and other similar
choices. 2. Examples: Philip begins by hearing the news of his mother’s passing, yet he is never
directly told that she is dead. Instead, he learns that she now lives in heaven. Then, he goes to her
room to literally breathe in the scent of his mother. He sniffs her clothes, touches her belongings, and
even imagines her soft, gentle caresses. The passage ends with Philip lying on her bed as he tries to
understand the gravity of never seeing his mother again. 3. Examples: When Philip lies down on her
bed, he is motionless for the first time in the passage. He plays “dead” himself by resting his head on the
pillow, much like one would in a coffin. Since he could not come to terms with his mother’s permanent
absence, he tries to emulate her new state of being. Philip’s childlike innocence and naiveté die with his
mother. Get in the Game: Examples: The effect of death kills childhood innocence; Lost innocence
impacts a child’s development; The power of denial preserves a child’s youthful outlook; A child never
reconciles the loss of a parental figure. Individual responses will vary.
Exercise 80: 1. Examples of subjects: love, spirituality, friendship, security, and other similar choices.
Examples of subject phrases: the power of love, the need for love, the comfort of security, and other
similar choices. 2. Examples: The “loud strife,” “stress,” and “toil” described in the poem help the reader
to determine that society is contentious and difficult. 3. Examples: Answers may discuss the speaker’s
negative “day” diction to support how necessary the subject is to him or may cite the positive “night”
Teacher Notes: Suggested Responses 147
diction to support the subject’s ability to renew the speaker. The subject’s power is transformative for
the speaker. His broken spirit or emotional weariness caused by society can be healed to elicit feelings of
peace and serenity in the speaker’s soul. Get in the Game: Examples: The power of love restores inner
peace in a contentious society; the need for love uplifts mankind’s broken spirit. Group responses will
vary. Encourage students to initially speak generally and then to cite societal examples.
Exercise 81: 1. Examples of subjects: war, nature, battle, death, destruction, patriotism, and other
similar choices. Examples of subject phrases: man’s destructive forces, the nature of war, the tranquility
of nature, nature’s restorative power, the assurance of patriotic forces, and other similar choices.
2. Examples: The red stripe in the American flag is symbolic of the blood that was shed for our freedom,
and Crane demonstrates this literal occurrence in the passage. Each soldier wears the flag on his
uniform, and the young soldier notes that it was if the flag itself “splashed warm color” upon the soldiers,
rather than blood from the destructive forces of the war. This association provides patriotic comfort, an
“old thrill” for the youth. The flags are described as birds, “strangely undaunted in a storm.” The symbolic
language reasserts a feeling of freedom, of courage as in the Valkyries ascending in their death, of fearless
beauty, and of patriotism with the American eagle. 3. Examples: Paragraph one: “cheerings and clashes”;
paragraph two: “speaking with thunderous oratorical effort” and “splashed”; paragraph four: “listened
to the din,” “deep pulsating thunder,” and “lesser clamors.” The author does not use sound imagery
when he writes about the youth’s vision of beauty—the artistic aesthetics of nature’s tranquility or the
reminiscent reminders of nature’s “undaunted” beauty. 4. Examples: The youth is “astonished” with the
wonder of nature. He marvels in the contrast of nature’s beauty and “tranquility,” among the “devilment”
of warring men. He is truly mystified that peace continues to exist in the environment of war. Get in
the Game: Examples: Nature’s tranquility restores man’s faith in peace; Man’s nature for destruction
is restored by nature’s peace; The assurance of patriotic forces comforts the inexperienced soldier.
Examples of student responses: While the youth hears the sounds of war, he sees nature’s beauty around
him. In the passage, the young soldier disassociates with man’s destructive forces and identifies with the
aesthetic principles of beauty: the “splash” of colors, the movement of figures, and the “golden process”
that cascades light. Indeed, as he participates in war’s “devilment,” the young soldier attempts to maintain
his innocence and “purity” via his artistic perceptions.
Exercise 82: 1. Examples of subjects: popularity, fitting in, conformity, isolation, identity, self-esteem,
individualism, happiness, self, life lessons, wisdom, and other similar choices. 2. While being “somebody”
holds the power to “banish” others, “somebodies” have to maintain “public” appearances all “the livelong
day,” for they are always seen by “admirers.” The “somebodies” in society do not have the opportunity for
privacy or personal identity. Being “somebody” has its price. 3. Identity: “somebody,” “public,” “admiring,”
and “nobody.” Nature: “frog” and “bog.” Magical powers: “banish,” “frog,” and “bog.” Dickinson effectively
uses these motifs to dispel the myths of the nature of public versus private identities. 4. Examples:
While a “nobody” may be “banished” from society, he or she has the power to wander through society
being true to him- or herself. A “nobody’s” identity is hidden from the mainstream, and as long as
one doesn’t “tell,” a nobody can realize his power to be who he wants, when he wants, contrary to the
“somebody” who must remain in the public eye. 5. Examples of subject phrases: popularity’s price,
authentic identity, public identity, dispelling the conformity, honoring individualism, gaining selfesteem, the happiness of personal identity, and other similar choices. Get in the Game: Examples: Lack
of individualism is the price of popularity; dispelling the myths of conformity engenders authentic
identity; healthy self-esteem results from honoring the self. Group responses will vary. Consider an
exercise to build tolerance in the classroom. Try posting student or extracurricular groups (ex: athletes,
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honor students, band, etc.) on the board and asking your students to suggest stereotypical perceptions
of each group. Afterward, encourage students to explain how these perceptions are misleading.
Exercise 83: 1. Examples of subjects: oppression, women’s roles, gender inequality, economic inequality,
poverty, class systems, life’s circumstances, feminism, marriage, women’s work, youth vs. old age,
masculinity vs. femininity, adversity, pride, ugliness vs. beauty, unfairness, and other similar choices.
Examples of subject phrases using the subject of poverty: the effect of poverty, the consequences of
poverty, the ugliness of poverty, the reality of poverty, oppressive poverty, and other similar choices.
2. Examples: Miss Margie is well respected in the community—not yet labeled an “Old Maid.” Cather
uses positive words to describe her, such as “admiringly” and “pride,” to suggest that Miss Margie “should
be valued” in her society. Unfortunately, women of Miss Margie’s economic class are not valued in
society; the general woman of the time is doomed to “obscurity,” unable to actualize the pride felt from
within. Examples: She is a proud woman, despite her humble means. She clearly attempts to defy her
economic station with her strength of character. 3. Example: A woman’s inner and outer worth are
“condemned by circumstances to poverty.” Get in the Game: Examples: The horror of poverty is that it
defines a woman’s personal and social worth; oppressive poverty squelches the opportunities for women;
the ugliness of poverty strips the inner and outer beauty of women; The consequences of poverty
determine a woman’s fate in society. Individual responses will vary. Many students may cite one’s pride
or self-esteem as noteworthy aspects gleaned from the passage.
Exercise 84: 1. Examples of subjects: past vs. present, childhood vs. adulthood, innocence vs. experience,
music, growing up, maturation, nostalgia, memory, and other similar choices. Examples of noun phrases:
the glamour of the past, the melody of childhood, the power of music, the pain of nostalgia, and other
similar choices. 2. Examples: First stanza: The speaker hears a woman “singing to me” which takes him
back through the “years.” Then, he “sees” himself as a little boy, “sitting under the piano,” as he “presses” his
mother’s feet as she touches the pedals. Second stanza: The music “betrays” him into thinking that he
is young once again, until he grows so nostalgic for the past that he “weeps” for the security of a Sunday
evening with his family. Third stanza: It is useless for the singer to increase the emotion in her singing
because the “glamour” of childhood days already overwhelms his emotions. The speaker’s “manhood”
is cast down in a “flood of remembrance” as he “weeps” for the past. Example: Once the music begins
playing, the speaker is instantly transported back to his childhood. He becomes increasingly emotional
and wistful as he longs for the days he will never experience again. By the end of the poem, the speaker
openly “weeps” with nostalgia and regret. 3. Examples: He weeps because he cannot return to the past.
He does not have the ability to turn back the clock. Perhaps his current life is difficult and filled with
challenges, so the speaker wishes to return to a simpler, happier time when he was secure and young.
Going back in time is a way for the speaker to recapture his innocence. Get in the Game: Examples:
The pain of nostalgia fills one with longing for the past; the glamour of the past beckons us to escape
the present; the power of music transcends the present moment. Examples: Music can create different
moods in an individual, so it can heighten different emotional states within us. Music triggers our
memories and takes us back to a specific time in our lives, which fills us with either joy or sadness.
Exercise 85: 1. Examples of subjects: wealth, regret, memory, time, poverty, illusion, truth vs. fiction,
dreams unfulfilled, real vs. ideal, and other similar choices. Examples of subject phrases: the desire
for wealth, the regret of dreams unfulfilled, the passage of time, the illusion of wealth as happiness,
the glimpse of missed opportunities, the desire for the ideal, etc. 2. Examples: Emma is consumed by
her memories of the ball; they have “become an occupation” for her. She views her current position
Teacher Notes: Suggested Responses 149
through the guise of the ball, recognizing her lack of wealth in its comparison. She aches for a different
lifestyle, regretting the actions/inactions that have cast her in a lower social class. 3. Examples: Emma’s
heart feels the “friction,” the pull of wealth’s desire. Like her ballroom slippers, she is forever tainted by
wealth’s charm. Her tainted heart would sacrifice greatly for the promise of wealth and its opportunities.
Example: While specific memories fade, their effects on the heart remain. Get in the Game: Examples:
Dreams unfulfilled fester in one’s heart; as beautiful as memories are, they are replaced by regret; regret
taints what the heart sees, feels, and desires; the illusion of wealth kills the innocent and contented
heart. Group responses will vary.
Exercise 86: 1. Examples of subjects: freedom, enslavement, courage, fear, inequality, oppression,
tolerance/intolerance, conformity/rebellion, adversity, enlightenment, life lessons, and other similar
choices. Examples of subject phrases: true freedom, the pain of enslavement, the consequence of fear, the
injustice of inequality, the effect of oppression, and other similar choices. 2. Examples: Slaves “unworthy
to be freed” are those who do not speak up for the needs of others—especially those men who “boast”
of coming from “fathers brave and free.” A true slave is one who does not have empathy for another’s
tragic plight. 3. Examples: The speaker defines freedom as breaking “fetters” in “earnest” to “make others
free,” not simply breaking “fetters for our own dear sake.” Freedom involves a responsibility to others and
requires us to think beyond ourselves. The speaker defines slavery as those who “fear to speak for the
fallen and the weak” and “shrink” in “silence” at the injustice that they witness. The speaker defines a slave
as those who “dare not be / In the right with two or three,” since true freedom entails speaking out on
behalf of others, which may not always be a popular and supported choice. Get in the Game: Examples:
True freedom requires us to stand up for the oppressed; the horror of oppression depletes the spirit of
mankind; genuine courage involves putting others’ needs before our own; we will always be enslaved if
we fail to use our voice for the voiceless. Individual responses will vary.
Exercise 87: 1. Examples of subjects: racism, slavery, injustice, justice, religion, moral conduct, moral
obligations, oppression, sacrifice, friendship, humanity, love, life’s choices, and other similar choices.
Examples of subject phrases: the sacrifice for justice, the ability to see right from wrong, love for
humanity, equality among friends, eradicating racism, and other similar choices. 2. Examples: As
Huck continues to “think,” he humanizes Jim, realizing that he is unable to conceptualize his friend as
mere property. He “couldn’t seem to strike no places to harden [himself ] against” Jim; rather, he recalls
moments in their friendship when Jim acted compassionate, protective, lovingly, and joyfully with Huck.
With the recognition that he “was the best friend old Jim ever had in the world,” Huck becomes aware
that Jim relies on Huck’s friendship, and furthermore, Huck relies on Jim’s friendship; hence, he decides
that he must tear up the letter. 3. Examples: By determining to honor his friendship with Jim, Huck
willingly forsakes his afterlife, the law, and the moral conduct of the historical time. Huck considers the
sacrifice worthwhile for true friendship. 4. Example: Ironically, Twain uses a poor, neglected, uneducated
child to impart the wisdom of humanity that his nineteenth-century society had yet to learn: slaves are
people, and despite race and background, a person has the capacity to change others through love. Via
satire, Twain chastises his society for not understanding what a child is capable of knowing in his heart.
Get in the Game: Examples: Slaves are individuals worthy of friendship and respect; personal sacrifice
is one cost of eradicating racism; personal sacrifice is necessary to change the moral conduct of a society;
true friendship permeates the boundaries of difference. Individual responses will vary.
Exercise 88: 1. Examples: the inevitability of death, the importance of spirituality, the omnipotence
of death, valuable wisdom, and other similar choices. 2. Example: The speaker characterizes death as
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a powerful entity. Nobody can escape from the “darts” that death throws; we instead are proven to be
mere “toys” to death’s immense supremacy. 3. Examples: The speaker instructs the reader to not trust
in wealth because money “cannot buy you health.” Even the doctors who cure illnesses must eventually
die, just like every other living thing. The “plague” represents the inevitability of our ending fate. 4.
Examples: The speaker is afraid for his soul and wants God to protect him. The speaker sees the sin
that corrupts man and hopes that God will pardon everyone’s wrongs when death inevitably comes. Get
in the Game: Examples: The inevitability of death clarifies our priorities; the omnipotence of death
overpowers all earthly pleasures; the practice of spirituality comforts us in the face of death; valuable
wisdom crystallizes in the face of adversity. Individual responses will vary.
Exercise 89: 1. Examples of subjects: growing up, maturity, childhood/adulthood, innocence/
experience, and other similar choices. Examples of subject phrases: the loss of innocence, the process
of growing up, the realization of childhood’s fleeting nature, and other similar choices. 2. Examples:
Perhaps Barrie uses the garden motif to allude to the Garden of Eden, suggesting that innocence or
ignorance is ending for young Wendy. Perhaps Barrie uses the garden motif to provide a childlike
setting, suggesting that Wendy is in the springtime of her life. 3. Example using the subject of growing
up: Growing up signifies a loss of innocence. 4. Example: At “two” innocence ends, ignorance ends, and
the beauty of childhood ends. Get in the Game: Examples: Impending maturity is signaled by the loss
of innocence; the loss of childhood is first marked by the awareness of change; growing up is inevitable.
Group responses will vary.
Exercise 90: 1. Examples: the anticipation of love, the loss of love, the pain of love, lost innocence, tainted
love, the trials of growing up, painful dreams unfulfilled, the complexity of the real vs. the ideal, thwarted
curiosity, romantic awakenings, and other similar choices. 2. Example using the pain of love: The speaker
dwells on the possibility of Colin’s kiss. She is “haunted” by it never being realized. 3. Examples: People
want what they can’t have. People will regret missed opportunities. People should be selective in matters
of the heart. Get in the Game: Examples: The pain of love haunts a soul; the heart aches for the loss of
love; the anticipation of love is stronger than love realized. Individual responses will vary.
Exercise 91: 1. Examples of subjects: fear, bullying, cruelty, bravery, adversity, obedience, and other
similar choices. Examples of subject phrases: the effect of bullying, triumph over adversity, overcoming
fear, the ugliness of cruelty, and other similar choices. 2. Examples: Horace was simply walking home
from school, enjoying the beauty and brightness of his new red mittens, until he entered a literal and
figurative “battle.” Since he would not take part in the snowball fight with the other boys, they started to
chide him with “unreasonable vehemence.” A town that once felt safe and secure was now tinged with fear
and “terrible music”—the taunting of his peers. Even the setting was now “palled in purple,” the color of
bruises and battle scars. 3. Examples: Horace was not afraid of his mittens; he was afraid of disappointing
his mother. He wanted to remain obedient because she asked him to come home right after school and to
keep his new mittens dry. Horace was afraid for himself and his reputation, which explains the “hesitancy”
in his behavior. 4. Example: Horace’s final reaction to the bullies suggests inner strength and fortitude.
He was able to ignore their jeers and keep his promise to his mother. He displayed wisdom and courage
far beyond his years. Get in the Game: Examples: Adversity unveils our true character; bullying damages
the human spirit; inner conviction and self-belief will always triumph over cruelty and brutality; the easy
choice is usually not the right choice. Individual responses will vary. Discuss these responses as a class to
help them understand that words are very sharp weapons, and they can forever damage a developing soul.
Encourage harmony and celebrate peace and kindness in your own classroom.
Teacher Notes: Suggested Responses 151
Exercise 92: 1. Examples: hatred, wrath, spirituality, righteousness, and other similar choices.
2. Example using the subject of hatred: In the first stanza, the speaker explores “murderous” and
“revengeful” hatred as well as the anger that “hurts” loved ones. The second stanza discusses a hatred
for the people described in the first stanza, evil, oppression, and “the Lord.” Finally, the third stanza
asks God to give the speaker the right kind of hatred—the unselfish, “righteous” wrath. 3. Example:
The speaker is informative in the first stanza, enlightening in the second, and emphatic in the third.
4. Examples: righteous wrath, purifying hatred, the complexity of hatred, etc. Get in the Game:
Examples: Righteous wrath purifies the heart; purifying hatred indicates that a man is on the right
moral path; an individual’s spirituality shapes his emotions and actions. Individual responses will vary.
Exercise 93: 1. Examples of subjects: longing, desire, choices, marriage, manipulation, life lessons,
passion, expectation, priorities, and other similar choices. Examples of subject phrases: unfulfilled
longing, the reality of expectation, the impropriety of desire, loveless marriage, misguided priorities,
and other similar choices. 2. Examples: The woman seems genuinely pleased by Harvy’s unexpected
advances. A “quick blush” colored her face, and her “lips looked hungry for the kiss.” Despite her
marriage, she seemed to be a willing participant. However, she notes that she “felt like a chess player,”
which suggests that she sees this as some sort of “game”—because how often does a husband ask that
someone else kiss his wife? At the end of the passage, she reveals that she loves Brantain’s “millions,”
not him, but that she can’t “have everything in this world,” so she comforts herself with the fact that
she will be part of a union filled with money, not passion. 3. Examples: Harvy fails to kiss her because
he believes that “kissing women” is “dangerous.” Perhaps he has gotten into trouble by coveting married
women, or maybe he just enjoys the thrill of the chase. Harvy’s choice feels more playful and flirtatious;
even when he first approaches her, he has an “insolent smile” on his face, proving that he is ready to
be mischievous. He is playing a game of “cat and mouse” and is inviting her to pursue him. Get in
the Game: Examples: Unfulfilled longing creates dissatisfaction within; a loveless marriage results in
discontented, wandering spouses; the thrill of the hunt far exceeds the acquisition; it is unrealistic to
expect that life will be easy; our choices define our character. Individual responses will vary.
Exercise 94: 1. Examples of subjects: individualism, non-conformity, rebellion, identity, wisdom,
nature, and other similar choices. Examples of subject phrases: challenging the status quo, the benefits
of nonconformity, rites of passage, recognizing the individual, and other similar choices. 2. Examples:
The speaker chooses the path “less traveled by” because it was “grassy and wanted wear.” The path
is undefined by hikers before him, suggesting that the speaker enjoys exploration and discovery.
3. Examples: The speaker is aware that, once he chooses the undefined path, it is unrealistic or “doubtful
if ” he should be at the same crossroads again and able to choose the worn path. He realizes that he may
speak regretfully of his choice as he may “be telling this with a sigh”; however, the possibility of regret
does not quell his excitement in “keeping the first for another day!” The conflict in the speaker’s attitude
is quieted by his epiphany that the choices he makes, positive or negative, will define him. He finishes
the poem with stuttering pride, “I— / I took the one less traveled by,” and the personal conviction that,
indeed, his choice will make “all the difference.” 4. Examples: Metaphorically, the poem’s wooded paths
can suggest a crossroads of ideas or life paths. The speaker warns that, while one may be hesitant to
choose a path, he or she should push through doubting regret to embrace his or her individualism.
The poem proposes risking conformity. Get in the Game: Examples: The road to personal discovery
is often rife with doubts and regret; our personal identity is formed by the choices we make; pride and
conviction of one’s choices quell regret. Individual responses will vary. Some students may suggest, like
Frost, a sense of one’s identity.
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Exercise 95: 1. Examples: the transformative power of death, the consequences of guilt, painful
remorse, love’s regret, the guilty conscience, the horror of self-examination, and other similar choices.
2. Example using the subject phrase guilty conscience: The narrator drowns in his own survivor’s guilt;
“despair and remorse pressed on” his chest, crushing his heart. He fixates on the unjust pain he believes
he has indirectly caused and resolves to inflict indescribable “intense tortures” on others. 3. Examples:
Initially, the narrator’s guilt emotionally and physically depletes the narrator into a state of “inaction.”
Upon fully recognizing the unjust death of Justine, the narrator wallows in “despair” and guilt as he
acknowledges that his evil “deeds” have not led to his death, nor has his resolve to begin “life with
benevolent intentions.” Rather, by the passage’s end, the narrator has determined to embrace his “sense of
guilt” and commit horrible atrocities in its name. Guilt has transformed the character from the inactive
to the active and from the “lover of virtue” to the lover of vice. Get in the Game: Examples using the
subject phrase guilty conscience: The guilty conscience wreaks havoc upon the virtuous soul; the guilty
conscience leads to despair; the guilty conscience inflicts emotional and visceral pain upon an individual.
Individual and class responses will vary.
Exercise 96: 1. Examples of subjects: death, curiosity, sadness, grief, supernatural, appearances vs.
reality, fear, journey, loss, disillusionment, hope, and other similar choices. Examples of subject phrases:
the effect of grief, the loss of hope, grim reality, life-altering loss, internal journey, and other similar
choices. 2. Examples: First stanza: The speaker begins by remembering a “bleak” time in December,
when he “wished” for tomorrow because he was filled with “sorrow” for his lost love, Lenore. Second
stanza: The speaker hears a “rustling” curtain which “thrilled” him and “filled” him with terror. He keeps
“repeating” that the sound is caused by a “visitor” who wants to enter his chamber. Third stanza: The
speaker feels bolder and actually speaks to the “visitor.” He kindly inquires about the visitor and “opens”
his chamber door to satiate his curiosity, but he find “darkness” and “nothing more.” Last stanza: He
stands at the door, “peering” into the darkness, filled with doubt, hope, and dread. He prays that the
“visitor” is his lost love, Lenore. When he calls out her name into the darkness, he merely hears his
“echo,” and “nothing more,” which fills him with despair. 3. Examples: The phrase “nothing more” is
repeated at the end of almost every stanza, and it reveals the speaker’s longing for more. In essence, he
wants Lenore to come back to him from the dead because, without her, life is dull and bleak. There is
“nothing more” to life without his soul mate and partner. 4. Examples: The speaker learns that it is futile
to hope and wish for something that is impossible. Lenore could never return from the dead, yet he
allows himself to believe that the noise he hears outside could be her. The longing for someone can cause
us to act irrationally. Get in the Game: Examples: The loss of hope fills one with dejection and sadness;
the grim reality of death weakens our ability to reason; longing for a lost love clouds our current reality;
despair and hopelessness cause a lapse in our rational judgment. Individual and class responses will vary.
Exercise 97: 1. Examples of subjects: rape, assault, relationships, fortitude, survival, innocence/
experience, spirituality, women’s rights, feminism, and other similar choices. Examples of subject
phrases: inner fortitude, the emotional pain of rape, the horror of sexual assault, one’s personal rights, a
woman’s fight for her life, and other similar choices. 2. Examples: “Crying,” Tess is saddened. The man’s
“cold” response brings no comfort, and she wallows in despair, wishing she “had never been born.” Her
isolation leaves her despondent and withdrawn, unable to converse with the man. She reproaches herself
for the part her attraction played in her assault, seeing herself as weak and, possibly on some level, at
fault. Her self-guilt, however, gives way to “impetuous” anger, as she confronts the man who raped her.
Independence, righteousness, and strength rise in Tess as she explains to the man that a woman’s voice
must be heard and recognized as truth. 3. Examples: “Darkness” suggests the cloaking of goodness,
Teacher Notes: Suggested Responses 153
innocence, and purity. All of nature is “primeval,” physically uninhibited by the laws of man. Spiritually,
Tess’ “guardian angel” or “god” has forsaken her; she is no longer protected by light, nature, law, or god.
As the motifs suggest, she is in impending danger. 4. Example: Tess explains that women mean “no”
when they say “no” to ward off a sexual encounter. Get in the Game: Examples: A woman’s desire must
be taken at her word; inner fortitude helps one survive the unthinkable; a woman’s voice empowers
her; rape is an unimaginable horror for a woman. Individual responses will vary. Most students will
recognize that if a woman is attempting to save herself from an attacker, she will literally need to use
her voice to scream for help. Figuratively, a woman can change perceptions in her society by using her
voice to speak out against oppression. Some students will blur the lines between the literal and figurative
empowerment of a woman’s voice, suggesting that both are necessary for the survival of women.
Exercise 98: 1. Examples of subjects: journey, wisdom, enlightenment, spirituality, life lessons, old
age, death, inspiration, adversity, resilience, and other similar choices. Examples of subject phrases:
inspirational wisdom, valuable life lessons, the wisdom of old age, the journey toward enlightenment,
the empowered spirit, and other similar choices. 2. Example: The speaker seeks “a newer world,” where
he can use his gifts with purpose. This “newer world” can represent the afterlife, or it can symbolize a
newly enlightened state of mind. 3. Examples: The speaker’s attitude is inspired and impassioned. He
is eager to “sail beyond the sunset” and greet life’s challenges with energy and wisdom. Despite his older
age and diminished strength, since he can no longer “move earth and heaven,” he is perfectly content with
his current self. He can still finds seeds of this mighty resilience in his “heroic heart,” and he vows to
continue on in his journey with curiosity and determination to “find, and not to yield” to outside, negative
forces. 4. Examples: The speaker wants the reader to feel peace within because “that which we are, we are.”
He wants people to accept themselves, imperfections and all, and to remain “strong in will” to improve
themselves and to continue on the arduous road to self-improvement. Get in the Game: Examples: The
empowered spirit can transcend the most insurmountable obstacles; while we may be physically weaker as
we age, we become mentally stronger; our attitude fuels our ability to overcome adversity; death is merely
a continuation of our journey toward enlightenment. Individual responses will vary.
Exercise 99: 1. Examples: love, beauty, devotion, nature, and other similar choices. 2. Examples: The
speaker uses glorious, awe-inspiring examples from nature, such as “the sun,” “coral,” and “roses,” yet instead
of finding similarities between these and his love, he contrasts them. He says that his mistress’ eyes are
“nothing like” the sun and that coral is “far more red” than her lips. His lover’s physical beauty pales in
comparison to the perfection that nature produces. 3. Examples: The speaker asserts that he loves his
mistress far more than the false, exaggerated comparisons that many poets use. His love is real and
grounded in his authentic appreciation of his lover’s imperfections. He does not want her to be idyllic and
perfect; instead, he wants her to be exactly who she is. 4. Examples: true love, the power of true love, inner
beauty, the depiction of beauty, inspired devotion, and other similar choices. Get in the Game: Examples:
True love originates from an acceptance of one another; the power of true love transcends physical
imperfection; false comparisons cheapen true love; the beauty of nature pales in comparison to the glory
of true devotion. Group responses will vary, but most will reassert Shakespeare’s timeless message that
true love transcends physical perfection—a message that teenagers today need to hear!
154 Mastering Close REading
Student Handouts
Student Handouts 155
Character Trait List
Abusive
Absurd
Adventurous
Affectionate
Aggressive
Agreeable
Ambitious
Amicable
Animalistic
Anxious
Artistic
Authentic
Authoritative
Avaricious
Belittling
Bold
Boisterous
Bombastic
Broken-spirited
Calloused
Careful
Careless
Caring
Clever
Combative
Comical
Commanding
Compassionate
Conceited
Concentrated
Confessional
Confidant
Confrontational
Conniving
Conscientious
Contemplative
Content
Contentious
Cynical
Courageous
Curious
Dangerous
Deceitful
Deflated
Defiant
Definitive
Dejected
Delightful
Depressed
156 Depriving
Determined
Derisive
Devastated
Diabolical
Directive
Disagreeable
Disloyal
Disturbed
Disobedient
Doubtful
Dramatic
Eager
Earnest
Envious
Exacting
Excited
Explosive
Extraordinary
Fair
Feisty
Fixated
Focused
Foolish
Frustrated
Gaudy
Generous
Gentlemanly
Ghostly
Gloomy
Goal-oriented
Graceful
Grateful
Gratuitous
Grief-stricken
Grim
Guilt-ridden
Happy
Hardworking
Heroic
Honest
Ideal
Idle
Idyllic
Ignorant
Imaginative
Immature
Impassioned
Impatient
Mastering Close REading
Impoverished
Innocent
Inflammatory
Insane
Insatiable
Insensible
Insightful
Inspirational
Intellectual
Introspective
Irrational
Irritated
Isolated
Joyful
Languid
Lonely
Loving
Loyal
Maternal
Mature
Meditative
Mild
Miserable
Monstrous
Mysterious
Naïve
Neat
Nervous
Nostalgic
Objective
Obnoxious
Observant
Omniscient
Oppressed
Optimistic
Ordinary
Overconfident
Pained
Passionate
Passive
Paternal
Pathetic
Peaceful
Perplexed
Persuasive
Pleasurable
Poetic
Predatory
Pretentious
Protective
Proud
Purposeful
Reflective
Reminiscent
Remorseful
Resistant
Reserved
Rhythmic
Sacrificial
Scrappy
Scornful
Secretive
Self-deprecating
Selfish
Self-loathing
Self-reliant
Serene
Sinful
Sly
Skeptical
Spiritual
Stealthy
Stubborn
Submissive
Subservient
Superior
Talented
Temperamental
Triumphant
Truthful
Tumultuous
Turbulent
Ubiquitous
Uncultured
Uninhibited
Unrestrained
Unrestrictive
Venomous
Violent
Vitriolic
Wealthy
Wise
Wistful
Subject List
Abuse
Adventure
Adversity
Aestheticism
Afterlife
Angst
Anticipation
Apathy
Appearances
Art
Assault
Authenticity
Awakenings
Beauty (Inner/Outer)
Bravery
Carpe Diem
Childhood
Choices
Class Systems
Comfort
Conformity
Conscience
Contemplation
Courage
Convention
Cowardice
Culture
Curiosity
Death
Depression
Desire
Despair
Destruction
Devotion
Differences
Dignity
Disappointment
Discomfort
Discovery
Disgust
Disillusionment
Dreams Unfulfilled
Education
Empathy
Enlightenment
Enslavement
Equality
Ethics
Experience
Exploration
Family
Fate
Fear
Feminism
Freedom
Free Will
Friendship
Fulfillment
Gender Roles
Generations
Glory
Gratitude
Grief
Guilt
Happiness
Hatred
Heroes
History
Honor
Hope
Hopelessness
Hubris
Humanity
Humility
Ideal/Real
Identity
Ignorance
Illusion
Imagination
Imprisonment
Impurity
Independence
Individualism
Industrialization
Infatuation
Innocence
Intolerance
Introspection
Insanity
Insecurity
Inspiration
Irrationality
Isolation
Journey
Judgment
Knowledge
Legacy
Life Lessons
Literacy
Loneliness
Loss
Love
Loyalty/Betrayal
Manipulation
Marriage
Masculinity
Maturity
Memory
Men’s Work
Morality
Mothers and
Daughters
Mystery
Nature
Nostalgia
Nourishment
Obedience
Oppression
Pain
Passion
Patriotism
Parenthood
Past/Present
Peace
Peer Pressure
Perception
Perseverance
Pity
Popularity
Poverty
Power
Prejudice
Pride
Progress
Protection
Psychological
Journey
Purity
Quest
Racism
Rationality
Real/Imaginary
Reality
Realization
Rebellion
Regret
Relationships
Religion
Repression
Resilience
Restraint
Righteousness
Romance
Sacrifice
Sanity
Secrecy
Self-esteem
Self-examination
Self-worth
Separation
Sexual
Objectification
Shame
Silence
Similarities
Simplicity
Sin
Solitude
Spirituality
Stereotypes
Strife
Submission
Suffering
Suicide
Supernatural
Survival
Sympathy
Technology
Time
Tolerance
Tradition
Transformation
Trust
Truth/Fiction
Usefulness
Values
Vices
Victory
Violence
Voice
War
Wealth
Wisdom
Women’s Work
Wrath
Youth/Maturity
Student Handouts 157
How to Create a Subject Phrase
Subject list: One way to further narrow or clarify a subject is to generate a list of several subjects in your
excerpt.
For example, in the following excerpt from The Three Little Pigs, you may have generated subjects such
as: destruction, violence, abuse, opposition, oppression, determination, survival, and manipulation.
When the second little pig saw the wolf coming, he ran inside his house and shut the door.
The wolf knocked on the door and said, “Little pig, little pig, let me come in.”
“No, no,” said the little pig. “By the hair of my chinny chin chin, I will not let you come in.”
“Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in,” said the wolf.
So he huffed and he puffed and he huffed and he puffed. The house of sticks fell down and
the wolf ate up the second little pig.
The next day the wolf walked further along the road. He came to the house of bricks which
the third little pig had built.
When the third little pig saw the wolf coming, he ran inside his house and shut the door.
The wolf knocked on the door and said, “Little pig, little pig, let me come in.”
“No, no,” said the little pig. “By the hair of my chinny chin chin, I will not let you come in.”
“Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in,” said the wolf.
So he huffed and he puffed and he huffed and he puffed. But the house of bricks did not fall
down.
The wolf was very angry, but he pretended not to be. He thought, “This is a clever little pig. If
I want to catch him I must pretend to be his friend.”
Next, look to combine two complementary subjects from your list to create a subject phrase. From the
list of subjects above, you could combine both destruction and violence to create the subject phrase of
destructive violence. Similarly, you could also combine both abuse and opposition to create the subject
phrase of abusive opposition. Notice how combining similar subjects can create a specific and detailed
subject phrase!
Adjective phrase: Another way to further narrow a subject is to describe the subject with an adjective
from the “Adjective List” handout. First, consider how the subject is described in the poem or passage.
Next, choose an adjective that further defines how the subject is being used in the piece. To create a
subject phrase, simply place the defining adjective before the subject.
For example, to further clarify and define the subject of oppression in The Three Little Pigs, an
appropriate subject phrase may be crippling oppression. Additionally, to further clarify and define
the subject of determination in The Three Little Pigs, a fitting subject phrase to describe the wolf ’s
determination may be cunning determination. Note how these subject phrases utilize an adjective that
best describes that subject’s role in the passage.
Noun phrase: Describing the subject with a noun phrase is yet another technique for formulating
the subject phrase. You can use the “Noun Phrase List” handout to further describe a subject’s role or
portrayal in an excerpt. Then, you simply place the subject at the end of the noun phrase to create a
subject phrase.
158 Mastering Close REading
For example, in The Three Little Pigs, the subject of survival could transform into a subject phrase
with the addition of a noun phrase. After examining your motifs, you might decide that the desire for
survival is a fitting subject phrase for the passage. Similarly, after reviewing your motifs, the subject of
manipulation could transform into the following subject phrase: the danger of manipulation.
You can further develop your subject phrase by changing the word the in front of the noun phrase to
one’s, man’s, humankind’s, or society’s, for example: one’s desire for survival.
Student Handouts 159
Adjective List
Absolute
Absurd
Actual
Appropriate
Artistic
Authentic
Beautiful
Broken
Circumstantial
Common
Complex
Courageous
Crippling
Cultural
Cunning
Deferred
Desirable
Desperate
Derisive
Different
Dignified
Disparate
Domestic
Dwindling
Dying
Genuine
Glorious
Elusive
Emotional
Excessive
Experienced
Explosive
External
Flawed
Fleeting
Forbidden
Fortified
Free
160 Mastering Close REading
Habitual
Honorable
Horrific
Human
Hyperbolic
Impending
Impoverished
Imprisoning
Improper
Impure
Incessant
Inconsequential
Inglorious
Innocent
Insensible
Insidious
Insignificant
Intensive
Internal
Irrational
Isolating
Joyful
Just
Justifiable
Learned
Loving
Malicious
Moderate
Natural
Noble
Nourishing
Obligatory
Oppressive
Organized
Overpowering
Overwhelming
Painful
Personal
Physical
Physiological
Pleasurable
Powerful
Powerless
Problematic
Psychological
Pure
Rational
Real
Revealed
Righteous
Romantic
Secretive
Shared
Silent
Societal
Suffering
Suggestive
Tainted
Terrifying
Thwarted
Tortured
Toxic
Tragic
Transformative
Triumphant
True
Turbulent
Unexpected
Unfair
Unfulfilled
Unrealistic
Unspeakable
Unusual
Vitriolic
Volatile
Wondrous
Noun Phrase List
The ability to
The absurdity of
The acceptance of
The acuity of
The adventure for
The alienation of
The anticipation of
The antidote to
The assessment of
The assertion of
The beauty of
The behavior of
The cause of
The commitment to
The complexity of
The consciousness of
The conquests of
The consequence of
The conviction of
The culpability of
The danger of
The death of
The declaration of
The deferment of
The definition of
The denial of
The depths of
The desire for
The destruction of
The detriment to
The disappearance of
The disappointment of
The discovery of
The disillusionment of
The drudgery of
The effect of
The embrace of
The escape from
The exile of
The expectation of
The fear of
The flaws of
The folly of
The goal of/to
The habit of
The hope for
The horror of
The ideal of
The illusion of
The impact of
The importance of
The impropriety of
The impurity of
The inconsequence of
The inequity of
The influence of
The innocence of
The insignificance of
The insanity of
The interpretation of
The intolerance for
The irreverence for
The issue of
The isolation of
The journey to
The joy of
The judgment of
The justification of/for
The lack of acceptance of
The loss of
The misalignment of
The misuse of
The motivation for/to
The nature of
The necessity for
The need for
The notion of
The obligation of
The omission of
The oppression of
The pain of
The passion for
The peace of
The perception of
The preconceived notion of
The perpetuation of
The personal value of
The power of
The principles of
The purity of
The ramifications of
The rationality of
The reality of
The rebuke of
The reflection of
The rejection of
The release of
The resignation of
The responsibility of
The restoration of
The revelation of
The reverence for
The recognition of
The ruin of
The secure of
The self-worth of
The sense of
The serenity of
The shackles of
The significance of
The silence of
The sins of
The spirit of
The state of
The strength of
The sweetness of
The terror of
The tension between
The threat of
The tolerance of
The transaction of
The transcending power of
The transformation of
The trial of
The tribulations of
The ugliness of
The upheaval of
The value of
The virtue of
The vision of
The willingness to
Student Handouts 161
How to Create a Thematic Statement
Thematic statements apply the values and principles contained within a work’s motifs and subjects
to the outside world. When considering theme, therefore, it is important to re-examine your motifs,
subjects, and subject phrases in the work. Keep these handy as you work through the following
processes of creating a theme.
Fill-in statement: These themes start with the subject phrase and end with the subject phrase’s impact
on the individual, society, or humanity. Each sentence links these ideas with a powerful verb.
1. Choose one of your subject phrases for the passage or poem.
2. Determine the impact of the subject phrase on the outside world by answering one of the
following questions:
• What is the subject phrase actively doing in the excerpt?
• How is the subject phrase defined in the excerpt?
• How do the characters interact with the subject phrase?
• What is the subject phrase’s effect on an individual character or on the text’s society?
3. Consider how your subject phrase and its impact are related. Choose an active verb to link these
two ideas together. Use the “Active Verb List” handout as a reference for powerful verbs.
4. Place your findings in the fill-in to create an impressive thematic statement!
(Subject Phrase) + (Active Verb) + (Impact on Society)
For example, after reading the excerpt from The Three Little Pigs, you may have generated the following
subject phrases: destructive violence, abusive opposition, and crippling oppression.
When the second little pig saw the wolf coming, he ran inside his house and shut the door.
The wolf knocked on the door and said, “Little pig, little pig, let me come in.”
“No, no,” said the little pig. “By the hair of my chinny chin chin, I will not let you come in.”
“Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in,” said the wolf.
So he huffed and he puffed and he huffed and he puffed. The house of sticks fell down and
the wolf ate up the second little pig.
The next day the wolf walked further along the road. He came to the house of bricks which
the third little pig had built.
When the third little pig saw the wolf coming, he ran inside his house and shut the door.
The wolf knocked on the door and said, “Little pig, little pig, let me come in.”
“No, no,” said the little pig. “By the hair of my chinny chin chin, I will not let you come in.”
“Then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in,” said the wolf.
So he huffed and he puffed and he huffed and he puffed. But the house of bricks did not fall
down.
The wolf was very angry, but he pretended not to be. He thought, “This is a clever little pig. If
I want to catch him I must pretend to be his friend.”
162 Mastering Close REading
1. Consider the subject phrase of destructive violence.
2.Determine destructive violence’s impact on the outside world as revealed in the passage. Use one
of the questions to help: How does destructive violence affect the pigs? Re-reading the passage
and reviewing your motif charts, you can determine that the pigs feel threatened and anxious;
they have lost their sense of security.
3. Now, look at the “Active Verb List” to find a powerful verb that suggests the relationship between
destructive violence and sense of security. We know the pigs lost their sense of security because the
wolf ’s destructive violence stole and destroyed it. You could use steals or destroys as active verbs in
your statement.
4. All you have left to do is fill in your statement. Remember to replace specific characters with
general terms like: one, our, humankind, and society; after all, we want the theme to apply to the
outside world—not just the world of talking pigs.
(Destructive violence) + (destroys) + (one’s sense of security)
Wow! Look at the impressive thematic statement you crafted:
Destructive violence destroys one’s sense of security.
If you can create a theme like this from a children’s fairytale, just think of your future thematic
possibilities!
Craft your own: Sometimes when writing a thematic statement, you may feel inspired to steer away
from the thematic fill-in template provided. Be encouraged to follow your inner voice to craft thematic
statements that showcase your own authentic sentence patterns and styles. To experiment with this
method, begin by following these suggestions:
1. Choose one of your subject phrases for the passage or poem.
2. Determine the impact of the subject phrase on the outside world by answering one of the
following questions:
• What is the subject phrase actively doing in the excerpt?
• How is the subject phrase defined in the excerpt?
• How do the characters interact with the subject phrase?
• What is the subject phrase’s effect on an individual character or on the text’s society?
3. Using adjectives, adverbs, and/or action verbs, write a sentence that details how your subject
phrase impacts society or humanity. The sentence structure should feel natural to you and
should represent your individual style and voice. While your subject phrase may appear at
the beginning, middle, or end of this sentence, your sentence should ALWAYS reveal the
relationship between your subject phrase and the outside world.
Student Handouts 163
For example, after reading the excerpt from The Three Little Pigs, you may have generated the following
subject phrases: cunning determination, the danger of manipulation, and the desire for survival.
1. Consider the subject phrase of cunning determination.
2.Determine cunning determination’s impact on the outside world as revealed in the passage. Use
one of the questions to help: How do the characters interact with cunning determination in the
excerpt? By re-reading the passage and reviewing your motif charts, you can determine that the
wolf uses cunning determination to hunt—and ultimately eat—the pigs. He does this in order
to survive.
3. Next, we want to specify exactly how cunning determination relates to the outside world. After
realizing that the wolf utilizes cunning determination to hunt his prey, which is key to his
own survival, experiment with conveying this revelation in a sentence that feels natural to you.
Remember to replace specific characters with general terms (such as one, humankind, etc.)
because wolves are not the only ones in this world that practice cunning determination! Your
attempt may mirror a thematic statement such as this: To survive in this world, one must practice
cunning determination.
Look at how beautifully the thematic statement asserts the subject phrase’s role in the passage and
relates it to the world around us! Better yet, imagine the original and clever thematic statements that
you will create using your own insights and authentic voice!
164 Mastering Close REading
Active Verb List
Abandons
Accomplishes
Achieves
Addresses
Affirms
Aggravates
Allows
Ascertains
Assesses
Avows
Bases
Cements
Characterizes
Clarifies
Classifies
Critiques
Communicates
Confirms
Constructs
Conveys
Corrupts
Cripples
Critiques
Cultivates
Declares
Decrees
Decries
Deconstructs
Deduces
Defines
Deforms
Delineates
Denounces
Derives
Describes
Destroys
Determines
Differentiates
Disavows
Discovers
Displays
Distinguishes
Distorts
Effects
Elucidates
Embodies
Emphasizes
Encourages
Engenders
Enhances
Establishes
Evaluates
Examines
Executes
Exemplifies
Explains
Expresses
Finds
Formulates
Fosters
Fractures
Fulfills
Gathers
Generates
Glorifies
Heightens
Highlights
Hypothesizes
Identifies
Illustrates
Implements
Incites
Infers
Inflames
Influences
Informs
Inspires
Institutes
Integrates
Interprets
Introduces
Judges
Labeled
Leads
Learns
Maintains
Manipulates
Modifies
Motivates
Obliterates
Observes
Obtains
Orchestrates
Organized
Originates
Persuades
Plans
Predicts
Presents
Produces
Promotes
Prompts
Proposes
Protects
Proves
Provokes
Questions
Raises
Realizes
Reasons
Recants
Reforms
Rejects
Relinquishes
Renounces
Reshapes
Resolves
Restores
Roots
Rouses
Serves
Shapes
Spurs
Stems
Stimulates
Stipulates
Suggests
Supports
Surrenders
Sustains
Synthesizes
Targets
Teaches
Tests
Transforms
Typifies
Uncovers
Unifies
Utilizes
Validates
Student Handouts 165
Motif Chart
Motif: ___________________________________________
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
166 Mastering Close REading
Compare/Contrast Motif Chart 1
Positive Images
Negative Images
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
Craft a Subject/
Subject Phrase
Student Handouts 167
Compare/Contrast Motif Chart 2
Physical
Words/Phrases
Abstract Ideas
Craft a Subject/
Subject Phrase
168 Mastering Close REading
Emotional
Character Motif Chart
Words/Phrases
Character Actions
Character Traits/
Emotions/ Feelings
Character
Motivation
Student Handouts 169
Speaker Motif Chart
Words/Phrases
Speaker’s Actions
Speaker’s Traits/
Emotions/ Feelings
Speaker’s Motivation
170 Mastering Close REading
Works Cited
Louisa May Alcott, Little Women (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1868, 1869).
Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach,” New Poems (London: Macmillan and Company, 1867) and “SelfDependence,” Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems (London: B. Fellowes, 1852).
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (Whitehall: Thomas Egerton, January 1813) and Sense and Sensibility
(Whitehall: Thomas Egerton, 1811).
Brod Bagert, “The Door Unopened” and “Glory and Defeat,” Hormone Jungle: Coming of Age in Middle
School (Gainesville, FL: Maupin House, 2006). Reprinted with permission of Maupin House.
J.M. Barrie, “Peter Pan,” The Little White Bird (England: Hodder and Stoughton, 1902).
Ambrose Bierce, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (United States:
E.L.G. Steele, San Francisco: 1892).
William Blake, “Holy Thursday,” Songs of Innocence and Experience (England: 1794).
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre (London: Smith, Elder & Co, 1847).
Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights (London: Thomas Cautley Newby, 1847).
Robert Browning, “Prospice,” Atlantic Monthly (Boston: June 1864).
William Cullen Bryant, “Thanatopsis,” The North American Review, edited by Richard Henry Dana, Sr.
(Boston: 1817).
Baron George Gordon Byron, “She Walks in Beauty,” The Complete Works of Lord Byron (Reprinted
from Last London Edition, Baron Henry Lytton Bulwer Dalling and Bulwer, 1841).
Willa Cather, “A Resurrection,” The Home Monthly, VI (Pittsburgh: April 1897): 4-8 and “A Wagner
Matinee,” Everybody’s Magazine (United States: February 1904).
Kate Chopin, The Awakening (Chicago: Herbert S. Stone and Company, 1899), “The Kiss” (September 19,
1894), and “The Story of an Hour,” printed under the title “The Dream of an Hour” in Vogue (1894).
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, Blackwood’s Magazine (England: 1902).
James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans: a narrative of 1757 (Philadelphia: H.C. Carey & I.
Lea, 1827).
Stephen Crane, “His New Mittens,” The Monster and Other Stories (Harper, 1899). Red Badge of
Courage, Publisher’s Weekly (October 1895).
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, first published in serial form in All the Year Round (December
1860-August 1861).
Emily Dickinson, “I’m Nobody,” Series Two, edited by Mabel Loomis Todd and T.W. Higgins (Amherst,
MA: 1891) and “While we were fearing it, it came—,” Third Series, edited by Mabel Loomis Todd
(Amherst, MA: 1896).
Works Cited 171
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (England: George Newnes Ltd., 1892).
Theodore Dreiser, “Free,” Free and Other Stories (New York: Boni and Liveright, 1918).
John Dryden, “A Song for Saint Cecilia’s Day,” Examen Poeticum (London: J. Tonson, 1693).
Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo (France: Chapman and Hall, 1844).
Paul Laurence Dunbar, “Sympathy,” Lyrics of the Hearthside (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company,
1899) and “We Wear the Mask,” Lyrics of Lowly Life (New York: Dodd, Mead, and Company, 1896). George Eliot, Adam Bede (London: John Blackwood, 1859).
F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise (United States: Scribner, 1920).
Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary (France: Michel Levy Freres, 1857).
Robert Frost, “Mending Wall,” North of Boston (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1915), “Stopping
by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” New Hampshire (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1922) and
“The Road Not Taken,” Mountain Interval (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1916).
Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Graphic, XLIV (England: July-December 1891).
Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” The Token and Atlantic Souvenir, edited by Samuel
Goodrich (1836) and The Scarlet Letter (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1850).
Robert Herrick, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” Hesperides (England: 1648).
Oliver Wendell Holmes, “Old Ironsides,” Boston Daily Advertiser (September 15, 1830).
Joyce Moyer Hostetter, Blue (Honesdale, PA: Calkins Creek Books, 2006) and Healing Water
(Honesdale, PA: Calkins Creek Books, 2008). Reprinted with permission of the author.
A. E. Housman, “To an Athlete Dying Young,” A Shropshire Lad (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner
& Co., 1896).
Victor Hugo, Les Miserables (France: A. Lacroix, Verboeckhoven and Co., 1862).
Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House (Denmark: December 4, 1879).
Washington Irving, “Rip Van Winkle,” The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent (United States:
Cornelius S. Van Winkle, 1819).
Joseph Jacobs, “The Story of The Three Little Pigs,” English Fairy Tales (London: David Nutt, 1890).
Henry James, Daisy Miller (United Kingdom: Cornhill Magazine, June-July 1878).
James Joyce, “Araby,” Dubliners (London: Grant Richards, 1914) and Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man
(U.S. book edition: B. W. Huebsch, 1916).
Rudyard Kipling, “If—,”Rewards and Fairies (Macmillan, 1910).
Tato Laviera, “Hate,” Mainstream Ethics (Houston, TX: Arte Público Press, 1988). Reprinted with
permission of Arte Público Press.
D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers (United Kingdom: Gerald Duckworth and Company, Ltd., 1913),
“The Piano,” New Poems (1918), and “Snake,” Dial ( July, 1921).
Jack London, “To Build a Fire,” The Century Magazine, v.76 (August 1908).
Richard Lovelace, “To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars,” Lucasta (United Kingdom: 1649).
Amy Lowell, “To A Friend,” A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass (Classic Books, 1919).
James Russell Lowell, “Stanzas on Freedom,” The Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell (Boston:
Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1888).
W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage (United States: George H. Doran Company, 1915).
Claude McKay, “If We Must Die,” The Liberator (Boston: 1919).
Thomas Moore, “’Tis the Last Rose of Summer,” The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore. (A. D. Godley, ed.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1910).
Pat Mora, “A Voice,” My Own True Name (Houston, Texas: Piñata Books, Arte Público Press, 2000).
Reprinted with permission of Arte Público Press.
172 Mastering Close REading
Thomas Nashe, “A Litany in Time of Plague,” Summer’s Last Will and Testament (London: Simon
Stafford, 1600).
Charles Perrault, “Cinderella, or The Little Glass Slipper,” Stories or Tales from Times Past, with Morals:
Tales of Mother Goose (France, 1697).
Edgar Allen Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine (September 1839),
“The Raven,” The Raven and Other Poems ( January 1845), and “The Tell-Tale Heart,” James Russell
Lowell’s The Pioneer ( January 1843).
H.D. Rawnsley, “A Contrast,” H. B. Elliot, ed. Lest We Forget (London: Jarrold & Sons, 1915).
Lola Ridge, “Betty,” Sun-Up and Other Poems (New Republic, 1920).
Edwin Arlington Robinson, “Richard Cory,” Collected Poems (1921).
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “Silent Noon,” Ballads and Sonnets (1881).
Margriet Ruurs, “Treasure Chest,” Virtual Maniac Silly and Serious Poems for Kids (Gainesville, FL:
Maupin House, 2003). Reprinted with permission of Maupin House.
Carl Sandburg, “Chicago,” Chicago Poems. (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1916).
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; The
Tragedy of Macbeth; and The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet from The Works of Shakspeare by William
Shakespeare and Charles Knight (New York: Virtue and Yorston, 1873-1876) and “Sonnet 130,”
The Sonnets of William Shakespeare (England: Thomas Thorpe, 1609).
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (London: H. Colburn and R. Bentley; Edinburgh: Bell and Bradfute, 1831).
Percy Bysshe Shelley, “A Dirge,” The Triumph of Life (United Kingdom, 1824).
Bram Stoker, Dracula (United Kingdom: Archibald Constable and Company, 1897).
Sara Teasdale, “The Look,” Love Songs (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1917).
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H. (London: E. Moxon, 1850) and “Ulysses,” Poems
(London: Edward Moxon, Dover Street, 1842).
Ernest Thayer, “Casey at the Bat,” San Francisco Examiner ( June 3, 1888).
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace (Russia: Russkii Vestnik, 1869).
Charles Hanson Towne, “At Nightfall,” The Quiet Singer and Other Poems (New York: Mitchell Kennerly,
1914).
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885).
Henry Van Dyke, “Righteous Wrath,” Golden Stars and Other Verses. (New York: Charles Scribner’s
Sons, 1919).
H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds (England: William Heinemann, 1898).
Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome (Boston: Scribner’s, 1911).
Walt Whitman, “Are you the new person drawn to me?,” Leaves of Grass (Philadelphia: David McKay,
1900) and “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer,” Drum-Taps (1865).
Ella Wheeler Wilcox, “Friendship after Love,” Poems of Passion (Chicago: W.B. Conkey Company, 1883).
William Carlos Williams, “Dance Russe,” Al Que Quiere! (Boston: The Four Seas Company, 1917).
William Butler Yeats, “Lake Isle of Innisfree,” The National Observer (December 13, 1890).
Works Cited 173
Bibliography
Abrams, Meyer Howard. A Glossary of Literary Terms (Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College
Publishers, 1999).
Baldick, Chris. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (New York: Oxford University Press,
2001).
Harmon, William. A Handbook to Literature (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000).
Holman, Hugh C. A Handbook to Literature (New York: Macmillan, 1992).
Quinn, Edward. A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms (New York: Facts on File, 1999).
174 Mastering Close REading
Index of Literature
Prose
Adam Bede, George Eliot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
“Araby,” James Joyce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Awakening, Kate Chopin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Blue, Joyce Moyer Hostetter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
“Cinderella,” Charles Perrault . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Daisy Miller, Henry James . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
“Fall of the House of Usher,” Edgar Allen Poe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
“Free,” Theodore Dreiser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
“His New Mittens,” Stephen Crane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
In Memoriam, Alfred, Lord Tennyson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Last of the Mohicans: a narrative of 1757, James Fenimore Cooper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Les Miserables, Victor Hugo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
“Minister’s Black Veil,” Nathaniel Hawthorne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Ambrose Bierce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Of Human Bondage, W. Somerset Maugham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
“Peter Pan,” J.M. Barrie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
“A Resurrection,” Willa Cather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
“Rip Van Winkle,” Washington Irving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Index of Literature 175
Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Sons and Lovers, D.H. Lawrence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
“Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
“Tell-Tale Heart,” Edgar Allen Poe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
“To Build a Fire,” Jack London . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
“A Wagner Matinee,” Willa Cather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Poetry
“Are You the New Person Drawn Toward Me?,” Walt Whitman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
“At Nightfall,” Charles Hanson Towne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
“Casey at the Bat,” Ernest Thayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
“Chicago,” Carl Sandburg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
“A Contrast,” H.D. Rawnsley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
“Danse Russe,” William Carlos Williams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
“A Dirge,” Percy Bysshe Shelley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
“The Door Unopened,” Brod Bagert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
“Dover Beach,” Matthew Arnold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
“Friendship after Love,” Ella Wheeler Wilcox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
“Glory and Defeat,” Brod Bagert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
“Hate,” Tato Laviera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
“Holy Thursday,” William Blake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
“If,” Rudyard Kipling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
“If We Must Die,” Claude McKay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
“I’m Nobody,” Emily Dickinson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
“Lake Isle of Innisfree,” William Butler Yeats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
“A Litany in Time of Plague,” Thomas Nashe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
“Look,” Sara Teasdale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
“Mending Wall,” Robert Frost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
“Old Ironsides,” Oliver Wendell Holmes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
“Piano,” D.H. Lawrence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
“Prospice,” Robert Browning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
“Raven,” Edgar Allen Poe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
“Richard Cory,” Edwin Arlington Robinson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
“Righteous Wrath,” Henry Van Dyke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
“Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
“Self-Dependence,” Matthew Arnold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
“She Walks in Beauty,” Baron George Gordon Byron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
“Silent Noon,” Dante Gabriel Rossetti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
“A Song for Saint Cecilia’s Day,” John Dryden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
“Snake,” D.H. Lawrence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
“Sonnet 130,” William Shakespeare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
176 Mastering Close REading
“Stanzas on Freedom,” James Russell Lowell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” Robert Frost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
“Sympathy,” Paul Laurence Dunbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
“Thanatopsis,” William Cullen Bryant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
“‘Tis the Last Rose of Summer,” Thomas Moore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
“To A Friend,” Amy Lowell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
“To an Athlete Dying Young,” A. E. Housman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
“To Lucasta, on Going to the Wars,” Richard Lovelace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
“To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” Robert Herrick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
“Treasure Chest,” Margriet Ruurs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
“Ulysses,” Alfred, Lord Tennyson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
“A Voice,” Pat Mora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
“We Wear the Mask,” Paul Laurence Dunbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
“When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer,” Walt Whitman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
“While we were fearing it, it came—,” Emily Dickinson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Drama
A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, William Shakespeare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Index of Literature 177