Thursday, February 13 Morning in the Burned House

Due now: 
Your completed The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats.
In class: Margaret Atwood's Morning in the Burned House

This is the last poem in this format. Over the break, I will finish grading all the assignments from these past two weeks. If you have missed material, and do not have a handout, check the blog, as all the material is on line. You may copy and paste the material onto a google doc to complete. 

Coming up: on the Monday after the break, we are continuing with the poetry unit in a different format.  Stay tuned.

Morning in a Burned House

Name_________________________________________-

Margaret Atwood (born 1939) is an award-winning Canadian poet, novelist and literary critic. While she is most famous for her novels, including The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood also published fifteen books of poetry. As you read, take notes on the poet’s use of figurative language and symbolism.

MORNING IN THE BURNED HOUSE

by Margaret Atwood

1.       In the burned house I am eating breakfast.

You understand: there is no house, there is no breakfast

yet here I am.

The spoon which was melted scrapes against

[5] the bowl which was melted also.

No one else is around.

Where have they gone to, brother and sister,

mother and father? Off along the shore,

perhaps. Their clothes are still on the hangers,

[10] their dishes piled beside the sink,

which is beside the woodstove

with its grate and sooty kettle,

every detail clear,

tin cup and rippled mirror.

[15] The day is bright and songless,

the lake is blue, the forest watchful.

In the east a bank of cloud

rises up silently like dark bread.

I can see the swirls in the oilcloth,

[20] I can see the flaws in the glass,

those flares where the sun hits them.

I can’t see my own arms and legs

or know if this is a trap or blessing,

finding myself back here, where everything

[25] in this house has long been over,

kettle and mirror, spoon and bowl,

including my own body,

including the body I had then,

including the body I have now

[30] as I sit at this morning table, alone and happy,

bare child’s feet on the scorched floorboards

(I can almost see)

in my burning clothes, the thin green shorts

and grubby yellow T-shirt

[35]holding my cindery non-existent,  (ashy)

radiant flesh. Incandescent.  (fiery or emitting light as a

                                                       result of being heated)

2.       Which statement best describes the events of the first two stanzas?

A.      The speaker is the sole survivor of her house that burned down, and she is eating breakfast in the ruins.

B.      The speaker describes being alone in a burned house that does not exist, eating a breakfast that isn’t there.

C.      The speaker is imagining what it would be like if her house were to burn down and all her family died.

D.      The speaker is remembering when, as a child, she played make-believe in different tragedy

2         In the burned house, everything…

A.      has disappeared without a trace.

B.      has been left untouched and unaffected by the fire.

             C      is unfamiliar and doesn’t look right.

             D.is where it should be, though tarnished by fire

       3. What is it like around the house?

             A. empty and ominous

             B. quiet and peaceful

             C. scary and dangerous

             D. pretty and energetic

4. How does the speaker feel about being in the house?

A.      confused, because the speaker hasn’t been there in a while

B.      happy, because the speaker missed the house

C.      nervous, because the speaker doesn’t know how to leave

D.      calm, because the speaker is only imagining being in the house

5. What does the speaker imagine?

A. She imagines herself as the child she once was at her old kitchen table.

B She imagines trying on her favorite clothes that have been burned to ashes.

C.She imagines that she is glowing as she walks across the floor.

D. She imagines her own loneliness as she considers the scorched floorboards.

6. PART A: Which of the following best identifies a theme of the poem?

A. Growing up is inevitably painful but necessary.

B.As people age, they look to the past with both grief and nostalgia.

C. Nature is resilient and will outlast people, their mistakes, and their pain.

D. Happiness is elusive following a loss of innocence

7. PART B: Which of the following quotes best supports the answer to Part A?

A.“No one else is around. / Where have they gone to, brother and sister, / mother and father?” ( Lines 6-8)

B. “The day is bright and songless, / the lake is blue, the forest watchful. / In the east a bank of cloud / rises up silently like dark bread.” ( Lines 15-18)

C.“if this is a trap or blessing, / finding myself back here, where everything / in this house has long been over / kettle and mirror, spoon and bowl, / including my own body, / including the body I had then, / including the body I have now” ( Lines 23-29)

D.“in my burning clothes, the thin green shorts / and grubby yellow T-shirt / holding my cindery, non-existent, / radiant flesh. Incandescent.” ( Lines 33-36)

8. How does the first stanza help frame the overall poem? Consider setting and theme in your answer.

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9 What effect does the figurative language in lines 17- 

        18 have on the poem’s mood?

A. These lines add another element of domesticity to the poem to contrast her grief.

B. These lines emphasize the stillness of the house in contrast to the growth and movement of nature.

C. The speaker describes the cloud as dark rising bread, suggesting an unfortunate omen on the horizon.

D.The speaker describes the cloud as bread rising silently, implying a tragedy is about to happen in the present

10. Throughout the poem, the speaker uses fire as a motif. What does this motif most likely represent in the poem?

A. The speaker describes fire she sees in a dream, prompted by a memory from her childhood when her house burned down.

B. Fire conveys the violence and trauma that marked the speaker’s childhood and that she is relieved to have escaped.

C. Fire is both an element of destruction and rebirth, and it represents the passage of time, which creates and destroys as it goes.

D. Fire represents the speaker’s all-consuming grief over the loss of her family, who perished in a fire.

11. (worth 50 points!) (minimum 100 words- no exceptions)

Do you believe the speaker is nostalgic for or traumatized by their childhood? Where does the speaker direct the bulk of their grief? What makes them happy?

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