Thursday / Friday/ Monday February 5/6 /10 3 poems by Emily Dickinson
With Friday's snow day, we lost a day (weepy eyes); so everything is pushed back a day.
What that means is your vocabulary quiz is tomorrow and the material we were to do last Friday will occur today in class. Below is the summation from the blog from last Thursday through today.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was an American poet who lived a very private life. In her seclusion, she wrote about 1,800 poems. In this poem, the speaker describes experiencing a great loss.
Coming up: Tuesday, February 11 Task 1 vocabulary quiz
*Was due last Thursday at the start of class: Ozymandius and Philo sentences.
In class on Thursday: I felt a funeral in my brain and beginning or finishing because I could not stop for death. If you did not turn this in last Thursday, it is due now / Monday. Today, Monday, we are finishing up with the third Emily Dickinson poem: we grow accustomed to the dark. This is due today. (class handout).
Once the final poem is complete, please complete the Diction 2 exercise. (class handout / copy below)
Once the final poem is complete, please complete the Diction 2 exercise. (class handout / copy below)
I felt a funeral in my brain 2:00
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading - treading - till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through -
[5]5.And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum -
Kept beating - beating - till I thought
My mind was going numb -
And then I heard them lift a Box
[10]10.And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space - began to toll,
As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
[15]15. And I, and Silence, some strange Race,
Wrecked, solitary, here -
And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down -
And hit a World, at every plunge,
[20]20.And Finished knowing - then
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Name____________________________________
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading - treading - till it
seemed
That Sense was breaking through –
[5]And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum -
Kept beating - beating - till I thought
My mind was going numb –
And then I heard them lift a Box
[10]And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead,
again,
Then Space - began to toll,
As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
[15]And I, and Silence, some strange Race,
Wrecked, solitary, here –
And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down -
And hit a World, at every plunge,
[20]And Finished knowing - then
Please respond to the following:
1. The speaker describes a funeral
A. That is occurring in her head
B. That took place in the past
C. That is taking place in the world
D. That will take place in the future
2. Which of the following describes the
speaker’s relationship to the world?
A. She doesn’t like people, so she
separates herself from them.
B. She feels comforted by the constant
sounds of the world.
C. She wants to connect with others,
but feels unable to do so.
D. She feels isolated from the rest of
humanity.
3. The speaker feels as if…
A. she has grown stronger.
B. she has lost something.
C. she has become more intelligent.
D. she knows her purpose.
4. PART A: Which of the following
identifies the theme of the poem?
A. There is
nothing more painful than losing someone you love.
B .By
allowing time for grieving, a person is more likely to recover.
C. A
person’s loss of self can feel as tragic as a death.
D. It is
common to feel abandoned when you are left alone.
5.
PART B: Which detail from the poem best supports the answer to Part A?
A. “Kept treading – treading – till
it seemed / That sense was breaking through – ” ( Lines 3-4)
B.
“Kept beating – beating – till I thought / My mind was going numb – ”
( Lines 7-8)
C.
“And then I heard them lift a Box / And creak across my Soul”
( Lines 9-10)
D.
“With those same Boots of Lead, again, / Then Space began to toll,”
( Lines 11-12)
6. How does stanza 5 contribute to
the speaker’s depiction of their experiences (Lines 17-20)?
A. It portrays them as overcoming
their emotional turmoil.
B.
It depicts them as not being able to make sense of anything.
C. It emphasizes the advanced
outlook on the world they now have.
D. It shows how pessimistic their
experiences have made them.
7. In the context of the poem, how do people face death? How
is the death that the speaker is mourning different from a literal death? Make
sure to weave in text to support your response.
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BONUS: reread the poem and write in the rhyme scheme.
because i could not stop for death NAME________________________________
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because i could not stop for death NAME________________________________
BECAUSE I COULD NOT
STOP FOR DEATH
by Emily Dickinson
1890
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
[5] We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school where children played,
[10] Their lessons scarcely done;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
[15] The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but
a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the
horses' heads
[20] Were toward Eternity.
1. A cornice is an ornamental
molding around the wall of a room just below the ceiling.
2. surmise (verb) : to suppose that something is true; to deduce
or guess
1.
The
poem begins with…
A. the
speaker driving past death on the road.
B. the
speaker of the poem taking a carriage ride with death.
C. the
speaker of the poem stopping to talk with death.
D. the
speaker of the poem goes on a carriage ride by herself
2. Which of the following phrases best
describes the scenery they pass?
A.
isolated and desolate
B.
chaotic and unpredictable
C.
shocking and horrifying
D.
peaceful and beautiful
3. The "house" that the speaker
pauses at is...
A.
her childhood home.
B.
a tomb.
C.
death's lair.
D.
the entrance to the afterlife.
4.
How do the first 2 lines of the poem frame the
speaker's tone and perspective towards death?
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5.
What effect does the speaker’s use of
personification have on the theme of the poem? Cite evidence in your answer.
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6. Which of the following best describes how
the structure of the poem contributes to its meaning? (Make sure you have read
the poem aloud in your head a couple of times.)
A.
The poem’s upbeat meter makes death appear
playful rather than ominous.
B.
The variation in the meter mimics the speaker’s
uncertainty about death.
C.
The lack of a rhyme scheme shows that the
speaker is mournful.
D.
The poem’s absence of meter shows that the
speaker is carefree about death.
7. Which of the following best explains how
stanza 3 contributes to one of the major themes of the poem?
A.
The repetition of “passed” alludes to the phrase
“to pass on” or to die, thus contributing to the theme of overcoming death.
B.
The repetition of “passed” alludes to the past,
indicating the speaker sees memories from her own life, thus contributing to
the theme of having an un-lived life.
c.
The narrator passes representations of life
(children, crops, and the sun), symbolizing a journey through life and
portraying the theme of mortality.
C.
The narrator passes representations of life
(children, crops, and the sun), suggesting a theme of regret for not having
appreciated all of life’s gifts.
8. Which statement best describes how the
setting in stanza 4 impacts the meaning of the poem?
A. The speaker does not want to pause at the “house,”
suggesting the setting frightens her and she is eager to move on.
B. The speaker describes her grave as a “house,” suggesting
she needs shelter from death, contributing to her desperate and scared tone.
C. The speaker’s final “house” or
tomb has collapsed into the earth, contributing to the poem’s theme that human
lives are unimportant to nature.
D.
The speaker describes her tomb as a “house,”
showing she views her body’s final resting place as one of comfort rather than
fear.
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Name ______________________________________
We grow accustomed to the dark
When light is put away –
When light is put away –
As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp
To witness her Goodbye –
[5]A Moment – We uncertain step
For newness of the night –
Then – fit our Vision to the Dark –
And meet the Road – erect –
And so of larger – Darknesses –
[10]Those Evenings of the Brain –
When not a Moon disclose a sign –
Or Star – come out – within –
The Bravest – grope a little –
And sometimes hit a Tree
[15]Directly in the Forehead –
But as they learn to see –
Either the Darkness alters –
Or something in the sight
Adjusts itself to Midnight –
[20]And Life steps almost straight.
1. Which of the
following best paraphrases the author’s opinion of darkness?
A.
We should not
tell our neighbors to walk in the dark.
B.
You should not
walk in the dark without a lamp.
C.
Walking in the
dark can be very dangerous.
D.
Darkness is
something that we adjust to over time.
2. How do “The Bravest” deal
with the darkness?
A.
They learn to see in the dark by trying to move
through it
B. They wait
until it is midnight before they come out
C. They make
sure to avoid hitting their foreheads on trees
D. They follow
the moon and the stars
3. Which of the following best
describe the speaker’s point of view?
A. The speaker’s point of view is that of
the neighbor walking at night.
B.The speaker’s point of view is that of a
group of people discussing darkness and death.
C.The
speaker’s point of view is that of someone participating in the events
described in the poem.
D. The
speaker’s point of view is that of a removed or distant narrator who speaks for
humanity.
4 How does the author use symbolism
to develop the theme of the poem? Cite evidence from the text in your answer.
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5. How does the poem’s stylistic form (i.e.
punctuation and capitalization) contribute to its meaning? Make sure to use at
least two examples to support your response.
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Language is fluid and full of nuance. Writers sculpt language with narrative techniques to create complex ideas and deeper meanings. One of the best ways to do this is through connotation, a literary device that refers to the selection of a word or phrase for its suggested meaning instead of its literal one. It is the difference between referring to an adult as “youthful” versus “childish”: the definition of the words is the same, but the implied meaning is very different.
Name__________________________________
Diction 2
Consider:
Art is the antidote that can call us back from the edge of numbness, restoring the ability to
feel for another.
— Barbara Kingsolver, High Tide in Tucson
Respond in a complete sentence to the following:
1. By using the word antidote, what does the author imply about the inability to feel for
another? ____________________________________________________________________________
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2. If we changed the word antidote to gift, what effect would it have on the meaning of the
sentence?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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Diction 3
Consider:
An aged man is but a paltry thing
A tattered coat upon a stick....
— W. B. Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium”
Please respond to the following in complete sentences.
1. What picture is created by the use of the word tattered?
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2. By understanding the connotations of the word tattered, what do we understand about the
persona’s attitude toward an aged man?
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Apply: (to denote-to define exactly) (to connote- what is implied by a word apart from the thing which it describes explicitly. Words carry cultural and emotional associations or meanings, in addition to their literal meanings or denotations.)
List three adjectives that can be used to describe a pair of shoes. Each adjective should
connote a different feeling about the shoes. After your adjective, explain what your adjective connotes.
1. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. barbarous (adj)- savagely cruel; exceedingly brutal.
3. disillusionment (noun)- a feeling of disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as one believed it to be.
4. optimism (noun)- hopefulness and confidence about the future
5. pessimism (noun)- a tendency to see the worst aspect of things or believe that the worst will happen
6. nostalgia (noun)- a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past
7. remedy (noun)- a medicine or treatment for a disease or injury.
8. anecdote (noun)- a short amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person
9. to escalate (verb)- to increase rapidly.
10. hostility (noun)- unfriendliness or opposition
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