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Class:______
Sara Teasdale(1884–1933)“The Long Hill” (1920)
I must have passed the crest a while agoAnd now I am going down --
Strange to have crossed the crest and not to know,
But the brambles were always catching the hem of my gown.
All the morning I thought how proud I should be
To stand there straight as a queen,
Wrapped in the wind and the sun with the world under me --
But the air was dull, there was little I could have seen.
It was nearly level along the beaten track
And the brambles caught in my gown --
But it's no use now to think of turning back,
The rest of the way will be only going down.
Crest: Thehighestpartofahillormountainrange;summit.
1. Identify the rhyme scheme in each stanza:______
2. Identify examples of alliteration:______
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3. What does the hill symbolize?______
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4. What do the brambles symbolize?______
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5. Identify an example of personification (this personification is an act of nature upon the speaker):
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6. The second stanza has a lot of symbolism. Explain the meaning behind each of the following symbols:
a. Morning______
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b. “Wrapped in the wind and the sun with the world under me” (7)______
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c. “But the air was dull, there was little I could have seen” (8)______
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6. Notice how Teasdale’s poem is formed with an irregular pattern length. Turn the poem 90 degrees to the left. How does this image help relate the symbolism of the poem? What type of image is created?
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7. What is the moral message behind this poem? In other words, what life lesson does this poem express?
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II. Comparison with Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”
1. The first thing to notice is that both Frost’s and Teasdale’s poems have a similar speaker. From what point of view are both of these poems told? (1st? 3rd?)
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a. Who traveled the hill in Teasdale’s poem?______
b. Who chose between the two roads in Frost’s poem?______
2. Neither Frost’s nor Teasdale’s poems are set in a particular place (spatial setting). Both poems are set in the present, and both seem to offer a glimpse into the past. Identify how each poem does this, and explain what you think the significance is in each poem.
a. Frost:______
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b. Teasdale:______
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3. Compare the symbolic setting in both Frost’s poem and Teasdale’s poem.” What do each mean? How are they similar in symbolic meaning?
Frost: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
Teasdale: The long road and the brambles
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4. Compare Teasdale’s quotation: “But the air was dull, there was little I could have seen” (8), with Frost’s quotation: “I shall be telling this with a sigh / somewhere ages and ages hence (16-17). How are these quotations similar in the context of the underlying meaning of the poems? Notice how each quotation speaks with a similar tone, what is the tone, how is it similar, and how can they be related?
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5. Do you notice any other similarities between these two poems? What are they? How are they similar?
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