Poems for Junior Group Work
Assignment
- In a group of 3-4 (there must be 9 groups total) you will analyze one poem and one contemporary song.
- You must do the poem you pick, and you may pick any original contemporary song (as long as it doesn’t have excessive profanity in it) that you can compare and contrast with the poem.
- Your group must produce a PowerPoint presentation that teaches both the poem and the song to the class. The PowerPoint must have images, sound, a creative background, edited bullet points that you elaborate on, transition variety, and work as a teaching tool. Consult the accompanying PowerPoint sheet for suggestions.
- I have put focus topics/questions with each poem to direct your group’s analysis. You must generate the analysis of your song and how it relates thematically to your poem.
- For literary terms that you must discuss consult the glossary of your book for definitions of the terms, utilize examples referenced in your book for support, and try to make meaning of the effect the device has.
- You’re group must work cohesively and everyone must share in the workload. You must arrange times and places to meet outside of class. Remember that YOU pick your own groups.
- I will grade you using the rubric during your presentation.
- Your 2nd checkpoint will cover poetry, so you are responsible to pay attention and take notes during all of the presentations. I will collect notes from everyone after the presentations are complete.
“Love Must Be as Free” byHenry David Thoreau
My love must be as free1. What do you make of the similes in the poem?
As is the eagle’s wing,2. Consider that eagles are monogamous creatures, the
Hovering o’er land and sea image of flight, and the eagle as our national symbol.
And everything. How does all of this knowledge tie into the issues of the
poem?
I must not dim my eye53. What is the tone of the speaker in the poem and how
In thy saloon, does his diction create this meaning?
I must not leave my sky4. The poem has an implied extended metaphor between
And nightly moon. the speaker and the bird – how do you analyze it?
5. What makes the poem both Romantic and
Be not the fowler’s net Transcendental?
Which stays my flight,10
And craftily is set
T’ allure the sight.
But be the favoring gale
That bears me on,
And still doth fill my sail15
When thou art gone.
I cannot leave my sky
For thy caprice,
True love would soar as high
As heaven is.20
The eagle would not brook
Her mate thus won,
Who trained his eye to look
Beneath the sun.
Henry David Thoreau
“Within the Circuit of this Plodding Life”1. What does the title mean? How does it become
symbolic after reading the poem?
Within the circuit of this plodding life 2. How do the images of the seasons and the other images
There enter moments of an azure hue, create meaning in the text?
Untarnished fair as is the violet 3. How do the simile in line 3, the personification in lines
Or anemone, when the spring strews them 10 and 20-21, and the metaphors in lines 12-13, and 17
By some meandering rivulet, which make5 all create meaning?
The best philosophy untrue that aims 4. Analyze how the diction in the poem creates meaning,
But to console man for his grievances and what is the Romantic theme in the poem?
I have remembered when the winter came, 5. Analyze both the mood and tone of the poem separately.
High in my chamber in the frosty nights,
When in the still light of the cheerful moon, 10
On every twig and rail and jutting spout,
The icy spears were adding to their length
Against the arrows of the coming sun,
How in the shimmering noon of summer past
Some unrecorded beam slanted across 15
The upland pastures where the Johnswort grew;
Or heard, amid the verdure of my mind,
The bee's long smothered hum, on the blue flag
Loitering amidst the mead; or busy rill,
Which now through all its course stands still and dumb 20
Its own memorial,—purling at its play
Along the slopes, and through the meadows next,
Until its youthful sound was hushed at last
In the staid current of the lowland stream;
Or seen the furrows shine but late upturned, 25
And where the fieldfare followed in the rear,
When all the fields around lay bound and hoar
Beneath a thick integument of snow.
So by God's cheap economy made rich
To go upon my winter's task again.30
“When I heard the learn’d astronomer” by Walt Whitman 1. How do the cataloguing in lines 2-3 and the
repetition, or anaphora, in lines 1-4 create
When I heard the learn'd astronomer.meaning?
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me. 2. How are the images and mood both different in
When I was shown the charts and diagrams to add, divide and the lines 1-5 vs. lines 6-8? How do the ‘m’ and ‘s’
measure them.sounds in the last 2 lines create mood?
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much 3. How is the word “learn’d” used ironically?
applause in the lecture room. 4. How does the use of free verse function and create
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,5 meaning? How are Whitman’s poems still poetic
Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myselfif they don’t have a set rhythm and rhyme?
In the mystical moist night air, and from time to time. 5. What makes the poem Romantic?
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.
1865
“A Noiseless Patient Spider” by Walt Whitman 1.What do you think the spider and its web symbolize?
2. What is the metaphor between the 1st and 2ndstanza?
A noiseless patient spider, 3. Analyze how the cataloguing of verbs such as
I marked where on a little promontory it stood isolated, “launched,” “unreeling,” “speeding,” “surrounded,”
Marked how to explore the vacant, vast surrounding, “detached,” “musing,” “venturing,” “throwing,” &
It launched forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself. “seeking” creates meaning.
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.5 4. Analyze the Apostrophe in “O my soul” and the
symbolism of the “bridge” and “ductile anchor.”
And you O my soul where you stand, 5. What makes the poem Romantic?
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to
connect them.
Till the bridge you will need be formed, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.10
1868
“O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman1. Who/what do you think the Captain, trip, ship, prize, &
port might all symbolize? Notice the date the poem was
O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done; written. How does the concept of an epithet apply here?
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;2. Analyze the contrast in images and mood in the poem
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, and the diction that creates these images and moods.
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring: 3. Analyze how irony creates meaning the poem.
But O heart! heart! heart! 54. Analyze how repetition, cataloguing, line structure,
O the bleeding drops of red, rhythm, and punctuation all create meaning in the poem.
Where on the deck my Captain lies, 5. Analyze how the poem is Romantic and an elegy.
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;10
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores
a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck, 15
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won; 20
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
1865
“Rhodora[1]” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
On Being Asked, Whence Is the Flower?1. What are the Romantic sentiments portrayed in the
In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes, poem, including its mood and tone?
I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods, 2. How does diction like “spreading,” “damp
Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook, nook,” “desert,” “sluggish brook,” & “simple
To please the desert and the sluggish brook. ignorance” create imagery and meaning?
The purple petals fallen in the pool 53. How do the Apostrophe to the flower, the
Made the black water with their beauty gay; personification of the brook, flower and red
Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool, bird, the metaphor comparing the flower
And court the flower that cheapens his array. with the rose, and the symbolism of the “self-
Rhodora! If the sages ask thee why same power” all create meaning? Discuss all.
This charm is wasted on the earth and sky, 104. What does the speaker mean with the line,
Tell them, dear, that, if eyes were made for seeing, beauty is its own excuse for Being” (12)?
Then beauty is its own excuse for Being;5. What is the significance of the footnote telling
Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose! us where the flower is located?
I never thought to ask; I never knew;
But in my simple ignorance suppose 15
The self-same power that brought me there, brought you.
1834
“Annabel Lee[1]” by Edgar Allan Poe
It was many and many a year ago,1. What effect does repetition,
In a kingdom by the sea,rhythm, and sound have on the
That a maiden there lived whom you may knowpoem’s meaning?
By the name of Annabel Lee;2. How/why are the angels
And this maiden she lived with no other thought5personified in the poem?
Than to love and be loved by me.3. What autobiographical
connections does the poem have?
I was a child and she was a child,4. What evolution occurs in the
In this kingdom by the sea;speaker’s universe here and what
But we loved with a love that was more than love-theme does the poem thereby
I and my Annabel Lee;10exude?
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven5. Analyze how the poem is an elegy, an allegory,
Coveted her and me.and why it is a Dark Romantic poem.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling15
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.20
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!–that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,25
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,30
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;35
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling–my darling–my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,40
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
Read the poem “The Raven” on pages 273-279 in your textbook and answer questions 3-7
Read the poem “El Dorado” on pages 280-282 in your textbook and answer questions 3-6 & 8
“The Haunted Palace” by Edgar Allan Poe from the short story “The Fall of the House of Usher”
I.
In the greenest of our valleys,1. How does the poem evolve in both mood and
By good angels tenanted, tone?
Once fair and stately palace --2.Where is the personification in the poem and
Radiant palace --reared its head. whateffect does it have?
In the monarch Thought's dominion --53. How is the poem an allegory? What effect do
It stood there! symbols like colors have?
Never seraph spread a pinion4. What effects do sound, rhyme, and diction have in
Over fabric half so fair. in the poem?
5. What makes the poem Dark Romantic and what is
II. the theme of the poem?
Banners yellow, glorious, golden,
On its roof did float and flow;10
(This --all this --was in the olden
Time long ago)
And every gentle air that dallied,
In that sweet day,
Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,15
A winged odor went away.
III.
Wanderers in that happy valley
Through two luminous windows saw
Spirits moving musically
To a lute's well-tuned law,20
Round about a throne, where sitting
(Porphyrogene[1]!)
In state his glory well befitting,
The ruler of the realm was seen.
IV.
And all with pearl and ruby glowing25
Was the fair palace door,
Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing
And sparkling evermore,
A troop of Echoes whose sweet duty
Was but to sing,30
In voices of surpassing beauty,
The wit and wisdom of their king.
V.
But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
Assailed the monarch's high estate;
(Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow35
Shall dawn upon him, desolate!)
And, round about his home, the glory
That blushed and bloomed
Is but a dim-remembered story
Of the old time entombed.40
VI.
And travelers now within that valley,
Through the red-litten[2] windows, see
Vast forms that move fantastically
To a discordant melody;
While, like a rapid ghastly river,45
Through the pale door,
A hideous throng rush out forever,
And laugh --but smile no more.
[1]A Shrub, found in New England, related to the rhododendron.
[1]Poe’s last poem: it was first published on October 9, 1849, two days after his death. The text reprinted here includes Poe’s last revisions, among them a change in the final line. Earlier manuscript versions read, “In her tomb by the sounding sea.” The change, in the view of most critics, was unfortunate.
[1]Latin: born to the purple, i.e. of royal birth
[2]Lighted