Poetry Unit Review (Take-Home Test)

Name:Class Period:

Complete the following for the attached poems:

  1. Label the rhyme scheme.
  2. Scansionfor the rhythm (mark stressed and unstressed syllables)
  3. Label the rhythm and meter (eg. Iambic Pentameter)
  4. Underline any unfamiliar vocabulary and add to your notes.
  5. Circle five examples of alliteration (total across all poems)
  6. Square five examples of assonance (total across all poems)
  7. Highlight at least five words that contribute to the mood of the poem.
  8. Paraphrase the poem into your own words (surface-level). For every two lines, you should have at least one sentence. Mark any confusing words or phrases in brackets [ ]
  9. Choose a memorable line to put into parentheses ( ) and explain why it is memorable.
  10. Explain the theme or deeper meaning of the poem.

Seafarer by Archibald Macleish

And learn O voyager to walk

The roll of earth, the pitch and fall

That swings across these trees those stars:

That swings the sunlight up the wall.

And learn upon these narrow beds

To sleep in spite of sea, in spite

Of sound the rushing planet makes:

And learn to sleep against this ground.

“Successiscountedsweetest” by Emily Dickinson

Success is counted sweetest

By those who ne'er succeed.

To comprehend a nectar

Requires sorest need.

Not one of all the purple Host

Who took the Flag today

Can tell the definition

So clear of Victory

As he defeated – dying –

On whose forbidden ear

The distant strains of triumph

Burst agonized and clear!

“When You Are Old” by William Butler Yeats

WHEN you are old and grey and full of sleep,

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

“ILookintomyGlass” by Thomas Hardy

I LOOK into my glass,

And view my wasting skin,

And say, "Would God it came to pass

My heart had shrunk as thin!"

For then, I, undistrest

By hearts grown cold to me,

Could lonely wait my endless rest

With equanimity.

But Time, to make me grieve,

Part steals, lets part abide;

And shakes this fragile frame at eve

With throbbings of noontide.