Name: ___________________________________________________ Block: _______ Date: ______________________
Directions: Read the following poems and answer the questions or complete the tasks around the poem.
TONE Tone is the
attitude a writer
takes toward a
subject. The tone
here is instructive.
Underline and label
two lines that might
make the reader feel
as if he or she is
being instructed.
“If” by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
MOOD Mood is the overall
emotion created by a literary
work. What is the mood of this
first stanza? Explain.
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
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If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
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If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Identify the
personification in
the second stanza.
Include a short note
about what you think
it may mean.
IDIOM Identify the
idiom in the first line
and explain what it
means.
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
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POETRY STRUCTURE Rhyme is the
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pattern,
or scheme, the poet
chooses for end or middle rhymes.
The form of a poem is its overall
structure. Each of the four stanzas
in “If” consists of eight lines and,
with the exception of the first
stanza, follows this rhyme scheme:
ABABCDCD. What are the pairs of
rhyming words in the third stanza?
How does linking these words all
do the overall meaning?
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Circle and label two examples of alliteration used.
1
The Rhodora
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
On being asked, whence is the flower?
1 In May, when sea-winds pierced our solitudes,
I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods,
Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook,
To please the desert and the sluggish brook.
5 The purple petals fallen in the pool
Made the black water with their beauty gay;
Here might the red-bird come his plumes to cool,
And court the flower that cheapens his array.
Rhodora! if the sages ask thee why
10 This charm is wasted on the earth and sky,
Tell them, dear, that, if eyes were made for seeing,
Then beauty is its own excuse for Being;
Why thou wert there, O rival of the rose!
I never thought to ask; I never knew;
15 But in my simple ignorance suppose
The self-same power that brought me there, brought you.
IMAGERY Imagery is language that appeals to the senses. Poets use imagery to paint mental
pictures. The words “sea-winds pierced” in line 1 appeal to the sense of touch and hearing,
and they help convey the fierceness of the wind. Identify the imagery in lines 5 & 6 and
explain what effect it has.
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1
Rhodora a shrub that bears its colored flowers before its leaves appear
The STOLEN CHILD by William Butler Yeats
WHERE dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we've hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can
understand.
Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can
understand.
Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can
understand.
Away with us he's going,
The solemn-eyed:
He'll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest.
For he comes, the human child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than he can
understand.
POETRY STRUCTURE What is the structure of “The Stolen Child”? How does the rhyme scheme change from stanza to
stanza?
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FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE What does the poet mean by the words “the world’s more full of weeping” in the poem’s
refrain, or repeated language at the end of every stanza?
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ALLITERATION
Underline examples
of alliteration in
stanza 3
IMAGERY In the first
three stanzas, the
speaker is describing a
fantastic “fairyland.”
Circle language the
poet uses to appeal to
the reader’s senses.
POINT OF VIEW How does the point of view
change in the last stanza? Identify the change
in the poem and include notes on the poem
about what this change in point of view may
show.