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1. Guided Highlighted Reading Prompts for “The Whipping”, by Robert Hayden
The Whipping
The old woman across the way
is whipping the boy again
and shouting to the neighborhood
her goodness and his wrongs.
Wildly he crashes through elephant ears,
pleads in dusty zinnias,
while she in spite of crippling fat
pursues and corners him.
She strikes and strikes the shrilly circling
boy till the stick breaks
in her hand. His tears are rainy weather
to woundlike memories:
My head gripped in bony vise
of knees, the writhing struggle
to wrench free, the blows, the fear
worse than blows that hateful
Words could bring, the face that I
no longer knew or loved…
Well, it is over now, it is over,
and the boy sobs in his room,
And the woman leans muttering against
a tree, exhausted, purgedavenged in part for lifelong hidings
she has had to bear.
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1. Highlight the nouns that seem to be plants or flowers in stanza two (zinnias, elephant ears).
2. In stanza three, highlight the adjective that seems to mean “high-pitched” (shrilly).
3. Highlight word or phrases that may indicate similarities or relationship, and connect the old woman
and the boy. (neighborhood, woundlike memories, the face that I no longer knew or loved, his room,
lifelong hidings she has had to bear).
4. In the last stanza, highlight the word that means “freed of sin, guilt, or defilement”(purged).
5. Highlight 1-2 critical lines/phrases that are most telling of the poem’s theme (“His tears are rainy
weather to woundlike memories”; “avenged in part for lifelong hidings she has had to bear”.)
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2. Guided Highlighted Reading Prompts for “Digging”, by Seamus Heaney
Digging
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.
Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down
Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.
The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.
By God, the old man could handle a spade.
Just like his old man.
My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner's bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. Digging.
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The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I've no spade to follow men like them.
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it.
1. Highlight words/phrases in the first two stanzas that reveal the location and posture of the speaker
(“under my window”, “ I look down”, “pen” – at a desk most likely)
2. Highlight the phrase in stanza three that implies how long the father has been in this line of work
(“twenty years away”).
3. With one highlighter, highlight words and phrases that seem particularly tactile, kinesthetic, or
visual, or a mixture: (“gravelly ground”, “straining rump”, “stooping in rhythm”, “coarse boot”,
“levered firmly”, “scatter new potatoes”, “cool hardness”, “cut more turf”, “bottle corked sloppily
with paper”, “soggy peat”, “living roots”, “finger, thumb, pen”) .
4. Heaney uses cacophonous or onomatopoeic phrasing to mimic the sound of a man digging/working
outside. Highlight any cacophonous/ onomatopoeic language with a different color (“gravelly
ground”, “buried the bright edge”, “rasping”, “nicking”, “squelch and slap”, “curt cuts”).
5. Highlight the phrase that means “continued again” in stanza 6 and the word that means “decayed
vegetation” in line 26 (“fell to” and “peat”).
6. Highlight the line(s) that are most indicative of the poem’s theme (“By God, the old man could
handle a spade, just like his old man”, “I’ll dig with it”).
3. Guided Highlighted Reading Prompts for “Storm Warnings”, by Adrienne Rich
Storm Warnings
The glass has been falling all the afternoon,
And knowing better than the instrument
What winds are walking overhead, what zone
Of grey unrest is moving across the land,
I leave the book upon a pillowed chair
And walk from window to closed window, watching
Boughs strain against the sky
And think again, as often when the air
Moves inward toward a silent core of waiting,
How with a single purpose time has traveled
By secret currents of the undiscerned
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Into this polar realm. Weather abroad
And weather in the heart alike come on
Regardless of prediction.
Between foreseeing and averting change
Lies all the mastery of elements
Which clocks and weatherglasses cannot alter.
Time in the hand is not control of time,
Nor shattered fragments of an instrument
A proof against the wind; the wind will rise,
We can only close the shutters.
I draw the curtains as the sky goes black
And set a match to candles sheathed in glass
Against the keyhole draught, the insistent whine
Of weather through the unsealed aperture.
This is our sole defense against the season;
These are the things we have learned to do
Who live in troubled regions.
1. Highlight words in stanza one that may imply weather prediction: (“glass”, “instrument”, “zone”), as
well as a word that means “main branches of a tree” (boughs).
2. Highlight words/phrases in stanza one that indicate the speaker’s current location/position:
(“chair/book”, “window to closed window”).
3. Highlight the phrase in stanza two that indicates a shift, taking the description from a literal to a
metaphorical storm: (“Weather abroad and weather in the heart alike come on regardless of
prediction”).
4. Highlight 2-3 lines in stanza three that serve as aphorisms (life truths stated succinctly): (“Between
seeing and averting change lies all the mastery of elements”; “Time in the hand is not control of
time”; “The wind will rise, we can only close our shutters”).
5. Highlight phrases in the last stanza that reflect “our sole defense” and the metaphorical “things we
have learned to do who lived in troubled regions”: (“close the shutters”, “draw the curtains”, “set a
match to candles sheathed in glass”).
4. Guided Highlighted Reading Prompts for “Tracks of My Tears”, by Smokey Robinson
Tracks of My Tears
(Verse 1)
People say I'm the life of the party
Because I tell a joke or two
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Although I might be laughing loud and hearty
Deep inside I'm blue
(Chorus)
So take a good look at my face
You'll see my smile looks out of place
If you look closer, it's easy to trace
The tracks of my tears…
I need you, need you
(Verse 2)
Since you left me if you see me with another girl
Seeming like I'm having fun
Although she may be cute
She's just a substitute
Because you're the permanent one..
(Chorus)
So take a good look at my face
You'll see my smile looks out of place
If you look closer, it's easy to trace
The tracks of my tears..
I need you, need you
(Bridge)
Outside…I'm masquerading
Outside my hope is fading
Outside...since you put me down
My smile is my make up
I wear since my break up with you..
So take a good look at my face
You'll see my smile looks out of place
If you look closer, it's easy to trace
The tracks of my tears
1. Highlight two contrasting metaphors in stanza one (“life of the party”, “blue”).
2. Highlight the image from the chorus that seems to indicate some symbolic meaning (“tracks of my
tears”).
3. Highlight the rhyming terms from the second verse that further explain the speaker’s relational
dilemma (“cute”, “substitute”).
4. Highlight the final metaphor in the Bridge; then highlight the reason for the metaphor in the
following line (“My smile is my make up”; “my break up with you”).