Number 1
How Do I Love Thee?
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Number 2
Excerpt from The Odyssey by Homer
(Kyklops is Cyclops. Odysseus has just stabbed the Cyclops in the eye.)
`O Kyklops! Would you feast on my companions?
Puny, am I, in a Caveman's hands?
How do you like the beating that we gave you,
you damned cannibal? Eater of guests
under your roof! Zeus and the gods have paid you!'
The blind thing in his doubled fury broke
a hilltop in his hands and heaved it after us.
Ahead of our black prow it struck and sank
. . . in a spuming geyser, a giant wave
that washed the ship stern foremost back to shore.
....
Now when I cupped my hands I heard the crew
in low voices protesting: `Godsake, Captain!
Why bait the beast again? Let him alone!'
`That tidal wave he made on the first throw
all but beached us.' . . .
`Give him our bearing with your trumpeting,
he'll get the range and lob a boulder.' . . .
I would not heed them in my glorying spirit,
but let my anger flare and yelled: `Kyklops,
if ever mortal man inquire
how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him
Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye:
Laertes' son, whose home's on Ithaka
Number 3: My Father was a Farmer by Robert Burns
My father was a farmer upon the Carrick border, O,
And carefully he bred me in decency and order, O;
He bade me act a manly part, though I had ne’er a farthing, O;
For without an honest manly heart, no man was worth regarding, O.
Then out into the world my course I did determine, O;
Tho’ to be rich was not my wish, yet to be great was charming, O;
My talents they were not the worst, nor yet my education, O:
Resolv’d was I at least to try to mend my situation, O.
In many a way, and vain essay, I courted Fortune’s favour, O;
Some cause unseen still stept between, to frustrate each endeavour, O;
Sometimes by foes I was o’erpower’d, sometimes by friends forsaken, O;
And when my hope was at the top, I still was worst mistaken, O.
Then sore harass’d and tir’d at last, with Fortune’s vain delusion, O,
I dropt my schemes, like idle dreams, and came to this conclusion, O;
The past was bad, and the future hid, its good or ill untried, O;
But the present hour was in my pow’r, and so I would enjoy it, O.
No help, nor hope, nor view had I, nor person to befriend me, O;
So I must toil, and sweat, and moil, and labour to sustain me, O;
To plough and sow, to reap and mow, my father bred me early, O;
For one, he said, to labour bred, was a match for Fortune fairly, O.
Thus all obscure, unknown, and poor, thro’ life I’m doom’d to wander, O,
Till down my weary bones I lay in everlasting slumber, O:
No view nor care, but shun whate’er might breed me pain or sorrow, O;
I live to-day as well’s I may, regardless of to-morrow, O.
But cheerful still, I am as well as a monarch in his palace, O,
Tho’ Fortune’s frown still hunts me down, with all her wonted malice, O:
I make indeed my daily bread, but ne’er can make it farther, O:
But as daily bread is all I need, I do not much regard her, O.
When sometimes by my labour, I earn a little money, O,
Some unforeseen misfortune comes gen’rally upon me, O;
Mischance, mistake, or by neglect, or my goodnatur’d folly, O:
But come what will, I’ve sworn it still, I’ll ne’er be melancholy, O.
All you who follow wealth and power with unremitting ardour, O,
The more in this you look for bliss, you leave your view the farther, O:
Had you the wealth Potosi boasts, or nations to adore you, O,
A cheerful honest-hearted clown I will prefer before you, O.
Number 4
The Darkling Thrush By Thomas Hardy
I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.
The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.
Number 5
She Walks in Beauty
by George Gordon Byron
I.
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
II.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.
III.
And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
Poetry Gallery Walk
Today you will be completing a “gallery walk” of poetry. There are poems displayed around the classroom and throughout
the hall. Each poem is numbered in connection with the numbers below. With your group, you will visit each poem, read
through it and answer the questions. This is for a grade. Enjoy!
Number 1:
1. How many lines does this poem have? ____
2. What kind of poem is this? ______________.
3. The poem is centered on the feeling of _____.
4. Find an example of repetition used in this poem.
___________________________________________________________
5. Find an example of end rhyme in this poem.
___________________________________________________________
Number 2:
1. Write a summary of this excerpt on the back of this worksheet.
2. How would you describe Odysseus’ attitude in this excerpt? ______________________
3. Who is the “hero” in this poem? __________________.
4. What kind of poem is this? ______________________.
Number 3:
1. This poem tells a story and is intended to be sung. Therefore, this is a ____________.
2. Find an example of personification in this poem.
_____________________________________________________________________
3. What does the man in the poem seek at the beginning?
_____________________________________________________________________
4. Find an example of a simile in this poem.
_____________________________________________________________________
5. Give an example of internal rhyme.
____________________________________________________________________
6. Give an example of alliteration:
____________________________________________________________________
Number 4:
1. Find three examples of alliteration in this poem:
a. _____________________________________________________________________
b. _____________________________________________________________________
c. _____________________________________________________________________
2. Find an example of a simile in this poem.
_____________________________________________________________________
3. What is the rhyme scheme of the first and second stanzas of the poem?
_________________________________________________________________________
4. Find an example of personification in the poem.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Number 5:
1. How would you classify this poem? (Sonnet, ballad, lyric, etc.) _________________________
Explain your reasoning. _______________________________________________________
2. Give 2 examples of alliteration.
1.______________________________________________________________
2. ______________________________________________________________
3. Find an example of personification in the poem:_____________________________________________