Name: Raishaun Currie Period: 4th
Title: What predictions can you make from the title? What are your initial thoughts about the poem?
What might be the theme of the poem?
I believe someone is grave digging. I believe the character is questioning who is digging on his or her grave, and why.
Paraphrase: Rewrite the poem in your own words.
Connotation: Write the connotative or interpretive meaning of the poem.
What’s below the surface? What is the connotative meaning of the poem?
Find examples of imagery, metaphors, similes, etc. and elaborate on their connotative meanings.
Who is digging on my grave? Is it one of my love ones? Is it an enemy digging on my grave? No, it is my beloved dog digging on my grave to plant a snack for later.
The speaker is the buried lady in the grave. The audience is her own dog. The irony in this story is that she said every possible culprit except her own beloved dog. This was a form of Socratic irony.
Attitude: What attitude does the poet have toward the subject of the poem?
Find and list examples that illustrate the tone and mood of the poem.
Shift: Is there a shift in the tone/attitude of the poem? Where is the shift? What does the tone shift to?
Title: Revisit the title and explain any new insights it provides to the meaning of the poem. Discuss the meaning on an interpretive level.
Theme: What is the overall theme of the poem? What is the poet saying?
At first the attitude of the poem was negative because it seemed like someone was trying to deface her grave, but toward the end of the poem the attitude turned to humorous.
The tone in the poem shifts from hostile and in aware to happy and informed in sequence five.
There was never a person digging up her grave. Just her beloved dog buried it-self something to snack on when it near the area.
The theme of this poem to me is once you are dead and gone you are forever dead and gone. Once you are gone the living is no longer interested in you anymore.