English 12.4
Mr. Davey
The Core of Poetry Analysis: Two Questions
The following consists of two separate activities completed over two or three days.
Steps #2-4 require that you be present in class. Absent students are asked either to
copy the notes from a peer who recorded them, or to view the slide show available at
mrdaveyswebsite.weebly.com (English 12.4, lucifstarligh_whats_goingon) Hand the
notes in for credit.
Partial alternative credit for the following think, pair, share activity can be earned
by doing the assignment below.
Directions
1. Actively, critically read George Meredith’s “Lucifer in Starlight.” (This should
have been completed the day prior as part of the course diagnostic pretest.)
2. View the slide show/listen to the lecture by Mr. Davey.
3. Team-up with one other student. Analyze the poem together. Answer the
questions “What’s going on in the poem,” and “Who is the speaker?” Each
student should formulate his/her own position on these questions.
4. As part of a whole-class discussion, each student explains his/her partner’s
position on the poem.
a. This assignment is graded by Mr. Davey according to the criteria on
speaking rubric.
Alternative Assignment for Absent Students
The think, pair, share assignment above is intended to be an in-class activity that requires
participation for credit. To earn partial credit, absent students are invited to write a oneage analysis William Wordsworth’s sonnet “The World is Too Much With Us” (below).
Answer the two key analysis questions, “What’s going on in the poem,” and “Who is the
speaker?” Include plenty of evidence from the poem to support your interpretation.
The World Is Too Much With Us
BY W ILLIAM W ORDSW ORTH 1770–1850
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;—
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.