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Date:
Guided Practice, Literary Terms (20 Points)
Saturday’s Child
By Countee Cullen
Some are teethed on a silver spoon,
With the stars strung for a rattle;
I cut my teeth as the black raccoon—
For implements of battle.
Some are swaddled* in silk and down,
And heralded* by a star;
They swathed my limbs in a sackcloth gown
On a night that was black as tar.
For some, godfather and goddame
The opulent* fairies be;
Dame Poverty gave me my name,
And Pain godfathered me.
For I was born on Saturday—
“Bad time for planting a seed,”
Was all my father had to say,
And, “One mouth more to feed.”
Death cut the strings that gave me life,
And handed me to Sorrow,
The only kind of middle wife
My folks could beg or borrow.
Swaddled – Wrap in clothes or garments
Heralded – Signaled about something about to happen
Opulent – Extremely rich, wealthy
Directions (Use the Poetry Key Terms to Answer These Questions):
1. What type of figurative language is used in line 3?
2. Three of the first five words in line 5 begin with the letter “s.” What is it called when an author
repeatedly uses a consonant sound in the beginning of a series of words?
3. In line 8, Cullen exaggerates that on the night of his birth, it “was as black as tar.” What type of
figurative language is used there?
4. In the Saturday’s Child, Poverty, Pan, Death, and Sorrow are symbolically made into characters. What
literary devise does Cullen use when he does this?
5. How many stanzas does this poem contain?
6. Write the RHYME SCHEME of the first 8 lines.
7. What type of rhyme is used in this poem (end, approximate, or internal)?
Directions (Skim through the poem again. Answer the analytical and comprehension questions
below)
8. In the first three stanzas, Cullen paints two very different scenarios for the births of two children from
different social classes. Rewrite the lines (out of the first 12) that reference the more fortunate child.
9. Explain how the father in the 4th stanza feels about the birth of his new child.
10. What was Cullen’s purpose for writing Saturday’s Child? In other words, what did he hope to show
his audience?