ENG IIIA BLIZZARD BAG ASSIGNMENT
Due: May 9
Directions: Read the 3 Romantic poems and circle the correct answer for the questions that follow.
Either print out this copy or use the hard copy given to you in class. I would like to see some writing on
the poems like we did in class with the Renaissance poems.
The Daffodils (also known as “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”)
by William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A Poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
1. What is the speaker’s mood at the beginning of the poem?
a. Lonesome
c. Bored
b. Happy
d. Tired
2.
“I wandered lonely as a cloud” is an example of what literary element?
a. Alliteration
c. Simile
b. Metaphor
d. Diction
3.
“Ten thousand I saw at a glance/ tossing their heads in sprightly dance” is an example of what
literary element?
a. Hyperbole
c. Onomatopoeia
b. Alliteration
d. Personification
4. What does Wordsworth compare the daffodils to in the second stanza?
a. Stars
c. Dancers
b. Waves
d. Poets
5. Judging by context clues, a person unfamiliar with the word “jocund” could conclude that the
word most likely means…?
a. Cheerful
c. Surprised
b. Depressed
d. Joking
6. The “wealth” the speaker refers to is…?
a. The amount of time he has to himself
b. The satisfaction of connecting with nature
c. Money he has spent
d. The happiness the memory brings
7. This poem, like most of Wordsworth’s work, is mainly about…?
a. Humanity
c. Loneliness
b. Nature
d. Imagination
Bright Star
by John Keats
Written to Fanny Brawn, Keats’s fiancée, in 1819. He died of tuberculosis two years later.
Bright star! Would I were steadfast as thou art—
Not in lone splendor hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature’s patient sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
No—yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever—or else swoon to death.
Eremite- A Christian hermit or recluse
Ablution- The act of washing oneself
1. What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?
a. AABB CCDD EEFF GG
b. ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
c. ABAB CCDD FEFE GG
d. ACAC BDBD EFEF GG
2. What attributes of the star does Keats envy in the beginning of the poem?
a. The star’s reliability and commitment
b. The star’s passion and fervor
c. The star’s aloofness and indifference
d. The star’s vulnerability and sensitiveness
3. The line “Of snow upon the mountains and the moors” is an example of which literary device?
a. Pastoral language
c. Alliteration
b. Hyperbole
d. Diction
4. This poem is written in which form?
a. Ballad
b. Ode
c. Sonnet
d. Prose
5. The repetition of the words “still” and “forever” suggest that Keats desires..?
a. Immortality
b. Death
c. Isolation
d. Love
6. What quality of the star does Keats NOT envy?
a. The star’s steadfastness
b. The star’s connection to nature
c. The star’s devotion
d. The star’s isolation
7. If Keats cannot remain eternally with his lover, what does he wish upon himself?
a. He wishes to become an eremite
b. He wishes to find another love
c. He wishes to die
d. He wishes to become a part of nature, similar to the star
How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(Written for her husband, Robert 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.
1. How many ways of love/loving does the speaker identify?
a. Three
c. Ten
b. Six
d. Eight
2. The best description of the tone of this poem would be…?
a. Heartbreaking and sarcastic
b. Intimate and passionate
c. Happy and celebratory
d. Mysterious and quiet
3. What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?
a. ABBA ABBA CDC DCD
b. ABAB BCBC CDC CDC
4. This sonnet is written in…?
a. Dactylic pentameter
b. Iambic hexameter
5. The speaker of this poem is…?
a. Elizabeth Barrett Browning
b. The reader
c. ABBA CDDC DED EDE
d. AABB BBCC CBC BCB
c. Anapestic Tetrameter
d. Iambic Pentameter
c. Uncertain
d. Robert Browning
6. The speaker acknowledges one force greater than her love at the end of the poem. What is that
force?
a. Life
b. God
c. Nature
d. Death