Meredith Schwartz
Highland Park High School, New Jersey
Like a spider committing suicide
each night I unweave the web of my day.
I have no peace.
About me the insistent buzz of flies
drones louder every day.
I am starving.
I watch them, always, unblinking stare.
All my dwindling will
I use in no moving, not trying, unweaving.
I pull in my empty nets
eating myself, waiting.
What is this poem about? What is the major comparison the author is
making to the speaker? What is this person’s life like? How do you know?
What sensory detail (sight, sound, taste, touch, smell) does the author use
in her poem? How does it make you feel?
Which character in The Odyssey is the author comparing the spider to and
why do you think she makes this specific comparison?
In the poem, who is the author comparing the “flies” to in The Odyssey?
What effect does this comparison have on the reader?
“Penelope”
By: Dorothy Parker
In the pathway of the sun,
In the footsteps of the breeze,
Where the world and sky are one,
He shall ride the silver seas,
He shall cut the glittering wave.
I shall sit at home, and rock;
Rise, to heed a neighbor’s knock;
Brew my tea, and snip my thread;
Bleach the linen for my bed.
They will call him brave.
Who is the speaker? What types of activities will the speaker accomplish?
What adjectives would you use to describe her activities?
In lines 4-5, who is “he”? How do you know? What activities will “he”
accomplish? What adjectives would you use to describe his activities?
What do you notice about the shape of this poem? How does it enhance
the poem’s ideas?
What contrast(s) do we see between the man and woman in this poem?
What is the effect of this contrast?
What tone does the speaker or author have toward her subject, audience,
or self? How does the author want us to feel in response to the speaker’s
words?