Poetry Homework Packet
DIRECTIONS: In this packet, you will find the weekly poetry assignment. I would highly suggest that
you follow the suggested completion dates. If you wait until the last minute, the homework will take a
long time. Homework will be collected on Fridays at the beginning of class. Each homework
assignment will be worth 100 points. If you are absent on Friday, the homework will be due when you
return. No late work will be accepted.
Homework is broken into Poetry Questions (50 pts) and Vocab (50 pts).
Week One Homework
Vocabulary
DIRECTIONS: Define the following vocabulary words. On the right margin, draw an image to
delineate if the word is positive, negative, or neutral.
Acrmonius—
Circumspect—
Duplicitous—
Fatuous—
Insipid—
Lugubriuos—
Pragmatic—
Stolid—
Apathetic—
Complacent—
Disquieted—
Futile—
Idiosyncratic—
Meticulous—
Pedantic—
Rueful—
Read through the next four poems. Identify five poetic devices per poem. Then, answer the
questions accompanying the poem.
The Poet with his Face in his Hands
You want to cry aloud for your
mistakes. But to tell the truth the world
doesn’t need any more of that sound.
So if you’re going to do it and can’t
stop yourself, if your pretty mouth can’t
hold it in, at least go by yourself across
the forty fields and the forty dark inclines
of rocks and water to the place where
the falls are flinging out their white sheets
like crazy, and there is a cave behind all that
jubilation and water fun and you can
stand there, under it, and roar all you
want and nothing will be disturbed; you can
drip with despair all afternoon and still,
on a green branch, its wings just lightly touched
by the passing foil of the water, the thrush,
puffing out its spotted breast, will sing
of the perfect, stone-hard beauty of everything.
1. Describe the kind of poet the speaker characterizes. What is the speaker’s attitude toward that sort
of poet?
2. How is nature contrasted with the poet?
Snapping Beans
For Fay Whitt
by Lisa Parker
I snapped beans into the silver bowl
that sat on the splintering slats
of the porchswing between my grandma and me.
I was home for the weekend,
from school, from the North,
Grandma hummed “What A Friend We Have In Jesus”
as the sun rose, pushing its pink spikes
through the slant of cornstalks,
through the fly-eyed mesh of the screen.
We didn’t speak until the sun overcame
the feathered tips of the cornfield
and Grandma stopped humming. I could feel
the soft gray of her stare
against the side of my face
when she asked, How’s school a-goin?
I wanted to tell her about my classes,
the revelations by book and lecture
as real as any shout of faith,
potent as a swig of strychnine.
She reached the leather of her hand
over the bowl and cupped
my quivering chin;
the slick smooth of her palm held my face
the way she held cherry tomatoes under the spigot,
careful not to drop them,
and I wanted to tell her
about the nights I cried into the familiar
heartsick panels of the quilt she made me,
wishing myself home on the evening star.
I wanted to tell her
the evening star was a planet,
that my friends wore noserings and wrote poetry
about sex, about alcoholism, about Buddha.
I wanted to tell her
how my stomach burned acidic holes
at the thought of speaking in class,
speaking in an accent, speaking out of turn,
how I was tearing, splitting myself apart
with the slow-simmering guilt of being happy
despite it all.
I said, School’s fine.
We snapped beans into the silver bowl between us
and when a hickory leaf, still summer green,
skidded onto the porchfront,
Grandma said,
It’s funny how things blow loose like that.
1. How does the grandmother’s world differ from the speaker’s at school? What details especially
reveal those differences?
2. Given that the poem is about how “school[‘s] a-goin,’” why do you think the title is “Snapping
Beans”?
Crossing the Bar
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.
1. How does Tennyson make clear that this poem is about more than a sea journey?
2. Discuss the purpose of the punctuation (or its absence) at the end of each line.
A Beautiful Girl Combs Her Hair
By Li Ho
Awake at dawn
she’s dreaming
by cool silk curtains
fragrance of spilling hair
half sandalwood, half aloes
windlass creaking at the well
singing jade
the lotus blossom wakes, refreshed
her mirror
two phoenixes
a pool of autumn light
standing on the ivory bed
loosening her hair
watching the mirror
one long coil, aromatic silk
a cloud down to the floor
drop the jade comb-no sound
delicate fingers
pushing the coils into place
color of raven feathers
shining blue-black stuff
the jeweled comb will hardly hold it
spring wind makes me restless
her slovenly beauty upsets me
eighteen and her hair’s so thick
she wears herself out fixing it!
she’s finished now
the whole arrangement in place
in a cloud-patterned skirt
she walks with even steps
a wild goose on the sand
turns away without a word
where is she off to?
down the steps to break a spray of
cherry blossoms.
1. Try to paraphrase the poem. What is lost be rewording it?
2. What are the speaker’s feelings toward the girll? Do they remain the same throughout the poem?
Vowels
By Christian Bök
loveless vessels
we vow
solo love
we see
love solve loss
else we see
love sow woe
selves we woo
we lose
losses we levee
we owe
we sell
loose vows
so we love
less well
so low
so level
wolves evolve
1. What is the author doing in this poem? How is the title related to the lines that follow it?
2. Paraphrase the narrative that the poem tells.
Week Two Homework
Vocabulary
DIRECTIONS: Define the following vocabulary words. On the right margin, draw an image to
delineate if the word is positive, negative, or neutral.
Benign—
Didactic—
Hackneyed—
Irascible—
Morose—
Sagacious—
Vapid—
Wry—
Ardent—
Coddled—
Derisive—
Enamored—
Impudent—
Invidious—
Parochial—
Venerable—
Read through the next five poems. Identify five poetic devices per poem. Then, answer the
questions accompanying the poem.
The Convergence of the Twain
By Thomas Hardy
(Lines on the loss of the "Titanic")
I
In a solitude of the sea
Deep from human vanity,
And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she.
II
Steel chambers, late the pyres
Of her salamandrine fires,
Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres.
III
Over the mirrors meant
To glass the opulent
The sea-worm crawls — grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent.
IV
Jewels in joy designed
To ravish the sensuous mind
Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind.
V
Dim moon-eyed fishes near
Gaze at the gilded gear
And query: "What does this vaingloriousness down here?" ...
VI
Well: while was fashioning
This creature of cleaving wing,
The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything
VII
Prepared a sinister mate
For her — so gaily great —
A Shape of Ice, for the time far and dissociate.
VIII
And as the smart ship grew
In stature, grace, and hue,
In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too.
IX
Alien they seemed to be;
No mortal eye could see
The intimate welding of their later history,
X
Or sign that they were bent
By paths coincident
On being anon twin halves of one august event,
XI
Till the Spinner of the Years
Said "Now!" And each one hears,
And consummation comes, and jars two hemispheres.
1. Describe a contemporary disaster comparable to the sinking of the Titanic. How was your response
to it similar to or different from the speaker’s response to the fate of the Titanic?
2. How do the words used to describe the ship in this poem reveal the speaker’s attitude toward the
Titanic?
3. The diction of the poem suggests that the Titanic and the iceberg participate in something like an
arranged marriage. What specific words imply this?
4. Who or what causes the disaster? Does the speaker assign responsibility?
Titanic
By David Slavitt
Who does not love the Titanic?
If they sold passage tomorrow for that same crossing,
who would not buy?
To go down...We all go down, mostly
alone. But with crowds of people, friends, servants,
well fed, with music, with lights!Ah!
And the world, shocked, mourns, as it ought to do
and almost never does. There will be the books and movies
to remind our grandchildren who we were
and how we died, and give them a good cry.
Not so bad, after all. The cold
water is anesthetic and very quick.
The cries on all sides must be a comfort.
We all go: only a few, first class.
1. What, according to the speaker in ths poem, is so compelling about the Titanic? Do you agree?
2. Discuss the speaker’s tone. Is “Titanic” merely a sarcastic poem?
3. What is the effect of the poem’s final line? What emotions does it elicit?
Untitled
By Peter Meinke
This is a poem to my son Peter
whom I have hurt a thousand times
whose large and vulnerable eyes
have glazed in pain at my ragings
thin wrists and fingers hung
boneless in despair, pale freckled back
bent in defeat, pillow soaked
by my failure to understand.
I have scarred through weakness
and impatience your frail confidence forever
because when I needed to strike
you were there to hurt and because
I thought you knew
you were beautiful and fair
your bright eyes and hair
but now I see that no one knows that
about himself, but must be told
and retold until it takes hold
because I think anything can be killed
after awhile, especially beauty
so I write this for life, for love, for
you, my oldest son Peter, age 10,
going on 11.
1. How would you characterize the speaker?
2. Why do you think the poem ends with “going on 11?” Would it have made any difference to the
tone or meaning if the poem ended with the line “age 10”?
Marvell Noir
By Ann Lauinger
Sweetheart, if we had the time,
A week in bed would be no crime.
I'd light your Camels, pour your Jack;
You'd do shiatsu on my back.
When you got up to scramble eggs,
I'd write a sonnet to your legs,
And you could watch my stubble grow.
Yes, gorgeous, we'd take it slow.
I'd hear the whole sad tale again:
A roadhouse band; you can't trust men;
He set you up; you had to eat,
And bitter with the bittersweet
Was what they dished you; Ginger lied;
You weren't there when Sanchez died;
You didn't know the pearls were fake . . .
Aw, can it, sport! Make no mistake,
You're in it, doll, up to your eyeballs!
Tears? Please! You'll dilute our highballs,
And make that angel face a mess
For the nice Lieutenant. I confess
I'm nuts for you—but take the rap?
You must think I'm some other sap!
And, precious, I kind of wish I was.
Well, when they spring you, give a buzz;
Guess I'll get back to Archie's wife,
And you'll get twenty-five to life.
You'll have time then, more than enough,
To reminisce about the stuff
That dreams are made of and the men
You suckered. Sadly, in the pen
Your kind of talent goes to waste.
But Irish bars are more my taste
Than iron ones: stripes ain't my style.
You're going down; I promise I'll
Come visit every other year.
Now kiss me, sweet—the squad car's here.
1. How does Lauinger’s poem evoke Marvell’s carpe diem poem and the tough-guy tone of a “noir”
narrative (a crime story or thriller)?
2. Discuss the ways in which time is a central presence in the poem.
3. What significant similarities and differences do you find between this poem and “To His Coy
Mistress”?
Root Cellar
By Theodore Roethke
Nothing would sleep in that cellar, dank as a ditch,
Bulbs broke out of boxes hunting for chinks in the dark,
Shoots dangled and drooped,
Lolling obscenely from mildewed crates,
Hung down long yellow evil necks, like tropical snakes.
And what a congress of stinks!—
Roots ripe as old bait,
Pulpy stems, rank, silo-rich,
Leaf-mold, manure, lime, piled against slippery planks.
Nothing would give up life:
Even the dirt kept breathing a small breath.
1. Explain why you think this is a positive or negative rendition of a root cellar.
2. What is the tone of this poem?
3. What single line in the poem suggests a theme?
Week Three Homework
Vocabulary
DIRECTIONS: Define the following vocabulary words. On the right margin, draw an image to
delineate if the word is positive, negative, or neutral.
Benevolent—
Churlish—
Dubious—
Fascile—
Manipulated—
Narcissistic—
Repugnant—
Volcanic—
Angsty—
Caustic—
Embittered—
Gullible—
Intrepid—
Nostalgic—
Potent—
Self-effacing—
Read through the next five poems. Identify five poetic devices per poem. Then, answer the
questions accompanying the poem.
Dover Beach
By Matthew Arnold
The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand;
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the A gaean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
1. Discuss what you consider to be this poem’s central point. How do the speaker’s descriptions of
the ocean work toward making that point?
2. What is the cause of the “sadness” in the frst stanza? What is the speaker’s response to the ebbing
“Sea of Faith”? Is there anything to replece his sense of loss?
3. What details of the beach seem related to the ideas in the poem? How is the sea used differently at
the beginning of the poem and the end of the poem?
Green Chile
By Jimmy Santiago Baca
I prefer red chile over my eggs
and potatoes for breakfast.
Red chile ristras* decorate my door,
dry on my roof, and hang from eaves.
They lend open-air vegetable stands
historical grandeur, and gently swing
with an air of festive welcome.
I can hear them talking in the wind,
haggard, yellowing, crisp, rasping
tongues of old men, licking the breeze.
But grandmother loves green chile.
When I visit her,
she holds the green chile pepper
in her wrinkled hands.
Ah, voluptuous, masculine,
an air of authority and youth simmers
from its swan-neck stem, tapering to a flowery collar,
fermenting resinous spice.
A well-dressed gentleman at the door
my grandmother takes sensuously in her hand,
rubbing its firm glossed sides,
caressing the oily rubbery serpent,
with mouth -watering fulfillment,
fondling its curves with gentle fingers.
Its bearing magnificent and taut
as flanks of a tiger in mid-leap,
she thrusts her blade into
and cuts it open, with lust
on her hot mouth, sweating over the stove,
bandanna round her forehead,
mysterious passion on her face
as she serves me green chile con carne
between soft warm leaves of corn tortillas,
with beans and rice–her sacrifice
to here little prince.
I slurp form my plate
with last bit of tortilla, my mouth burns
and I hiss and drink a tall glass of cold water.
All over New Mexico, sunburned men and women
drive rickety trucks stuffed with gunny sacks
of green chile, from Belen, Beguita, Wllard, Estancia,
San Antonio y Socorro, from fields
to roadside stands, you see them roasting green chile
in screen-sided homemade barrels, and for a dollar a bag,
we relive this old, beautiful ritual again and again.
*A braided string of peppers
1. What is the difference between red and green chiles in this poem? Find the different images the
speaker uses to distinguish between the two.
2. What kinds of images are used to describe the grandmother’s preparations of green chile? What is
the effect of those images?
London's Summer Morning
By Mary Robinson
Who has not waked to list the busy sounds
Of summer's morning, in the sultry smoke
Of noisy London? On the pavement hot
The sooty chimney-boy, with dingy face
And tatter'd covering, shrilly bawls his trade,
Rousing the sleepy housemaid. At the door
The milk-pail rattles, and the tinkling bell
Proclaims the dustman's office; while the street
Is lost in clouds impervious. Now begins
The din of hackney-coaches, waggons, carts;
While tinmen's shops, and noisy trunk-makers,
Knife-grinders, coopers, squeaking cork-cutters,
Fruit barrows, and the hunger-giving cries
Of vegetable venders, fill the air.
Now every shop displays its varied trade,
And the fresh-sprinkled pavement cools the feet
Of early walkers. At the private door
The ruddy housemaid twirls the busy mop,
Annoying the smart 'prentice, or neat girl,
Tripping with band-box lightly. Now the sun
Darts burning splendour on the glittering pane,
Save where the canvas awning throws a shade
On the day merchandize. Now, spruce and trim,
In shops (where beauty smiles with industry),
Sits the smart damsel; while the passenger
Peeps through the window, watching every charm.
Now pastry dainties catch the eye minute
Of humming insects, while the limy snare
Waits to enthral them. Now the lamp-lighter
Mounts the tall ladder, nimbly venturous,
To trim the half-fill'd lamp; while at his feet
The pot-boy yells discordant! All along
The sultry pavement, the old-clothes man cries
In tone monotonous, the side-long views
The area for his traffic: now the bag
Is slily open'd, and the half-worn suit
(Sometimes the pilfer'd treasure of the base
Domestic spoiler), for one half its worth,
Sinks in the green abyss. The porter now
Bears his huge load along the burning way;
And the poor poet wakes from busy dreams,
To paint the summer morning.
1. How effective is this picture of a London summer morning? Which images do you find particularly
effective?
2. How does the end of the poem bring us full circle to its beginning? What effect does this structure
have on your understanding of the poem?
Dulce Et Decorum Est
By Wilfred Owen
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.
GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.-Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
1. The Latin quotation at the end of the poem is from Horace: “It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s
country.” Owen served as a British soldier during World War I and was killed. Is this poem
unpatriotic? What is its purpose?
2. Which images in the poem are most vivid? To which senses do they speak?
3. Describe the speaker’s tone.
4. How are the images that appear of the soldiers in this poem different from the images that typically
appear in recruiting posters?
To Autumn
By John Keats
1.
SEASON of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.
2.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,
Drows’d with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
3.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
1. How is autumn made to seem like a person in each stanza of this ode?
2. Which senses are most emphasized in each stanza?
3. How is the progression of time expressed in the ode?
4. How does the imagery convey tone? Which words have especially strong connotative values?
5. What is the speaker’s view of death?
Week Four Homework
Vocabulary
DIRECTIONS: Define the following vocabulary words. On the right margin, draw an image to
delineate if the word is positive, negative, or neutral.
Belligerent—
Deferential—
Idolatrous—
Naïve—
Pensive—
Resigned—
Stoical—
Vindictive—
Cynical—
Deluded—
Disdainful—
Inept—
Miffed—
Patronizing—
Stern—
Woeful—
Read through the next seven poems. Identify five poetic devices per poem. Then, answer the
questions accompanying the poem.
Mirror
By Sylvia Plath
I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
What ever you see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful--The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.
Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.
1. What is the effect of the personification in this poem? How would our view of the aging woman be
different if she, rather than the mirror, told her story?
2. In what sense can “candles or the moon” be regarded as “liars”? Explain this metaphor.
3. Explain the effectiveness of the final simile.
A Noiseless Patient Spider
By Walt Whitman
A noiseless patient spider,
I mark’d, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated;
Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself;
Ever unreeling them—ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you, O my Soul, where you stand,
Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,—seeking the spheres, to connect them;
Till the bridge you will need, be form’d—till the ductile anchor hold;
Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.
1. Spiders are not usually regarded as pleasant creatures. Why does the speaker in this poem liken
his soul to one? What similarities are there in the poem between spider and soul? Are there any
significant differences?
2. How do the images of space relate to the connections made between the soul and the spider?
Behind Grandma's House
By Gary Soto
At ten I wanted fame. I had a comb
And two coke bottles, a tube of Bryl-creem.
I borrowed a dog, one with
Mismatched eyes and a happy tongue,
And wanted to prove I was tough
In the alley kicking over trash cans,
A dull chime of tuna cans falling.
I hurled light bulbs like grenades,
And men teachers held their heads,
Fingers of blood lengthening,
On the ground. I flicked rocks at cats,
Their goofy faces spurred with foxtails,
I kicked fences. I shooed pigeons.
I broke a branch from a flowering peach
And frightened ants with a stream of spit.
I said "Chale," "In your face," and "No way
Daddy-O" to an imaginary priest
Until grandma came into the alley
Her apron flapping in a breeze,
Her hair mussed, and said, " Let me help you,"
And punched me between the eyes.
1. What is the central irony of this poem?
2. How does the speaker characterize himself at ten?
3. Though the “grandma” appears only briefly, she seems, in a sense, fully characterized. How would
you descrieb her? Why do you think she says, “Let me help you”?
The Cow
By Andrew Hudgins
I love the red cow
with all my heart.
She’s gentle when pulling
my cherry-red cart.
We take her rich milk
and swallow it down.
With nothing, it’s white,
with chocolate, brown.
When she grows too feeble,
to give us fresh cream,
we’ll slit her red throat,
hang her from a beam,
and pull out her insides
to throw to the dogs,
just as we do
when we slaughter the hogs.
We’ve now owned six cows
that I can remember.
We drain them and gut them,
skin and dismember,
package and label them,
and stock up the freezer.
We all love beefsteak—
from baby to geezer!
Tossed on the grill,
the bloody steaks sputter.
As a last, grateful tribute,
so humble we stutter,
we offer up thanks
with a reverent mutterthen slather her chops with her own creamy butter.
1. Describe the tone of each stanza. How do the rhymes serve to establish the tone?
2. Characterize the speaker. How do you reconclie what is said in the first stanza with the description
in the final stanza?
The Lamb
By William Blake
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Gave thee life & bid thee feed.
By the stream & o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing wooly bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice!
Little Lamb who made thee
Dost thou know who made thee
Little Lamb I'll tell thee,
Little Lamb I'll tell thee!
He is called by thy name,
For he calls himself a Lamb:
He is meek & he is mild,
He became a little child:
I a child & thou a lamb,
We are called by his name.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
Little Lamb God bless thee.
1. This poem is from Blake’s Songs of Innocence. Describe its tone. How do the meter, rhyme, and
repetition help to characterize the speaker’s voice?
2. Why is it significant that the animal addressed by the speaker is a lamb? What symbollic value
would be lost if the animal were, for example, a doe?
3. How does the second stanza answer the question raised in the first? What is the speaker’s view of
the creation?
The Tyger
By William Blake
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!
When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
1. This poem is from Blake’s Songs of Experience and is often paired with “The Lamb.” Describe the
poem’s tone. Is the spaker’s coice the same here as in “The Lamb”? Which words are repeated and
how do they contribute to the tone?
2. What is revealed about the nature of the tiger by the words used to describe its creation? What do
you think the tiger symbolizes?
3. Unlike in “The Lamb,” more questions are raised in “The Tyger.” What are these questions? Are
they answered?
4. Compare the rhythms in “The Lamb” and “The Tyger.” Each basically uses a seven syllable line,
but the effects are very different. Why?
5. Using these two poems as the basis of your discussion, describe what distinguishes innocence
from experience.