ENGLISH 10 | [Name: _________________ | Period: _______________ | Date: _____________]
Theme Analysis
For your homework tonight, you will be given the opportunity to practice the skill of analyzing
themes present within a particular poem. Copy two passages from your reading and analyze
how they relate to two different of theme topics listed below. Keep in mind that a theme is
more than one word: I am giving you a theme topic so that you can then explain the theme in
depth. In order to get full credit, you must write down the entire quote with a page citation.
Take care that your “analysis” is more than a simple summary.
POEM TITLE: “The Stone”
POSSIBLE THEME TOPICS: Death, Grief, Love
1) Passage: “Next night I laboured late, alone,/To cut her name upon the stone”
(Gibson 96-97).
Theme: Love
Analysis: In his poem, Gibson presents love as something which can ultimately lead to
death. Love is not seen as a benign force, but instead has the power to destroy the
one who experiences it.
2) Passage: “Three days before, a splintered rock/Had struck her lover dead--/Had
struck him in the quarry dead” (Gibson 5-7)
Theme: Death
Analysis: The woman’s lover works in a quarry, and he dies because a rock falls and
hits him.
ENGLISH 10 | [Name: _________________ | Period: _______________ | Date: _____________]
Theme Analysis
For your homework tonight, you will be given the opportunity to practice the skill of analyzing
themes present within a particular poem. Copy two passages from your reading and analyze
how they relate to two different of theme topics listed below. Keep in mind that a theme is
more than one word: I am giving you a theme topic so that you can then explain the theme in
depth. In order to get full credit, you must write down the entire quote with a page citation.
Take care that your “analysis” is more than a simple summary.
POEM TITLE: “The Charge of the Light Brigade”
POSSIBLE THEME TOPICS: Death, Honor, Courage, Obedience
1) Passage:
Theme:
Analysis:
2) Passage:
Theme:
Analysis: