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Fifteen: NAME

The poem describes a 15-year-old boy who finds a running motorcycle lying on its side in the grass. He rights the motorcycle and waits with it until he discovers the injured owner nearby. The boy helps the owner to his motorcycle, and the owner thanks him before driving away. The poem explores themes of youth, responsibility, and learning through experience.

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Lyana Rosly
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208 views2 pages

Fifteen: NAME

The poem describes a 15-year-old boy who finds a running motorcycle lying on its side in the grass. He rights the motorcycle and waits with it until he discovers the injured owner nearby. The boy helps the owner to his motorcycle, and the owner thanks him before driving away. The poem explores themes of youth, responsibility, and learning through experience.

Uploaded by

Lyana Rosly
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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NAME: _________________________

Directions: Actively read the following poem by highlighting and taking appropriate notes. Every fifth line has been numbered to help you find your place more easily when answering the uestions that will follow. !e sure to decipher the poem"s central idea# and look for poetry and literary terms that might apply.

$ifteen
--William Stafford South of the bridge on Seventeenth I found, back of the willows one summer day, a motorcycle with engine running as it lay on its side, ticking over slowly in the high grass. I was fifteen. I admired all that pulsing gleam, the shiny flanks, the demure headlights fringed where it lay; I led it gently to the road, and stood with that companion, ready and friendly. I was fifteen. We could find the end of a road, meet the sky on out Seventeenth. I thought about hills, and patting the handle got back a confident opinion. "n the bridge we indulged a forward feeling, a tremble. I was fifteen. #hinking, back farther in the grass I found the owner, $ust coming to, where he had flipped over the rail. %e had blood on his hand, was pale-I helped him walk to his machine. %e ran his hand over it, called me good man, roared away. I stood there, fifteen.

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'()*+ ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 0*1(22I'3 .(1#S

-.ifteen/ analysis

. What is unusual about the motorcycle when the speaker first finds it4

&. In lines

and &, the word -Seventeenth/ is capitali5ed. It is therefore a proper noun. What is -Seventeenth4/

6. In stan5a &, what figurative language techni7ue does the poet use to describe the motorcycle4

8. In which line does the speaker reali5e the motorcycle must have an owner4

9':*0S#(':I'3 I:*(S 5. 'umbers are very symbolic in this poem, and they are used as metaphors. Why is it important that the speaker is 54 If the speaker is -South of the bridge on Seventeenth,/ it implies he has not crossed the bridge ;he is -below/ the bridge<. What is on the other side of the bridge4

=. What is the -forward feeling/ or -tremble/ the speaker feels in line 54

>. What is the poem?s theme4 1onsider what the speaker may have learned by the end of the poem4

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