Scribd
Upload
286 views2 pages

Tone Worksheet 4: From Songs of An Empty House

The document contains 4 poems and questions about each poem's subject and the speaker's tone. The poems explore different tones including gratitude, lament, defiance, and detachment. The speaker's tones range from thankful to mournful to resolute to indifferent. Overall, the document exposes the reader to various poetic tones through short lyrical selections.

Uploaded by

Rose
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
286 views2 pages

Tone Worksheet 4: From Songs of An Empty House

The document contains 4 poems and questions about each poem's subject and the speaker's tone. The poems explore different tones including gratitude, lament, defiance, and detachment. The speaker's tones range from thankful to mournful to resolute to indifferent. Overall, the document exposes the reader to various poetic tones through short lyrical selections.

Uploaded by

Rose
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Name: _____________________________

Tone Worksheet 4
Directions: Read each poem and then answer the following questions.
from Songs of an Empty House
By Marguerite Wilkinson
My father got me strong and straight and slim, Life's venerable2 rhythms like a flood
And I give thanks to him; Beat in my brain and blood,
My mother bore me glad and sound and sweet, -- Crying from all the generations past,
I kiss her feet. "Is this the last?"

I have no son, whose life of flesh and fire And I make answer to my haughty3 dead,
Sprang from my splendid sire, Who made me, heart and head,
No daughter for whose soul my mother's flesh "Even the sunbeams falter, flicker and bend --
Wrought raiment1 fresh. I am the end."
1. raiment: clothing or material
2. venerable: commanding respect because of age, character,
or position.
3. haughty: expressing an attitude of superiority.

1. What is this poem about? ____________________________________________________________


___________________________________________________________________________________
2. What is the speaker's tone? ___________________________________________________________

Explain your answer using textual evidence.

Prevision
By Aline Kilmer
I know you are too dear to stay; A faint, unearthly music rings
You are so exquisitely sweet: From you to Heaven -- it is not far!
My lonely house will thrill someday A mist about your beauty clings
To echoes of your eager feet. Like a thin cloud before a star.
I hold your words within my heart, My heart shall keep the child I knew,
So few, so infinitely dear; When you are really gone from me,
Watching your fluttering hands I start And spend its life remembering you
At the corroding touch of fear. As shells remember the lost sea.

3. What is this poem about? ____________________________________________________________


___________________________________________________________________________________
4. What is the speaker's tone? ___________________________________________________________

Explain your answer using textual evidence.


from I Shall Not Die for Thee
By Douglas Hyde
For thee, I shall not die, Thy sharp wit, thy perfect calm,
Woman of high fame and name; Thy thin palm like foam o' the sea;
Foolish men thou mayest slay Thy white neck, thy blue eye,
I and they are not the same. I shall not die for thee.
Why should I expire Woman, graceful as the swan,
For the fire of an eye, A wise man did nurture me.
Slender waist or swan-like limb, Little palm, white neck, bright eye,
Is't for them that I should die? I shall not die for ye.
The golden hair, the forehead thin,
The chaste1 mien2, the gracious ease, 1. chaste: morally pure
The rounded heel, the languid3 tone,-- 2. mien: facial expression or attitude
3. languid: lacking enthusiasm
Fools alone find death from these.

5. What is this poem about? ____________________________________________________________


___________________________________________________________________________________
6. What is the speaker's tone? ___________________________________________________________

Explain your answer using textual evidence.

"There will come Soft Rain"


By Sara Teasdale
There will come soft rain and the smell of the ground, And not one will know of the war, not one
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound; Will care at last when it is done.
And frogs in the pools singing at night, Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
And wild plum-trees in tremulous1 white; If mankind perished2 utterly3.
Robins will wear their feathery fire And Spring herself when she woke at dawn,
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire. Would scarcely know that we were gone.

1. tremulous: trembling, quivering, or shaking


2. perished: died or expired
3. utterly: totally, completely

7. What is this poem about? ____________________________________________________________


___________________________________________________________________________________
8. What is the speaker's tone? ___________________________________________________________

Explain your answer using textual evidence.

You might also like