Unit -2

Close Reading: Analyzing Poetry and Passages of Fiction

Defining Close Reading:

Close reading is thoughtful, critical analysis of a text that focuses on significant details or
patterns in order to develop a deep, precise understanding of the text's form, craft, meanings, etc.
It is a key requirement of the Common Core State Standards and directs the reader's attention to
the text itself.

Close reading in another sentence is an observation. We take the notes while reading, we read
with the proofs. In the same way, to have the study asking questions within the text, doing
analyses and using detail observation of different literary devices that is also known as close
reading.

“Reading closely” means developing a deep understanding and a precise interpretation of a

literary passage that is based first and foremost on the words themselves. But a close reading
does not stop there; rather, it embraces larger themes and ideas evoked and/or implied by the
passage itself.

More Details on Close Reading:

1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences
from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions
drawn from the text.

2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize
the key supporting details and ideas.
3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course
of a text.
4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical,
connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape
meaning or tone.
5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger
portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the
whole.
6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

First Impression Questions:

After the first reading, we can probably get a sense of the tone of concerned passage and the
mood that passage creates; we may even be able to imagine a few things about its narrator, its
setting, and even its themes. Then, we will surely have questions about how and why writer's
style is so distinct, and that is the first step in reading closely.
Here, we are given the example of Willa Chather's excerpt "My Antonia" as an example. After
FIRST reading of given text we can easily raise following questions:

1. What part do the snakes play in this passage about happiness?

2. What might it mean that the passage is set in a garden?
3. How big is that pumpkin? How big are the grasshoppers, really?
4. What makes the objects in the passage so vivid?
5. Why does the narrator connect happiness and death?
6. How does the narrator fit — literally and figuratively — into the landscape?
7. How does the passage change from beginning to end?

These questions are not to be answered by the students; rather we students can have
observations, detailed study and use of literary devices while composing these questions being
based on the given passage. Therefore, we students are provided opportunity to create curiosities
as such questions that motivates us for close reading.

To an Athlete Dying Young: (by A.E. HOUSMAN):

In order to know the close reading (or accomplish the close analysis of text) we can create some
questions being based on the text.

1. What is the form of poem's writing style? (dramatic monologue).

2. What is the emotion represented in poem? (Sorrrow?)
3. What does Townsman of a stiller town meaning? (To be "townsman of a stiller town"
(line 8) means to. be dead, lying in the graveyard.)
4. How does Housman view death? (Housman's commonly read "To an Athlete Dying
Young," for example, present death as a way to celebrate a young life lived to its fullest.
Dylan Thomas' well-read villanelle "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," by
contrast, takes a different look at death: fight until the end, regardless of its inevitability.)
5. What does the narrator suggest is positive about the athlete's early death?
(He died before he could find out upsetting facts about his family. He died in the middle
of a race and so will always be remembered. He died in his prime before his talents could
fade.)
6. How is the repetition of shoulder high ironic?
(Note the way in which both first and second stanzas repeat that the athlete is carried
"shoulder high" by the crowd, which serves to reinforce the ironic parallel between the
two processions as the first remembers his moment of glory, and the second recalls his
moment of death.)

7. Are there literary devices used in poem? If used, mention them in details.
8. Do modern readers believe that name and fame is better than life?
 9. Does any person want to die at an early age having respect?

THEME OF POEM:

1. What I know about the situation – what’s happening in the poem – is that there is an
athlete would seems to be running away from something or after something to prove
some sort of strength to someone or something . What I know about the speaker is that
s/he is the kind of person who goes into writing deeper and likes to have the reader
thinking on a deeper level. This is suggested by the line “And the name died before the
man”. The speaker seems to be speaking to an audience and perhaps to the athlete
himself/ herself. I say this because there wouldn’t be anyone else the author would have
to talk to for this. The poem doesn’t spring from a particular historical moment or
culture. The poem revolves around several themes, including Inspiration and over
coming. If this poem is a question, the answer would be “Success can be very difficult to
achieve once you have already been forgotten by many”. If it is an answer, question
would be “What does true success mean to you?”

2. Death, victory and the transience of life are the major themes of this poem. The poem
presents two things; the marvelous victory of the athlete and his/her early demise.
The speaker recounts the moments of his/her remarkable achievement and then narrates
how s/he died young after achieving greatness. However, his/her death will not make
people forget the peak of his/her power or fame. His/her legacy will remain, and s/he will
always stay in the hearts of the people.

3. Literary Devices Used in Poem:

1. Personification: Personification is to give human qualities to inanimate objects. For

example, “Eyes the shady night has shut”. Here, the night is personified.
2. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line such as the
sound of /a/ in “Of lads that wore their honours out” and the sound of /e/ in “The still-
defended challenge-cup.”
3. Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between
different objects or person. For example, ‘Today, the road all runners come’. The road is
the metaphor of a cemetery. The second example is, ‘Townsman of a stiller town’, stiller
town represents the calmness of cemetery.
4. Oxymoron: It is a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear
in conjunctions with each other. For example, “And silence sounds no worse than
cheers.” Here silence shows that it is powerful then cheering crowd.
 5. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line such as
the sound of /n/ in “Runners whom renown outran” and the sound of /r/ in “The garland
briefer than a girl’s.”
6. Symbolism: Symbolism is a use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them
symbolic meanings different from their literal meanings. “Laurel” is the symbol of
victory, “Home” is the symbol of grave and “stiller town” is the symbol of the graveyard.
7. Enjambment: It is defined as a thought or clause that does not come to an end at a line
break; instead, it moves over the next line. For example,
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.”

The Elements of Style:

Close reading is more than summarizing. It digs out the writer's stylistic choices in text, message
or meaning in the text. As we begin close reading and analysis of literature; we become
accustomed to see all the aspects of literature. Here, we are given some of the terms and concepts
helpful for close-reading. Examples for all of these concepts, and more, are available in the
glossary at the back of the book.

Diction:

The term diction signifies the types of words, phrases, and sentence structures, and sometimes
also of figurative language, that constitute any work of literature. A writer's diction can be
analyzed under a great variety of categories, such as the degree to which the vocabulary and
phrasing is abstract or concrete, Latin or Anglo-Saxon in origin, colloquial or formal, technical
or common.

Authors choose their words carefully to convey precise meanings. We call these word choices
the author’s diction. A word can have more than one dictionary definition, or denotation, so
when you analyze diction, you must consider all of a word’s possible meanings.

Let’s look at an example of diction from the third stanza of Housman’s poem:
Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

In the third line, Housman plays with the multiple denotations of the word laurel, which is both a
small evergreen tree, and an honor or accolade. Housman is using these multiple denotations to
establish a paradox. Though the laurel that represents fame is evergreen, fame itself is fleeting,
even more fleeting than the rosy bloom of youth.
Figurative Language:
Figurative language refers to the use of words in a way that deviates from the conventional order
and meaning in order to convey a complicated meaning, colorful writing, clarity, or evocative
comparison. It uses an ordinary sentence to refer to something without directly stating it.
Sometimes this kind of language is called metaphorical because it explains or expands on an idea
by comparing it to something else. There are a few different ways to use figurative language,
including metaphors, similes, personification, onomatopoeia, oxymoron, hyperbole, litotes and
idiom.

Examples of Figurative Language:

1. The world is my oyster.
2. You're a couch potato.
3. Time is money.
4. He has a heart of stone.
5. America is a melting pot.
6. You are my sunshine.

Imagery:
Imagery is the verbal expression of a sensory experience and can appeal to any of the five senses.
Sometimes imagery depends on very concrete language — that is, descriptions of how things
look, feel, sound, smell, or taste. In considering imagery, look carefully at how the sense
impressions are created. According to C. Day Lewis' an image "is a picture made out of words,"
and that "a poem may itself be an image composed from a multiplicity of images."

Some Common Examples of Imagery:

Taste: The familiar tang of his grandmother's cranberry sauce reminded him of his youth.
Sound: The concert was so loud that her ears rang for days afterward.
Sight: The sunset was the most gorgeous they'd ever seen; the clouds were edged with pink and
gold.

Additionally: There are seven distinct types of imagery: visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory,
tactile, kinesthetic and organic.

Syntax:
Syntax is the arrangement of words into phrases, clauses and sentences. When we read closely,
we consider whether the sentences in a work are long or short, simple or complex. Along with
diction, it is one of the key ways writers convey meaning in a text. In other sentence: Syntax is
the arrangement of words to form a sentence. For example, "The boy ran hurriedly," reads
differently than, "Hurriedly, the boy ran." The difference may be slight, but the syntax in each
sentence conveys a different meaning and, perhaps, a different mental image.
Tone and Mood:
Tone reflects the speaker’s attitude toward the subject of the work. Mood is the feeling the reader
experiences as a result of the tone. Tone and mood provide the emotional coloring of a work and
are created by the writer’s stylistic choices. When you describe the tone and mood of a work, try
to use at least two precise words, rather than words that are vague and general, such as happy,
sad, or different. In describing the tone of the Cather passage, you might say that it is contented
and joyful. What is most important is that you consider the style elements that went into creating
the tone.

ACTIVITY: From The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Below is the conclusion to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. At the end of the novel,
its narrator, Nick Carraway, remembers Jay Gatsby as a person with a great “capacity for
wonder.” Read the passage carefully. Then analyze how the style conveys this sense of Gatsby.

It's a haunting love story that reverberates with the human condition of…‘We are so smart. We
can overcome anything, nature, others, and ourselves.’ And all the while, in the short-term, we
think we’re making things better. But in the long run, we are only making things worse. And
that’s sadder than the love story. As I see in the text:

We drift back into the past to see that the island represents Daisy when Gatsby first laid eyes on
her. The vanished trees demonstrate Gatsby’s toil and preparation over the years in an attempt to
recapture that initial magic with Daisy. The vanished trees – like that magic – have been lost.
Although Gatsby is too busy ‘doing’ to look up and see the destruction – the waste – the
emptiness of his labor.

The greatest of all human dreams, to have a soul mate. Love? The unknown? Something you
can’t describe or grasp because you can’t fully understand it. That was what Gatsby was feeling
when he first encountered Daisy. From this first encounter with Daisy on, he would only drift
farther and farther from his ‘Daisy island’ – regardless of how hard he paddled against the
current (his toil for Daisy) – the current would only carry him farther and farther from his dream.

His excitement at seeing the green light after all his paddling over the years with one goal to
reclaim Daisy. Green = money. The light = the dream of being with Daisy. The dream now
seemed within reach. The dream—the possibility of being with Daisy—had begun receding from
the moment Daisy discovered he didn’t have money. Gatsby was set adrift from his ‘Daisy
island’. So, years later the possibility of reaching the dream was far away, far out of reach. He
could see the point source of the green light in the darkness – but not the land or other
perspective cues that would have told him that he was drifting away.

He felt money – the thing that initially set him adrift – would be the thing that could make his
dream come true. He believed in the power of money to make his dream come true. Sounds all
too familiar in this ‘American Dream’ world in which we live. But it was too late–although he
worked for and gained the money (the green)–and although he could see a wonderful magical
future with Daisy (the light) it had all the while been receding – imperceptibly to him since he
was focused on working so hard. He couldn’t see – or didn’t pay attention to the fact that it was
receding … We too often fail to see the long-term price because we’re blinded by staring at the
short-term excitement of the gains in the green light. Like Gatsby, we’re cutting down the trees
on the island in an effort to reach our dream and in the process destroying the very island that is
our dream. We are trying to get what we want – now – without regard to how it affects others
and the environment in the future. In the end, we all lose.

His dream hasn’t yet come true. In Gatsby’s perspective, all his plans seem to be working out
and he believes that he is getting closer to his dream with Daisy and if he just continues day by
day he will make it come true. We’re just like Gatsby. Things seem to be working out with our
brilliant plans because we’re not paying attention to their effects along the way. Not
acknowledging how they have made things worse so far on our voyage. We’re too busy making
it better – to see or acknowledge the fact that we’re improving it into a failure.

The past is where we started. The dream. We feel we are progressing. But we’re not progressing
in the big picture. And here, Nick, with the omniscient view of the narrator – can see what
Gatsby could not. Nick can see that Gatsby – despite all his effort and sweat at paddling against
the current – was drifting backward away from the island – (from Daisy). Repeating the same
mistakes over and over – ignoring the signs from Daisy that she could not commit 100% to him,
as he worked toward his dream. Gatsby was continually fooling himself with his dream of Daisy
from the past – blinded by the green light – and could not see his forward progress was
overpowered by the permanence of the past (the current).

At the end, he feels so close. He’s waiting in the pool for her call. I see his murder as a merciful
event. For he feels as close to his dream as he will ever get. He is at the top of the roller coaster.
Daisy is too torn to fully commit to him and if he had lived to see this played out – everything
would have been downhill from there. His psychological life would not only have been
destroyed – he would have had to live through the destruction. And that would be crushing for
Gatsby – as well as for the reader. We need a ‘Nick’ to help us see the bird’s eye view of what
we’re doing.

Special Considerations for Reading Poetry Closely Reading Poetry Closely:

Rhyme:

A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds in the final stressed syllables and any following
syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of perfect rhyming is consciously used for
artistic effect in the final position of lines within poems or songs.

In another sentence: rhyme is a literary device, featured particularly in poetry, in which identical
or similar concluding syllables in different words are repeated. ... For example, words rhyme that
end with the same vowel sound but have different spellings: day, prey, weight, bouquet.
Meter:
Meter / metre is a literary device that works as a structural element in poetry. Essentially, meter
is the basic rhythmic structure of a line within a poem or poetic work. Meter functions as a
means of imposing a specific number of syllables and emphasis when it comes to a line of poetry
that adds to its musicality. It consists of the number of syllables and the pattern of emphasis on
those syllables. In addition, meter governs individual units within a line of poetry, called “feet.”
A “foot” of a poetic work features a specific number of syllables and pattern of emphasis.
A metric line is named according to the number of feet composing it:

Monometer: One Foot

Dimeter: Two Feet
Trimeter: Three Feet
Tetrameter: Four Feet
Pentameter: Five Feet
Hexameter: Six Feet (an Alexandrine is a line of six iambic feet)
Heptameter: Seven Feet (a fourteener is another term for a line of seven iambic feet—hence, of
fourteen syllables; it tends to break into a unit of four feet
Octameter : Eight Feet

Types of Meter
Below are the most common types of meter. Writers can select one of these patterns, or more, to
use in their poems. Depending on the selected meter, it may be easier or hard to consistently use
it throughout a poem.
 Iamb: contains one unstressed and one stressed syllable.
 Trochee: contains one stressed and one unstressed syllable.
 Spondee: contains two stressed syllables.
 Anapest: consists of three beats, two unstressed and one stressed.
 Dactyl: consists of three beats, one stressed and two unstressed.

Notice how “To an Athlete Dying Young,” the Housman poem that you read, is in iambic
tetrameter. Each of its lines follows a rhythm of four beats, each one an iambic foot with the
emphasis on the second syllable:

The time | you won | your town | the race

We chaired | you through | the mar | ket-place.

Notice how odd it would sound if you were to emphasize the first syllable.

The time | you won | your town | the race.

Related Poetic Devices (Literary Terms): (Additional Information)

 Free Verse: lines are unrhymed, and there are no consistent metrical patterns. But, that
doesn’t mean it is entirely without structure.
 Blank Verse: poetry that is written in unrhymed lines but with a regular metrical pattern.
 Anapestic Meter: two unstressed syllables followed by one stressed.
 Iambic Pentameter: one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. The most
popular metrical pattern.
 Dactylic Meter: one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables. It is the
opposite of an anapest.
 Spondee Meter: an arrangement of two syllables in which both are stressed.

Form:

A poem’s form refers to its structure: elements like its line lengths and meters, stanza lengths,
rhyme schemes (if any) and systems of repetition. Form can be understood as the physical
structure of the poem: the length of the lines, their rhythms, their system of rhymes and
repetition. Every poem has a form—its own way of approaching these elements—whether that
form is unique just to that poem, or part of a more widely used poetic form.

Another sense of "form" is to refer to these familiar patterns - these can be simple and open-
ended forms, such as blank verse, or can be a complex system of rhymes, rhythms and repeated
lines within a fixed number of lines, as a sonnet or villanelle is.

15 Types of Poetic Forms: (Additional Information)

From sonnets and epics to haikus and villanelles, learn more about 15 of literature’s most
enduring types of poems.

1. Blank verse. Blank verse is poetry written with a precise meter—almost always
iambic pentameter—that does not rhyme.
2. Rhymed poetry. In contrast to blank verse, rhymed poems rhyme by definition,
although their scheme varies.
3. Free verse. Free verse poetry is poetry that lacks a consistent rhyme scheme, metrical
pattern, or musical form.
4. Epics. An epic poem is a lengthy, narrative work of poetry. These long poems
typically detail extraordinary feats and adventures of characters from a distant past.
5. Narrative poetry. Similar to an epic, a narrative poem tells a story. Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow’s “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” exemplify this form.
 6. Haiku. A haiku is a three-line poetic form originating in Japan. The first line has five
syllables, the second line has seven syllables, and the third line again has five
syllables.
7. Pastoral poetry. A pastoral poem is one that concerns the natural world, rural life, and
landscapes. These poems have persevered from Ancient Greece (in the poetry of
Hesiod) to Ancient Rome (Virgil) to the present day (Gary Snyder).
8. Sonnet. A sonnet is a 14 line poem, typically (but not exclusively) concerning the
topic of love. Sonnets contain internal rhymes within their 14 lines; the exact rhyme
scheme depends on the style of a sonnet.
9. Elegies. An elegy is a poem that reflects upon death or loss. Traditionally, it contains
themes of mourning, loss, and reflection. However, it can also explore themes of
redemption and consolation.
10. Ode. Much like an elegy, an ode is a tribute to its subject, although the subject need
not be dead—or even sentient, as in John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”.
11. Limerick. A limerick is a five-line poem that consists of a single stanza, an AABBA
rhyme scheme, and whose subject is a short, pithy tale or description.
12. Lyric poetry. Lyric poetry refers to the broad category of poetry that concerns
feelings and emotion. This distinguishes it from two other poetic categories: epic and
dramatic.
13. Ballad. A ballad (or ballade) is a form of narrative verse that can be either poetic or
musical. It typically follows a pattern of rhymed quatrains. From John Keats to Samuel
Taylor Coleridge to Bob Dylan, it represents a melodious form of storytelling.
14. Soliloquy. A soliloquy is a monologue in which a character speaks to him or herself,
expressing inner thoughts that an audience might not otherwise know. Soliloquies are
not definitionally poems, although they often can be—most famously in the plays of
William Shakespeare.
15. Villanelle. A nineteen-line poem consisting of five tercets and a quatrain, with a
highly specified internal rhyme scheme. Originally a variation on a pastoral, the
villanelle has evolved to describe obsessions and other intense subject matters, as
exemplified by Dylan Thomas, author of villanelles like “Do Not Go Gentle Into That
Good Night.”

Poetic Syntax:

The word “syntax” comes from the Greek meaning “coordination” and “ordering together.” It is
the rules that govern how words are arranged in a sentence. It’s different in every language and is
one of the most important and direct ways writers convey meaning.

English sentences should have a subject and verb, which are used to express a complete thought.
A sentence fragment doesn’t do this. Additionally, the sentences should express separate
thoughts, joined properly. If they aren’t, then it’s likely to be a run-on (Enjambment) sentence.

The next rule is concerned with the use of the subject-verb-object pattern having pauses
(Caesura). Lastly, dependent clauses, explained more below, should have a subject and verb but
don’t need to express a complete thought. Rules always change, especially in poetry.
Sound:

Sound is the musical quality of poetry. It can be created through some of the techniques we’ve
already mentioned, such as rhyme, enjambment, and caesura. It can also be created by word
choice, especially through alliteration (the repetition of initial consonant sounds in a sequence of
words), assonance (the repetition of vowel sounds in a sequence of words), and onomatopoeia
(use of a word that refers to a noise and whose pronunciation mimics that noise).

Types of Sound Devices

There are many types of sound devices. For example,

Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line.

Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line.

Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line.

Meter: It is a unit of rhythm in poetry, the pattern of the beats.

Onomatopoeia: It refers to the word which imitates the natural sounds of the things.
Poetic Forms & Terms (Additional Information)

Alliteration
The repetition of the same initial letter, sound, or group of sounds in a series of words, as in the
Gerard Manley Hopkins line “[king-]dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon...”

How One Winter Came in the Lake Region by Wilfred Campbell

The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins
The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd by Sir Walter Ralegh
See more

Allusion
A brief reference to a person, character, place, literary work, or historical event, such as when
Allen Ginsberg imagines he sees the poet Walt Whitman in a grocery store or when P.K. Page
writes a poem that incorporates language and images from a poem by Wallace Stevens.

A Supermarket in California by Allen Ginsberg

On Shakespeare. 1630 by John Milton
The Blue Guitar by P.K. Page
See more

Assonance
A vowel rhyme created through the relatively close juxtaposition of the same or similar vowel
sounds, but with different end consonants in a line or passage, as in the sequence “So twice five
miles” in “Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

From Chapter I by Christian Bök

Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
See more
Ballad
A song that tells a story, often using simple, folksy language. The art of writing ballads began in
medieval France, though the English ballad follows its own form: quatrains that alternate
between four-stress (“So we’ll * go no * more a * ro-ving”) and three-stress lines (“So late * in-
to * the night”).

Amor Mundi by Christina Rossetti

See more

Blank verse
Iambic pentameter that doesn’t follow a fixed rhyme scheme.

Blank Sonnet by George Elliott Clarke

The Princess: Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
The Snow-Storm by Ralph Waldo Emerson
See more

Common measure
Four-line stanzas (quatrains) that rhyme abab, alternating between between four-stress and three-
stress iambic lines. See ballad, a form written in common measure.

Ah! Why, Because the Dazzling Sun by Emily Brontë

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick
You charmed me not with that fair face by John Dryden
See more

Consonance
The repetition of a consonant sound, such as the repetition of the “t” sound in “tucked string
tells” or the “c” sound in “cloudless climes.”
She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron
As Kingfishers Catch Fire by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Kubla Kahn by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
See more

Couplet
Two consecutive lines of a poem, usually of the same length, that rhyme.

“Alone” by Edgar Allan Poe

To an Athlete Dying Young by A.E. Housman
The Author to Her Book by Anne Bradstreet
See more

Elegy
A poem of mourning for a person or event.

A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General by Jonathan Swift

The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
To an Athlete Dying Young by A.E. Housman
See more

Free verse
A poem that does not follow a consistent meter or rhyme scheme in its structure.

At the Centre by Afua Cooper

Beat! Beat! Drums! by Walt Whitman
Piling Blood by Al Purdy
See more

Imagery
The use of vivid visual images.

A Breakfast for Barbarians by Gwendolyn McEwen

Lagoons, Hanlan’s Point by Raymond Souster
War by Lee Maracle

Metaphor
An implied comparison where one thing is described in terms of another without using the words
like or as (see simile). Emily Dickinson doesn’t write that “hope” is like a thing with feathers she
writes that “hope” is the thing with feathers. Sometimes the story of a poem is a metaphor for a
larger idea, as in “The Road Not Taken,” where Robert Frost describes a forked road as a
metaphor for the moment one chooses between two different ways of life.

Homage to the Mineral of the Onion (I) by Erin Mouré

“Hope” is the thing with feathers— by Emily Dickinson
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
See more

Ode
A poem that formally addresses a person, place, thing, or idea; odes often praise or celebrate
their subjects.

Ode on Solitude by Alexander Pope

Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes by Thomas Gray
To Autumn by John Keats
See more

Pastoral
Poetry that idealizes rural life as tranquil, uncomplicated, and virtuous.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe
The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd by Sir Walter Ralegh
See more
Persona poem
A poem that, though written in first person, is not in the voice of the poet but rather speaks from
the point of view of a dramatic character.

Mrs. Kessler by Edgar Lee Masters

My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
Richard Cory by Edward Arlington Robinson

Personification
A figure of speech in which human characteristics are given to an animal, object, or abstract
idea.

A Virginal by Ezra Pound

Holy Sonnets: Death, be not proud by John Donne
Love (III) by George Herbert
See more

Prose poem
A poem that appears to follow the same form as prose — with sentences that flow into
paragraphs rather than being broken into verse lines — but that uses poetic devices, such as
metaphor, imagery, or symbolism.

Dog Boy by Matthew Rohrer

Two Words: A Wedding by bp Nichol
See more

Quatrain
A four-line stanza.

Lord of My Heart’s Elation by Bliss Carman

The Tyger by William Blake
Wild Nights—Wild Nights! by Emily Dickinson
See more

Refrain
A phrase or line that repeats regularly in a poem, often at the end of stanzas.

A Hymn to God the Father by John Donne

Insomnia by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
What horror to awake at night by Lorine Niedecker
See more

Rhyme
A patterned repetition of vowel and consonant sounds.

A Fixed Idea by Amy Lowell

From The Titanic: The Iceberg by E.J. Pratt
My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
See more

Rhythm
The organization of sound patterns.

Jack Would Speak Through the Imperfect Medium of Alice by Alice Notley
The Dark Stag by Isabella Valancy Crawford
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat by Edward Lear
 Activity (page 25)
Use the following sonnet by John Keats to answer the questions above.
Bright Star, would I were stedfast as thou art —
JOHN KEATS

1. "Bright Star" is one of romantic poet John Keats' most popular sonnets. It is written in the
form of a typical Shakespearean sonnet, with 14 lines made up of an octet and a sestet with
the volta, or turn, occurring at line 9 and ending with a rhyming couplet. The rhyme scheme
is Shakespearean: ababcdcdefefgg
And, the thought-pattern of a Petrarchan or "Italian" sonnet: one thought-chunk in the first
eight lines (the "octet") and one thought-chunk in the last six lines (the "sestet").

2. Bright Star has a basic iambic pentameter beat but has several lines that break the familiar
daDUM stress pattern of the iambic, bringing varied rhythm and pace.

3. For the most part, the poem uses strong, perfect rhymes, like “shores” and “moors” in lines 6
and 8. Though the Shakespearean sonnet is a challenging and prestigious form, the speaker
seems to handle its demands with confidence. This confidence underlines the speaker’s
definite, direct description of his or her desires: this speaker knows what he or she wants and
does not equivocate about it.

There is one rhyme that’s a little off, however: “unchangeable” and “swell” in lines 9 and
11. This pair is probably best described as a slant rhyme: the link between them lies in
the consonant /l/ sound in “unchangeable” and “swell.” One might interpret this slant rhyme
in a number of ways. Perhaps the speaker is not quite as confident as he or she pretends to
be. Or perhaps the speaker wants to underline a tension in the poem—between the speaker’s
“still[ness]” and the movement his or her lover’s body makes, its “soft fall and swell.” The
speaker may be unchanging, unmoving, but the lover’s body does change and move. In
either case, the slant rhyme is a rare formal blemish in a poem that is otherwise very tightly
controlled.
METER

“Bright Star” is written in iambic pentameter, which is the traditional meter for a
Shakespearean sonnet. A line of iambic pentameter has ten syllables total, divided up into
five poetic feet with two syllables per foot. These feet follow a da DUM rhythm, with
a stress falling on every other syllable. That might sound complicated, but iambic rhythm
is actually a close reflection of the way people actually speak.

It's easy to see what iambic pentameter looks like by scanning line 3.

And watch- | ing, with | eter- | nal lids | apart

Generally, the poem’s meter is pretty good: the speaker is confident and direct, and that
confidence expresses itself in his or her control over the poem’s rhythm. There are some
moments where things get more complicated, however. For instance, the poem starts with
a spondee (a foot with two stressed syllables in a row), instead of an iamb:

Bright star, | would I | were sted- | fast as | thou art

The rhythm of this first line never quite sorts itself out. After the spondee in the first foot,
the next two feet are iambs. Then there’s a trochee (stressed-unstressed), and a final
iamb. Though the speaker wants to be steady as a “star,” the meter might indicate that the
speaker's not quite there yet: the poem betrays an underlying unsteadiness or insecurity.

There’s a similar problem in line 9:

No—yet | still sted- | fast, still | unchange- | able

In addition to the opening trochee, there’s another trochee in the poem’s third foot. Once
again, when the speaker imagines being “stedfast,” the meter breaks, becomes unsteady
and irregular. These metrical problems might remind the reader that the poem is a
fantasy, not a reality. Though the speaker describes with considerable confidence being
with his or her lover forever, locked in a permanent embrace, he or she isn’t there yet—
and may never be.
FORM:
1. Yes the poem "Bright Star" closely follows the traditional meter and rhyme scheme
of a Shakespearean sonnet.

2. Keats both follows Shakespeare’s example, and tries out new things here that break
from the form Shakespeare popularized. For instance, "Bright Star" closely follows
the traditional meter and rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet. Though there are
irregularities here and there, the poem exhibits confidence and control as it moves
through a difficult and prestigious form including romance. The romance is within
the eternal thought that of bright star.

3. In addition to its meter and rhyme scheme, a sonnet usually has a volta, or turn. This
is a moment where the speaker reflects on what he or she has already said—and,
often, changes his or her mind, or offers a new way of looking at things. In a
Shakespearean sonnet, the volta falls at the end of line 12. In a Petrarchan sonnet, it
falls at the end of line 8. Since sonnets only have 14 lines total, that means that a
Petrachan sonnet gives the speaker more space to reflect, to change his or her mind.

Although “Bright Star” follows the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet, its
volta falls in line 9 and continues to expand upon this idea through the rest of the
poem. That’s where the speaker switches things up, finally telling the reader what he
or she actually wants; in the first 8 lines, the speaker tells the reader what he or she
doesn’t want. The poem is thus a kind of hybrid sonnet—a Shakespearean sonnet that
follows some of the conventions of a Petrarchan sonnet.

*VOLTA: Volta, (Italian: “turn”) the turn in thought in a sonnet that is often
indicated by such initial words as But, Yet, or/and yet.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Shakespearean Sonnet: follows a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG and
uses iambic pentameter.
Petrarchan Sonnet: fourteen lines long, follow an initial rhyme scheme of
ABBAABBA, and use iambic pentameter.
Miltonic Sonnet: one of the main sonnet forms and was popularized by the poet
John Milton who was born in 1609 in London, England.
Iambic Pentameter: is a very common metrical pattern used in sonnets.
Rhyme Scheme of Sonnets: Sonnets usually conform to one of two different
rhyme schemes, those connected to the Shakespearean and the Petrarchan sonnet forms.
 POETIC SYNTAX:
1. Enjambment occurs when a phrase carries over a line-break without a major pause. In
French, the word means "straddling," which we think is a perfect way to envision an
enjambed line. When you read an enjambed line, the sense of it encourages you to keep
right on reading the next line, without stopping for a breather.

Take, for example, these lines from John Keats's "Bright Star":

Or gazing on the new soft-fallen masque

Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—

The only way to make sense of those lines is to lump them together—to enjamb them. In a poem
full of end-stopped lines, these two lines leap out by running together.

2. Caesura:
The poet takes recourse to a Caesura in the third quatrain of the poem for marking a shift
of the idea described in the previous section. Caesura occurs when a line has a break
halfway, usually with punctuation. For example:

"Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,"

3. As the poem is composed with total poetic crafts and format, it has not such sentences to
be discussed as long or short.

Sound:
The poem/sonnet is composed with literary devices are tools that the writers use to shape
their ideas and emotions. Their usage makes the text captivating and opens it up to
multiple interpretations. Keats has also used some literary devices in this poem to explain
his ideas of pure love.

Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line such as the
sound of /a/ in “Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite” and the sound of /e/ in “No—yet
still steadfast, still unchangeable.”
Symbolism: Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving
them symbolic meanings different from their literal meanings. In the sonnet ‘Star’
symbolizes desire.
Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line such as
the sound of /l/ in “To feel for ever its soft fall and swell” and the sound of /n/ in “Of
snow upon the mountains and the moors.”
Simile: It is a figure of speech in which an object or a person is compared with something
else to make the meanings clear to the readers. For example, “Bright star, would I were
steadfast as thou art.” Here the poem is attempting to compare himself with the star.
Personification: Personification is to give human qualities to inanimate objects. For
example, ‘And watching, with eternal lids apart’ as if the star is human that can perform
certain actions.
Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. For
example, “And watching, with eternal lids apart “; ” The moving waters at their priestlike
task ” and ” Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast”.
Enjambment: It is defined as a thought or clause that does not come to an end at a line
break; instead, it moves over the next line. For example,

“Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask

Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
No—yet still steadfast, still unchangeable.”

Page 27

Reading closely the poem "My Father's Song" by Simon Ortiz

(Being Based on its Style and Structure)

Style & Structure:

“My Father’s Song” takes the shape of a simple first person childhood memory story. It is
structured into five stanzas of varying length. The syntax is conversational, with the
punctuation simply marking pauses and stops.

The poem is framed by the first two lines, “Wanting to say things, / I miss my father
tonight,” and the concluding stanza, which begins “I remember...” and ends with “and my
father saying things.” In between are memories, each stanza bringing the memory to a
solid physical reality of “the soft damp sand,” “the soft moist sand,” and “a sand moist
clod.”

In the first stanza, there is the physical memory of the voice moving out of his father’s
“thin chest.” The second stanza is the memory of the specific activity of planting corn.
The memory deepens in the third stanza, with the discovery of a nest of mice. The fourth
stanza focuses the memory more closely by the appearance of the “tiny pink animals.”
The final stanza connects this memory back to the father’s voice.
Additional Information:
Figurative language, Sound devices, and form:
"the depth from his thin chest," Imagery

"I remember the very softness

of cool and warm sand and tiny alive mice
and my father saying things." Flashback

"his son, his song" metaphor

Form:
The form of this poem is a free verse.

Sound Devices:
The way that I see it there is an obvious sound device in this poem. He tries to bring out
the musical element of this poem by saying that he is his father's song.

Quote:
" his son, his song"

In this line he is referring to himself saying that he is his father's song.

Theme:
The theme of this poem is that he (the author) is missing his father.

Author:/Images:
Simon Ortiz is a Native American writer. His writing style is characterized by a strong
storytelling voice that recalls a traditional Native American story telling.

General knowledge about the poem:

"the depth from his thin chest," …
…"he scooped tiny pink animals"
…"very softness of cool and warm sand and tiny alive mice"

Symbol:
The "song" is referring himself.
EXTRA INFORMATION: TO UNDERSTAND THE POEM.
(Poem Summary)
Lines 1–6
It seems at first that the speaker is missing his father because he expresses a wish to say
things to him. However, in line 3, it becomes apparent that it is his father’s voice the son
misses. He remembers it as a physical thing coming from his father’s body. His father’s
voice becomes through the image of his “chest” a solid physical entity stronger than that
“thin chest.”

Line 7
This line provides a powerful transition between the two stanzas. The father’s voice in
the first stanza is speaking to his son, and what is to follow is the persona’s “song” to his
father, the poem that tells the story developed out of the memories. The two words,
however, “son” and “song,” by their closeness to one another in sound and sight,
communicate that the persona himself understands that he is, in a way, his father’s “song”
by being his “son.”

Lines 8–10
The storytelling technique of repetition functions in an almost incantatory fashion here to
lead readers into a place where memory is real. Lines 8 and 9 both begin “We planted,”
and lines 9 and 10 play on the word “time.”

It is characteristic of the oral storytelling mode that the teller talk his or her way into the
tale, not leaving out the steps to getting there. Western storytelling, in contrast, generally
values a more finished story product. Readers follow the persona in this poem through
the general statement of line 8, to an explanation that this planting was one of many
plantings, finally closing in on the one particular story or memory he wants to relate.

Lines 11–12
There is a digression here, as there often is in the rhythms of natural conversation. The
persona is telling the story to the reader in line 11 but almost addressing his comment to
his father in line 12. The rhymed couplet at the conclusion of the stanza emphasizes the
tactile image of the sand.

Lines 13–17
The image of the sand brings the persona to the beginning point of the story, which is
signalled by the stanza break. The father bends over the sand, pointing out to his son a
place where the plow has overturned a nest of mice. The assonance of the vowel sounds
of “overturned furrow,” “unearthed,” and “burrow,” as well as the rhyme of
 “furrow/burrow,” draw together the strands of this image that is spread over three lines.
The effect is of patience, as the father clearly has with his son and the nest of mice and of
focus, which is required for anyone to pay such close attention to tiny mice while
plowing—or even to a child while doing adult work. The image of the sand, which
houses the nest, closes this stanza and parallels the closing image of sand in the son’s
hand in the final line of the second stanza.

Lines 18–23
In a gesture that contrasts with the strong hand necessary to plow a field, the father lifts
the surprise of these small creatures for his son “to touch.”

Page No. 28

Talking to the Text

Asking readers (students) to have a conversation with the text is known as Talking to the
text. They (readers/students) will be giving their thoughts right back to the words on the
page, leaving their thoughts, ideas, questions, comments, and light bulb moments all over
the passage. This is very similar to text annotations and is an integral part of teaching
those close reading strategies.

Page No. 35 • ACTIVITY • From The Scarlet Letter by NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

The following passage is from the opening of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet
Letter. Annotate the passage using the three-step process we have described.

In this chapter, Hawthorne sets the mood for the "tale of human frailty and sorrow" that is to
follow. His first paragraph introduces the reader to what some might want to consider a (or the)
major character of the work: the Puritan society. What happens to each of the major characters
— Hester, Pearl, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth — results from the collective ethics, morals,
psyche, and unwavering sternness and rigidity of the individual Puritans, whom Hawthorne
introduces figuratively in this chapter and literally and individually in the next.

Dominating this chapter are the decay and ugliness of the physical setting, which symbolize the
Puritan society and culture and foreshadow the gloom of the novel. The two landmarks
mentioned, the prison and the cemetery, point not only to the "practical necessities" of the
society, but also to the images of punishment and providence that dominate this culture and
permeate the entire story.

The rosebush, its beauty a striking contrast to all that surrounds it — as later the beautifully
embroidered scarlet A will be — is held out in part as an invitation to find "some sweet moral
blossom" in the ensuing, tragic tale and in part as an image that "the deep heart of nature"
(perhaps God) may look more kindly on the errant Hester and her child (the roses among the
weeds) than do her Puritan neighbors. Throughout the work, the nature images contrast with the
stark darkness of the Puritans and their systems.

Hawthorne makes special note that this colony earlier set aside land for both a cemetery and a
prison, a sign that all societies, regardless of their good intentions, eventually succumb to the
realities of man's nature (sinful/punishment/prison) and destiny (mortal/death/cemetery). In those
societies in which the church and state are the same, when man breaks the law, he also sins.
From Adam and Eve on, man's inability to obey the rules of the society has been his downfall.

The Puritan society is symbolized in the first chapter by the plot of weeds growing so profusely
in front of the prison. Nevertheless, nature also includes things of beauty, represented by the wild
rosebush. The rosebush is a strong image developed by Hawthorne which, to the sophisticated
reader, may sum up the whole work. First it is wild; that is, it is of nature, God given, or
springing from the "footsteps of the sainted Anne Hutchinson." Second, according to the author,
it is beautiful — offering "fragrant and fragile beauty to the prisoner" — in a field of "unsightly
vegetation." Third, it is a "token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to" the
prisoner entering the structure or the "condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom."
Finally, it is a predominant image throughout the romance. Much the same sort of descriptive
analyses that can be written about the rosebush could be ascribed to the scarlet letter itself or to
little Pearl or, perhaps, even to the act of love that produced them both.

Finally, the author points toward many of the images that are significant to an understanding of
the novel. In this instance, he names the chapter "The Prison Door." The reader needs to pay
particular attention to the significance of the prison generally and the prison door specifically.
The descriptive language in reference to the prison door — ". . . heavily timbered with oak, and
studded with iron spikes" and the "rust on the ponderous iron-work . . . looked more antique than
anything else in the New World" and, again, ". . . seemed never to have known a youthful era" —
foreshadows and sets the tone for the tale that follows.

Glossary

Cornhill part of Washington Street. Now part of City Hall Plaza.

Isaac Johnson a settler (1601-1630) who left land to Boston; he died shortly after the Puritans
arrived. His land would be north of King's Chapel (1688), which can be visited today.

burdock any of several plants with large basal leaves and purple-flowered heads covered with
hooked prickles.

pigweed any of several coarse weeds with dense, bristly clusters of small green flowers. Also
called lamb's quarters.

apple-peru a plant that is part of the nightshade family; poisonous.

portal here, the prison door.

Anne Hutchinson a religious dissenter (1591-1643). In the 1630s she was excommunicated by
the Puritans and exiled from Boston and moved to Rhode Island.

EXTRA INFORMATION with Page No. 50—52

How to write a Compare and Contrast Essay?

Writing a compare and contrast essay is not much harder than comparing anything in your life.
Actually, it is just an extended list of pros and cons with your own opinion as a conclusion. The
two subjects should, of course, be comparable at all and fall into the same categories. You may
compare two writers, two scientists who worked on the same topic, two people who faced the
same problem and solved it differently. Anything, from pets to dishes to ideas fits the compare
and contrast essay format.

Writing about two things isn’t twice as hard as about one. Just follow our guide and see that
there are plenty of ways to start a compare and contrast essay and strict but easy rules to finish it.
Let’s learn them!

Structure of a Compare and Contrast Essay

Now, when we know what does compare and contrast essay means, we can outline its structure.
Like all the other essays this one starts with an introduction, ends with a conclusion, and has 4-5
paragraphs in between. Each paragraph should be dedicated to the one trait that defines both
comparison subjects and is different for each of them. It’s a good idea to use a roughly equal
amount of sentences while describing both subjects, even if you know the traits of one of them
better. You should be fair in your essay and not show that you prefer one subject over another.

First Step to Writing a Compare and Contrast Essay

To start writingyou need to brainstorm a topic of the essay and the main traits you will compare.
Remember that both subjects should either be well-known or you should dedicate an extra
paragraph introducing them to the audience. Usually, compare and contrast essay topics are
connected to acute social issues such as vegans vs meat eaters or pro-life approach vs pro-choice
one. If you want to make your essay milder, you may use more neutral comparisons that are
more of a matter of taste, such as cats vs dogs or Mozart vs Beethoven.

Still, don’t try to make your paper too neutral. You need a kind of hook for compare and contrast
essay. Unlike narrative essays, this type is a bit more limited, so the topic itself should be
thought-provoking or, at least, have interesting and non-standard arguments for and against both
subjects.
Second Step: Formulating Your Argument

What is a compare and contrast essay in a nutshell? A formalized argument where you present
both sides simultaneously. Make a list of the possible facts these sides can use. You may create a
list of similarities and a list of differences, or write down all the points and check each of them
separately. Use the most drastic differences for your first paragraph to catch the audience’s
attention. But remember that the best arguments are the different values of the same category.
E.g. you take the attitude to dogs and see that John loves dogs and even plans to have one, and
Kate is scared of them and won’t even visit the house where the dog lives. The dogs are the
joining factor, but the attitude to them is the “contrast” part.

You may use diagrams or graphs to organize your arguments. Later you may even neat them up
and add them to your essay to make everything more understandable with the visual aid.

Third Step: Write an Outline

After choosing your compare and contrast essay topic it’s time to start making the draft of your
exact structure. Take your word limit (if you have one. If you don’t the college essays are usually
limited to roughly 600 words). Divide it evenly between your main argument points. Don’t
forget to leave a few sentences for the introduction, conclusion, and, if you need it, a short
explanation of the subject of your essay.

Write down the main idea of each paragraph. If we take the previous example, one of the
paragraphs will be named “Attitude to dogs”. When everything is done and you love the order of
your paragraphs (putting the most interesting, vivid, or thought-provoking at the beginning and
something to attract the audience again at the end), it’s time to add flesh to your “skeleton”. Start
writing about each point!

Secrets Behind Making Effective Comparisons

Effective comparisons are the hook for compare and contrast essay you are making. Use the ones
that the audience can relate to. Fun facts are fun, but if you want your readers to be truly
fascinated, get down to the serious things. You may back up your points with extra pieces of
evidence, research, or (if you aren’t writing about a historical person or event) your own
experience. Quote the people you are describing and include as much information as possible
while staying within your word limit.

Transitional words are the markers of your compare and contrast essay. They transfer your
audience from one subject to the other smoothly and add extra credibility (and points!) to your
essay. Try using “likewise”, “similarly”, and “both” for comparison, and “whereas” and
“nonetheless” and “unlike” for contrast and you’ll instantly see your text as more classy and
professional.
Final Proofread and Revise

Finishing writing doesn’t mean finishing your work. Writing a compare and contrast essay is a
big job, but proofreading isn’t a less important one. Read your essay aloud, get the wordy or
clumsy sentences, and rewrite them. Grammar checking tools are your best friends now because
they will eliminate any mistakes that you may not grasp. You may ask a friend to double-check
your essay or read it by yourself the next morning after “rebooting” your brain. We are rarely
unbiased concerning our own works, so we need either another person or time to rest to see some
silly mistakes we could miss for the first time.

Writing a compare and contrast essay is a common task in college. It teaches us to structure our
thoughts, see both sides of the problem, and logically divide similar and different traits. Such
skills are a great aid in the future life when you need to make real decisions, often even hard
ones. Compare and contrast essays aren’t about just arguing. They help you to see the pros and
cons of each side and choose yours with confidence.

Page No. 52 • ACTIVITY •

Read “Traveling through the Dark” by William Stafford and “Woodchucks” by Maxine Kumin,
two poems in which a speaker considers the death of animals. Plan and write a comparison and
contrast essay in which you analyze the resources of language Stafford and Kumin use to reveal
the relationship between the speakers and the animals.

Compare & Contrast “Woodchucks” and “Traveling Through the Dark”

In the works by William Stafford and Maxine Kumin “Traveling Through the Dark” and
“Woodchucks”, each poet illustrates death of animals and the impacts humans have on it.
“Woodchucks” creates a perspective of war between man and animal, the plot quickly escalates
into something deadly. On the other hand, “Traveling Through the Dark” Is simply between a
man and an innocent deer, showing respect to animals. The language and tone, imagery, and
themes in these poems help the readers understand what’s going through the minds of these two
very different individuals.

The poem “Traveling Through the Dark” deals with man vs. nature. The experience described is
concrete. He describes a deer, lifeless on the ground and his dilemma on whether or not he
should push it off the road, sparing other people’s lives, or keep it on the road. The speaker has a
genuinely sincere relationship with this deer. The poem’s tone is compassionate and also
depressing at the same time. The speaker feels deeply bad for the deer, who is an innocent
bystander of human technology and our carelessness towards nature. The language in this poem
suggests he wants to be forgiven for this accident, and he’s paying his respect for this stiffened,
cold deer. He is trying to justify himself by comparing the deer to a women, by mentioning that
the deer was pregnant with an unborn fawn.
The speaker’s afraid to admit that the deer is pregnant though, by not outright saying it. The
speaker puts it in a way that we can digest, it would be harder for us to digest that the deer is
indeed pregnant. He uses the personification of the wilderness listening, “I stood in the glare of
the warm exhaust turning red; / around our group I could hear the wilderness listen” (line 15).
It’s almost as if he’s waiting for an answer from the wilderness on what he should do. He also
personified the car in lines thirteen and fourteen, comparing the car to man. The car has the
ability to kill again. So this makes his decision clearer. He decides to push the deer, and her
unborn child off into the canyon, to save the lives of many other passersby that may encounter
this road they’re on.

In comparison to William Stafford, Maxine uses opposite language and tone.

The tone is very irritating and hateful toward the woodchucks. She’s so fixated on getting
revenge on the animals that “took over the vegetable” and are “beheading the carrots”. Kind of
like they’re taking the food right out of the character’s mouth. The fact that they’re intruding
seemingly justifies the fact that the character’s trying to exterminate the woodchucks. The
speaker uses the term “Darwinian” in line sixteen. Darwinism is the assumption that conflict
between groups in society leads to social progress as superior groups outcompete inferior ones.
So the speaker thinks that they’re more superior than the woodchucks, that only the speaker
should be getting the food. The speaker uses this to justify himself, comparing this battle to the
“Nazi way”. The speaker uses metaphors. Comparing their self to a killer, “the murderer inside
me rose up hard, / the hawk eye killer came on stage forthwith” (lines 23-24).

Both writers use imagery in their poems. William Stafford in “Traveling Through the Dark” uses
your sense of sight and touch in his poem. “Traveling through the dark I found a deer / dead on
the edge of the Wilson River road” (lines 1-2). You can picture the image of him driving on a
road and hitting a deer. The “narrow” road on a “canyon” shows you that the decision he has to
make is vital, for its so narrow, someone else might hit the deer.

The deer “stiffened” and “almost cold” shows you that it is on the verge of dying. He uses sense
of touch by stating that he “touched her side”, she was “large in the belly”, meaning she was
pregnant, you can almost feel it, with a fawn still inside, waiting to be born. This can make you
connect with the story a little more. What if it were a person, pregnant? He ended up pushing her
off the edge into the river. This is a sad ending, you can see the deer tumbling down, and picture
the speaker getting emotional from it..

On the other hand, “Woodchucks” creates harsh imagery, if you’re not the type to kill innocent
animals. The speaker taps into your sense of sight, touch, smell, and sound. All throughout the
poem you can see a chase between the human and nature. “no worse for the cyanide than we for
our cigarettes” brings out your sense of smell, smelling the cyanide and comparing it to our
cigarettes. “to feel of the .22” literally. The speaker can make you feel the .22, and hear the
bullets shooting out of the nose of the gun, hitting the woodchucks, killing them… The speaker
waiting for the last one, dreaming of it, finally getting a hold of the woodchuck.

This all leads up to the theme. The themes in both poems deal with “Man vs. Nature”, just in a
dissimilar way. In “Woodchucks”, the war between man and nature is a constant battle could be
the theme here. “Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more man’s nature runs to, the
more ought law to weed it out” (Francis Bacon Sr). This refers to the speaker’s revenge on the
woodchucks, and how it is in our nature to rightfully protect what is ours. In “Traveling Through
the Dark” it’s more of “technology of humanity vs. nature”. A car, made by man, kills a deer,
and it ultimately is man who has to suffer with the consequences of killing. “It has become
appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity” (Albert Einstein). This
leaves us with the intersection of man, technology and nature and what to do when that happens.
Man and technology are infiltrating on the wilderness and causing harm, which also applies to
“Woodchucks”.