question

What is the central metaphor in Anne Bradstreet's "The Author to her Book"? Identify one of the specific comparisons she makes while she develops this sustained metaphor.

answer

book=child; children get dirty, wipe off a spot (edit)

question

Give one specific example of the way Bradstreet's poetry reveals conflicts between her Puritan faith and her material desires.

answer

distressed about losing belongings

question

How does Bradstreet use apostrophe in "Verses upon the Burning of our House"?

answer

directly addresses things she lost in the fire

question

What does Bradstreet defend and justify in the "Prologue?" Offer a specific example of one of her arguments

answer

the ability of women(specifically herself) to write

question

How does Dickinson's treatment of religion in her poetry differ from Bradstreet's?

answer

dickinson denies; bradstreet skeptical

question

In Anne Bradstreet's poem "In Memory of my Dear Grand-Child," what metaphor does Bradstreet use to explore the difference between a human and a divine perspective on death?

answer

plant metaphors.

question

What is the function of conventionality in Wheatley's poems?

answer

she doesn't want people to completely dismiss her poetry and she wants equal treatment of her poetry-so she mimics traditional structure, technique, etc.

question

Who writes one of the prefatory notes to Phillis Wheatley's book of poetry? Why is his preface necessary?

answer

John Wheatley; because people may not believe she actually wrote it

question

Describe a specific point the prefatory notes conveys about Phillis Wheatley's poetry.

answer

that she specifically wrote the poetry, and received no help

question

What do we learn about Phillis Wheatley's conception of the artist in her poem "To S.M. a young African Painter, on seeing his Works"?

answer

she appreciates that he is an afam trying to produce art

question

Wheatley wrote poetry for other purposes besides self-expression: what was one of the most central purposes?

answer

to write elegies for admired figures and to talk about politics

question

What did Horton do on the UNC Chapel Hill campus?

answer

-began delivering crops to UNC; -composed poems in his mind and recited them to students

question

How did Horton learn to read and write?

answer

self-taught; but received assistance from a few faculty and students

question

How did Horton's enslavement affect the crafting of his poems?

answer

much of his poetry attacked slavery

question

How does the phrase "push along" change over the course of "Death of an Old Carriage Horse"?

answer

First it's order from "oppressing force", then from a "cruel driver", then to a sadistic driver because "pleasure lingered" from the command, to that being the "only word" and thus consuming the horse (slave/Horton), to death becoming his next master and telling him to "push along"...so it never ends, slavery's effects are eternal?

question

Analyze the meter of George Moses Horton's poem "Death of an Old Carriage Horse." How does the meter employed by Horton add to the effect and the meaning of the poem as a whole?

answer

generally iambic throughout, except for "push along" refrain

question

What is the relationship between the animals and the slaves in George Moses Horton's "Division of an Estate"?

answer

while slaves share human emotions, they are treated like animals being sold like other pieces of farm property

question

Horton's first book was published with a particular goal in mind. What was that goal, and was it accomplished?

answer

to buy his freedom; no accomplished

question

When was Horton emancipated? Where did he travel to once he gained his freedom?

answer

end of the civil war; moved to philidelphia

question

In what ways and to what effect does George Horton employ animal imagery in his poems?

answer

horton likes to symbolize the inhumane treatment of slaves as if they were dogs or horses. he provides these animals with feelings (The Fate of an Innocent Dog) to encourage reader to feel empathy.

question

What aspects of Longfellow's poems made him so loved by the public and why?

answer

simplicity, optimism, musical verse; helped unify America in a time that needed patriotism (civil war)

question

"Paul Revere's Ride," by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, has significant differences from the actual historical ride that Paul Revere took. Explain one of those differences.

answer

paul revere did not ride alone that night; his ride was very short because he was momentarilly captured by the british

question

Both Longfellow and Whitman wrote poems around the start of the Civil War. Briefly explain what message they were trying to convey on the eve of the War.

answer

Longfellow was using the Rev War to marshall a nostalgia for the American past and encourage people to join on the Union side of the war. Whitman was trying to create a collective American identity and stop the divisiveness.

question

What is the meter of "Paul Revere's Ride" crafted to resemble?

answer

iambic meter mixed with anapests to resemble trotting and galloping of a horse

question

In "Snow-Flakes," how does Longfellow mimic the image of snow falling?

answer

the general shape of the poem, the verses staggered across the page; s alliteration to mimic silence of snow falling

question

Why is melancholy and mourning associated with beauty and poetry for Poe? He talks about this in the excerpt of "The Poetic Principle" that I shared with you.

answer

poe argues that beauty of any kind can bring a person to tears, therefore, sadness and beauty are associated with each other. "Melancholy is thus the most legitimate of all the poetical tones"

question

Briefly describe a few elements of Poe's process for writing poetry as he explained in "The Philosophy of Composition."

answer

1. length (should be short) 2. method (methodical and analytical) 3. Unity of Effect (ending should already be figured out in order to create the mood throughout the entire piece)

question

Describe the way one of the main points in Poe's "Philosophy of Composition" is put into practice in "The Raven."

answer

"Nevermore" as the sounds of the vowels in the words have a more powerful meaning and effect than the word itself

question

What topic does Edgar Allan Poe think is the most poetical in the world? Whose lips does he think is most suited for this topic?

answer

beauty and the death of a beautiful woman; the lips of a bereaved lover

question

Briefly summarize the dramatic contrast Poe delineated in "Israfel.

answer

describing actions of a male angel; personifies nature arounf the angel, another technique not seen in his other poetic works

question

How did Poe make a living?

answer

selling his poems and writing for newspapers

question

How did Poe die?

answer

no one knows exactly how he died, but he was found almost dead on a park bench and died shortly afterward- probably alcoholism

question

who raised poe?

answer

family friends after his parents died

question

what happened to poe at UVA

answer

he dropped out due to debt troubles

question

Describe one of the vignettes in Whitman's "Song of Myself."

answer

One vignette describes a slave who has run away. Whitman takes the slave into his home and allows him to recuperate there before the slave goes on his way.

question

What appears in place of a signature in the front of the first edition (1855) of Leaves of Grass? Why is that significant?

answer

an etching of himself (head to crotch) to show masculine and sexual qualities; also showed whitman in working-man clothes as if he too were a laborer.

question

How does the 1855 "Song of Myself" relate to the political situation in the United States at the time?

answer

-idea of unity through brotherhood nd the simple grass beneath our feet was whitman's attempt at keeping peace among his readers (and the US) -uses grass as a metaphor for the "democratic self" and uses the poem to talk of the need to balance individualism and collectivism(ingredients for american democracy)

question

What are some of the signs the speaker shows of wartime stress in The Wound Dresser"?

answer

He questions the legitimacy of the war ("was one side so brave? the other was equally brave") and it's moral correctness. He is also struck by his job as a wartime medic ("I am firm with each, the pangs are sharp yet unavoidable").

question

How does Whitman try to convey the memory of war to future readers in one of his Drum Taps poems?

answer

He also uses horrible vivid imagery of death and destruction in "The Dresser" to remind his readers that war is not simply fighting and glory. Vignettes between Whitman and his injured patients occur throughout the poem (E.g. a soldier being shot "through and through", another soldier without a leg, etc).

question

Why did Whitman choose the title "Leaves of Grass" rather than, say, "Petals of a Flower?"? Why is grass an important image for his poem?

answer

simple, common, and sturdy; relefcts the idea of individualism and unity; each leaf of grass in an individual but together the grass forms an entire field. (relates to democracy-> working class forms country)

question

Explain one way Whitman formally cultivated democratic ideals in Leaves of Grass.

answer

-divides up people based on occupation; working class forms entity of country -He uses grass as a metaphor for the "democratic self," and uses the poem itself to talk of the need to balance the themes of both individualism and collectivism as the two ingredients for the American democracy.

question

What is the overall, major theme of Walt Whitman's "Calamus" poems?

answer

human sexuality, and how it's not just an individual experience between two people, but rather a foundational experience for how society is woven together.

question

Describe a way in which Whitman's ideas about democracy line up with his depiction of sexuality in any one of the "Calamus" poems.

answer

The voting members of the democracy were men. Unifying men means unifying the nation.

question

In Leaves of Grass, describe how one specific depiction of a minority group both reinforces and counters Whitman's democratic ideals.

answer

The depiction of a runaway slave that the narrator nurses to health reinforces the idea that democracy is held up by equality, and slaves are not equal, thus a problem that democracy must face and deal with.

question

Where is Whitman from?

answer

West Hills, (Town of Huntington) Long Island NY

question

What kind of education did Whitman have?

answer

dropped out after only attending for five years

question

how did whitman make a living?

answer

worked at a printing company, taught school

question

Who was one of the primary inspirations for Whitman's poetry, and how?

answer

Ralph Waldo Emerson. He wrote a letter about "Leaves of Grass," saying that Whitman showed promise. Whitman took this as a great honor and it inspired him to continue writing.

question

Describe Dickinson's portrayal of religion in one specific poem.

answer

In "A word made Flesh is seldom" dickinson is commenting on John 1:14 "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." With the Bible specifically stating that Word became flesh and Dickinson argues this by saying that Word made flesh is seldom, meaning that rarely does she believe anything/everything the Bible says. She uses words such as "reported," "stealth," and "debated" as part of her argument to refute the claims of the Bible. The second part of the poem she goes on to say that Poetry is her religion, in a way. That language is a beloved philosophy that is guiding her.

question

In "This World Is Not Conclusion," who does Emily Dickinson seem to be imitating and why?

answer

Great Awakening preachers

question

How does Dickinson's use of the dash (rather than periods, commas, exclamation points, etc) contribute to her poems' meanings and interpretations?

answer

dashes convey continuity and can be ambiguous and provide different possible readings

question

In what way does Emily Dickinson convey a sense of immobility for women living in the nineteenth century in her poem "I tie my hat I crease my shawl" (522)?

answer

She writes that although women do not want to do this "Women's Work" they do it anyways because that is what women must do.

question

Why might Dickinson use enjambment in "I tie my hat"?

answer

creates a feeling of monotony. It creates the feel of a list - the list of things she has to do that day, and every day

question

What was Dickinson's primary means of cultivating and sustaining friendships?

answer

letter writing

question

Emily Dickinson believes poetry is secret and private. Describe one poem in which she conveys this impression.

answer

A Spider sewed at Night Without a Light Upon an Arc of White ^representing her writing her poetry at night in secret (private)

question

What is Dickinson describing in 'I like to see it lap the miles' (383) and what makes the answer difficult to figure out?

answer

train. clues that may lead some to believe the answer is a horse.

question

Describe one of Dickinson's riddle poems.

answer

I like to see it lap the miles. = train.

question

Describe how Dickinson portrays fame in one of her poems.

answer

"Fame is a bee" is one of Dickinson's shortest poems (only 4 lines) and it ends with the idea that bee's have "wing", conveying the idea that fame is fleeting and short-lived, just like the life of a bee.

question

where did dickinson live?

answer

amherst, massachusetts

question

how could dickinson afford to spend her life writing poems

answer

her family was a wealthy new england church family

question

how did dickinson's poems come to be published?

answer

she had a few willingly published, a few were published without her consent, and the rest were published by her sister-in-law after her death

question

Name three fundamental images used as building blocks in Black Riders.

answer

1. God (man being punished by God) 2. Violence (Punishment, the eating of a heart, war) 3. Nature (although this is usually personified or changed in some way - Three Little Birds, the marching/chanting mountains, the woods love runs through, etc). 4. Love could also be listed as a fundamental image 5. Devils

question

Give an example of a cliché in one of Crane's poems and explain how he uses that cliché to create a strange impression.

answer

"Eat your heart out" and "Heart in my hands" expressed when Crane comes across the creature in the desert

question

What is the significance of the word "love" in Black Riders?

answer

Love is both personified and felt as an emotion in Black Riders. It is the one pure thing within the poem and it becomes injured and is left alone and broken, leading us to believe that Crane felt that love was too fragile for this world. Love cannot exist alongside reality

question

Why might Crane have refrained from titling his poems in "Black Riders?"

answer

interpretive freedom

question

Crane didn't call his poems "poems." What did he call them, and why?

answer

lines. free verse

question

In Poem III, the speaker comes across a creature in the desert eating its own heart. How does the creature respond when Crane asks, "Is it good, friend?"

answer

It says "It is bitter- bitter/ But I like it/ Because it is bitter/ and because it is my heart."

question

List one important recurring theme or image in Crane's Black Riders and explain its significance. Devils, god, nature. *And other important images

answer

personification of objects/animals/creatures; ocean talks to narrator and tells the actual story within the poem of the woman crying over her dead husband

question

Identify one notable aspect of Crane's childhood.

answer

14th born child

question

crane education?

answer

dropped out of syracuse U to become a journalist

question

age crane died

answer

28

question

crane primary love interest

answer

Cora taylor-common-law wife. (reporter and brothel owner)

question

Who calls the speaker "comrade" and "brother" in one of Crane's poems, and why is this unexpected?

answer

Devils that the narrator sees down below him call up to him saying "comrade" and "brother." This is unexpected because the narrator is viewing this scene from above, implying superiority, but the devils see him as one of their own.

question

What barriers to communication does the speaker erect in "The Mending Wall?"

answer

The wall itself - "good fences make good neighbours." There's also the discrepancy of him supposedly growing apple trees while his neighbour grows pines. They work together to build the wall, though they slowly cease communication in general as they work on it more and more. The speaker makes presumptions about the kind of person he is arguing with.

question

What are the two repeated phrases in "The Mending Wall?

answer

"Good fences make good neighbors" "something there is that doesn't love a wall"

question

How do these two phrases in "Mending Wall" relate to one another?

answer

They stand in contrast to each other; there's his neighbors belief in the idiom of good fences making good neighbors as opposed to his repeated phrase, asserting that there is something inside a man that doesn't love a wall. The two opposing viewpoints are shown through he and his neighbor, though they are constructing the wall together, eventually come to accept what they're doing and continue building the wall in eventual silence

question

What sort of persona does Frost project in the poems in A Boy's Will? How does that persona differ from the author?

answer

portrays a farmer but was actually a failed farmer

question

How does Frost load everyday objects like the wall in "Mending Wall" with deep meaning?

answer

The wall in Mending Wall comes to symbolize a disintegration of communication more so than simply a barrier to it as the two parties simply cease speaking to each other in the construction of the wall based around the philosophy of "good fences making good neighbors"

question

What does Frost say about "trivial metaphors,"? How does he use one such metaphor in a poem?

answer

argues that poetry begins with trivial metaphors and allows us to go on to profound thought

question

What causes the difficulty or impossibility of communication in "Home Burial' and how does Frost convey this?

answer

1. their house has become a prison where neither party is comfortable with the other one (leading to difficulty in communication) 2. they're never on the same level as each other, shown in their physical placements within the house and the fact that their fundamentally different handlings of grief apparently place them at odds (ie the husband doesn't want to talk about it whereas the wife does)

question

In "The Fear", what is the wife so afraid of?

answer

a stranger hidden by the shadows

question

What appears out of the darkness in "The Fear"?

answer

a man and his son

question

What happens at the end of "Home Burial"? How does the poem conclude?

answer

couple still at odds; though the husband seeming to believe that now that the wife has "vented" her feelings, now she's all better. However, presumably she continues walking out the door

question

What problems did the wife and husband have in "Home Burial" even before their child died? How is that indicated in the poem?

answer

husband doesn't know how to have a conversation. sexual tension.

question

In addition to his sparing use of "he said" "she said" in "Home Burial," how else does Robert Frost convey characterization in this dialogue poem?

answer

each person has their own specific diction. tone is reflective of who is speaking

question

How does Frost's use of meter in Into My Own reinforce or enhance the meaning of the poem?

answer

Sonnet form in iambic pentameter with small variations, giving certain words like "one" more stress than usual, allowing us to see that this is Frost's wish, not anyone else's. Trochees and spondees used throughout the poem. Spondee = "Dark Trees"

question

Explain what "sound of sense" means.

answer

"The best place to get the abstract sound of sense is from voices behind a door that cuts off the words" What Frost means by this is that although you cannot hear exactly what the people are conversing about, you can tell the tone they are using and the mood that they are in by the sound of their voices, even when separated from the meaning of their words.

question

Describe how the "sound of sense" works in one of Frost's poems from North of Boston.

answer

In "Home Burial" we aren't with the people in the poem listening to them argue but we somehow know that they are arguing and know how to read the poem because of that. This is the "sound of sense" because we know this from listening to people speak and understanding language.

question

How did Frost make a living?

answer

He was a failed farmer for a short period of time before becoming a teacher.

question

When did Frost become a poet?

answer

A Boy's Will (his first book of poetry) was published in 1913

question

How are "The Tuft of Flowers" and "Mowing" linked?

answer

connection to a mower is made in tuft of flowers

question

Why does Hughes choose to reinterpret blues music through poetry? What and how does this style of music add to his body of work?

answer

Hughes reinterprets blues in his poetry because that is another major cultural art form on the rise during the time that he is writing a lot of his poetry. This style of music influences the form of his poems as well as the mood and subject matter of many of the poems. It allows for highly rhythmical free verse experimentation.

question

How does the form of Langston Hughes' poem "Mulatto" is differ from Claude Mckay's poem of the same name?

answer

McKay uses sonnet form; This is contradictory to the original purpose of sonnets in which the speaker places the subject on pedestal, romanticizing and praising him/her. Instead, Mckay uses the form to speak negatively of his father and to show hatred. Langston Hughes is more modern in form, allowing for his freedom of expression, emphasizing the speaker's anger through the use of short lines to show raw emotion.

question

Discuss the influence of jazz and blues in one of Hughes' poems specifically.

answer

trumpet player; song form

question

What 1920s movement was Langston Hughes a part of? What did his works do for the movement?

answer

harlem renaissance;

question

In "I, Too" by Langston Hughes, what or who is the poem a direct commentary on? How does Hughes both pay tribute to and critique this entity?

answer

Critique of Walt Whitman, admires his attempt but adds to it. Hughes directly comments on the standards set/the dreams expressed by Walt Whitman and how America has not lived up to these standards.

question

What university did Hughes drop out of, and why? What university did he graduate from?

answer

dropped out of Columbia (bc of prejudice); graduated from Lincoln unniversity in PA

question

Name the term that classifies Elizabeth Bishop's "Poem" as a verbal description of a nonverbal object.

answer

Ekphrasis

question

Explain the "prose-like" quality of Bishop's poetry.

answer

minimalistic and utilitarian making it sometimes seen like it isnt even poetry

question

What does Bishop compare to a dollar bill in "Poem"?

answer

the painting she is describing; size comparison and color comparison

question

Identify one of the main recurring images in "The Waiting Room." Describe the recurrence of that image.

answer

inside vs outside bodies (breasts) dark vs light

question

How does one recurring image relate to the theme of the poem in Bishop's "The Waiting Room"?

answer

Bishop is playing with ideas about what really makes us different from other human beings-- what distinguishes us from them. She is seeing simply bodies, over and over again. A series of recurring human beings that are really all composed of the same fibers and flesh and molecules, just like this recurring image is the same and indistinguishable.

question

How does Elizabeth Bishop explore identity in 'In the Waiting Room?

answer

As Bishop sits in the waiting room, she begins to notice things that she shares with everyone. She looks at the woman's breasts in National Geographic and thinks they are horrible and terrifying, a testament to her own fears about growing up and growing breasts. She knows they both have breasts and these breasts aren't truly any different but Bishop wants to believe hers will be. Furthermore, Bishop hears her aunt screaming "inside" with a voice that comes from "inside," and Bishop begins to mix her and her aunt's voice. Here, Bishop attempts to convince herself that her and her aunt are two very different people.

question

To what end does Bishop use parentheses, in "One Art" or "The Waiting Room,"? Explain where the parentheses appears and how it contributes to the poem.

answer

Bishop uses parentheses in "The Waiting Room" when saying, "and while I waited I read / the National Geographic/ (I could read)..." This phrase is characteristic of a young child in early elementary school that is very proud of what she has learned.

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