Study Guide for
Study Guide for
“The Pit and the Pendulum”
Author: ________________________________
WORDS TO KNOW:
indeterminate_______________________________________________________________________
eloquent___________________________________________________________________________
lucid______________________________________________________________________________
pervade____________________________________________________________________________
supposition_________________________________________________________________________
insuperable_________________________________________________________________________
lethargy____________________________________________________________________________
confound___________________________________________________________________________
pertinacity__________________________________________________________________________
voracity____________________________________________________________________________
annihilated__________________________________________________________________________
serge______________________________________________________________________________
notwithstanding______________________________________________________________________
frivolity____________________________________________________________________________
lateral______________________________________________________________________________
predominant_________________________________________________________________________
precipitate___________________________________________________________________________
LITERARY TERMS: Be able to define each term and apply each term to the story.
Style___________________________________________________________________________________________________
First person point of view___________________________________________________________________________________
Sensory images___________________________________________________________________________________________
Paraphrase_______________________________________________________________________________________________
STUDY QUESTIONS:
1. Read Author Online. What are some sad events that happened in Poe’s life?
2. What is the Spanish Inquisition?
3. What does the narrator mean when he says that his “senses were leaving” him?
4. What is the last thing the narrator hears clearly?
5. What is the judges’ attitude toward torture? How do you know?
6. When the judges appear to say the syllables of the narrator’s name, why does “no sound” come out of their lips?
7. Reread lines 1-13 noting Poe’s use of repeated words and dashes. What doe these reveal about the narrator’s state of mind?
8. Paraphrase lines 23-30. What are the narrator’s thoughts immediately following his trial? How do these thoughts affect him?
9. The narrator compares fainting, dreaming, and death. What do these three experiences have in common?
10. In lines 45-50, the narrator suggests that he “who has never swooned” is somehow lacking in imagination or creativity—that fainting is a kind of window to the subconscious that only some people are able to experience. Do you agree with the narrator’s interpretation? Why or why not?
11. In lines 66-77, the narrator regains consciousness after having fainted. How does this account help create tension or suspense?
12. Why is the narrator reluctant to open his eyes? When he does, what does he see?
13. After he opens his eyes, why does he find it hard to breathe?
14. What does he think about? What does he realize?
15. What inspires the most FEAR in the narrator before he opens his eyes? How does he react when his fears are confirmed?
16. Reread lines 100-110. What unusual words and phrases express the narrator’s dread of the dungeon?
17. Paraphrase lines 111-119. What important realization about his situation does the narrator come to?
18. IN lines 139-148, the narrator seems more clear minded than earlier passages. What aspects of Poe’s style help you understand this change in the narrator?
19. How does the narrator discover the “doom” (line 173) prepared for him?
20. How does he escape this death?
21. What are the two kinds of deaths imposed by the Inquisition?
22. Reread lines 157-172 noting Poe’s sensory images—words that appeal to the senses. Which details communicate the foulness of the pit?
23. Paraphrase the paragraph starting with line 183. Think about the narrator’s opinion of himself. Do you agree or disagree with his view?
24. Why do you think the narrator’s soul “took a wild interest in trifles” (line 203)?
25. Using lines 199-211, how does this scene further your understanding of the narrator’s character and the story’s plot?
26. Paraphrase lines 227-248. What situation does the narrator find himself in?
27. What did the narrator see when he looked up?
28. What new method of execution does the narrator now face?
29. Why have the inquisitors developed a second plan for the narrator’s death?
30. Why would the torturers want their victims to be surprised or trapped by death?
31. Does the narrator really find the term “milder” amusing?
32. What else, other than the prospect of the actual pain of certain death, fills the narrator with fear and begins to drive him mad?
33. Reread lines 313-331. Which stylistic devices help convey the narrator’s growing fear?
34. How does the narrator use the rats?
35. Why does he force himself to lie still while the rats are swarming all over him?
36. Why does the narrator feel that he is free, and why does he then feel a sharp pain?
37. Do you think that he is really free? Explain.
38. Consider the narrator’s thoughts and behavior up to this point in the story (by line 382). Why might the church have considered him dangerous? What details help you make an inference?
39. How does the narrator escape being killed by the pendulum?
40. Why is it ironic that the narrator has freed himself from the pendulum?
41. Based on what has happened so far, do you think the narrator will escape again?
42. Reread lines 418-432. What does the punctuation used by Poe suggest about the narrator’s emotional state?
43. How do the inquisitors make use of the narrator’s fear of the pit as they craft their plans for him?
44. What is the narrator’s “two-fold escape” (lines 437-438)?
45. Who is the “King of Terrors,” and why is there to be no more “dallying” with him (line 438)?
46. What is happening to the narrator’s cell, and why?
47. What does the narrator mean when he says, “I could have clasped the red walls to my bosom as a garment of eternal peace” (lines 443-444)?
48. What is the “yawning gulf” line 449?
49. Why did the walls move back? What saves the narrator?
Study Guide for
“The Lake”
Author: ________________________________
STUDY QUESTIONS:
1. Reread lines 1-16. Which words and phrases help communicate the emotional intensity of the speaker?
2. Paraphrase lines 17-22. What comfort does the speaker find in visiting the eerie lake?
3. In the poem, what effect does the lake have on the speaker?
4. What examples of alliteration are in this poem?
5. What example of assonance are in this poem?
6. What words or phrases help convey a mood of fear and anxiety?
Study Guide for
“The Artilleryman’s Vision”
Author: ________________________________
WORDS TO KNOW:
suffocating_______________________________________________________________________
concealing_______________________________________________________________________
lull_____________________________________________________________________________
chaos___________________________________________________________________________
exultation________________________________________________________________________
heed____________________________________________________________________________
wafts____________________________________________________________________________
LITERARY TERMS:
Free verse____________________________________________________________________________________
Repetition____________________________________________________________________________________
Parallelism____________________________________________________________________________________
Onomotopoeia_________________________________________________________________________________
Catalogs______________________________________________________________________________________
Sensory details_________________________________________________________________________________
STUDY QUESTIONS:
1. Read Author Online. How did the author “grow up in a hurry”?
2. What author thought highly of his book of poetry Leaves of Grass?
3. What experience convinced Whitman to work in Washington D.C. as a volunteer nurse?
4. Where is the artilleryman when he experiences his vision?
5. Reread lines 1-6. Which sensory details help you understand the situation described at the beginning of the poem?
6. How does point of view help the audience share the speaker’s experience of war? What does the reader learn from this experience?
7. Reread lines 7-17, noting the long catalog of combat activities. IN what way is this stylistic element in keeping with the poem’s speaker—a dreaming soldier?
8. Describe the sequence of events in this poem.
9. What overall effect does Whitman create by using free verse in this poem?
10. When Whitman wrote this poem in the mid 1890’s, psychology had yet to become a modern science. What does this fact reveal about Whitman and his handling of the poem’s subject?
Study Guide for
“Birches”
Author: ________________________________
LITERARY TERMS: Robert Frost’s style contains:
Colloquial language____________________________________________________________________________________
Imagery_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Tone_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Similes and metaphors_________________________________________________________________________________
Dialogue____________________________________________________________________________________________
Blank verse__________________________________________________________________________________________
STUDY QUESTIONS:
1. Read Author Online. Why did Frost drop out of both universities he attended?
2. What traditional poetic devices did Frost use in his poetry to capture the speech patterns of rural New Englanders?
3. What two explanations does the speaker give for the bent trees?
4. What explanation does the speaker seem to prefer?
5. Frost uses plain and colloquial words—such as contractions—throughout this poem. Find one or two examples in lines 1-13. What effect do these everyday words create?
6. Which sensory details presented by line 20 help the image of the birches come alive for you?
7. Reread lines 21-27. What can you infer about the speaker?
8. In lines 28-40, Frost describes a boy swinging in the birches. Which words or phrases convey Frost’s playful and energetic tone?
9. Identify the simile used in lines 41-47. What ideas beyond the literal meaning of the words does this simile communicate?
10. Reread lines 48-59. Think of what this final passage suggests about he speaker. Does he accept or deny reality? Explain.
11. The speaker concludes “One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.” Why does nature hold such a strong appeal for the speaker?
Study Guide for
“Mending Wall”
Author: ________________________________
STUDY QUESTIONS:
1. Think about Frost’s decision to use the informal, plain word “something” in line 1. In your opinion, would a more descriptive word provided a better effect? Explain.
2. How does the speaker account for the broken walls in the poem?
3. Why does the author give the gaps a mysterious quality in lines 10-11? Is this strategy effective?
4. Describe the speaker’s feelings so far about mending the stone wall. Which words and phrases helped make your inference?
5. What does Frost’s description of the stones suggest about his view of nature?
6. Reread lines 23-31 looking for details that convey the speaker’s opinion of his neighbor. Does the speaker admire him? Why or why not?
7. Consider Frost’s overall tone, or attitude, in this poem. Do you think the poet himself approves or disapproves of walls between neighbors? Explain.
Study Guide for
“The Pond”
Author: ________________________________
LITERARY TERMS:
Imagism____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
Free verse___________________________________________________________________________________
Visualize___________________________________________________________________________________
Sensory details_______________________________________________________________________________
Mood______________________________________________________________________________________
STUDY QUESTIONS:
1. Read Author Online. When did the author decide to become a poet?
2. What elements of imagist style can you identify in this poem?
3. How does the image in this poem capture a moment in time?
Study Guide for
“Fourth of July Night”
Author: ________________________________
STUDY QUESTIONS:
1. Read Author Online. What did the author chronicle?
2. What words does Sandburg use instead of fireworks? How are they effective as descriptions?
3. Reread the second stanza. Which image is most vivid? Why?
4. Why does Sandburg not specifically name what he is describing? How effective is this choice?
Study Guide for
“The Red Wheelbarrow”
Author: ________________________________
STUDY QUESTIONS:
1. Read Author Online. What kind of language and forms did the author use in his writings?
2. What were the subjects of his writings?
3. Cover the picture on the page and then read the poem. How does your mental image differ from the photograph?
4. What sensory details does this poem provide about its subject?
5. What visual contrast does this poem present?
6. Reread the poem without the opening stanza. How does this first stanza change your understanding of the poem?
Study Guide for
“Only Daughter”
Author: ________________________________
WORDS TO KNOW:
anthology_______________________________________________________________________
destiny_________________________________________________________________________
retrospect_______________________________________________________________________
trauma_________________________________________________________________________
nostalgia________________________________________________________________________
LITERARY TERMS: Be able to define each term and apply each term to the story.
Voice____________________________________________________________________________________
Author’s purpose___________________________________________________________________________
STUDY QUESTIONS:
1. Read Author Online. Why did the author have few friends growing up?
2. What did the author do to ward off loneliness?
3. What is the subject of “Only Daughter”?
4. Reread lines 11-15. What specific experience is the subject of this personal essay? Identify the details that helped you draw your conclusion.
5. How did the way Cisneros’s brothers treated her reflect her father’s attitude?
6. Why didn’t Cisneros challenge her father and brothers?
7. How did Cisneros and her father differ in the way that they thought about college?
8. What future did Cisneros’s father want for his daughter?
9. Why does he feel that she wasted her education?
10. Why does Cisneros, looking back, feel “lucky” that he had this attitude? How did Cisneros use his attitude to her advantage?
11. Reread lines 34-42. Describe Cisneros’s tone, or attitude, toward her father and his reading habits. Which details strongly convey her feelings?
12. Do you agree with Cisneros that her father “didn’t mean anything” by mistranslating hijos to mean “sons” or do you think his mistranslation revealed his attitude toward gender roles?
13. In personal essays, writers often express opinions on subjects. Which details in lines 46-61 suggest Cisneros’s opinions?
14. Reread lines 86-89, noting Cisneros’s use of vivid sensory images. What do you learn about Cisneros’s voice, or personality, through these details?
15. Why did Cisneros’s father read her story?
16. What did he do as he was reading it?
17. What did he say when he had finished the story?
18. How did Cisneros feel about his reaction? Why? How does this change their relationship/
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