English 2201 – Poetry Practice
Poetry Practice
Funeral Blues
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West.
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
W. H. Auden
Multiple Choice Questions: Funeral Blues
1. The author’s tone is
a) desperate
b) angry
c) bitter
d) hopeless
2. The fifth line of the poem employs
a) metaphor
b) personification
c) symbolism
d) alliteration
3. This poem’s rhyme scheme is
a) aabb
b) abba
c) abab
d) baba
4. This poem is composed of four
a) verses
b) couplets
c) stanzas
d) paragraphs
5. The sixth line in the poem demonstrates
a) simile
b) allusion
c) alliteration
d) atmosphere
6. Based on evidence from the poem, who might “he” be?
7. Describe the narrator. How did you arrive at this description? Use only things you inferred from the poem, not speculation.
8. When might this poem have been written? How do you know?
9. Write your own poem about lost love and/or lost life.
“The Hospital”
Rev. Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson
The hospital: An institution where
Physicians, nurses, students, and
Other multidiscipline staff learn and
Practice the art and science of medicine. 4
The hospital: A place of
Hell, pain and suffering
For patients living
With death warrants. 8
The hospital: An oasis of
Heaven-like healing for
Patients cured of diseases by
Medical science and technology and faith. 12
The hospital: A society where
God is absent and present,
Through an endless sea
Of incarnate deaths and resurrections. 16
Selected Response: Circle the letter that corresponds to the best answer for each of the following:
1. What term best describes how each stanza of the poem is designed?
(A) Palindrome
(B) Definition
(C) Connotation
(D) Onomatopoeia
2. Based on your reading of the poem, what does the word “incarnate” in line 16 mean?
(A) Human
(B) Evil, cruel
(C) Unnecessary
(D) Unavoidable
3. What poetic technique is being used in line 10, “Heaven-like healing”?
(A) Assonance
(B) Alliteration
(C) Hyperbole
(D) Juxtaposition
4. What poetic technique is being used in lines 15 and 16, “An endless sea/of incarnate deaths and resurrections.”
(A) Metaphor
(B) Simile
(C) Connotation
(D) Denotation
5. What form is the poem “The Hospital” written in?
(A) Quatrain
(B) Blank verse
(C) Free verse
(D) Sonnet
Constructed Response:
1. According to the poet, what is a hospital?
2. What is the tone of this poem? Using specific examples, explain how the poet uses diction to create this tone?
3. Write a poem where you explain what a hospital is to you. You may use any of the types of poems discussed in class.
4. What is the literal meaning of this poem?
5. What is the figurative meaning of this poem?
I’m Sorry Says the Machine
by Eve Merriam
I’m sorry says the machine,
Thank you for waiting says the tape recording,
Trying to connect you says the voice in the
vacuum at the end of the line.
5 I’m sorry that sister is not in working order.
Please verify your brother and try him again.
I’m sorry that mother is out of service.
Thank you for waiting, that father you have
reached is a temporary disconnect.
10 I’m sorry that landlord is not in working order.
Please verify your neighborhood and try it again.
I’m sorry those repairs are out of service.
Thank you for waiting, that official you have
reached is not reachable at this time.
15 I’m sorry that water is not in drinking order.
Please verify that sunlight and try it later.
I’m sorry that blue sky is out of service.
Thank you for waiting, those flowers and trees
are permanently disconnected.
20 I’m sorry that country is not in working order.
I’m sorry that planet is out of service.
Please verify that godhead and try much later.
Thank you for waiting, that universe has been
dis–.
Section A: Selected response: Circle the letter that corresponds with the best answer for numbers one to six.
1. What form is the poem?
(A) ballad
(B) epic
(C) free verse
(D) sonnet
2. What literary device is evident in the title?
(A) allusion
(B) conflict
(C) hyperbole
(D) irony
3. What is the tone of the poem?
(A) amazement
(B) confusion
(C) delight
(D) frustration
4. Identify one example of personification from the poem: _________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Section B: Constructed Response: Answer both of the following in the space provided. (14 marks)
1. Using two examples from the poem to support your answer, explain the effectiveness of the repetition in this poem.
2. State a theme for this poem and support it with two references from the selection.
First Lesson
- Philip Booth
Lie back daughter, let your head
be tipped back in the cup of my hand.
Gently, and I will hold you. Spread
your arms wide, lie out on the stream
and look high at the gulls. A dead-
man's float is face down. You will dive
and swim soon enough where this tidewater
ebbs to the sea. Daughter, believe
me, when you tire on the long thrash
to your island, lie up, and survive.
As you float now, where I held you
and let go, remember when fear
cramps your heart what I told you:
lie gently and wide to the light-year
stars, lie back, and the sea will hold you.
Multiple Choice – Circle the letter of the best answer.
1. What form has the poet used to develop his poem?
(A) Ballad
(B) Blank verse
(C) Free verse
(D) Sonnet
2. What literary device is found in the line, “the sea will hold you.”?
(A) Allusion
(B) Alliteration
(C) Personification
(D) Metaphor
3. What are the man and his daughter doing?
(A) Playing make-believe
(B) Making sand castles
(C) Swimming
(D) Doing homework
4. What is the purpose of the line, “A dead-man’s float is face down.”?
(A) To emphasize that the daughter is young and alive
(B) To show the daughter is learning to back-float
(C) To tell the reader the father will die soon
(D) To remind the reader everyone will die
Constructed Response Questions:
1. What is the deeper (figurative) meaning of the lines, “when you tire on the long thrash/to your island, lie up, and survive.”?
2. Why is the title “First Lesson” an effective one? Justify your answer with specific reference to the poem.
Loud Music
Stephen Dobyns
My stepdaughter and I circle round and round.
You see, I like the music loud, the speakers
throbbing, jam-packing the room with sound whether
Bach or rock and roll, the volume cranked up so
each bass notes is like a hand smacking the gut.
But my stepdaughter disagrees. She is four
and likes the music decorous, pitched below
her own voice-that tenuous projection of self.
With music blasting, she feels she disappears,
is lost within the blare, which in fact I like.
But at four what she wants is self-location
and uses her voice as a porpoise uses
its sonar: to find herself in all this space.
If she had a sort of box with a peephole
and looked inside, what she'd like to see would be
herself standing there in her red pants, jacket,
yellow plastic lunch box: a proper subject
for serious study. But me, if I raised
the same box to my eye, I would wish to find
the ocean on one of those days when wind
and thick cloud make the water gray and restless
as if some creature brooded underneath,
a rocky coast with a road along the shore
where someone like me was walking and has gone.
Loud music does this, it wipes out the ego,
leaving turbulent water and winding road,
a landscape stripped of people and language-
how clear the air becomes, how sharp the colors.
Multiple Choice: Circle the letter of the best answer for each of the following.
15. What literary device is used in the line, “each bass note is like a hand smacking the gut.”?
a) Metaphor
b) Simile
c) Onomatopoeia
d) Allusion
16. Describing water as “restless” is an example of:
a) Personification
b) Metaphor
c) Consonance
d) Symbolism
17. Based on your reading of the poem, what does the word “turbulent” mean?
a) Calm
b) Clear
c) Violent
d) Dangerous
18. What literary device is used in the phrase, “a proper subject/ for serious study”?
a) Assonance
b) Consonance
c) Alliteration
d) Onomatopoeia
19. What best describes the form of this poem?
a) Ballad
b) Free verse
c) Sonnet
d) Lyric
Constructed Response: Answer the two questions below making reference to the poem.
20. In your own words, explain the meaning of the lines:
(a) “With music blasting, she feels she disappears, / is lost within the blare, which in fact I like.”
(b) She “uses her voice as a porpoise uses / its sonar: to find herself in all this space.” (2)
21. Compare and contrast the characters of the speaker and his step-daughter. Make specific reference to the poem in your answer. (6)
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