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A Narrow Fellow in the Grass

Emily Dickenson

A narrow fellow in the grass

Occasionally rides;

You may have met him—did you not

His notice sudden is,

The grass divides as with a comb, 5

A spotted shaft is seen,

And then it closes at your feet,

And opens further on.

He likes a boggy acre,

A floor too cool for corn, 10

But when a boy and barefoot,

I more than once at noon

Have passed, I thought, a whip lash,

Unbraiding in the sun,

When stooping to secure it, 15

It wrinkled and was gone.

Several of nature’s people

I know, and they know me;

I feel for them a transport

Of cordiality. 20

But never met this fellow,

Attended or alone,

Without a tighter breathing,

And zero at the bone.

Responding to the poem

1. Who or what is the “narrow fellow”? What clues presented as similes and metaphors gives us clues to its identity?

2. How does the speaker feel about the narrow fellow? How does the speaker feel about other creatures?

3. What is significant about the key detail the speaker mentions in line 11? Why do you think the speaker mentions this?

4. Explain and analyze the metaphor in the last stanza.

5. Do you think the speaker’s feelings toward the “narrow fellow” are common? If so, why do you think that few people feel “a transport of cordiality” for him?

My Mother Remembers Spanish Influenza

John Ratti

1979

I was the first person in our town

to catch the Spanish Influenza.

I heard it came over on the streetcar,

hissing and snapping to itself

as it crossed the river 5

And when the car stopped at the foot of our hill,

the bell rang twice, the flu got off

and burst inside my head

like sparklers on the Fourth of July

Soon it was smooth and hot as rails in the sun, 10

running inside my head, metal on metal, ice on ice.

When it began to go away,

the neighborhood children took it, piece by piece,

on the thick, round wheels of their roller skates.

Mother brought me a white paper bag 15

of coconut macaroons.

I ate three and I was sick

into the gray metal basin

filled with disinfectant and water

that was kept near my bed. 20

Mother doubted that the flu came on the streetcar.

It seemed more likely to her

that my two young uncles

had brought it back from France with them,

hidden in the silk webbing 25

that stretched between the carved ivory fingers

of the painted fan they had given me.

But I knew better.

I could still hear it, when Mother left the room at night,

whispering to itself about itself 30

as it came across the river on the last car.

It stopped at the foot of our hill for a second,

and then rode on down the valley to the carbarn,

where it waited out the night.

Responding to the poem

1. Who is the speaker in this poem?

2. Find at least two passages in the poem where the speaker personifies the Spanish Influenza. Be sure to be specific and indicate line numbers.

3. How does the speaker describe their illness? Are there any details the speaker uses that stand out for the reader?

4. Analyze one of the passages where the speaker personifies the Spanish Influenza. Explain what makes that passage significant to the poem overall.

5. Are there any elements of the poem that seem particularly disturbing to you? Why?

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

William Wordsworth

1807

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees, 5

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay: 10

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay, 15

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood, 20

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

Responding to the poem

1. How does the speaker begin the poem? What do their actions suggest about their mood?

2. What do you think the speaker meant by a “vacant” and a “pensive” mood?

3. How do the daffodils affect and contrast with the speaker’s mood?

4. Think about the speaker’s experience. Do you think anyone else would have reacted the same way? Is this experience unique to the speaker and their own mind? Explain.

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