Reference no: EM133329775
Graded Assignment: Poetry of Emily Dickinson
Question 1: Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
Question 2: Analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding how to develop and connect elements of a story or drama.
Question 3: Determine the meaning(s) of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings, while analyzing the impact of specific choices on meaning and tone.
Directions: Answer each of the close reading questions below. Your responses DO NOT have to be in complete sentences for this assignment, but make sure you answer each question fully and EXPLAIN your answer if asked to do so.
"There's a Certain Slant of Light"
Question Your Response
What is the mood of this poem?
How does the author say winter affects is?
What is the effect produced by the slant of light?
Dickinson uses three of our senses to synthesize the feeling of depression. What three senses does she appeal to?
For what might "winter" be a metaphor? Explain how you know.
"Because I Could Not Stop for Death"
What is personified in the first two lines? (Personification is giving human characteristics to something that is not human.)
What adverb is used in the second line to describe Deaths' actions? (An adverb is a part of speech that describes an action - like in "running quickly," quickly is an adverb describing running)
For what is the carriage a metaphor?
List three things the author passed in the poem and what they might represent.
For what is the house a metaphor? A metaphor is a comparison between two dissimilar things.
Time has lost meaning to the author. Why?
What is the THEME (message) of this poem? What is the author trying to tell you through the poem? Explain how you know.
"I Heard a Fly Buzz - When I Died"
What is the central image of the poem?
As the narrator is approaching death, is she ready for it?
What has the narrator done to prepare for her death?
Have the people around her exhausted their grief or not?
The King doesn't show up but the fly does. Are they to be associated?
An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which incongruous or seemingly contradictory terms appear side by side. Explain the oxymoron in the line "for the 'last onset.'"
What is the THEME (message) of this poem? What is the author trying to tell you through the poem? Explain how you know.
After reading all 3 poems
In the poems you have read by Dickinson, what effect does Dickinson's unusual capitalization and punctuation style have? Do you like this style? Why or why not?