Reference no: EM133333624

Part A

Notes on the Art of Poetry

by Dylan Thomas

1. What do you think of this poem?

2. Describe the tone of this poem and point out some details that create that tone.

3. What does Thomas mean when he compares the content of books to "sandstorms and ice blasts of words"?

4. What images come into your mind when you read this poem?

5. If you asked Dylan Thomas why he likes to read, what do you think he would say, based on this poem? Answer in 2 paragraphs, giving evidence from the text.

Part B

The Poet's Obligation

by Pablo Neruda

6. What do you think of this poem?

7. What does the sea symbolize in this poem? How do you know that?

8. What is "I arrive and open the door of his prison" a metaphor for?

9. What does the word "lamenting" mean? What could Neruda mean by "the sea's lamenting"?

10. What does the word "perpetual" mean? What could Neruda mean when he talks about gathering the sea's hard water up in a "perpetual cup"?

11. What does it mean to "suffer the autumn's castigation"?

12. What does this poem say about the importance of poetry? Answer in one paragraph giving evidence from the text.

Part C

And Yet the Books

by Czeslaw Milosz

13. What do you think of this poem?

14. How are books like chesnuts under a tree?

15. Lines 5 and 6, state that books will be there "In spite of fires on the horizon, castles blown up,
Tribes on the march, planets in motion." Give this list of 4 things a heading that expresses what they have in common: 'A List of ________:'

16. What do you think Milosz means when he says books are "separate beings"?

17. In the last line Milosz say books are "Derived from people, but also from radiance, heights." What could it mean to be derived from radiance and heights?

18. What does this poem say about the importance of books? Answer in 2 paragraphs, giving evidence from the text.

Part D

Oatmeal

by Galway Kinnell

19. What do you think of this poem?

20. Who is John Keats? Why do you think Kinnell invited an imaginary John Keats to join him for beakfast? (Be sure to cite you're source if you look up who Keats is.)

21. So we've got two main things juxtaposed in this poem: 1. oooey gooey, lumpy clumpy oatmeal and 2. an 'imaginary friend' for company. Each of these things can be seen as synecdoche. What do you think the oatmeal is standing for? What do you think the imaginary Keats is standing for? Remember to support your answer with evidence from the poem.

22. Explain what this poem is saying about reading. Answer in at least a paragraph, giving evidence from the text.