Read “Grass” by Carl Sandburg.Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. Shovel them under and let me work— I am the grass; I cover all. And pile them high at Gettysburg And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.Shovel them under and let me work. Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor: What place is this? Where are we now? I am the grass. Let me work. Which statement best describes the speaker of the poem?
Read the excerpt from "A Day for Wandering" by Clinton Scollard. I set apart a day for wandering; I heard the woodlands ring, The hidden white-throat sing, And the harmonic West, Beyond a far hill-crest,Touch its Aeolian string. “Aeolian string” refers to a harp-like instrument that plays when it is placed in the wind. Based on this definition, which statement best describes the speaker’s view of the wind?
Which words from "A Day for Wandering" best indicate that the speaker is happy to be outside?
Which statement best describes the effect of the free-verse form in "Poetry"?
Read the excerpt from "Poetry."In the meantime, if you demand on the one hand, the raw material of poetry in all its rawness and that which is on the other hand genuine, you are interested in poetry. What is the theme of this excerpt?
Read the excerpt from “Birches” by Robert Frost. When I see birches bend to left and right Across the line of straighter darker trees, I like to think some boy’s been swinging them. But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay. Ice-storms do that. Often you must have seen themLoaded with ice a sunny winter morning After a rain. They click upon themselves As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel. Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust— Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away You’d think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.What is the best description of the theme of this excerpt?
Read the excerpt from "Poetry." When they become so derivative as to become unintelligible, the same thing may be said for all of us, that we do not admire what we cannot understandBased on context, what is the most likely definition for “derivative”?
Read “A Book,” by Emily Dickinson.There is no frigate like a book To take us lands away, Nor any coursers like a page Of prancing poetry. This traverse may the poorest take Without oppress of toll; How frugal is the chariot That bears a human soul!Which words best indicate that the speaker believes that books offer traveling adventures?
Read the excerpt from “Autumn” by Jean Starr Untermeyer. Great jars laden with the raw green of pickles,Standing in a solemn row across the back of the porch, Exhaling the pungent dill; What does “laden” mean in this context?
Read the excerpt from "Poetry." nor is it valid to discriminate against "business documents andschool-books"; all these phenomena are important. One must make a distinction however: when dragged into prominence by half poets, the result is not poetry, nor till the poets among us can be "literalists of the imagination"—aboveinsolence and triviality and can presentfor inspection, "imaginary gardens with real toads in them," shall we have it.What selection supports the theme that “poetry is a relationship between imagination and reality”?
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