Read the excerpt from "How I Learned English.”Someone said "shin” again,There was a wild stamping of hands on the ground,A kicking of feet, and the fitOf laughter overtook me too,And that was important, as importantAs Joe Barone asking me how I wasThrough his tears, picking me upAnd dusting me off with hands like swatters,And though my head felt heavy,I played on till duskThis excerpt shows that the speaker no longer feels like an outsider because
Read the lines from "How I Learned English.”It was an empty lotRinged by elms and fir and honeysuckle . . .In the field, a blue sky above themTipped with cirrus.The imagery in these lines helps readers picture
Read the excerpt from "How I Learned English.”I played on till duskMissing flies and pop-ups and groundersAnd calling out in desperation things like"Yours” and "take it,” but doing all right,Tugging at my cap in just the right way,Crouching low, my feet set."Hum baby” sweetly on my lips.The reader can tell that this excerpt is part of the poem’s resolution, because the speaker
Read the excerpt from “How I Learned English.”Someone said “shin” again,There was a wild stamping of hands on the ground,A kicking of feet, and the fitOf laughter overtook me too,And that was important, as importantAs Joe Barone asking me how I wasThrough his tears, picking me upAnd dusting me off with hands like swatters,And though my head felt heavy,I played on till duskMissing flies and pop-ups and groundersAnd calling out in desperation things like“Yours” and “take it,” but doing all right,Tugging at my cap in just the right way,Crouching low, my feet set.“Hum baby” sweetly on my lips.How do things change for the speaker after he laughs with the other boys?
Read the excerpt from “How I Learned English.”It was in an empty lotRinged by elms and fir and honeysuckle.Bill Corson was pitching in his buckskin jacket,Chuck Keller, fat even as a boy, was on first,His t-shirt riding up over his gut,Ron O’Neill, Jim, Dennis, were talking it upIn the field, a blue sky above themTipped with cirrus.And there I was,Just off the plane and plopped in the middleOf Williamsport, Pa. and a neighborhood game,Unnatural and without any moves,My notions of baseball and AmericaGrowing fuzzier each time I whiffed.Which detail from this excerpt helps readers determine that the poem is written from a first-person point of view?
Which excerpt from “How I Learned English” uses the first-person point of view to show that the main character feels out of place in his new environment?
Read the excerpt from “How I Learned English.”I fell back,Dazed, clutching my brow,Groaning, “Oh my shin, oh my shin,”And everybody peeled away from meAnd dropped from laughter, and there we were,All of us writhing on the ground for one reasonOr another.Readers can tell that this is the climax of the poem, because it
Read the excerpt from "How I Learned English.”And that was important, as importantAs Joe Barone asking me how I wasThrough his tears, picking me upAnd dusting me off with hands like swatters,What does the imagery in the excerpt best help readers picture?
Which excerpt from "How I Learned English” helps the reader imagine the sound of the scene in the poem?
Why does Gregory Djanikian most likely use the first-person point of view in "How I Learned English”?
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