A Poison Tree

7. Summarize what happens to the speaker’s anger with a friend and with a foe. Why, in your opinion, does the speaker deal with anger this way?

8. What are “soft deceitful wiles” (line 8)? Why does the speaker use them?

9. What happens to the foe at the end of the poem? Why?

10. What lesson, or moral, do you think Blake might be trying to teach? Explain.

Literary analysis: Evaluate and Connect

11. Examine Repetition Reread “The Lamb” and “The Tyger,” looking for repetition of phrases, lines, and stanzas. What does Blake emphasize through the use of repetition? Cite evidence to support your answer.

12. Interpret Symbol In “The Tyger,” Blake uses the animal to symbolize his very complex view of creation—both heavenly and artistic. What troubling aspects of creation does the tiger represent? Cite details.

13. Compare and Contrast Poems How is “The Tyger” similar to “The Lamb”? How are the poems different? What is gained by reading these poems together?

14. Draw Conclusions The word visionary can be used to describe someone who is inspired by visions or who has great imagination and foresight. Based on the poems you have read, what do you think makes Blake a visionary?

Literary Criticism

15. Critical Interpretations One critic has suggested that Blake pits himself against despotic authority, restrictive morality, and institutionalized religion: “His great insight is into the way these separate modes of control work together to squelch what is most holy in human beings.” In your opinion, does this comment apply to the poems you read? Explain.

16. Writing About Literature “The Lamb” first appeared in Blake’s book Songs of Innocence; “The Tyger” appeared five years later in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in which Blake combined new and earlier poems. Write an explanation of why “The Lamb” might appear in a book about innocence and “The Tyger” in one about experience as well as innocence. Use specific quotations and examples from the poems to support your ideas.

17. Interdisciplinary Activity Blake would never have imagined presenting his poems without illustrations or “illuminated printing,” as Blake called his illustrated poems. How would you illustrate one of your favorite poems? Copy a poem you especially like and then illustrate it in a way that “illuminates” your vision of the poem.

Reading Focus II: Selected Poetry by Robert Burns

KEY IDEA Too often we are so caught up in the bustle of our lives that we lose sight of what’s important. The sensational and extraordinary can always grab our attention, but what about the more mundane things that make up most of our lives? In the poems that follow, Burns conveys the valuable insights he gained from examining the commonplace.

Before Reading Meet Robert Burns (1759-1796)

A handsome and charismatic figure, Robert Burns achieved considerable fame during his lifetime. After his death, he was elevated to the status of national hero. His unparalleled ability to speak for his people, along with the simple beauty of his verse, helped make him Scotland’s “favorite son.”

FYI Did you know that Robert Burns... • composed “Auld Lang Syne” to an old Scottish melody? • alienated many by supporting the French Revolution?

Childhood Hardship Born in the village of Alloway to an unsuccessful tenant farmer, Burns endured extreme poverty and hard labor as a child. This experience left him in poor health and fueled his hatred of Scotland’s rigid class system. Though poor, Burns’s father managed to provide his son with something of an education. Burns showed an early flair and passion for literature. One of the works that especially fired his imagination was the 15^th-century Scottish poem “Wallace.” The poem, Burns later wrote, “poured a Scottish prejudice into my veins, which will boil along there till the floodgates of life shut in natural rest.” His discovery of this and other works written in a Scottish vernacular inspired Burns to use the Scots dialect, spoken primarily by the country’s peasant class.

Charming Rebel After his father’s death in 1784, Burns, along with his brother, struggled to farm independently. Burns be came involved with a servant girl at the farm, the first of several liaisons that resulted in illegitimate offspring. In 1786, he fell in love with Jean Armour, but her father, disturbed by Burns’s radical ideas and personal behavior, sent Armour away. Hurt and incensed, Burns resolved to emigrate to Jamaica. To raise the necessary money, he published Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1786), a collection that showed his love for Scottish peasant life. Its immense success induced Burns to move to Edinburgh, where he captivated the city’s literary society with his keen wit, rough-hewn charm, and controversial

views on class and religion.

Scotland’s Greatest Songwriter In Edinburgh, Burns began to compile several volumes of Scottish folk songs. Collecting, adapting, and writing songs engaged him for the rest of his life. In his later years, Burns finally married Jean Armour and began working as a tax collector while still maintaining a farm. The arduous farm work undermined Burns’s already weak constitution. At age 37, Burns contracted rheumatic fever and died soon after.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16