Name/Class: ____________________

89 English Poetry Pre-Assessment

AFRAND 89A

Answer the following questions using your own sentences.

Read the POEM 1 below and answer the questions followed.

Sonnets from the Portuguese 43: How do I

love thee? Let me count the ways
BY ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. A

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height B
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight B
For the ends of being and ideal grace. C
I love thee to the level of every day’s A
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. B
I love thee freely, as men strive for right; B
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. C
I love thee with the passion put to use A
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. B
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose A
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath, B
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose, C
I shall but love thee better after death. B

1. Reread the poem and share your understanding about Poem 1.

Steps of Reading Aspects to Read Answer

First reading What is the theme Main idea: expressing his love towards someone
Theme and Main Idea and main idea of the Theme: Joy
poem?

Second reading What is the rhyme ABBCABBCABABCB

Structure scheme of the poem?

Third reading What figurative

Figurative Language language is mostly Thee
used?

2. What can you infer about the love of ‘I’ to ‘thee’? Give evidence from the text to support your
answer.
Name/Class: ____________________
89 English Poetry Pre-Assessment

‘I’ seems to be passionate about ‘Thee’ as throughout the sonnet he seems to be expressing how
much ‘I’ loves ‘Thee’

Evidence:
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height (Line 2)
I love thee with the passion put to use A (Line 9)
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. (Line 10)

Poem 2 Poem 3

Funeral Blues
Ode to a Road By W.H. Auden
by MoonBee Canady
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, A
Into A Gold Sunset A Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone, A
And Silver Twilight Stars B Silence the pianos and with muffled drum B
Into Darkness of A Desert A Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come. B
And Coyote Choirs B
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead A
Scribbling on the sky the message ‘He is Dead’. A
And A Cold, Lonely Wind A Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public
Which Touches Warm Skin A doves, B
And Stretches of Sand B Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves. B
On and On, Without End B
He was my North, my South, my East and West, A
On A Black-Top Road A My working week and my Sunday rest, A
By A Car’s High Beam B My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song; B
Heard An Oil Rig’s Ode A I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong. B
Lit, Like A Castle-Dream B
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one, A
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun, A
Awake On An Interstate A
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; B
Driving 101 – West A For nothing now can ever come to any good. B
High Noon, Thru A Desert B
Into A Gold Sunset … B

3. Using a graphic organizer, compare and contrast the elements of poems in the three poems in this
assessment.

Poem 1 Poem 2 Poem 3

Sonnets from the Portuguese 43:
How do I love thee? Let me count
Ode to a Road Funeral Blues
the ways

Main Idea Expressing one's love A driver driving on a The reaction to news
for someone or road surrounded by of a close person that
something. the desert during was everything to
sunset. him but died as now
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89 English Poetry Pre-Assessment

he attempts to move
on but is depressed.

Rhythm ABBCABBCABABC ABAB, AABB, AABB, AABB,

B ABAB, AABB AABB, AABB

Paragraph 1 4 4

Lines 14 lines 16 lines 16 lines

Theme Joy, Because the Netural, because the Gloomy, The reaction
person seems to be lines in the poem of the person losing
excited to share how described the something close to
much ‘I’ loves ‘thee’. peaceful desert road him, the poem
around them. describes this in a
clear way that tells
that the person is
depressed about the
loss.

Similarities They all have Different Themes

They all have Different Topics
They all have Different Rhythms
Poem 2 and 1 have the same amount of lines and paragraphs

4. How does a poem different from a story in terms of its theme, structure (elements of poem and
elements of story), and imagery? Explain your answer.

A poem is a way to describe feelings, but it doesn't always give a clear picture of the Main idea,
while most stories do. Poems also follow rhythm patterns, They have different types of structures
of how a poem is written and rhymed, but the structures are more strict than compared to a story,
when making a story you have more creative freedom on how you wish to execute your story to the
audience and how u wish to tell the story.

5. Synthesize Poem 3 using a graphic organizer.

Poem 3 Funeral Blues

Theme and Main Idea Loss of a close person, Gloomy

Paragraphs and lines 4 paragraphs 16 lines 4 lines in each

paragraphs

Rhythm AABB AABB AABB AABB