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MsEffie's List of Poetry Essay Prompts of Poetry Essay ..., Schemes and Mind Maps of Poetry

Quietly, through the years I have crept back to see ... Prompt: Write an essay in which you analyze how the language of the poem reflects the.

Typology: Schemes and Mind Maps

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Download MsEffie's List of Poetry Essay Prompts of Poetry Essay ... and more Schemes and Mind Maps Poetry in PDF only on Docsity! MsEffie’s List of Poetry Essay Prompts for Advanced Placement® English Literature Exams, 1970-2019* *Advanced Placement® is a trademark registered by the College Board, which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, this website. Each poem is included in the following prompts, printed on separate pages for better use in the classroom. None of the prompts are original to me, but are Advanced Placement® English Literature and Composition Exam prompts. This is my best effort to comply with College Board’s use requirements. 1970 Poem: “Elegy for Jane” (Theodore Roethke) Prompt: Write an essay in which you describe the speaker’s attitude toward his former student, Jane. Elegy for Jane by Theodore Roethke I remember the neckcurls, limp and damp as tendrils; And her quick look, a sidelong pickerel smile; And how, once startled into talk, the light syllables leaped for her, And she balanced in the delight of her thought, 5 A wren, happy, tail into the wind, Her song trembling the twigs and small branches. The shade sang with her; The leaves, their whispers turned to kissing, And the mould sang in the bleached valleys under the rose. 10 Oh, when she was sad, she cast herself down into such a pure depth, Even a father could not find her: Scraping her cheek against straw, Stirring the clearest water. My sparrow, you are not here, 15 Waiting like a fern, making a spiney shadow. The sides of wet stones cannot console me, Nor the moss, wound with the last light. If only I could nudge you from this sleep, My maimed darling, my skittery pigeon. 20 Over this damp grave I speak the words of my love: I, with no rights in this matter, Neither father nor lover. 1971 Poem: “The Unknown Citizen” (W.H. Auden) 1977 Poem: “Piano” [2 poems with the same name] (D. H. Lawrence) Prompt: Read both poems carefully and then write an essay in which you explain what characteristics of the second poem make it better than the first. Refer specifically to details of both poems. (1) Piano by D. H. Lawrence Somewhere beneath that piano’s superb sleek black Must hide my mother’s piano, little and brown, with the back That stood close to the wall, and the front’s faded silk both torn, And the keys with little hollows, that my mother’s fingers had worn. 5 Softly, in the shadows, a woman is singing to me Quietly, through the years I have crept back to see A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the shaking strings Pressing the little poised feet of the mother who smiles as she sings. The full throated woman has chosen a winning, living song 10 And surely the heart that is in me must belong To the old Sunday evenings, when darkness wandered outside And hymns gleamed on our warm lips, as we watched mother’s fingers glide. Or this is my sister at home in the old front room Singing love’s first surprised gladness, alone in the gloom. 15 She will start when she sees me, and blushing, spread out her hands To cover my mouth’s raillery, till I’m bound in her shame’s heart-spun bands. A woman is singing me a wild Hungarian air And her arms, and her bosom, and the whole of her soul is bare, - And the great black piano is clamouring as my mother’s never could clamour 20 And my mother’s tunes are devoured of this music’s ravaging glamour. (2) Piano by D. H. Lawrence Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me; Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings. 5 In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong to the old Sunday evenings at home, with the winter outside And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide. So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour 10 With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past. 1978 Poem: “Law Like Love” (W.H. Auden) Prompt: Read the poem and the write an essay discussing the differences between the conceptions of “law” in lines 1-34 and those in lines 35-60. Law Like Love by W. H. Auden Law, say the gardeners, is the sun, Law is the one All gardeners obey To-morrow, yesterday, to-day. 5 Law is the wisdom of the old, The impotent grandfathers feebly scold; The grandchildren put out a treble tongue, Law is the senses of the young. Law, says the priest with a priestly look, 10 Expounding to an unpriestly people, Law is the words in my priestly book, Law is my pulpit and my steeple. Law, says the judge as he looks down his nose, Speaking clearly and most severely, 15 Law is as I’ve told you before, Law is as you know I suppose, Law is but let me explain it once more, Law is The Law. Yet law-abiding scholars write: 20 Law is neither wrong nor right, Law is only crimes Punished by places and by times, Law is the clothes men wear Anytime, anywhere, 25 Law is Good morning and Good night. Others say, Law is our Fate; Others say, Law is our State; Others say, others say Law is no more, 30 Law has gone away. And always the loud angry crowd Very angry and very loud, Law is We, And always the soft idiot softly Me. 35 If we, dear, know we know no more Than they about the Law, If I no more than you Know what we should and should not do Except that all agree 40 Gladly or miserably That the Law is And that all know this If therefore thinking it absurd To identify Law with some other word, 45 Unlike so many men I cannot say Law is again, No more than they can we suppress The universal wish to guess Or slip out of our own position 50 Into an unconcerned condition. Although I can at least confine Your vanity and mine To stating timidly A timid similarity, 55 We shall boast anyway: Like love I say. Like love we don’t know where or why, Like love we can’t compel or fly, Like love we often weep, 60 Like love we seldom keep. 1979 Poems: “Spring And All” (William Carlos Williams) and “For Jane Meyers” (Louise Gluck) Prompt: Read the two poems carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you show how the attitudes towards the coming of spring implied in these two poems differ from each other. Support your statements with specific references to the texts. Spring and All by William Carlos Williams By the road to the contagious hospital under the surge of the blue mottled clouds driven from the northeast—a cold wind. Beyond, the 5 waste of broad, muddy fields brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen patches of standing water the scattering of tall trees All along the road the reddish 10 purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy stuff of bushes and small trees with dead, brown leaves under them leafless vines— Lifeless in appearance, sluggish 15 dazed spring approaches— They enter the new world naked, cold, uncertain of all save that they enter. All about them the cold, familiar wind— 20 Now the grass, tomorrow the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf One by one the objects are defined— It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf But now the stark dignity of 25 entrance—Still, the profound change has come upon them: rooted they grip down and begin to awaken For Jane Meyers by Louise Gluck Sap rises from the sodden ditch glues two green ears to the dead birch twig. Perilous beauty— and already Jane is digging out 5 her colored tennis shoes, one mauve, one yellow, like large crocuses. And by the laundromat the Bartletts In their tidy yard— as though it were not - 10 wearying, wearying to hear in the bushes the mild harping of the breeze, the daffodils flocking and honking— Look how the bluet* falls apart, mud 15 pockets the seed. Months, years, then the dull blade of the wind. It is spring I We are going to die I And now April raises up her plaque of flowers and the heart 20 expands to admit Its adversary. *bluet: a wild flower with bluish blossoms 1982 Poem: “The Groundhog” (Richard Eberhart) Prompt: Write an essay in which you analyze how the language of the poem reflects the changing perceptions and emotions of the speaker as he considers the metamorphosis of the dead groundhog. Develop your essay with specific references to the text of the poem. The Groundhog by Richard Eberhart In June, amid the golden fields, I saw a groundhog lying dead. Dead lay he; my senses shook, and mind outshot our naked frailty. 5 There lowly in the vigorous summer His form began its senseless change, And made my senses waver dim Seeing nature ferocious in him. Inspecting close his maggots’ might 10 And seething cauldron of his being, Half with loathing, half with a strange love, I poked him with an angry stick. The fever arose, became a flame And Vigour circumscribed the skies, 15 Immense energy in the sun, And through my frame a sunless trembling. My stick had done nor good nor harm. Then stood I silent in the day Watching the object, as before; 20 And kept my reverence for knowledge Trying for control, to be still, To quell the passion of the blood; Until I had bent down on my knees Praying for joy in the sight of decay. 25 And so I left; and I returned In Autumn strict of eye, to see The sap gone out of the groundhog, But the bony sodden hulk remained. But the year had lost its meaning, 30 And in intellectual chains I lost both love and loathing, Mured up in the wall of wisdom. Another summer took the fields again Massive and burning, full of life, 35 But when I chanced upon the spot There was only a little hair left, And bones bleaching in the sunlight Beautiful as architecture; I watched them like a geometer, 40 And cut a walking stick from a birch. It has been three years, now. There is no sign of the groundhog. I stood there in the whirling summer, My hand capped a withered heart, 45 And thought of China and of Greece, Of Alexander in his tent; Of Montaigne in his tower, Of Saint Theresa in her wild lament. 1983 Poem: “Clocks and Lovers” (W.H. Auden) Prompt: Write a well-organized essay in which you contrast the attitude of the clocks with that of the lover. Through careful analysis of the language and imagery, show how this contrast is important to the meaning of the poem. Clocks and Lovers by W. H. Auden As I walked out one evening, Into many a green valley Walking down Bristol Street, Drifts the appalling snow; The crowds upon the pavement (35) Time breaks the threaded dances Were fields of harvest wheat. And the diver’s brilliant bow. (5) And down by the brimming river 0 plunge your hands in water, I heard a lover sing Plunge them in up to the wrist; Under an arch of the railway; Stare, stare in the basin “Love has no ending. (40) And wonder what you’ve missed. I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you The glacier knocks in the cupboard, (10) Till China and Africa meet, The desert sighs in the bed, And the river jumps over the mountain And the crack in the tea-cup opens And the salmon sing in the street. A lane to the land of the dead. I’ll love you till the ocean (45) Where the beggars raffle the banknotes Is folded and hung up to dry, And the Giant is enchanting to Jack, (15) And the seven stars go squawking And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer, Ljke geese about the sky. And Jill goes down on her back. The years shall run like rabbits, 0 look, look in the mirror, For in my arms I hold (50) 0 look in your distress; The Flower of the Ages, Life remains a blessing (20) And the first love of the world.” Although you cannot bless. But all the clocks in the city 0 stand, stand at the window Began to whirr and chime: As the tears scald and start; - “0 let not Time deceive you, (55) You shall love your crooked neighbour You cannot conquer Time. With your crooked heart.” (25) In the burrows of the Nightmare It was late, late in the evening Where Justice naked is, The lovers they were gone; Time watches from the shadow The clocks had ceased their chiming, And coughs when you would kiss. And the deep river ran on. In headaches and in worry (30) Vaguely life leaks away, And Time will have his fancy To-morrow or to-day. 1985 Poems: “There Was A Boy” (William Wordsworth) and “The Most of It” (Robert Frost) Prompt: These two poems present encounters with nature, but the two poets handle those encounters very differently. In a well-organized essay, distinguish between the attitudes (toward nature, toward the solitary individual, etc.) expressed in the poems and discuss the techniques that the poets use to present these attitudes. Be sure to support your statements with specific references. There was a boy by William Wordsworth There was a boy; ye knew him well, ye cliffs And islands of Winander! -- many a time, At evening, when the earliest stars began move along the edges of the hills, 5 or setting, would he stand alone, Beneath the trees, or by the glimmering lake; And there, with fingers interwoven, both hands Pressed closely palm to palm and to his mouth Uplifted, he, as through an instrument, 10 Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls That they might answer him.--And they would shout Across the watery vale, and shout again, Responsive to his call,--with quivering peals, And long halloos, and screams, and echoes loud 15 Redoubled and redoubled; concourse wild Of jocund din! And, when there came a pause Of silence such as baffled his best skill: Then, sometimes, in that silence, while he hung Listening, a gentle shock of mild surprise 20 Has carried far into his heart the voice Of mountain-torrents; or the visible scene Would enter unawares into his mind With all its solemn imagery, its rocks, Its woods, and that uncertain heaven received 25 Into the bosom of the steady lake. Notes: The vale of Esthwaite with its village of Hawkshead, the school which Wordsworth attended, and the nearby churchyard as here described. The schoolmate whose grave was in the churchyard was probably John Vickers who died in 1782, when Wordsworth was twelve. The Most of It by Robert Frost He thought he kept the universe alone; For all the voice in answer he could wake Was but the mocking echo of his own From some tree-hidden cliff across the lake. 5 Some morning from the boulder-broken beach He would cry out on life, that what it wants Is not its own love back in copy speech, But counter-love, original response. And nothing ever came of what he cried 10 Unless it was the embodiment that crashed In the cliff’s talus1 on the other side, And then in the far-distant water splashed, But after a time allowed for it to swim, Instead of proving human when it neared 15 And someone else additional to him, As a great buck it powerfully appeared, Pushing the crumpled water up ahead, And landed pouring like a waterfall, And stumbled through the rocks with horny tread, 20 And forced the underbrush--and that was all. 1 rock debris at the bottom of a cliff 1987 Poem: “Sow” (Sylvia Plath) Prompt: Read the poem. Then write an essay in which you analyze the presentation of the sow. Consider particularly how the language of the poem reflects both the neighbor’s and the narrator’s perceptions of the sow and how the language determines the reader’s perceptions. Be certain to discuss how the portrayal of the sow is enhanced by such features as diction, devices of sound, images, and allusions. Sow by Sylvia Plath God knows how our neighbor managed to breed His great sow: Whatever his shrewd secret, he kept it hid In the same way 5 He kept the sow -- impounded from public stare, Prize ribbon and pig show. But one dusk our questions commended us to a tour Through his lantern-lit Maze of barns to the lintel of the sunk sty door 10 To gape at it: This was no rose-and-larkspurred china suckling With a penny slot For thrifty children, nor dolt pig ripe for heckling, About to be 15 Glorified for prime flesh and golden crackling In a parsley halo; Nor even one of the common barnyard sows, Mire-smirched, blowzy, Maunching thistle and knotweed on her snout-cruise -- 20 Bloat tun of milk On the move, hedged by a litter of feat-foot ninnies Shrilling her hulk To halt for a swig at the pink teats. No. This vast Brobdingnag bulk 25 Of a sow lounged belly-bedded on that black compost, Fat-rutted eyes Dream-filmed. What a vision of ancient hoghood must Thus wholly engross The great grandam! -- our marvel blazoned a knight, 30 Helmed, in cuirass, Unhorsed and shredded in the grove of combat By a grisly-bristled Boar, fabulous enough to straddle that sow’s heat. But our farmer whistled, 35 Then, with a jocular fist thwacked the barrel nape, And the green-copse-castled Pig hove, letting legend like dried mud drop, Slowly, grunt On grunt, up in the flickering light to shape 40 A monument Prodigious in gluttonies as that hog whose want Made lean Lent Of kitchen slops and, stomaching no constraint, Proceeded to swill 45 The seven troughed seas and every earthquaking continent. 1988 Poems: “Bright Star” (John Keats) and “Choose Something Like a Star” (Robert Frost) Prompt: Read the following two poems very carefully, noting that the second includes an allusion to the first. Then write a well-organized essay in which you discuss their similarities and differences. In your essay, be sure to consider both theme and style. Bright Star by John Keats Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art-- Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite, 5 The moving waters at their priestlike task Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores, Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask Of snow upon the mountains and the moors-- No--yet still stedfast, still unchangeable, 10 Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast, To feel for ever its soft fall and swell, Awake for ever in a sweet unrest, Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, And so live ever--or else swoon to death. Choose Something Like a Star by Robert Frost O Star (the fairest one in sight), We grant your loftiness the right To some obscurity of cloud -- It will not do to say of night, 5 Since dark is what brings out your light. Some mystery becomes the proud. But to be wholly taciturn In your reserve is not allowed. Say something to us we can learn 10 By heart and when alone repeat. Say something! And it says “I burn.” But say with what degree of heat. Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade. Use language we can comprehend. 15 Tell us what elements you blend. It gives us strangely little aid, But does tell something in the end. And steadfast as Keats’ Eremite, Not even stooping from its sphere, 20 It asks a little of us here. It asks of us a certain height, So when at times the mob is swayed To carry praise or blame too far, We may choose something like a star 25 To stay our minds on and be staid. 1991 Poem: “The Last Night that She lived...” (Emily Dickinson) Prompt: Write an essay in which you describe the speaker’s attitude toward the woman’s death. Using specific references from the text, show how the use of language reveals the speaker’s attitude. The Last Night that She Lived by Emily Dickinson The last Night that She lived It was a Common Night Except the Dying—this to Us Made Nature different 5 We noticed smallest things— Things overlooked before By this great light upon our Minds Italicized—as ‘twere. As We went out and in 10 Between Her final Room And Rooms where Those to be alive Tomorrow were, a Blame That Others could exist While She must finish quite 15 A Jealousy for Her arose So nearly infinite— We waited while She passed— It was a narrow time— Too jostled were Our Souls to speak 20 At length the notice came. She mentioned, and forgot— Then lightly as a Reed Bent to the Water, struggled scarce— Consented, and was dead— 25 And We—We placed the Hair— And drew the Head erect— And then an awful leisure was Belief to regulate— 1992 Poem: Exerpt from “The Prelude” (William Wordsworth) Prompt: In the autobiographical passage below, the speaker encounters unfamiliar aspects of the natural world. Write an essay in which you trace the speaker’s changing responses to his experience and explain how they are conveyed by the poem’s diction, imagery, and tone. One summer evening (led by her1) I found A little boat tied to a willow tree Within a rocky cave, its usual home. Straight I unloosed her chain, and stepping in (5) Pushed from the shore. It was an act of stealth And troubled pleasure, nor without the voice Of mountain-echoes did my boat move on; Leaving behind her still, on either side, Small circles glittering idly in the moon, (10) Until they melted all into one track Of sparkling light. But now, like one who rows, Proud of his skill, to reach a chosen point With an unswerving line, I fixed my view Upon the summit of a craggy ridge, (15) The horizon’s utmost boundary; far above Was nothing but the stars and the grey sky. She was an elfin pinnace2 lustily I dipped my oars into the silent lake, And, as I rose upon the stroke, my boat (20) Went heaving through the water like a swan; When, from behind that craggy steep till then The horizon’s bound, a huge peak, black and huge, As if with voluntary power instinct Upreared its head. I struck and struck again, (25) And growing still in stature the grim shape Towered up between me and the stars, and still, For so it seemed, with purpose of its own And measured motion like a living thing, Strode after me. With trembling oars I turned, (30) And through the silent water stole my way Back to the covert of the willow tree; There in her mooring place I left my bark,— And through the meadows homeward went, in grave And serious mood; but after I had seen (35) That spectacle, for many days, my brain Worked with a dim and undetermined sense Of unknown modes of being; o’er my thoughts There hung a darkness, call it solitude Or blank desertion. No familiar shapes (40) Remained, no pleasant images of trees, Of sea or sky, no colours of green fields; But huge and mighty forms, that do not live Like living men, moved slowly through the mind By day, and were a trouble to my dreams. 1Nature 2Small boat 1993 Poem: “The Centaur” (May Swenson) Prompt: Read the following poem carefully. Then write an essay in which you discuss how such elements as language, imagery, structure, and point of view convey meaning in the poem. The Centaur by May Swenson The summer that I was ten -- Can it be there was only one summer that I was ten? It must have been a long one then -- 5 each day I’d go out to choose a fresh horse from my stable which was a willow grove down by the old canal. I’d go on my two bare feet. 10 But when, with my brother’s jack-knife, I had cut me a long limber horse with a good thick knob for a head, and peeled him slick and clean except a few leaves for the tail, 15 and cinched my brother’s belt around his head for a rein, I’d straddle and canter him fast up the grass bank to the path, trot along in the lovely dust 20 that talcumed over his hoofs, hiding my toes, and turning his feet to swift half-moons. The willow knob with the strap jouncing between my thighs 25 was the pommel and yet the poll of my nickering pony’s head. My head and my neck were mine, yet they were shaped like a horse. My hair flopped to the side 30 like the mane of a horse in the wind. My forelock swung in my eyes, my neck arched and I snorted. I shied and skittered and reared, stopped and raised my knees, 35 pawed at the ground and quivered. My teeth bared as we wheeled and swished through the dust again. I was the horse and the rider, and the leather I slapped to his rump 40 spanked my own behind. Doubled, my two hoofs beat a gallop along the bank, the wind twanged in my mane, my mouth squared to the bit. 45 And yet I sat on my steed quiet, negligent riding, my toes standing the stirrups, my thighs hugging his ribs. At a walk we drew up to the porch. 50 I tethered him to a paling. Dismounting, I smoothed my skirt and entered the dusky hall. My feet on the clean linoleum left ghostly toes in the hall. 55 Where have you been? said my mother. Been riding, I said from the sink, and filled me a glass of water. What’s that in your pocket? she said. Just my knife. It weighted my pocket 60 and stretched my dress awry. Go tie back your hair, said my mother, and Why Is your mouth all green? Rob Roy, he pulled some clover as we crossed the field, I told her. 1996 Poem: “The Author to Her Book” (Anne Bradstreet) Prompt: Read carefully the following poem by the colonial American poet, Anne Bradstreet. Then write a well-organized essay in which you discuss how the poem’s controlling metaphor expresses the complex attitude of the speaker. The Author to Her Book by Anne Bradstreet Thou ill-form’d offspring of my feeble brain, Who after birth did’st by my side remain, Till snatcht from thence by friends, less wise than true Who thee abroad, expos’d to publick view; Made thee in rags, halting to th’ press to trudge, (5) Where errors were not lessened (all may judge) At thy return my blushing was not small, My rambling brat (in print) should mother call, I cast thee by as one unfit for light, Thy visage was so irksome in my sight; (10) Yet being mine own, at length affection would Thy blemishes amend, if so I could: I wash’d thy face, but more defects I saw, And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw. I stretcht thy joints to make thee even feet, (15) Yet still thou run’st more hobbling than is meet; In better dress to trim thee was my mind, But nought save home-spun cloth, i’ th’ house I find. In this array, ‘mongst vulgars mayst thou roam In critics hands, beware thou dost not come; (20) And take thy way where yet thou art not known, If for thy father askt, say, thou hadst none: And for thy mother, she alas is poor, Which caus’d her thus to send thee out of door. 1997 Poem: “The Death of a Toad” (Richard Wilbur) Prompt: Read the following poem carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you explain how formal elements such as structure, syntax, diction, and imagery reveal the speaker’s response to the death of a toad. The Death of a Toad by Richard Wilbur A toad the power mower caught, Chewed and clipped of a leg, with a hobbling hop has got To the garden verge, and sanctuaried him Under the cineraria leaves, in the shade 5 Of the ashen heartshaped leaves, in a dim, Low, and a final glade. The rare original heartsblood goes, Spends on the earthen hide, in the folds and wizenings, flows In the gutters of the banked and staring eyes. He lies 10 As still as if he would return to stone, And soundlessly attending, dies Toward some deep monotone, Toward misted and ebullient seas And cooling shores, toward lost Amphibia’s emperies. 15 Day dwindles, drowning, and at length is gone In the wide and antique eyes, which still appear To watch, across the castrate lawn, The haggard daylight steer. 1998 Poem: “It’s a Woman’s World” (Eavan Boland) Prompt: The following poem was written by a contemporary Irish woman, Eavan Boland. Read the poem carefully and then write an essay in which you analyze how the poem reveals the speaker’s complex conception of a “woman’s world.” It’s a Woman’s World by Eavan Boland Our way of life has hardly changed since a wheel first whetted a knife. 5 Maybe flame burns more greedily and wheels are steadier, but we’re the same: we milestone 10 our lives with oversights, living by the lights of the loaf left by the cash register, 15 the washing powder paid for and wrapped, the wash left wet: like most historic peoples we are defined 20 by what we forget and what we never will be: star-gazers, fire-eaters. It’s our alibi 25 for all time: as far as history goes When the king’s head 30 gored its basket, grim harvest, we were gristing bread or getting the recipe for a good soup. 35 It’s still the same: our windows moth our children to the flame of hearth not history. 40 And still no page scores the low music of our outrage. Appearances reassure: that woman there, 45 craned to the starry mystery, is merely getting a breath of evening air. While this one here, 50 her mouth a burning plume - she’s no fire-eater, just my frosty neighbour coming home. we were never on the scene of the crime. Siren Song by Margaret Atwood This is the one song everyone would like to learn: the song that is irresistible: the song that forces men 5 to leap overboard in squadrons even though they see beached skulls the song nobody knows because anyone who had heard it is dead, and the others can’t remember. 10 Shall I tell you the secret and if I do, will you get me out of this bird suit? I don’t enjoy it here squatting on this island 15 looking picturesque and mythical with these two feathery maniacs, I don’t enjoy singing this trio, fatal and valuable. I will tell the secret to you, 20 to you, only to you. Come closer. This song is a cry for help: Help me! Only you, only you can, you are unique 25 at last. Alas it is a boring song but it works every time. 2001 Poems: “London, 1802” (William Wordsworth) / “Douglass” (Paul Laurence Dunbar) Prompt: In each of the following poems, the speaker responds to the conditions of a particular place and time – England in 1802 in the first poem, the United States about 100 years later in the second. Read each poem carefully. Then write an essay in which you compare and contrast the two poems and analyze the relationship between them. London, 1802 by William Wordsworth Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee: she is a fen Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen, Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, 5 Have forfeited their ancient English dower Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; Oh! raise us up, return to us again; And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart: 10 Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea: Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free, So didst thou travel on life’s common way, In cheerful godliness; and yet the heart The lowliest duties on herself did lay. Douglass by Paul Laurence Dunbar Ah, Douglass, we have fall’n on evil days, Such days as thou, not even thou didst know, When thee, the eyes of that harsh long ago Saw, salient, at the cross of devious ways, 5 And all the country heard thee with amaze. Not ended then, the passionate ebb and flow, The awful tide that battled to and fro; We ride amid a tempest of dispraise. Now, when the waves of swift dissension swarm, 10 And Honor, the strong pilot, lieth stark, Oh, for thy voice high-sounding o’er the storm, For thy strong arm to guide the shivering bark, The blast-defying power of thy form, To give us comfort through the lonely dark. 2002 Poem: “The Convergence of the Twain” (Thomas Hardy) Prompt: Read the following poem carefully. Then, taking into consideration the title of the poem, analyze how the poetic devices convey the speaker’s attitude toward the sinking of the ship. The Convergence of the Twain by Thomas Hardy (Lines on the loss of the “Titanic”) I In a solitude of the sea Deep from human vanity, And the Pride of Life that planned her, stilly couches she. II 5 Steel chambers, late the pyres Of her salamandrine fires, Cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres. III Over the mirrors meant To glass the opulent 10 The sea-worm crawls—grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent. IV Jewels in joy designed To ravish the sensuous mind Lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind. V Dim moon-eyed fishes near 15 Gaze at the gilded gear And query: “What does this vaingloriousness down here?”. . . VI Well: while was fashioning This creature of cleaving wing, The Immanent Will that stirs and urges everything 2003 Poem: “ΈΡΩΣ” (Robert Bridges) / “Eros” (Anne Stevenson) Prompt: The following poems are both concerned with Eros, the god of love in Greek mythology. Read the poem carefully. Then write an essay in which you compare and contrast the two concepts of Eros and analyze the techniques used to create them. EΡΩΣ1 by Robert Bridges Why hast thou nothing in thy face? Thou idol of the human race, Thou tyrant of the human heart, The flower of lovely youth that art; 5 Yea, and that standest in thy youth An image of eternal Truth, With thy exuberant flesh so fair, That only Pheidias2 might compare, Ere from his chaste marmoreal3 form 10 Time had decayed the colours warm; Like to his gods in thy proud dress, Thy starry sheen of nakedness. Surely thy body is thy mind, For in thy face is nought to find, 15 Only thy soft unchristen’d smile, That shadows neither love nor guile, But shame;less will and power immense, In secret sensuous innocence. 20 O king of joy, what is thy thought? I dream thou knowest it is nought. And wouldst in darkness come, but thou Makest the light where’er thou go. Ah yet no victim of thy grace, 25 None who e’er long’d for thy embrace, Hath cared to look upon thy face. Eros by Anne Stevenson I call for love But help me, who arrives? This thud with broken nose And squinty eyes. 5 ‘Eros, my bully boy, Can this be you, With boxer lips And patchy wings askew?’ ‘Madam,’ cries Eros, 10 ‘Know the brute you see Is what long overuse Has made of me. My face that so offends you Is the sum 15 Of blows your lust delivered One by one. We slaves who are immortal Gloss your fate And are the archetypes 20 That you create. Better my battered visage, Bruised but hot, Than love dissoloved in loss Or left to rot.’ 1 Eros in Greek 2 Greek sculptor of the fifth century B.C. 3 marble 2003B Poem: from Modern Love (George Meredith - 1862) Prompt: The following poem is taken from Modern Love, a poetic sequence by the English writer George Meredith. Read the poem carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how the poet conveys a view of “modern love.” Modern Love I: By This He Knew She Wept by George Meredith By this he knew she wept with waking eyes: That, at his hand’s light quiver by her head, The strange low sobs that shook their common bed Were called into her with a sharp surprise, 5 And strangled mute, like little gaping snakes, Dreadfully venomous to him. She lay Stone-still, and the long darkness flowed away With muffled pulses. Then, as midnight makes Her giant heart of Memory and Tears 10 Drink the pale drug of silence, and so beat Sleep’s heavy measure, they from head to feet Were moveless, looking through their dead black years, By vain regret scrawled over the blank wall. Like sculptured effigies they might be seen 15 Upon their marriage-tomb, the sword between; Each wishing for the sword that severs all. 2004 Poem: “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” (Emily Dickinson) / “Acquainted with the Night” (Robert Frost) Prompt: The poems below are concerned with darkness and night. Read each poem carefully. Then, in a well-written essay, compare and contrast the poems, analyzing the significance of dark or night in each. In your essay, consider elements such as point of view, imagery, and structure We Grow Accustomed to the Dark by Emily Dickinson We grow accustomed to the Dark -- When light is put away -- As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp To witness her Goodbye -- 5 A Moment -- We uncertain step For newness of the night -- Then -- fit our Vision to the Dark -- And meet the Road -- erect -- And so of larger -- Darknesses -- 10 Those Evenings of the Brain -- When not a Moon disclose a sign -- Or Star -- come out -- within -- The Bravest -- grope a little -- And sometimes hit a Tree 15 Directly in the Forehead -- But as they learn to see -- Either the Darkness alters -- Or something in the sight Adjusts itself to Midnight -- 20 And Life steps almost straight. Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light. I have looked down the saddest city lane. 5 I have passed by the watchman on his beat And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain. I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet When far away an interrupted cry Came over houses from another street, 10 But not to call me back or say good-bye; And further still at an unearthly height, A luminary clock against the sky Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. I have been one acquainted with the night. 2005B Poem: “Five A.M.” (William Stafford) / “Five Flights Up” (Elizabeth Bishop) Prompt: Carefully read the two poems below. Then in a well-organized essay compare the speakers’ reflections on their early morning surroundings and analyze the techniques the poets use to communicate the speakers’ different states of mind. Five A. M. by William Stafford Still dark, the early morning breathes A soft sound above the fire. Hooded Lights on porches lead past lawns, A hedge; I pass the house of the couple 5 Who have the baby, the yard with the little Dog; my feet pad and grit on the pavement, flicker Past streetlights; my arms alternate Easily to my pace. Where are my troubles? There are people in every country who never 10 Turn into killers, saints have built Sanctuaries on islands and in valleys, Conquerors have quit and gone home, for thousands Of years farmers have worked their fields. My feet begin the uphill curve 15 Where a thicket spills with birds every spring. The air doesn’t stir. Rain touches my face. Five Flights Up by Elizabeth Bishop Still dark. The unknown bird sits on his usual branch. The little dog next door barks in his sleep inquiringly, just once. 5 Perhaps in his sleep, too, the bird inquires once or twice, quavering. Questions---if that is what they are--- answered directly, simply, by day itself. 10 Enormous morning, ponderous, meticulous; gray light streaking each bare branch, each single twig, along one side, making another tree, of glassy veins... The bird still sits there. Now he seems to yawn. 15 The little black dog runs in his yard. His owner’s voice arises, stern, “You ought to be ashamed!” What has he done? He bounces cheerfully up and down; 20 he rushes in circles in the fallen leaves. Obviously, he has no sense of shame. He and the bird know everything is answered, all taken care of, no need to ask again. 25 ---Yesterday brought to today so lightly! (A yesterday I find almost impossible to lift.) 2006 Poem: “Evening Hawk” (Robert Penn Warren) Prompt: Read the following poem carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how the poet uses language to describe the scene and to convey mood and meaning. Evening Hawk by Robert Penn Warren From plane of light to plane, wings dipping through Geometries and orchids that the sunset builds, Out of the peak’s black angularity of shadow, riding The last tumultuous avalanche of 5 Light above pines and the guttural gorge, The hawk comes. His wing Scythes down another day, his motion Is that of the honed steel-edge, we hear 10 The crashless fall of stalks of Time. The head of each stalk is heavy with the gold of our error. Look! Look! he is climbing the last light Who knows neither Time nor error, and under Whose eye, unforgiving, the world, unforgiven, swings 15 Into shadow. Long now, The last thrush is still, the last bat Now cruises in his sharp hieroglyphics. His wisdom Is ancient, too, and immense. The star 20 Is steady, like Plato, over the mountain. If there were no wind we might, we think, hear The earth grind on its axis, or history Drip in darkness like a leaking pipe in the cellar. 2006B Poem: “To Paint a Water Lily” (Ted Hughes) Prompt: Read the following poem carefully. Then write an essay discussing how the poet uses literary techniques to reveal the speaker’s attitudes toward nature and the artist’s task. To Paint a Water Lily by Ted Hughes A green level of lily leaves Roofs the pond’s chamber and paves The flies’ furious arena: study These, the two minds of this lady. 5 First observe the air’s dragonfly That eats meat, that bullets by Or stands in space to take aim; Others as dangerous comb the hum Under the trees. There are battle-shouts 10 And death-cries everywhere hereabouts But inaudible, so the eyes praise To see the colours of these flies Rainbow their arcs, spark, or settle Cooling like beads of molten metal 15 Through the spectrum. Think what worse is the pond-bed’s matter of course; Prehistoric bedragoned times Crawl that darkness with Latin names, Have evolved no improvements there, 20 Jaws for heads, the set stare, Ignorant of age as of hour— Now paint the long-necked lily-flower Which, deep in both worlds, can be still As a painting, trembling hardly at all 25 Though the dragonfly alight, Whatever horror nudge her root. 2008 Poems: “When I Have Fears” (John Keats) and “Mezzo Cammin” (Henry W. Longfellow) Prompt: In the two poems below, Keats and Longfellow reflect on similar concerns. Read the poems carefully. Then write and essay in which you compare and contrast the two poems, analyzing the poetic techniques each writer uses to explore his particular situation. When I Have Fears When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain, Before high-piled books, in charactery, Hold like rich garners the full ripen’d grain; 5 When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face, Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance, And think that I may never live to trace Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance; And when I feel, fair creature of an hour, 10 That I shall never look upon thee more, Never have relish in the faery power Of unreflecting love; - then on the shore Of the wide world I stand alone, and think Till love and fame to nothingness do sink. 1818 ---John Keats (1795-1821) Mezzo Cammin1 Written at Boppard on the Rhine August 25, 1842, Just Before Leaving Home Half my life is gone, and I have let The years slip from me and have not fulfilled The aspiration of my youth, to build Some tower of song with lofty parapet. 5 Not indolence, nor pleasure, nor the fret Of restless passions that would not be stilled, But sorrow, and a care that almost killed, Kept me from what I may accomplish yet; Though, half-way up the hill, I see the Past 19 Lying beneath me with its sounds and sights,-- A city in the twilight dim and vast, With smoking roofs, soft bells, and gleaming lights,-- And hear above me on the autumnal blast The cataract2 of Death far thundering from the heights. 1842 --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) 1 The title is from the first line of Dante’s Divine Comedy: “Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita” (“Midway upon the journey of our life”). 2 A large waterfall 2008B Poems: “Hawk Roosting” (Ted Hughes) and “Golden Retrievals” (Mark Doty) Prompt: The following two poems present animal-eye views of the world. Read each poem carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze the techniques used in the poems to characterize he speakers and convey differing views of the world. HAWK ROOSTING I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed. Inaction, no falsifying dream Between my hooked head and hooked feet: Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat. 5 The convenience of the high trees! The air’s buoyancy and the sun’s ray Are of advantage to me; And the earth’s face upward for my inspection. My feet are locked upon the rough bark. 10 It took the whole of Creation To produce my foot, my each feather: Now I hold Creation in my foot Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly - I kill where I please because it is all mine. 15 There is no sophistry in my body: My manners are tearing off heads - The allotment of death. For the one path of my flight is direct Through the bones of the living. 20 No arguments assert my right: The sun is behind me. Nothing has changed since I began. My eye has permitted no change. I am going to keep things like this. -- Ted Hughes GOLDEN RETRIEVALS Fetch? Balls and sticks capture my attention seconds at a time. Catch? I don’t think so. Bunny, tumbling leaf, a squirrel who’s—oh joy—actually scared. Sniff the wind, then 5 I’m off again: muck, pond, ditch, residue of any thrillingly dead thing. And you? Either you’re sunk in the past, half our walk, thinking of what you never can bring back, or else you’re off in some fog concerning 10 —tomorrow, is that what you call it? My work: to unsnare time’s warp (and woof!), retrieving, my haze-headed friend, you. This shining bark, a Zen master’s bronzy gong, calls you here, entirely, now: bow-wow, bow-wow, bow-wow. -- Mark Doty 2009 Speech from Henry VIII (William Shakespeare) Prompt: In the following speech from Shakespeare’s play Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey considers his sudden downfall from his position as advisor to the king. Spokesmen for the king have just left Wolsey alone on stage. Read the speech carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how Shakespeare uses elements such as allusion, figurative language, and tone to convey Wolsey’s complex response to his dismissal from court. So farewell—to the little good you bear me. Farewell? a long farewell to all my greatness! This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hopes, to-morrow blossoms, 5 And bears his blushing honors thick upon him; The third day comes a frost, a killing frost, And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely His greatness is a-ripening, nips his root, And then he falls as I do. I have ventur’d, 10 Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,1 This many summers in a sea of glory, But far beyond my depth. My high-blown pride At length broke under me, and now has left me, Weary and old with service, to the mercy 15 Of a rude stream that must for ever hide me. Vain pomp and glory of this world, I hate ye! I feel my heart new open’d. O how wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes’ favors! There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to, 20 That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, More pangs and fears than wars or women have; And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,2 Never to hope again. 1 air-filled sacs 2 Satan, the fallen angel 2010B Poems: “To Sir John Lade, on His Coming of Age” (Samuel Johnson) and “When I Was One-and-Twenty” (A. E. Housman) Prompt: Each of the two poems below is concerned with a young man at the age of twenty-one, traditionally the age of adulthood. Read the two poems carefully. Then write a well-organized essay in which you compare and contrast the poems, analyzing the poetic techniques, such as point of view and tone, that each writer uses to make his point about coming of age. To Sir John Lade, on His Coming of Age (‘A Short Song of Congratulation’) Long-expected one and twenty Lingering year at last is flown, Pomp and pleasure, pride and plenty, Great Sir John, are all your own. 5 Loosened from the minor’s tether, Free to mortgage or to sell, Wild as wind, and light as feather, Bid the slaves of thrift farewell. Call the Bettys, Kates, and Jennys, 10 Every name that laughs at care, ` Lavish of your grandsire’s guineas, Show the spirit of an heir. All that prey on vice and folly Joy to see their quarry fly, 15 Here the gamester light and jolly, There the lender grave and sly. Wealth, Sir John, was made to wander, Let it wander as it will; See the jockey, see the pander, 20 Bid them come, and take their fill. When the bonny blade carouses, Pockets full, and spirits high, What are acres? What are houses? Only dirt, or wet or dry. 25 If the guardian or the mother Tell the woes of wilful waste, Scorn their counsel and their pother,* You can hang or drown at last. 1780 —Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) • fuss When I Was One-and-Twenty When I was one-and-twenty I heard a wise man say, ‘Give crowns and pounds and guineas But not your heart away; 5 Give pearls away and rubies But keep your fancy free.’ But I was one-and-twenty, No use to talk to me. When I was one-and-twenty 10 I heard him say again, ‘The heart out of the bosom Was never given in vain; ’Tis paid with sighs a plenty And sold for endless rue.’ 15 And I am two-and-twenty, And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true. 1896 —A. E. Housman (1859–1936) 2011 Poem: “An Echo Sonnet” (Robert Pack) Prompt: Read carefully the following poem by Robert Pack, paying close attention to the relationship between form and meaning. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze how the literary techniques used in this poem contribute to its meaning. AN ECHO SONNET To an Empty Page Voice: Echo: How from emptiness can I make a start? Start And starting, must I master joy or grief? Grief But is there consolation in the heart? Art Oh cold reprieve, where’s natural relief? Leaf 5 Leaf blooms, burns red before delighted eyes. Dies Here beauty makes of dying, ecstasy. See Yet what’s the end of our life’s long disease? Ease If death is not, who is my enemy? Me Then are you glad that I must end in sleep? Leap 10 I’d leap into the dark if dark were true. True And in that night would you rejoice or weep? Weep What contradiction makes you take this view? You I feel your calling leads me where I go. Go But whether happiness is there, you know. No 2011B Poem: “A Story” (Li-Young Lee) Prompt: The following poem is by the contemporary poet Li-Young Lee. Read the poem carefully. Then write a well-developed essay in which you analyze how the poet conveys the complex relationship of the father and the son through the use of literary devices such as point of view and structure. A Story Sad is the man who is asked for a story and can’t come up with one. His five-year-old son waits in his lap. Not the same story, Baba. A new one. 5 The man rubs his chin, scratches his ear. In a room full of books in a world of stories, he can recall not one, and soon, he thinks, the boy will give up on his father. 10 Already the man lives far ahead, he sees the day this boy will go. Don’t go! Hear the alligator story! The angel story once more! You love the spider story. You laugh at the spider. Let me tell it! 15 But the boy is packing his shirts, he is looking for his keys. Are you a god, the man screams, that I sit mute before you? Am I a god that I should never disappoint? But the boy is here. Please, Baba, a story? 20 It is an emotional rather than logical equation, an earthly rather than heavenly one, which posits that a boy’s supplications and a father’s love add up to silence. Li-Young Lee, “A Story” from The City in Which I Love You. 2014 Poem: “For That He Looked Not upon Her” by George Gascoigne Prompt: The following poem is by the sixteenth-century English poet George Gascoigne. Read the poem carefully. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the complex attitude of the speaker is developed through such devices as form, diction, and imagery. For That He Looked Not upon Her You must not wonder, though you think it strange, To see me hold my louring1 head so low; And that mine eyes take no delight to range About the gleams which on your face do grow. 5 The mouse which once hath broken out of trap Is seldom ’ticèd2 with the trustless bait, But lies aloof for fear of more mishap, And feedeth still in doubt of deep deceit. The scorchèd fly which once hath ’scaped the flame 10 Will hardly come to play again with fire, Whereby I learn that grievous is the game Which follows fancy dazzled by desire: So that I wink or else hold down my head, Because your blazing eyes my bale3 have bred. (1573) 1 gloomy 2 enticed 3 misery 2015 Poem: “XIV” (Derek Walcott) Prompt: In the following poem by Caribbean writer Derek Walcott, the speaker recalls a childhood experience of visiting an elderly woman storyteller. Read the poem carefully. Then, in a well-developed essay, discuss the speaker’s recollection and analyze how Walcott uses poetic devices to convey the significance of the experience. XIV With the frenzy of an old snake shedding its skin, the speckled road, scored with ruts, smelling of mold, twisted on itself and reentered the forest where the dasheen1 leaves thicken and folk stories begin. 5 Sunset would threaten us as we climbed closer to her house up the asphalt hill road, whose yam vines wrangled over gutters with the dark reek of moss, the shutters closing like the eyelids of that mimosa2 called Ti-Marie; then—lucent as paper lanterns, 10 lamplight glowed through the ribs, house after house— there was her own lamp at the black twist of the path. There’s childhood, and there’s childhood’s aftermath. She began to remember at the minute of the fireflies, to the sound of pipe water banging in kerosene tins, 15 stories she told to my brother and myself. Her leaves were the libraries of the Caribbean. The luck that was ours, those fragrant origins! Her head was magnificent, Sidone. In the gully of her voice shadows stood up and walked, her voice travels my shelves. She was the lamplight in the stare of two mesmerized boys still joined in one shadow, indivisible twins. 1 dasheen: tropical plant with large leaves 2 mimosa: tropical plant whose leaves close or droop when touched or shaken 2018 Poem: “Plants” (Olive Senior) Prompt: Carefully read Olive Senior’s poem, “Plants.” Then, in a well-organized essay, analyze how the poet portrays the complex relationships among the speaker, the implied audience, and plant life. You may wish to consider the author’s use of such literary techniques as syntax, diction, and figurative language. Plants Plants are deceptive. You see them there looking as if once rooted they know their places; not like animals, like us always running around, leaving traces. 5 Yet from the way they breed (excuse me!) and twine, from their exhibitionist and rather prolific nature, we must infer a sinister not to say imperialistic grand design. Perhaps you’ve regarded, 10 as beneath your notice, armies of mangrove on the march, roots in the air, clinging tendrils anchoring themselves everywhere? The world is full of shoots bent on conquest, invasive seedlings seeking wide open spaces, 15 matérial gathered for explosive dispersal in capsules and seed cases. Maybe you haven’t quite taken in the colonizing ambitions of hitchhiking burrs on your sweater, surf-riding nuts 20 bobbing on ocean, parachuting seeds and other airborne traffic dropping in. And what about those special agents called flowers? Dressed, perfumed,, and made-up for romancing insects, bats, birds, bees, even you— 25 —don’t deny it, my dear, I’ve seen you sniff and exclaim. Believe me, Innocent, that sweet fruit, that berry, is nothing more than ovary, the instrument to seduce you into scattering plant progeny. Part of 30 a vast cosmic program that once set in motion cannot be undone though we become plant food and earth wind down. They’ll outlast us, they were always there one step ahead of us: plants gone to seed, 35 generating the original profligate, extravagant, reckless, improvident, weed. Originally published in Gardening in the Tropics by Olive Senior. 2019 Poem: “The Landlady” (P. K. Page) Prompt: Carefully read P. K. Page's 1943 poem “The Landlady.” Then, in a well-organized essay, analyze the speaker’s complex portrayal of the landlady. You may wish to consider such elements as imagery, selection of detail, and tone. “The Landlady” by P. K. Page Through sepia air the boarders* come and go, impersonal as trains. Pass silently the craving silence swallowing her speech; click doors like shutters on her camera eye. 5 Because of her their lives become exact: their entrances and exits are designed; phone calls are cryptic. Oh, her ticklish ears advance and fall back stunned. Nothing is unprepared. They hold the walls 10 about them as they weep or laugh. Each face is dialled to zero publicly. She peers stippled with curious flesh; pads on the patient landing like a pulse, unlocks their keyholes with the wire of sight, 15 searches their rooms for clues when they are out, pricks when they come home late. Wonders when they are quiet, jumps when they move, dreams that they dope or drink, trembles to know the traffic of their brains, jaywalks their street 20 in clumsy shoes. Yet knows them better than their closest friends; their cupboards and the secrets of their drawers, their books, their private mail, their photographs are theirs and hers. 25 Knows when they wash, how frequently their clothes go to the cleaners, what they like to eat, their curvature of health, but even so is not content. And like a lover must know all, all, all, 30 Prays she my catch them unprepared at last and palm the dreadful riddle of their skulls – hoping the worst. *boarders: people who rent rooms in a private home.
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