How a poem’s form, speaker and sound work together

Grade 11 Reading Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer (Walt Whitman, 1865, with our notes)

   Background:
   [1] Walt Whitman first published this poem in 1865 in Drum-Taps, and later placed it in Leaves of Grass, whose final edition of 1891 to 1892 is the text printed here.
   [2] Whitman is known for free verse, poetry that has no regular meter and no rhyme scheme, so its rhythm comes from repetition and from the changing lengths of its lines.
   [3] In the nineteenth century, popular public lectures on astronomy drew large paying audiences in American towns and cities.
   [4] The whole poem is one long sentence of eight lines, printed here in two numbered parts.

   The poem:
   [5] When I heard the learn’d astronomer, / When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, / When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, / When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
   [6] How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, / Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself, / In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, / Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

   Word notes:
   [7] “Learn’d” means learned, or highly educated, and an astronomer is a scientist who studies the stars and planets.
   [8] “Ranged in columns” means arranged in neat columns of numbers, like a table of calculations.
   [9] “Unaccountable” here means for no reason the speaker can explain, and “sick” means weary or fed up.
   [10] “Mystical” describes something that seems mysterious and beyond ordinary explanation.
   [11] The fourth line is so long that it wraps onto a second printed line in many editions.
   [12] Repeating the same word at the start of several lines is called anaphora.
   [13] A pause inside a line, often marked by a comma, is called a caesura.
   [14] When a sentence runs on past the end of a line without a pause, the technique is called enjambment.

2. 1.

   Bo marks the pauses inside lines in part 5. What do the caesuras in “When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me” suggest?

   • The commas make the line flow smoothly, so the lecture feels calm, orderly and easy to follow.
   • The commas chop the line into items, like a list of data, so the lecture feels cluttered.
   • The comma at the very end of the line is the caesura, and it gives the reader a moment of rest.
   • In “Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.” a caesura stops the speaker halfway through looking up.
3. 2.

   Esme is reading part 6 aloud. The line “In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,” pauses in the middle. What does that caesura do?

   • The comma after “time to time” is the caesura, and it joins this line smoothly to the last line.
   • It makes the line abrupt and tense, as if the speaker were angry at the lecturer for talking so long.
   • It shows the line is very long, since part 11 says this line wraps onto a second printed line.
   • It splits the line into two calm halves, slowing the pace as the speaker drifts into the night.
4. 3.

   Jun compares the lines of part 5. Which line uses pauses inside it to break the lecture into a series of tasks, and with what effect?

   • “where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,”: the comma at its end breaks the lecture into tasks.
   • “When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them”: the pauses make the work sound exciting.
   • “to add, divide, and measure them”: commas split the lecture into tasks, so it sounds like drill.
   • “When I heard the learn’d astronomer,”: the pause in this line breaks the lecture into its separate tasks.
5. 4.

   Kira listens to part 6. Which sound pattern fits the move from the lecture-room into the night, and what does it add?

   • Soft repeated m and s sounds in “mystical moist” and “silence at the stars” make the ending hushed and gentle.
   • Alliteration: “mystical moist” both begin with the letter m, which is a sound device that Whitman uses in this line.
   • End rhyme: “time” and “stars” rhyme, so the poem closes on a neat, chiming sound like a song.
   • Hard, clashing sounds in “mystical moist night-air” make the ending tense and harsh, like the lecture.

6. Hope is the thing with feathers (Emily Dickinson, printed 1891, with our notes)

   Background:
   [1] Emily Dickinson wrote nearly eighteen hundred poems in Amherst, Massachusetts, but very few were published during her lifetime.
   [2] This poem first appeared in 1891 in Poems, Second Series, edited by Mabel Loomis Todd and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, who gave it the title “Hope” and replaced many of her dashes with ordinary punctuation.
   [3] The poem is printed here exactly as it appeared in that 1891 edition, including the editors’ punctuation.
   [4] Its stanzas are quatrains in common meter, the pattern of many old ballads, in which lines of four beats alternate with lines of three beats.
   [5] Dickinson often used slant rhyme, in which the final sounds are close but not identical.

   The poem:
   [6] Hope is the thing with feathers / That perches in the soul, / And sings the tune without the words, / And never stops at all,
   [7] And sweetest in the gale is heard; / And sore must be the storm / That could abash the little bird / That kept so many warm.
   [8] I’ve heard it in the chillest land, / And on the strangest sea; / Yet, never, in extremity, / It asked a crumb of me.

   Word notes:
   [9] A “gale” is a very strong, dangerous wind at sea or on land, and “sore” here means severe, harsh or painfully intense.
   [10] To “abash” someone is to make that person feel embarrassed, discouraged or ashamed, so that the person falls silent.
   [11] “Extremity” means the most extreme hardship or danger that a person can face, at the very limit of endurance.
   [12] A “crumb” is a tiny piece of bread, the smallest possible gift that anyone could offer a small, hungry bird.
   [13] A poem that develops a single comparison through every stanza is often described as using an extended metaphor.
   [14] The 1891 printing used an apostrophe with a space in “I ’ve”, which is closed up here for easier reading.

7. 5.

   Luz reads part 7 aloud. It sets “sweetest in the gale” beside “sore must be the storm.” What do the repeated s sounds add?

   • Assonance: the same vowel sound repeats in “sweetest”, “sore” and “storm”, which gives the second stanza its music.
   • Alliteration: “sweetest”, “sore” and “storm” each begin with s, which links the words together by sound.
   • The hissing s sounds carry the noise of the wind, so the reader hears the gale that the little bird sings through.
   • The soft s sounds make the stanza calm and sleepy, like a bird resting on a quiet day.
8. 6.

   Milo notices that three lines in part 6 begin with “And”. What does this repeated sound and rhythm add to the picture of hope?

   • The chain of “And” lines keeps adding actions without stopping, like the bird that “never stops at all”.
   • Anaphora: the same word begins several lines in a row, which is a device of repetition.
   • The repeated “And” makes hope sound weak and tired, as if the bird can barely keep singing.
   • Rhyme: the word “And” rhymes with itself at the start of each line, so the stanza sounds tidy.
9. 7.

   Noah compares rhymes. Part 6 pairs “soul” with “all”, but part 8 pairs “sea” with “me”. What does this change in sound suggest?

   • The near rhyme at the start settles into a full rhyme at the end, so the poem closes firmly.
   • Part 5 says that Dickinson often used slant rhyme, so both of these pairs must be slant rhymes.
   • Both pairs are rhymes at the ends of the second and fourth lines, the usual pattern of common meter.
   • “soul” and “all” are a full rhyme, while “sea” and “me” are a slant rhyme that leaves the end uncertain.
10. 8.

    Pia is marking the turn in the margin. The first two stanzas describe hope as a bird. What changes in part 8, and why does it matter?

    • Dickinson tells readers that she wrote the poem while living in a cold land far from Amherst, Massachusetts.
    • With “I’ve heard it”, the speaker turns from describing hope to personal testimony that it asks nothing.
    • The editors replaced the dashes with commas in part 8, so the last stanza reads differently from the others.
    • Part 7 turns away from the bird and describes a storm at sea that the speaker barely survived.
11. 9.

    Ren is labeling the form. The stanzas alternate lines of four beats and three beats. How does this common meter suit the poem?

    • Its broken, uneven beat makes the poem sound anxious, like a bird lost and struggling in a storm.
    • It alternates four-beat and three-beat lines in rhymed quatrains, which is the regular pattern called common meter.
    • Its long, unrhymed lines of blank verse sound like ordinary speech, matching the speaker’s plain story.
    • Its steady, song-like beat matches the poem’s picture of hope as a bird that “sings the tune” and never stops.

12. When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer (Walt Whitman, 1865, with our notes)

    Background:
    [1] Walt Whitman first published this poem in 1865 in Drum-Taps, and later placed it in Leaves of Grass, whose final edition of 1891 to 1892 is the text printed here.
    [2] Whitman is known for free verse, poetry that has no regular meter and no rhyme scheme, so its rhythm comes from repetition and from the changing lengths of its lines.
    [3] In the nineteenth century, popular public lectures on astronomy drew large paying audiences in American towns and cities.
    [4] The whole poem is one long sentence of eight lines, printed here in two numbered parts.

    The poem:
    [5] When I heard the learn’d astronomer, / When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, / When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, / When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
    [6] How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, / Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself, / In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time, / Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

    Word notes:
    [7] “Learn’d” means learned, or highly educated, and an astronomer is a scientist who studies the stars and planets.
    [8] “Ranged in columns” means arranged in neat columns of numbers, like a table of calculations.
    [9] “Unaccountable” here means for no reason the speaker can explain, and “sick” means weary or fed up.
    [10] “Mystical” describes something that seems mysterious and beyond ordinary explanation.
    [11] The fourth line is so long that it wraps onto a second printed line in many editions.
    [12] Repeating the same word at the start of several lines is called anaphora.
    [13] A pause inside a line, often marked by a comma, is called a caesura.
    [14] When a sentence runs on past the end of a line without a pause, the technique is called enjambment.

13. 10.

    Tala is marking the turn in this one-sentence poem. Where does the poem turn, and what does the turn change?

    • In 1865, when Whitman published the poem in Drum-Taps and later moved it into Leaves of Grass.
    • At the last line, where the speaker finally looks at the stars and decides to study astronomy.
    • At the fourth line, where the lecturer finally wins “much applause” and the speaker happily joins in.
    • At “How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick”, the speaker leaves the crowded lecture for the silent stars.