A poem and the time it came from

Grade 11 Reading Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   The Village Blacksmith (excerpt) (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1841, with a period note)

   Period note:
   [1] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a professor at Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, published this poem in 1841 in his book Ballads and Other Poems.
   [2] In the 1840s most American communities still depended on independent craftsmen such as blacksmiths, who manufactured horseshoes, tools and wagon parts by hand.
   [3] At the same time, large factories were spreading across New England, and many families were still recovering from the money panic of 1837, which left them deep in debt.
   [4] The text comes from a later collected edition of Longfellow’s poems.

   The poem (stanzas 1 to 3, 7 and 8):
   [5] Under a spreading chestnut-tree / The village smithy stands; / The smith, a mighty man is he, / With large and sinewy hands; / And the muscles of his brawny arms / Are strong as iron bands.
   [6] His hair is crisp, and black, and long, / His face is like the tan; / His brow is wet with honest sweat, / He earns whate’er he can, / And looks the whole world in the face, / For he owes not any man.
   [7] Week in, week out, from morn till night, / You can hear his bellows blow; / You can hear him swing his heavy sledge, / With measured beat and slow, / …
   …
   [8] Toiling,—rejoicing,—sorrowing, / Onward through life he goes; / Each morning sees some task begin, / Each evening sees it close / Something attempted, something done, / Has earned a night’s repose.
   [9] Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend, / For the lesson thou hast taught! / Thus at the flaming forge of life / Our fortunes must be wrought; / Thus on its sounding anvil shaped / Each burning deed and thought.

   Word notes:
   [10] A smithy is a blacksmith’s workshop, “sinewy” means lean and strong, and “brawny” means muscular.
   [11] The bellows is a bag that blows air to make the fire hotter, and a sledge is a heavy hammer.
   [12] The forge is the blacksmith’s fire, and an anvil is the heavy iron block on which metal is hammered.
   [13] “Repose” means rest, and “wrought” means shaped or made, as hot iron is shaped by hammering.
   [14] The cuts remove two lines comparing the hammer to a church bell, a stanza about village children, and two stanzas about church and the smith’s late wife.

2. 1.

   Ari reads the period note: most towns depended on craftsmen while factories spread. How would a reader in 1841 hear part 5’s “The village smithy stands”?

   • As a description of a tree and a small building that happen to stand beside a village road.
   • As a picture of a familiar, independent trade that still held the town together as factories spread.
   • As a protest against the cars and trucks that were driving blacksmiths out of business.
   • As a reminder that Longfellow taught at Harvard College in Cambridge, as part 1 says.
3. 2.

   Esme needs proof from the poem. Which line best shows the period’s respect for paying one’s own way after the panic of 1837?

   • Many families were still recovering from the money panic of 1837 (part 3).
   • “And looks the whole world in the face, / For he owes not any man.”
   • “With large and sinewy hands;”
   • “His brow is wet with honest sweat,”
4. 3.

   Jun reads part 9, which calls life a “flaming forge” where “Our fortunes must be wrought.” Read in its time, what does this closing image suggest?

   • That everyone, not only craftsmen, shapes a life by steady effort, as the smith shapes iron.
   • That the speaker wants to learn blacksmithing and open a forge of his own one day.
   • That life is a punishment, a fire that burns everyone who works too hard.
   • That “wrought” means shaped or made, as part 13 of the word notes explains.

5. When Dawn Comes to the City (excerpt) (Claude McKay, 1922, with a period note)

   Period note:
   [1] Claude McKay was born in Jamaica, then a British colony in the Caribbean, and moved to the United States in 1912.
   [2] In the 1910s and 1920s, hundreds of thousands of Black Americans from the rural South, and many immigrants from the Caribbean, moved to northern cities such as New York to find work.
   [3] Many newcomers lived in crowded apartment buildings called tenements and worked long hours in factories, shops and service jobs.
   [4] McKay collected this poem in Harlem Shadows, published in 1922, a book often counted among the first of the Harlem Renaissance.

   The poem (the first two stanzas):
   [5] The tired cars go grumbling by, / The moaning, groaning cars, / And the old milk carts go rumbling by / Under the same dull stars.
   [6] Out of the tenements, cold as stone, / Dark figures start for work; / I watch them sadly shuffle on, / ’Tis dawn, dawn in New York.
   [7] But I would be on the island of the sea, / In the heart of the island of the sea, / Where the cocks are crowing, crowing, crowing, / And the hens are cackling in the rose-apple tree,
   [8] Where the old draft-horse is neighing, neighing, neighing / Out on the brown dew-silvered lawn, / And the tethered cow is lowing, lowing, lowing, / And dear old Ned is braying, braying, braying, / And the shaggy Nannie goat is calling, calling, calling / From her little trampled corner of the long wide lea / That stretches to the waters of the hill-stream falling / Sheer upon the flat rocks joyously!
   [9] There, oh there! on the island of the sea, / There I would be at dawn.
   …

   Word notes:
   [10] The “cars” are streetcars, electric passenger vehicles that operated on rails along city avenues.
   [11] A draft-horse pulls heavy loads, a tethered cow is tied to a post, “lowing” is mooing, and Ned is a donkey, which brays.
   [12] A lea is an open, grassy meadow used for pasture.
   [13] A rose-apple tree is a tropical fruit tree that commonly grows throughout the Caribbean islands.
   [14] The poem continues with two more stanzas that repeat this pattern, and they are left out here.

6. 4.

   Kira reads the period note about migrants moving to northern cities for work. How does that change the reading of “Dark figures start for work”?

   • The figures are simply the shadows of buildings, dark because the sun has not risen yet.
   • Many newcomers worked long hours in factories, shops and service jobs (part 3).
   • The figures are factory children of the 1800s, before laws ended child labor.
   • The figures become newcomers like the speaker, going to long, hard jobs far from the homes they left.
7. 5.

   Luz is labeling the speaker’s attitude in the margin. What is the speaker’s attitude toward New York at dawn?

   • Weary sadness: the city is dull and cold, and the speaker longs to be back on the island.
   • Excitement: the speaker loves the busy streets and is glad to be part of the waking city.
   • The poem uses sound words like “grumbling” and “groaning”, which is called onomatopoeia.
   • Dislike of the noisy streetcars, which wake the speaker too early each morning.
8. 6.

   Milo needs proof from the poem. Which line best shows the speaker’s homesickness for the island?

   • “And the hens are cackling in the rose-apple tree,”
   • “I watch them sadly shuffle on,”
   • Claude McKay was born in Jamaica and moved to the United States in 1912 (part 1).
   • “There, oh there! on the island of the sea, / There I would be at dawn.”

9. The Village Blacksmith (excerpt) (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1841, with a period note)

   Period note:
   [1] Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a professor at Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, published this poem in 1841 in his book Ballads and Other Poems.
   [2] In the 1840s most American communities still depended on independent craftsmen such as blacksmiths, who manufactured horseshoes, tools and wagon parts by hand.
   [3] At the same time, large factories were spreading across New England, and many families were still recovering from the money panic of 1837, which left them deep in debt.
   [4] The text comes from a later collected edition of Longfellow’s poems.

   The poem (stanzas 1 to 3, 7 and 8):
   [5] Under a spreading chestnut-tree / The village smithy stands; / The smith, a mighty man is he, / With large and sinewy hands; / And the muscles of his brawny arms / Are strong as iron bands.
   [6] His hair is crisp, and black, and long, / His face is like the tan; / His brow is wet with honest sweat, / He earns whate’er he can, / And looks the whole world in the face, / For he owes not any man.
   [7] Week in, week out, from morn till night, / You can hear his bellows blow; / You can hear him swing his heavy sledge, / With measured beat and slow, / …
   …
   [8] Toiling,—rejoicing,—sorrowing, / Onward through life he goes; / Each morning sees some task begin, / Each evening sees it close / Something attempted, something done, / Has earned a night’s repose.
   [9] Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend, / For the lesson thou hast taught! / Thus at the flaming forge of life / Our fortunes must be wrought; / Thus on its sounding anvil shaped / Each burning deed and thought.

   Word notes:
   [10] A smithy is a blacksmith’s workshop, “sinewy” means lean and strong, and “brawny” means muscular.
   [11] The bellows is a bag that blows air to make the fire hotter, and a sledge is a heavy hammer.
   [12] The forge is the blacksmith’s fire, and an anvil is the heavy iron block on which metal is hammered.
   [13] “Repose” means rest, and “wrought” means shaped or made, as hot iron is shaped by hammering.
   [14] The cuts remove two lines comparing the hammer to a church bell, a stanza about village children, and two stanzas about church and the smith’s late wife.

10. 7.

    Pia reads part 8, which begins “Toiling,—rejoicing,—sorrowing.” What does this line add to the poem’s view of the smith?

    • It warns that factory work was making craftsmen miserable in the 1840s.
    • His life holds joy and grief as well as work, yet he keeps going, which deepens the admiration.
    • It shows simply that the smith works hard each day of the week.
    • It shows that the smith has given up, worn down by toil and sorrow.
11. 8.

    Ren needs proof from the poem. Which line best shows that the smith’s work brings him rest he has earned?

    • “Repose” means rest, as part 13 of the word notes explains in a short entry.
    • “Something attempted, something done, / Has earned a night’s repose.”
    • “Week in, week out, from morn till night,”
    • “Each morning sees some task begin,”

12. When Dawn Comes to the City (excerpt) (Claude McKay, 1922, with a period note)

    Period note:
    [1] Claude McKay was born in Jamaica, then a British colony in the Caribbean, and moved to the United States in 1912.
    [2] In the 1910s and 1920s, hundreds of thousands of Black Americans from the rural South, and many immigrants from the Caribbean, moved to northern cities such as New York to find work.
    [3] Many newcomers lived in crowded apartment buildings called tenements and worked long hours in factories, shops and service jobs.
    [4] McKay collected this poem in Harlem Shadows, published in 1922, a book often counted among the first of the Harlem Renaissance.

    The poem (the first two stanzas):
    [5] The tired cars go grumbling by, / The moaning, groaning cars, / And the old milk carts go rumbling by / Under the same dull stars.
    [6] Out of the tenements, cold as stone, / Dark figures start for work; / I watch them sadly shuffle on, / ’Tis dawn, dawn in New York.
    [7] But I would be on the island of the sea, / In the heart of the island of the sea, / Where the cocks are crowing, crowing, crowing, / And the hens are cackling in the rose-apple tree,
    [8] Where the old draft-horse is neighing, neighing, neighing / Out on the brown dew-silvered lawn, / And the tethered cow is lowing, lowing, lowing, / And dear old Ned is braying, braying, braying, / And the shaggy Nannie goat is calling, calling, calling / From her little trampled corner of the long wide lea / That stretches to the waters of the hill-stream falling / Sheer upon the flat rocks joyously!
    [9] There, oh there! on the island of the sea, / There I would be at dawn.
    …

    Word notes:
    [10] The “cars” are streetcars, electric passenger vehicles that operated on rails along city avenues.
    [11] A draft-horse pulls heavy loads, a tethered cow is tied to a post, “lowing” is mooing, and Ned is a donkey, which brays.
    [12] A lea is an open, grassy meadow used for pasture.
    [13] A rose-apple tree is a tropical fruit tree that commonly grows throughout the Caribbean islands.
    [14] The poem continues with two more stanzas that repeat this pattern, and they are left out here.

13. 9.

    Tala looks at the speaker’s position, “I watch them sadly shuffle on”. How does it shape the poem’s view of the city?

    • The speaker pities the workers but feels perfectly at home in New York.
    • The speaker stands apart, a lonely onlooker sharing the workers’ weariness.
    • The speaker is Claude McKay, who moved to the United States in 1912, as part 1 says.
    • The speaker feels proud to join the workers and hurries along to work with them.
14. 10.

    Zee needs proof from the poem. Which line best shows the hard conditions that many newcomers faced in the city?

    • “The tired cars go grumbling by,”
    • “Out of the tenements, cold as stone, / Dark figures start for work;”
    • Many newcomers lived in crowded apartment buildings called tenements (part 3).
    • “Where the old draft-horse is neighing, neighing, neighing”