Alliteration, rhyme, repetition and poem forms

Grade 7 Reading Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Market Morning (original poem)

   Stanza 1
   [1] The market wakes with a clink and a clatter,
   [2] with crates that thump and carts that chatter.
   [3] The peaches are piled in pyramids high,
   [4] and the pink morning light spills over the sky.

   Stanza 2
   [5] A baker taps bread with a knuckle-knock beat,
   [6] and the crust cracks back with a crunchy retreat.
   [7] The buyers bump baskets and brush past the stall,
   [8] and the bell on the fruit stand rings out for all.

   Stanza 3
   [9] Then quiet creeps in as the noon sun climbs,
   [10] and the stalls drift off to the sound of the chimes.
   [11] The crates are all empty, the awning hangs low,
   [12] and the last of the peaches glow rosy and slow.

   Stanza 4
   [13] By evening the street is a soft, sleepy hum,
   [14] with a whisper of wheels as the last carts come.
   [15] The stalls fold away, and the cobbles grow still,
   [16] and the market lies down on the edge of the hill.
   Annotations: circle repeated sounds and end rhymes; mark each stanza.

2. 1.

   Ari circles clink in line 1 and thump in line 2. Which choice names the device in those words and what it adds?

   • Onomatopoeia: these are words that imitate sounds, and both of them appear in lines 1 and 2.
   • Alliteration: the two words repeat a starting sound, which makes the opening feel calm and smooth.
   • Onomatopoeia: the words sound like what they name, which makes the busy market easy to hear.
   • Onomatopoeia: the words sound like what they name, which makes the market seem silent and still.
3. 2.

   Bo checks how the lines end across the whole poem. Which choice names the form and the clue that shows it?

   • Free verse: the lines have different lengths and no rhyme pattern anywhere.
   • Couplets: each pair of lines in a row ends with a matching pair of rhyming words.
   • Couplets: the poem has four stanzas and sixteen lines altogether.
   • Couplets: the second line of each stanza repeats the first line of that stanza.
4. 3.

   Esme compares stanza 1 with stanza 4. Which choice says how the sounds change and what that adds?

   • Stanza 1 has sound words like clink and thump, and stanza 4 has sound words like hum and whisper, so both use sound.
   • Soft sounds like hum and whisper give way to loud, hard ones like clink and thump, so the day wakes up.
   • Loud, hard sounds like clink and thump give way to soft ones like hum and whisper, so the day winds down.
   • Rhyme stops after stanza 1 and comes back in stanza 4, so the end of the day feels unfinished.
5. 4.

   Jun circles the b sounds in line 7. Which choice names the device and what it adds?

   • Alliteration: the repeated b sounds bump along, which makes the crowd feel slow and sleepy.
   • Alliteration: the repeated b sounds bump along, which makes the crowd feel busy and jostling.
   • Rhyme: the b words end with the same sound, which makes the stall seem finished and still.
   • Alliteration: several words begin with the same b sound, and they appear in line 7.
6. 5.

   Kira looks for hard k and c sounds. Which two lines use them to make the baking sound crisp?

   • [5] A baker taps bread with a knuckle-knock beat, + [6] and the crust cracks back with a crunchy retreat.
   • [3] The peaches are piled in pyramids high, + [10] and the stalls drift off to the sound of the chimes.
   • [5] A baker taps bread with a knuckle-knock beat, + [13] By evening the street is a soft, sleepy hum,
   • [12] and the last of the peaches glow rosy and slow. + [13] By evening the street is a soft, sleepy hum,
7. 6.

   Luz reads stanza 3 after stanza 2. Which choice says how the sounds change and what that adds?

   • Slow words like low and slow give way to busy sounds like bump and ring, so the noon hour feels crowded.
   • Busy sounds like bump and ring give way to slow words like low and slow, so the noon hour feels quiet.
   • Stanza 2 has sound words like bump and ring, and stanza 3 has slow words like low and slow, so both use sound.
   • The rhymes stop after stanza 2 and start again in stanza 4, so the noon hour feels broken and unfinished.

8. Snow Day (original poem)

   Stanza 1
   [1] No bus.
   [2] No bell.
   [3] Only the soft, slow snow, snow, snow
   [4] sliding down the glass.

   Stanza 2
   [5] The street is gone under a blanket. The mailbox wears a white hat.
   [6] Somewhere a shovel scrapes, then stops.
   [7] Quiet.
   [8] The kind of quiet you can hear.

   Stanza 3
   [9] I drag the sled to the top of the hill,
   [10] and the whole town below me holds its breath,
   [11] and then I push off, and the wind fills my ears,
   [12] and the quiet breaks into laughing.

   Stanza 4
   [13] Down.
   [14] Down.
   [15] Down.
   [16] And the hill is long enough to be a whole afternoon.
   Annotations: circle repeated sounds and end rhymes; mark each stanza.

9. 7.

   Noah checks the line endings and the line lengths. Which choice names the poem's form and the clue that shows it?

   • Free verse: the last word of each line rhymes with the first word of the next line.
   • Free verse: the lines vary in length and the poem has no regular rhyme pattern.
   • Couplets: the lines come in rhyming pairs at the end of each stanza.
   • Free verse: the poem has four stanzas of four lines each, with a sled hill as its setting.
10. 8.

    Pia compares the short lines of stanza 1 with the longer lines of stanza 3. Which choice says what the change in length adds?

    • Short lines in stanza 1 feel rushed, and longer lines in stanza 3 feel sudden and cramped.
    • Short lines in stanza 1 name what is missing, and longer lines in stanza 3 name what the sled does.
    • Short lines in stanza 1 rhyme with longer lines in stanza 3, and that links the town to the hill.
    • Short lines in stanza 1 feel still, and longer lines in stanza 3 move forward like the sled.
11. 9.

    Ren circles Down in lines 13, 14 and 15. Which choice names the device and what it adds?

    • Repetition: the word Down is repeated on lines of its own, so the sled seems to speed down the hill.
    • Repetition: the word Down is repeated on lines of its own, so the sled seems to stop at the bottom of the hill.
    • Onomatopoeia: Down sounds like the sled on the snow, which makes the hill seem noisy and bumpy.
    • Repetition: the one word Down appears in three lines, one right after another.
12. 10.

    Zee compares stanza 2 with stanza 4. Which choice says how the sounds change and what that adds?

    • Hushed lines like Quiet in stanza 2 give way to the repeated Down of stanza 4, so the ride feels like a release.
    • Rhyme joins the ends of stanza 2 to the ends of stanza 4, so the ride feels tied to the quiet street.
    • Rushing lines like Down in stanza 2 give way to the hushed Quiet of stanza 4, so the ride ends calmly and slowly.
    • Stanza 2 has the word Quiet, and stanza 4 has the word Down, so each stanza repeats a word.