How sound and shape carry a poem’s message

Grade 9 Reading Worksheet - Challenge Me

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Inventory (original poem)

   Stanza 1
   [1] The workshop keeps its order: hammers, saws,
   [2] a jar of screws arranged by size and thread,
   [3] a calendar still turned to last July,
   [4] a radio that no one has switched on.

   Stanza 2
   [5] I lift a wooden plane, its handle worn
   [6] into the shape of someone else's palm,
   [7] and fit my fingers where the wood is smooth,
   [8] and push, and feel it bite, and watch it curl.

   Stanza 3
   [9] Cedar and rust and oil: it smells of him.
   [10] I stand there with the shaving in my hand
   [11] and understand I will not sweep it up
   [12] and understand I cannot leave it, either.

   Stanza 4
   [13] The light moves slowly down the pegboard wall.
   [14] Somewhere a clock I cannot see keeps time.
   [15] I set the plane back down, its blade still bright,
   [16] and leave the shaving curled upon the bench.
   Annotations: mark each stressed syllable, and write what each stanza adds to the one before.

2. 1.

   Ari writes beside each stanza what it adds to the one before. Which choice best describes how stanza 2 builds on stanza 1?

   • It repeats the first stanza's list of objects, naming still more tools and jars in the same flat, distant tone.
   • The first stanza lists objects from afar; the second adds a person who feels a past hand in the handle.
   • It pulls back from the shop, moving from the speaker's touch to a list of tools seen from far away across the room.
   • It moves the scene to a different room, where the speaker meets the owner of the workshop and talks with him.
3. 2.

   Bo looks at the poem's sound pattern. Which choice best explains how its lack of rhyme fits its meaning?

   • The lines are unrhymed, which suits the list in stanza 1 but not the feeling that builds in stanzas 3 and 4.
   • The lines do not rhyme, so they sound like private speech, fitting a quiet grief left untied.
   • The lines rhyme in couplets, which gives the poem a comforting sing-song feel that softens the grief.
   • The lack of rhyme makes the poem sound formal and ceremonial, like a speech given at a funeral service.
4. 3.

   Jun writes beside each stanza what it adds to the one before. Which choice best describes how stanza 3 builds on stanza 2?

   • It reveals that the speaker made the shaving, and the speaker is proud of the finished work.
   • It repeats the plane and its handle, with more detail about what the hand feels in the wood.
   • The second stanza stays with touch; the third adds smell, which names the absent person.
   • It moves from the speaker's feeling back to a calm list of objects, with the person forgotten.
5. 4.

   Kira looks at how lines 11 and 12 are built. Which choice best explains how their form fits the meaning?

   • The repeat shows the speaker quickly and calmly accepting the loss without any struggle.
   • The repeated phrase is a refrain that rhymes with line 3 and closes the poem neatly at the end.
   • Both lines begin “and understand,” so a realization arrives in two steps, the second harder.
   • The repeat shows the speaker understanding that the shaving must be kept, and nothing more.
6. 5.

   Luz scans line 12, “and understand I cannot leave it, either.” Which choice shows its pattern and an effect of it?

   • Six iambic feet, because the line has eleven syllables, so it is longer than the lines around it.
   • Five regular iambic feet, with nothing in the line different from the lines that come before it.
   • Five iambs plus an extra unstressed syllable, so the line trails off like an unfinished choice.
   • Five iambic feet plus an extra syllable, which makes the line gallop like a race toward the end.

7. Tuning (original poem)

   Stanza 1
   [1] The kitchen radio sits between the salt and the sink.
   [2] I turn the knob and wait to hear
   [3] a voice. There is only a hiss,
   [4] a sheet of sand sliding over glass.

   Stanza 2
   [5] Sixty-one. Sixty-two. A sliver of song,
   [6] a scrap of someone selling trucks,
   [7] a weather report for a county I do not know,
   [8] each one gone before it finishes a word.

   Stanza 3
   [9] I turn the knob and wait to hear.
   [10] Closer.
   [11] A cello, low and clear,
   [12] then a voice
   [13] reading birthday names, each rolled like a warm coin.

   Stanza 4
   [14] Mine is not among them.
   [15] I leave the knob where it is.
   [16] The hiss waits patiently at either edge.
   Annotations: count the stressed syllables in each line, and note where the line length changes.

8. 6.

   Milo writes beside each stanza what it adds to the one before. Which choice best describes how stanza 2 builds on stanza 1?

   • It moves from clear voices to hiss, as the speaker gives up the search and stops turning the knob.
   • It repeats the first stanza's hiss in new words, with no change in what the radio gives the speaker.
   • The first stanza gives hiss; the second adds scraps of real stations that vanish, so the search teases.
   • It adds a second listener in the kitchen, who takes over the knob and changes the station twice.
9. 7.

   Noah looks at lines 2 and 9. Which choice best explains how repeating the line fits the meaning?

   • The repeated line is the poem's single rhyme, which gives the search a neat sound.
   • The repeated line shows the speaker giving up after failing twice.
   • Repeating the line frames the search twice: the first try ends in hiss, the second in music.
   • The repeated line shows the speaker's habit of searching but not that the second try succeeds.
10. 8.

    Pia scans line 2, “I turn the knob and wait to hear.” Which choice shows its pattern and an effect of it?

    • Four iambic feet: the steady da-DUM beat sounds like the slow, steady turning of a knob.
    • Four trochees: I-TURN the-KNOB and-WAIT to-HEAR, with the stress on the first of each pair.
    • Four iambic feet: the steady beat sounds like the hurried frustration of the search.
    • Three iambic feet: I TURN the KNOB, and WAIT to HEAR, with one stress for each phrase.
11. 9.

    Tala looks at the end words of lines 9 and 11. Which choice best explains how their sound fits the meaning?

    • The rhyme marks just the cello, and it says nothing about the voice that follows in the next line.
    • Hear and clear are the poem's first end rhyme, arriving just as the sound turns clear.
    • The rhyme of hear and clear echoes lines 2 and 4, which also rhyme with each other in the poem.
    • The rhyme sounds forced, showing that the speaker distrusts what is being heard on the radio.
12. 10.

    Zee scans line 10, “Closer.” Which choice shows its pattern and an effect of it?

    • One trochee, CLO-ser: the stress falls first, so the line sounds like the bow of the cello.
    • One iamb, clo-SER: the stress falls on the second syllable, so the line ends on a rising tone.
    • Two feet, because the line has two syllables and each syllable counts as a foot of its own.
    • One trochee, CLO-ser: stress first, and the one-word line is short as the sound draws near.