Exploring the Text

1. How would you briefly paraphrase the analogy on which the entire poem depends?

   Question

   Exploring the Text: - How would you briefly paraphrase the analogy on which the entire poem depends?
2. How would you describe the tone of this poem? How is it created?

   Question

   Exploring the Text: - How would you describe the tone of this poem? How is it created?
3. What is the meaning of the final two lines?

   Question

   Exploring the Text: - What is the meaning of the final two lines?
4. Why do you think Henry Wadsworth Longfellow chose to write this poem as a sonnet? Which characteristics of the sonnet work particularly well for the ideas he wishes to present?

   Question

   Exploring the Text: - Why do you think Henry Wadsworth Longfellow chose to write this poem as a sonnet? Which characteristics of the sonnet work particularly well for the ideas he wishes to present?
5. This poem was composed nearly forty years after “A Psalm of Life.” How do the two poems differ? Are they expressive of the thoughts and attitudes of a younger and then an older man? Explain.

   Question

   Exploring the Text: - This poem was composed nearly forty years after “A Psalm of Life.” How do the two poems differ? Are they expressive of the thoughts and attitudes of a younger and then an older man? Explain.
6. How would you compare this poem with William Cullen Bryant’s “Thanatopsis” (p. 551)? How would each author regard the other’s poem? Explain.

   Question

   Exploring the Text: - How would you compare this poem with William Cullen Bryant’s “Thanatopsis” (p. 551)? How would each author regard the other’s poem? Explain.