Question

Directions
You will read and analyze four poems. Annotate each poem and answer all questions using
text evidence. You must analyze rhyme scheme, imagery, figurative language, tone, and
structure.
Annotation Requirements
Circle unfamiliar words
Underline figurative language
Box imagery
Label rhyme scheme
Write at least 2 notes per stanza
Poem 1: Dreams by Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
Questions
1. Identify the rhyme scheme.
2. What imagery is used? Explain.
3. Identify two examples of figurative language and explain them.
4. What tone is created? Use evidence.
Poem 2: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Questions
1. Identify the rhyme scheme of stanza 1.
2. What imagery helps you visualize the setting?
3. What do the roads symbolize?
4. Identify figurative language and explain it.
5. How does tone develop?
Poem 3: Mother to Son by Langston Hughes
Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
Questions
1. What is the extended metaphor?
2. Identify imagery and explain it.
3. How does diction affect tone?
4. Is this free verse or rhyme? Explain.
5. What is the message?
Poem 4: I, Too by Langston Hughes
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—

Answer 1

Poem 1: "Dreams" — Langston Hughes
Text (for reference)
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

Annotation summary
- Unfamiliar words: none (no words to circle).
- Rhyme scheme: Each quatrain is ABCB (stanza 1 = A B C B; stanza 2 = D E F E).
- Imagery (boxed): "broken-winged bird"; "barren field / Frozen with snow" — strong visual and tactile images of helplessness and desolation.
- Figurative language (underlined):
- _"Life is a broken-winged bird"_ (metaphor)
- _"Life is a barren field / Frozen with snow"_ (metaphor / extended image)
- Structure: two quatrains, short lines, repetition of "Hold fast to dreams" (imperative, refrain) gives urgency and symmetry.
- Tone: cautionary and urgent with melancholic warning; the repeated command plus bleak images create an urgent, serious mood.

Notes (at least 2 per stanza)
Stanza 1:
- Refrain: "Hold fast to dreams" — commanding, urgent plea to keep dreams alive.
- Metaphor: "Life is a broken-winged bird / That cannot fly." — life without dreams is crippled and powerless; visual image emphasizes helplessness.
- Word choice: "die" is stark and final, heightening the warning.

Stanza 2:
- Refrain repeated — reinforces importance and universality of the message.
- Metaphor: "Life is a barren field / Frozen with snow." — conveys sterility, coldness, lack of growth when dreams are gone.
- Contrast: "barren" and "frozen" suggest both emotional and physical desolation.

Questions
1. Identify the rhyme scheme.
- Each stanza follows ABCB (stanza 1 = A B C B; stanza 2 = D E F E).

2. What imagery is used? Explain.
- Visual and tactile imagery: "broken-winged bird" (visual of a bird that cannot fly) and "barren field / Frozen with snow" (visual and tactile sense of cold, emptiness). Both depict life as diminished or lifeless without dreams.

3. Identify two examples of figurative language and explain them.
- "Life is a broken-winged bird / That cannot fly." — metaphor: compares life without dreams to a bird unable to fly, suggesting loss of freedom, motion, purpose.
- "Life is a barren field / Frozen with snow." — metaphor: compares life without dreams to an infertile, frozen field, suggesting no growth or future.

4. What tone is created? Use evidence.
- Tone is urgent and cautionary (imperative "Hold fast to dreams") and mournful/bleak (words like "die," "broken-winged," "barren," "frozen") — poem warns that losing dreams leads to a powerless, lifeless existence.

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Poem 2: "The Road Not Taken" — Robert Frost
Text (reference kept brief in your sheet)

Annotation summary
- Unfamiliar words: none to circle.
- Rhyme scheme of stanza 1: ABAAB (lines 1–5: wood (A), both (B), stood (A), could (A), undergrowth (B)).
- Imagery (boxed): "yellow wood," "grassy and wanted wear," "leaves no step had trodden black," "bent in the undergrowth" — paints an autumnal forest and two paths.
- Figurative language (underlined):
- _"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood"_ (metaphor for life's choices)
- _"I shall be telling this with a sigh"_ (emotional tone / foreshadowing)
- _"way leads on to way"_ (metaphorical for consequences)
- Structure: four stanzas of five lines (ABAAB rhyme pattern repeats in each stanza), regular stanza form with conversational, reflective tone.
- Tone development: starts thoughtful/uncertain, becomes decisive in the present, and ends reflective/ambiguous (the "sigh" creates uncertainty whether it's regret or satisfaction).

Notes (at least 2 per stanza)
Stanza 1 (lines 1–5):
- Setting image: "yellow wood" immediately gives season (autumn) and a visual backdrop.
- Rhyme scheme ABAAB stabilizes the stanza; speaker is pausing to consider options ("long I stood").
- "To where it bent in the undergrowth" — limited visibility, meaning choices have unknown outcomes.

Stanza 2 (lines 6–10):
- Describes the two paths: "grassy and wanted wear" — one seems less worn but the speaker later questions that appearance.
- The speaker justifies choice ("having perhaps the better claim") but admits uncertainty ("Though as for that the passing there / Had worn them really about the same").

Stanza 3 (lines 11–15):
- "Oh, I kept the first for another day!" — wishful thinking, but immediately tempered by realism ("I doubted if I should ever come back").
- "Leaves no step had trodden black" — image of fresh, untouched path; suggests novelty of choice.

Stanza 4 (lines 16–20):
- Future-tense reflection: "I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence" — speaker imagines telling the story later, tone uncertain (sigh).
- Final lines ambiguous: "I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference." The speaker claims a defining choice, but earlier admits both roads were "really about the same," making the claim ambiguous.

Questions
1. Identify the rhyme scheme of stanza 1.
- ABAAB.

2. What imagery helps you visualize the setting?
- "Yellow wood" (autumn forest); "grassy and wanted wear" (texture of the path); "leaves no step had trodden black" (fresh, untouched leaves) — these sensory images create a clear forest setting.

3. What do the roads symbolize?
- The two roads symbolize life choices or decisions — different directions one may take with uncertain future consequences.

4. Identify figurative language and explain it.
- Metaphor: "Two roads diverged" — the literal fork stands for life's diverging choices.
- Personification/idiomatic metaphor: "way leads on to way" — choices lead to other choices; actions have consequences.
- The "sigh" is an emotive device foreshadowing possible regret or wistfulness about the choice.

5. How does tone develop?
- Begins contemplative and indecisive ("sorry I could not travel both," "long I stood"), then becomes decisive in the telling ("I took the one less traveled by"), and ends reflective and ambiguous with a "sigh" — the final lines claim significance, but earlier admissions make that significance uncertain.

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Poem 3: "Mother to Son" — Langston Hughes
Text (reference)

Annotation summary
- Unfamiliar words: none to circle (dialectal forms like "I’se" are recognizable as colloquial).
- Extended metaphor: life compared to a staircase (not a "crystal stair") — the mother describes obstacles on the stairs as hardships in life.
- Imagery (boxed): "tacks," "splinters," "boards torn up," "places with no carpet," "go in the dark" — tactile and visual images of a broken, dangerous staircase.
- Figurative language (underlined):
- _"Life for me ain't been no crystal stair."_ (metaphor)
- _"I’se been a-climbin' on"_ (extended metaphor continuation)
- Structure: free-verse-like speech; conversational lines, no regular rhyme scheme, uses dialect and colloquial contractions to convey voice.
- Tone: determined, encouraging, resilient; the mother's voice is firm and instructive.

Notes (single stanza — at least two notes)
- Extended metaphor runs entire poem: the staircase's tacks, splinters, torn boards represent hardships and obstacles in the mother's life.
- Imagery is tactile and concrete ("splinters," "boards torn up") giving a vivid sense of physical struggle and danger.
- Diction and dialect ("I’se," "ain’t") create intimacy and authenticity; the speaker is a mother giving hard-earned advice.
- Repetition and direct commands ("Don’t you turn back. / Don’t you set down on the steps") create an urging, persistent tone of perseverance.

Questions
1. What is the extended metaphor?
- Life is an imperfect, hazardous staircase (not a "crystal stair"). The mother's climb = her life and struggles.

2. Identify imagery and explain it.
- Tactile/visual images: "tacks," "splinters," "boards torn up," "places with no carpet" — these images make the hardships feel immediate and painful, conveying the difficulty of her life.

3. How does diction affect tone?
- Colloquial, dialectal diction ("I’se," "ain’t," "boy") creates an intimate, authoritative, and honest voice. It makes the tone conversational, firm, and maternal while emphasizing resilience.

4. Is this free verse or rhyme? Explain.
- Free verse (no regular rhyme scheme or consistent meter). The poem reads like spoken language and uses line breaks for emphasis rather than metrical pattern.

5. What is the message?
- Persevere despite hardships. The mother urges her son not to give up; keep climbing and pushing forward even when life is difficult.

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Poem 4: "I, Too" — Langston Hughes
Text (reference)

Annotation summary
- Unfamiliar words: none to circle.
- Rhyme scheme: none (free verse; no regular rhyme).
- Imagery (boxed): "eat in the kitchen," "be at the table," "they'll see how beautiful I am" — domestic images stand for social inclusion/exclusion and eventual recognition.
- Figurative language (underlined):
- _"I, too, sing America."_ (metaphor: claiming belonging)
- _"I am the darker brother."_ (family metaphor for fellow citizens)
- _"They send me to eat in the kitchen / When company comes"_ (metaphor for segregation/exclusion)
- Structure: short lines, stanza breaks create a progression from exclusion to confident assertion and prophecy of future equality.
- Tone: quietly confident, hopeful, assertive and prophetic — moves from excluded but resilient to confident expectation of inclusion and vindication.

Notes (break into logical stanzas; at least two notes each)
Stanza 1 (lines 1–2):
- Statement of belonging: "I, too, sing America." — forceful claim that the speaker is part of the nation.
- "I am the darker brother." — family metaphor emphasizes kinship but marks racial difference.

Stanza 2 (lines 3–4):
- Exclusion image: "They send me to eat in the kitchen / When company comes." — domestic scene symbolizes segregation and second-class status.

Stanza 3 (lines 5–7):
- Response of resilience: "But I laugh, / And eat well, / And grow strong." — reaction to exclusion is growth and inner strength, not defeat.

Stanza 4 (lines 8–10):
- Hope and future inclusion: "Tomorrow, / I’ll be at the table / When company comes." — anticipatory tone of equality and presence.

Stanza 5 (lines 11–13):
- Prediction of change: "Nobody’ll dare / Say to me, / 'Eat in the kitchen,' / Then." — speaker foresees a reversal of power and the end of exclusion.

Stanza 6 (lines 14–end):
- Final assertion: "They’ll see how beautiful I am / And be ashamed—" — confident expectation that oppressors will recognize the speaker's worth and feel remorse; closes with moral victory.

Questions (implicit in annotation requests)
- Figurative language examples: "I, too, sing America" and "I am the darker brother" — metaphors asserting belonging; "eat in the kitchen" — a metaphor for segregation/exclusion.
- Tone evidence: beginning shows calm assertion ("I, too, sing America"), middle shows resilience ("I laugh...grow strong"), end shows confidence/prophetic justice ("Tomorrow...They’ll see...and be ashamed").

If you want, I can:
- Create a printable annotation handout with these notes formatted to paste beside each stanza for classroom use.
- Provide a short model paragraph analyzing one of the poems using textual evidence and a thesis.