Sound and Structure
Excerpt from The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
“And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain”
What sound device is most strongly used in this line?
Answer: What is alliteration?
Excerpt from The Bells by Edgar Allan Poe
“How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour”
Which sound device is used when words imitate the actual sounds they describe?
Answer: What is onomatopoeia?
The central message or insight about life in a poem.
Answer: What is theme?
The novel is written from the perspective of this character, a young boy trying to understand changes in his family.
Answer: Who is ZJ (Zachariah Johnson)?
One central theme of the book is the strong emotional connection between ZJ and this family member.
Answer: Who is his father?
Excerpt from Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas
“Do not go gentle into that good night
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
Which structural device drives the emotional force of this poem?
Answer: What is repetition?
Excerpt from Hope Is the Thing with Feathers by Emily Dickinson
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul”
What type of figurative language describes hope?
Answer: What is metaphor?
A recurring image, symbol, or idea that appears throughout a text.
Answer: What is a motif?
ZJ’s father was famous for playing this sport professionally.
Answer: What is football?
The novel explores how children cope when adults around them struggle. This larger theme focuses on growing up while facing this type of experience.
Answer: What is loss or family hardship?
Excerpt from The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot
“April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land…”
The continuation of the sentence across lines without punctuation demonstrates what device?
Answer: What is enjambment?
Excerpt from A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns
“O my Luve’s like a red, red rose”
What figurative device appears in this line?
Answer: What is a simile?
When an object, person, or event represents a deeper meaning beyond itself.
Answer: What is symbolism?
As the story progresses, ZJ notices memory loss, mood changes, and confusion in his father. These symptoms are connected to repeated head injuries common in this sport.
Answer: What is CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy)?
ZJ’s memories of football games, music, and family moments act as reminders of earlier happiness. These recurring memories function as this literary device.
Answer: What is a motif?
Excerpt from Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
What is the rhyme scheme pattern of these lines?
Answer: What is A A B A?
Excerpt from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot
“The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window panes”
What device gives the fog animal-like behavior?
Answer: What is personification?
Placing two contrasting ideas or images side by side for effect.
Answer: What is juxtaposition?
The novel’s poems often shift between memories of joyful past moments and difficult present realities. What narrative technique does this reflect?
Answer: What is juxtaposition between past and present?
The gradual changes in ZJ’s father emphasize the long-term consequences of this issue in professional sports.
Answer: What is head trauma / concussion-related brain injury?
Excerpt from The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams
“so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow”
The poem’s spacing and line breaks primarily emphasize which poetic technique?
Answer: What is white space?
Excerpt from I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth
“Ten thousand saw I at a glance”
What device is used here?
Answer: What is hyperbole?
Language that appeals to the five senses and creates vivid mental pictures.
Answer: What is imagery?
Because the story is told through ZJ’s thoughts and emotions, the reader experiences events through this narrative point of view.
Answer: What is first-person narration?
Throughout the book, ZJ struggles to understand why his father is changing. This conflict represents a broader theme about this stage of life.
Answer: What is coming of age / confronting difficult truths about adulthood?