Character Terms
Getting Started
Name That Poem
Name That Poem
Name Those Poems
100
Implied voice of the poem, not necessarily the poet's, perhaps that of an invented character.
What is speaker or persona?
100
The opening tensions and subsequent shifts in a poem's "plot."
What is situation?
100
"..he scooped pink animals into the palm of his hand."
What is the central image of "My Father's Song"?
100
..."one whom habit of memory propels to the ground of his making."
What is the description of the son in "After Making Love We Hear Footsteps"?
100
"To a Daughter Leaving Home," "Morning Song," and "Eden."
Which poems have speakers who are mothers?
200
A type of poem in which an invented character, clearly not the poet, "speaks" the poem.
What is dramatic monologue.
200
A poem that tells a chronological story.
What is a narrative poem?
200
"I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking/When the rooms were warm..."
What is the central image in "Those Winter Sundays"?
200
"the hair flapping/behind you like a/handkerchief waving/goodbye."
What is ending image in "To a Daughter Leaving Home"?
200
"After Making Love We Hear Footsteps" and "At the San Francisco Airport."
Which poems have speakers who are fathers?
300
The implied listener of a poem.
What is auditor?
300
A theme that celebrates the intensity of mortality.
What is carpe diem.
300
"This is the terminal, the break./Beyond this point, on lines of air,/You take the way you must take."
What is "At the San Francisco Airport"?
300
A mother who feels "omnipotent" but like a "powerless"God.
Who is the speaker of "Eden."
300
"Those Winter Sundays," "Alzheimer's," "My Father's Song," and "My Papa's Waltz."
Which poems have children as speakers?
400
A reference outside the poem to an historical event, a person, a myth.
What is an allusion?
400
Using imaginative special effects to add meaning to an otherwise literal situation.
What is a figure of speech?
400
"The first, thing he must do, now that he is home, is decide who/This woman is..."
What is the ending image in "Alzheimer's"?
400
A newborn baby that "Love set you going like a fat gold watch."
Who is the auditor of Sylvia Plath's "Morning Song"?
400
The two poems set outside of a house.
What is "To a Daughter Leaving Home" and "Alzheimer's"?
500
A poem expressing deep personal feelings as if thinking (poetically) out-loud.
What is a lyric?
500
Appealing to the senses, taste, touch, smell, sound, sight.
What is imagery.
500
"Waltzed" and "romped."
What are two words from "My Papa's Waltz" that suggest the boy's mood?
500
An Irishman who snores, plays loud music, and talks with friends late into the night.
Who is the speaker and Fergus's father in "After Making Love We Hear Footsteps"?
500
A father and daughter are saying good-bye.
What is the situation in "At the San Francisco Airport"?
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