Poetry

The Eagle

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ringed with the azure world he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.

1. Given the tone of the poem, and noting especially the last line,                                                               what is the eagle most likely doing in the poem?

a. dying of old age

b. hunting prey

c. learning joyfully to fly

d. keeping watch over a nest of young eagles

2. To which of the following do the underlined words azure world most likely refer?

a. a forest

b. the sky

c. the cliff

d. nature

3. In the second stanza, first line, to which of the following does the verb crawls refer?

a. waves

b. sunlight on the water

c. the eagle’s prey

d. the eagle itself

A Narrow Fellow in the Grass

A narrow Fellow in the grass

Occasionally rides—

You may have met him—did you not

His notice sudden is—

The Grass divides as with a Comb—

A spotted shaft is seen—

And then it closes at your feet

And opens further on—

He likes a Boggy Acre—

A Floor too cool for Corn—

Yet when a Boy, and Barefoot—

I more than once at Noon

Have passed, I thought, a Whip-lash

Unbraiding in the Sun—

When, stooping to secure it,

It wrinkled, and was gone—

Several of Nature’s People

I know, and they know me—

I feel for them a transport

Of cordiality—

But never met this Fellow,

Attended, or alone—

Without a tighter breathing

And zero at the bone—

1. Who or what is the Fellow in this poem?

a. a whip-lash

b. a snake

c. a gust of wind

d. a boy

2. The phrase Without a tighter breathing / And zero at the bone most nearly indicates

a. fright.

b. cold.

c. grief.

d. awe.

3. The phrase Nature’s People means

a. nature-lovers.

b. children.

c. animals.

d. neighbors.

4. The speaker of this poem is most likely

a. an adult woman.

b. an adult man.

c. Emily Dickinson, the poet.

d. a young boy.