American Literature Online Questions & Answers
Both use couplets for their rhyme scheme and structure.
Both use figurative language to express hope that the subject will be rewarded in heaven for good deeds.
Bradstreet’s topic is love and marriage, while Wheatley’s topic is King George III.
Bradstreet uses more nature imagery than Wheatley, which connects to the poem’s topic.
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“ Very organized ,I enjoyed and Loved every bit of our professional interaction ”
Read the excerpt from “To My Dear Loving Husband.”
“If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were lov’d by wife, then thee;
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me ye women if you can.”
What is the rhyme scheme in these lines?
It portrays the writer as being more at peace by himself than in the crowd at the lecture.
It demonstrates that an individual can understand the stars just by going out and looking at them.
the beauty of nature
the need to fight injustice
the expansion of the American frontier
the search for spiritual truth
equality for women
the importance of self-reliance
the need to transcend the material world
the development of new American identities
Read the excerpt from “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman.
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
Why does Whitman use the words “rising and gliding” to describe the speaker’s exit from the classroom?
Read these lines from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.”
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
What attitude toward the earth do these lines express?
Read this excerpt from an Emily Dickinson poem.
Some keep the Sabbath going to church;
I keep it staying at home,
With a bobolink for a chorister,
And an orchard for a dome.
What attitude toward social habits does this excerpt indicate?
Read the stanza from “A Psalm of Life” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
How does this stanza express an optimistic view?
Read the quotation from “Because I Could Not Stop for Death.”
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.
What is the effect of the phrase “but just Ourselves” in the lines above?
Read the first stanza of “Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church.”
Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –
I keep it, staying at Home –
With a Bobolink for a Chorister –
And an Orchard, for a Dome –
What does the use of the words “orchard” and “dome” suggest?
Many companies claim to be ‘green,’ but few are practicing true conservation of resources. Though e-mails have replaced paper memos, lights use LED bulbs, and toilets are a modern ‘low-flow’ variety, waste is rampant. Trash cans overflow with recyclables. Outlets hum with the recharging of personal electronic devices, and office parking lots boast a shameful number of gas-guzzling trucks that are piloted morning and night by lone commuters too self-absorbed to consider a carpool.
How does the author’s word choice affect the tone of the paragraph?
Hers was a modest career: she received no accolades, no civic recognition. Her name did not appear in headlines. Nonetheless, her candor captured the attention of her students as she told history’s untold stories. From the Trail of Tears to the widespread resistance to desegregation, this teacher shared the injustices that shaped history. She encouraged her students to delve deeper than the facts presented in their textbooks. As a result, she created a generation of activists among her alumni. Her pension was unimpressive; her legacy is not.
How does the author’s word choice affect the tone of the excerpt?
The disease which had thus entombed the lady in the maturity of youth, had left, as usual in all maladies of a strictly cataleptical character, the mockery of a faint blush upon the bosom and the face, and that suspiciously lingering smile upon the lip which is so terrible in death. We replaced and screwed down the lid, and, having secured the door of iron, made our way, with toil, into the scarcely less gloomy apartments of the upper portion of the house.
Which statement best describes how Poe develops a specific element of American Gothic fiction in the excerpt?
I had learned, too, the very remarkable fact, that the stem of the Usher race, all time-honoured as it was, had put forth, at no period, any enduring branch; in other words, that the entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and had always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain.
How does Poe develop a short story element in the paragraph?
Read the sentence from Life on the Mississippi.
But I had lost something, too. I had lost something which could never be restored to me while I lived. All the grace, the beauty, the poetry had gone out of the majestic river!
What do phrases such as “while I lived” and “the grace, the beauty, the poetry” indicate most about the narrator’s feelings?
Read the two excerpts from section 3 of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.”
Then all at once, with terrible suddenness, the light about him shot upward with the noise of a loud splash; a frightful roaring was in his ears, and all was cold and dark. The power of thought was restored; he knew that the rope had broken and he had fallen into the stream.
***
As he is about to clasp her he feels a stunning blow upon the back of the neck; a blinding white light blazes all about him with a sound like the shock of a cannon—then all is darkness and silence!
What does the motif of a loud sound represent in the story?
Read the excerpt from Life on the Mississippi.
‘Look here! What do you start out from, above Twelve-Mile Point, to cross over?’
‘I—I—don’t know.’
‘You—you—don’t know?’ mimicking my drawling manner of speech. ‘What DO you know?’
‘I—I—nothing, for certain.’
What does the stammering suggest about the narrator?
Read the sentence from Life on the Mississippi.
The passenger who could not read it was charmed with a peculiar sort of faint dimple on its surface (on the rare occasions when he did not overlook it altogether); but to the pilot that was an ITALICIZED passage; indeed, it was more than that, it was a legend of the largest capitals, with a string of shouting exclamation points at the end of it; for it meant that a wreck or a rock was buried there that could tear the life out of the strongest vessel that ever floated.
Which best explains how the portrayal of italicized letters and capital letters support the meaning of the sentence?
Read the excerpt from “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.”
He unclosed his eyes and saw again the water below him. “If I could free my hands,” he thought, “I might throw off the noose and spring into the stream. By diving I could evade the bullets and, swimming vigorously, reach the bank, take to the woods and get away home. My home, thank God, is as yet outside their lines; my wife and little ones are still beyond the invader’s farthest advance.”
Which best describes the impact of the narration in the excerpt?
Read the excerpt from “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.”
As he pushes open the gate and passes up the wide white walk, he sees a flutter of female garments; his wife, looking fresh and cool and sweet, steps down from the veranda to meet him. At the bottom of the steps she stands waiting, with a smile of ineffable joy, an attitude of matchless grace and dignity. Ah, how beautiful she is! He springs forward with extended arms.
Which best describes the narration in the excerpt?
He says again, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
American Literature Online Questions & Answers. (2017, Dec 19). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/paper-on-american-lit-online/
