美国文学问题作业汇总.docx

1、美国文学问题作业汇总Questions on Whitmans poemsQuestions on “Song of Myself”Recalling:1. According to Line 1 of Section 1, who is the poet celebrating? Whom do lines 2-3 also include in the celebration?2. What facts about himself does Whitman reveal in lines 6-9 of section 1? Interpreting 1. Describe the rela

2、tionship Whitman sets up with the reader in the first section. 2. Name as many characteristics of Whitmans “self” as you can. Which characteristics seem the most prominent? Questions on “Beat! Beat! Drums!”Recalling 1. What people do the drums and bugles disturb in each of stanzas 1, 2, and 3?2. wha

3、t verbs and adjectives are used to describe the sounds of the drums and bugles?Interpreting1. Based on the description of the drums and bugles and the effect they have, what do they seem to represent? What does the simile in line 2 imply?2. Are the people in stanzas 1 and 2 doing anything out of the

4、 ordinary? Why is this significant?3. Why might the people in stanza 3 be praying, beseeching, and so on? What do the drums and bugles do to their prayers and pleas?4. Explain how rhythm and repetition reinforce the meaning of the poem. In particular, consider the effect of lines 1, 8, and 15. Exten

5、ding What images other than drums and bugles might Whitman have used to make his point? General writing topics on Whitman 1. Why might Whitman have called his volume of poetry Leaves of Grass?2. By associating himself with the grass, what does the poet suggest about himself? Summarize Whitmans attit

6、ude toward nature. 3. Why is free verse particularly suited to Whitmans ideas? How do you think it relates to Whitmans democratic principles?Questions on Dickinsons poemsQuestions on “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain”Recalling 1. Where does the “Funeral” take place? Who keeps treading to and fro?2. Wha

7、t keeps beating? What do the mourners lift?3. According to stanza 3, what begins to toll after the mourners leave?4. What breaks, according to stanza 5? What happens then?Interpreting 1. What is the “Service” in line 6? What is the “Box” in line 9?2. Whose funeral is the speaker envisioning? What mi

8、ght the last two stanzas be describing?3. Compare the images beginning in line 12 with the images of the funeral presented in lines 1-11. Which group of images is clearer? Why?Questions on “I heard a Fly buzzwhen I died”Recalling 1. What does the speaker hear in stanza 1? When does she hear it?2. Ac

9、cording to stanza 2, what are the “Eyes” and “Breaths” doing?3. According to stanzas 3-4, what interposes between the light and the speaker? What happens then?Interpreting 1. What is happening to the speaker/ who are the other people in the room?2. What is unusual about the description of the people

10、 in lines 5-6? From whose pint of view are they being described?3. Why is the flys appearance somewhat ironic? What basic message about death is suggested to the poet by the appearance of the fly?4. What slant rhymesalso called off rhyme, near rhyme, approximate rhyme and imperfect rhyme occur in “I

11、 heard a Fly buzzwhen I died”? What effects do they have? How are the slant rhymes related to the meaning of each poem?Questions on “Because I could not stop for Death”Recalling 1. According to stanza 1, why did Death stop for the speaker? What did Deaths carriage hold? 2. What three things did the

12、speaker and Death pass in stanza 3? Where did they pause in stanza 5?3. According to stanza 6, how much time has passed since the day of Deaths visit? What does that time feel shorter than?Interpreting 1. Is the speaker in this poem alive or dead? What day is she describing?2. What do lines 1-2 sugg

13、est about human behavior?3. What might the three things the speaker passed in stanza 3 represent?4. What is the “House” in the ground in stanza 5? Is this the speakers final destination? Explain. 5. Why does the day described seem so long to the speaker?General writing topics on Dickinson 1. One of

14、Dickinsons greatest talents was her ability to find universal meanings in everyday events. Why do you think all great literature must be able to do this?2. The scholar who edited the definitive texts of Dickinsons poems, Thomas H. Johnson, tells us: “Emily Dickinson loved words ardently. Her feeling

15、 about them amounted to veneration and her selection of them was ritualistic.” What evidence do you find to support Johnsons contention? What unusual or well-chosen words add power to the poems you have read? How does Dickinsons use of everyday words help make her abstract ideas more concrete?Compre

16、hensive questionsGeneral writing topics Comparing Whitman and Dickinson 1. Both Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson were poets of great originality and intense emotion. Yet in temperament and life style they were almost exactly opposite. What do Whitmans and Dickinsons poems suggest about the sources o

17、f poetic inspiration? Where do they suggest the truly imaginative life can be found? What do you think made the poetry of these writers so fresh and original?Comparing Whitman, Dickinson and Twain 2. Whitman, Dickinson, and Twain all helped develop American literature as a singular expression of Ame

18、rican life. How do the styles and subjects of these three writers differ from those of the American authors who preceded them? What do you think makes Whitman, Dickinson, and Twain so distinctly American?Writing topics on Jack Londons Martin Eden and Theodore Dreisers Sister Carrie1. To some extent,

19、 both the title characters are American dream makers and achievers. Please compare and contrast them two from any perspective you like, for example, success, tragedy, morality, love, the meaning of life, etc. 2. To some extent, Martin Eden, Sister Carrie, Richard Cory, Gatsby are American dream make

20、rs and achievers. Please compare and contrast them two from any perspective you like, for example, success, tragedy, morality, love, the meaning of life, etc. Writing topics on The Portrait of a Lady1. According to the novel, what do you think is Jamess view of female independence? What do you think

21、 is Jamess view of marriage? How about your own understanding on the relationship between female independence and marriage? Are the two issues contradictory or not? 2. Make a contrastive comment on the endings of the two versions of The Portrait of a Lady the original novel and the movie version. Qu

22、estions on Edwin Arlington RobinsonQuestions on “Richard Cory”Recalling1. Which line in the poem identifies the speaker? Which lines tell you about the economic condition of the speaker?2. What is Richard Cory “from sole to crown”? What effect does he have when he says “Good Morning”?3. What, “in fi

23、ne,” do the people think of Richard Cory (Stanza 3)?4. What is the “surprise” ending?Interpreting 1. How are the “we” of the poem different from Richard Cory?2. What do “crown” (line 3) and “imperially” (line 4) indicate about the speakers impression of Richard Cory?3. What effect does Corys final a

24、ction seem to have on everyone in Tilbury Town? What does Tilbury Towns reaction to Corys life and death suggest about human understanding?Questions on “Miniver Cheevy”Recalling 1. For what does Cheevy sigh and mourn in the first five stanzas? What does Cheevy curse in the sixth stanza?2. What are C

25、heevys feelings about gold, according to the seventh stanza?3. To what does Cheevy attribute his unhappiness in line 31? What does he keep on doing, according to the last line of the poem?Interpreting 1. What do lines 9-10 reveal about Cheevys character? Lines 17-18? Lines 25-26?2. Basically, how do

26、es Cheevy see himself? How do we see him? What really causes his unhappiness?General writing topics on Robinsons “Richard Cory” and “Miniver Cheevy”1. Could Richard Cory and Miniver Cheevy be found only in a small Maine town at the turn of the century? Explain your answer. 2. Irony is a contrast or

27、a difference between the way things seem and the way they really are. In literature there are three kinds of irony. Verbal irony occurs when words that appear to be saying one thing are really saying something quite different. Situational irony occurs when what is expected to happen is not what actu

28、ally comes to pass. Dramatic irony occurs when events that mean one thing to the characters mean something quite different to the reader. Irony is often accompanied by a grim humor. There is an element of dark humor, for example, in the mistaken ideas that the townspeople have of Richard Cory, while

29、 Miniver Cheevy is almost comical in his hypocrisy and self-delusion. Thinking about ironies in “Richard Cory” and “Miniver Cheevy”1) How is the use of the adjective “calm” in the next-to-last line of “Richard Cory” an example of verbal irony?2) Explain the situational irony in “Richard Cory”3) Tell

30、 why “Miniver Cheevy” is an example of dramatic irony. 3. Write a brief essay comparing and contrasting “Richard Cory” and “Miniver Cheevy”. Begin with a statement of each poems theme. Then show what the characters have in common and how they differ. Conclude by discussing the tone of each poem and

31、the general impression each leaves with the reader. Questions on Ezra Pounds poemsQuestions on “In a Station of the Metro”Recalling 1. Where does this poem take place?2. What two images are juxtaposed, or placed next to each other, in the poem?Interpreting 1. Does the poet supply you with any inform

32、ation about how you should think or feel about the poem? What does the poem consist of? What makes it “poetic”?2. Why does the poet use the word apparition rather than appearance? (consider the connotations of apparition.)3. Ezra Pounds own comment on “In a Station of the Metro” shows the poet at work:Three years ago in Paris I got out of a “metro” train at La Condorde, and saw suddenly a beautiful face, and