Name: ___________________________________________________________________ Period: ____

Poetry Analysis

Directions: Use your poetry notes to help you as you read and annotate the following poems.
Then answer the analysis questions that follow.

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“Simile” by N. Scott Momaday

What did we say to each other

that now we are as the deer
who walk in single file
with heads high
5 with ears forward
with eyes watchful
with hooves always placed on firm ground
in whose limbs there is latent flight

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Analysis Questions

Directions: Answer the following questions THOROUGHLY and in complete sentences.

1. Whom is the speaker addressing? Before the poem begins, what has happened?

2. An extended simile continues a comparison for several lines or even through an entire
poem. What is this poem’s extended simile?

3. What is the significance of the phrase “latent flight”?

4. How would you characterize the mood of the poem?

 Pre-reading Question
In this poem, Emily Dickinson tells about the conflict between will and emotion, between the
thinking mind and the feeling heart. Which do you think is more powerful – the mind or the
heart? Does one control the other, or are they completely separate systems?

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“Heart! We will forget him!” by Emily Dickinson

Heart, we will forget him!

You and I – tonight!
You may forget the warmth he gave –
I will forget the light.

5 When you have done, pray tell me

That I may straight begin!
Haste! lest while you're lagging
I remember him!

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Analysis Questions

Directions: Answer the following questions THOROUGHLY and in complete sentences.

1. How is personification being used in the poem? What is being personified and for what
purpose? Explain.

2. What is the speaker’s tone? How do you know?

3. What purpose does punctuation serve in the speaker’s message?

4. What is the rhyme scheme?