Poetry Review

1
Poetry Review
Created for Mrs. Schraders 7th Grade Language
Arts Students At Woodmont Middle School Thir
d Quarter 2007
2

• Read the following poems and answer the
  questions
  
• My People
• by Langston Hughes
• The night is beautiful,So the faces of my
  people.The stars are beautiful,So the eyes of
  my people.Beautiful, also, is the
  sun.Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.

3
How many stanzas are in this poem?

• A) Six
• B) Three
• C) One
• D) Four
• B) Three (groups of lines separated by white
  space on the page)

4
Why does the poet compare the faces of his people
to the night?

• A) Because they are dark like the night
• B) Because he cant see them
• C) Because they met during a dark time
• D) Because they are dirty
• A) Because they are dark like the night (the poet
  is comparing the color of the two)

5
What word becomes a refrain in this poem?

• A) Stars
• B) Night
• C) Souls
• D) Beautiful
• D) Beautiful (this word is repeated throughout
  the poem)

6

• 254 ("'Hope' is the thing with feathers ") by
  Emily Dickinson
  
• "Hope" is the thing with feathers That perches
  in the soul And sings the tune without the
  words And never stops at all
  
• And sweetest in the Gale is heard And sore
  must be the storm That could abash the little
  BirdThat kept so many warm
  
• I've heard it in the chillest land And on the
  strangest Sea Yet, never, in Extremity,It
  asked a crumb of Me.

7
What kind of poem is this?

• A) Free Verse
• B) Ode
• C) Sonnet
• D) Rhyming
• D) Rhyming (a regular pattern of rhyme is used)

8
What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?

• A) abbc
• B) abcb
• C) aabb
• D) abca
• B) abcb (the first and third lines of each stanza
  do NOT rhyme but the second and fourth lines
  rhyme)

9
Hope is the thing with feathersWhich perches
in the soulThis is an example of what kind of
figurative language?

• A) Simile
• B) Hyperbole
• C) Metaphor
• D) Imagery
• C) Metaphor (a direct comparison of two things
  where the poet says that one thing IS the other)

10
And sweetest in the Gale is heard And sore
must be the storm That could abash the little
BirdThat kept so many warm What does the
underlined word mean in this stanza?

• A) Move
• B) Squash
• C) Destroy
• D) Silence
• D) Silence (earlier the poet refers to the bird
  singing a tune)

11
And on the strangest Sea This line is an
example of what poetic device?

• A) alliteration
• B) internal rhyme
• C) waiving conventions
• D) euphony
• A) alliteration (repetition of the s sound at
  the beginning of the words strangest and Sea)

12

• Mother to Son by Langston Hughes
• Well, son, I'll tell youLife for me ain't been
  no crystal stair.It's had tacks in it,And
  splinters,And boards torn up,And places with no
  carpet on the floorBare.But all the time I'se
  been a-climbin' on,And reachin' landin's,And
  turnin' corners,And sometimes goin' in the
  darkWhere there ain't been no light.So, boy,
  don't you turn back.Don't you set down on the
  steps.'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.Don't
  you fall nowFor I'se still goin', honey,I'se
  still climbin',And life for me ain't been no
  crystal stair.

13
What kind of poem is this?

• A) Free Verse
• B) Rhyming
• C) Sonnet
• D) Ode
• A) Free Verse (no particular pattern of rhyme
  or meter)

14
What is the mood expressed in this poem?

• A) Sadness
• B) Depression
• C) Happiness
• D) Hopefulness
• D) Hopefulness (she is telling her son not to
  give up)

15
Which line from the poem best expresses the mood
of hopefulness?

• A) And places with no carpet on the floor
• B) And sometimes goin in the dark
• C) For Ise still goin honey,
• D) And life for me aint been no crystal stair.
• C) For Ise still goin honey, (she is
  encouraging her son by telling him that she
  hasnt given up even though life has been
  difficult for her)

16
It's had tacks in it,And splinters,And boards
torn up,And places with no carpet on the
floorBare.These lines are an example of what
kind of figurative language?

• A) Metaphor
• B) Imagery
• C) Idiom
• D) Simile
• B) Imagery (using words that give the reader a
  definite picture in his/her mind)