Presentation by: Nicholas Miller, Sean Burris, and Yanni Kevas

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Atavism
Poem by William Stafford

• Presentation by Nicholas Miller, Sean Burris,
  and Yanni Kevas

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Figurative Language

• a pencil of sunlight slowly travels its/path
• You can feel/the centuries ripple
  generations/of wandering, discovering, being
  lost/and found, eating, dying, being born
• A dim feeling comes/you were like this once,
  there was air,/and quiet it was by a lake,
  or/maybe a river you were alert/as an otter and
  were suddenly born/like the evening star into
  wide/still worlds
• For delicious minutes you can feel your
  whiskerswider than your mind, away out over
  everything.

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Imagery

• A walk through the forest strokes your fur,/the
  fur you no longer have
• And your gaze/down a forest aisle is a strange,
  long/plunge, dark eyes looking for home
• Something is being told in the woods aisles
  of/shadow lead away a branch waves/

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Sound Devices

• He used sometimes and something in the
  beginning of each stanza.
• wandering, discovering, being lostand found,
  eating, dying, being born
• A withheld presence almostspeaks, but then
  retreats, rustlesa patch of brush

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Mood/Feeling

• We think the mood/feeling is peculiar. The author
  uses many phrases that are odd and out of the
  ordinary like A walk through the forest strokes
  your fur,/the fur you no longer have.. and
  For delicious minutes you can feel your
  whiskers/ wider than your mind, away out over
  everything.

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Message/Theme Dominant Impression

• We think the message is that...
• Life is a cycle, where humans and animals are
  equal. It involves the past and future, death and
  rebirth.
• The poem involved many elements of nature. It
  also had many references to the past and future.

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Predictions about The Call of the Wild

• The Call of the Wild might involve references of
  the past. You can feelthe centuries ripple
  generationsof wandering, discovering, being
  lostand found, eating, dying, being born
• Nature is also a huge part of the poem we
  analyzed, so we think it will be a huge part of
  Call of the Wild. birds go byit was by a lake,
  ormaybe a river you were alertas an otterin
  the woodsyou can feel your whiskers

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The End