3.2.

9 Practice: Complete Your Assignment Practice

English 10 Name:
Date:

Write eight annotations that help a reader understand the tone, mood, and meaning
of a poem from this lesson (except "Spring and All" by William Carlos Williams). Your
assignment is also to write an introduction paragraph that explains the overall
meaning of the poem, based on examples from the poem. Your focus should be on
the connotations and figurative language in the poem that you've selected.

Your assignment should include the following elements:

● Eight annotations, each of which focuses on a separate line of the poem you've
chosen

● An introduction paragraph that explains the overall meaning of the poem and
puts the annotations in context

● The full text of the poem you've chosen, with clear indications of which lines each
annotation explains

You should have completed a draft of this assignment in the activity before this one.
If you haven't done so, go back and complete that activity now.

Ask yourself these questions as you revise:

● Do I focus on a variety of elements in my annotations? Do I explain different

kinds of figurative language, including connotations?

● Do my annotations explain how the figurative language and connotations in the

poem affect its tone and mood?
 ● Is it clear which lines of the poem my annotations are intended to explain?

● Does my introduction paragraph focus on the overall meaning of the poem and
avoid going into too much detail about a specific part of the poem?

● Do I back up the explanations in my introduction paragraph with examples from

the poem?

Use this rubric to determine how well you're meeting the criteria for the assignment.

1. The words contagious and hospital gives the poem a gloomy mood. It also
shows that the poem is serious by using such words at the beginning of the
poem
2. The word mottled clouds gives the poem a sad mood because of the
connotation of the word which suggests that the clouds are sad.
3. The word driven in the poem shows that the north-east wind is being
commanded which gives off a harsh mood of the poem.
4. Scattering trees conjures the idea of loneliness and shows and personifies
the idea of humans scattered around.
5. The words leafless and vines give the poem a gloomy vibe since life in the
plants are dead.
6. The words lifeless and sluggish refers to the time where winter ends where all
the leaves look lifeless and sluggish.
7. The word naked personifies the idea of an object coming in fresh and new.
This shows the warm nature of the poem.
8. In the sentence “stark dignity of entrance” the poet refers to a new born
child and how it’s brought up into the world with nothing to do with the
greenery of fresh new leaves at the start of spring.
 The poem “Spring and All” shows the differences between life and
death and compares them. The poet uses the transition of the end of winter to
the start of the spring where the dead scenery such as trees start to become
alive and beautiful again. At the start of the poem, the poet uses words such
as hospital and contagious to set a dark mood to the beginning of the poem.
This signals the start of winter where trees are dead. Then, he describes the
scenes of winter with the words dead and brown leaves that also describes
the death of trees. Later on in the poem, the poet describes the start of Spring
by referring to the birth of a baby using words like naked, cold, and uncertain
of all. He also uses the line “stark dignity of entrance” which refers to a fresh
new start that a newborn would have.
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3.2.9 Practice: Complete Your Assignment