Here is an example of what this graphic organizer can look like when it’s put to use.
You, of course, can print this organizer out and work by hand if you like.
The poem this example is based on is “The Indian Burying Ground” by Philip Freneau.
First Impressions
Really feels like being in a graveyard,
ghostly, like there's a presence
hanging by as you read the poem
The Indian spirits ("the hunter and
the deer") come to life, almost like an
imagining within your imagination
There's something important about
posture, either lying or sitting, and
then something about how active
burial rituals consider the spirit
Form Melodious Moments
"By midnight moons, o'er moistening
Meter: Iambic Tetrameter
Rhyme Scheme/Sonic
"the painted chief, and pointed
Effects: ABAB
Stanzaic Organization:
Quatrains
Rhythmic Description:
Many lines are bropken
up with commas, often at
the end of feet, which
prevents metrical feel
from lulling the listener;
also, there are
parentheticals in three
consecutive stanzas that
alter the speed at which
the poem is read before,
during, and after each
parenthetical
What kinds of things
Delectable Lines
presented, conjured?
"The posture, that we give the
dews" (line 33)
dead, / Points out the soul's eternal
sleep" (lines 3-4)
"His bow, for action ready bent, /
And arrows, with a head of stone, /
Can only mean that life is spent, /
spear" (line 38)
And not the old ideas gone." (lines
13-16)
are being
communicated,
There is definitely some cross-
cultural musings going on, as the
speaker includes diction specific to a
view of American Indians as an
ancient culture, even one that is no
longer
The poem seems to have a lot to do
with death, but the Western notion
of death is basically contrasted
throughout by presenting an
American Indian spirit that is
eternally active (whereas Western
death is to forever sleep)
It's hard to say whether the speaker
sees American Indian Burial like a
cultural tourist or in a way he can
relate to his own experience. On one
hand, he seems to have respect for
these ghostly spirits. On the other,
he's looking at them as ancient and
very nearly extinct