3 poems for Modern vs. Traditional Unit

When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer

1. What actions are performed by the speaker?

2. How would you explain the theme of the poem (in regard to Thoreau?)

3. How are the speaker’s and the astronomer’s attitudes toward the stars different?

Mending Wall

4. What two causes of gaps in walls does the speaker identify?

5. What do you think the wall symbolizes? What is the significance of the fact that the wall breaks apart each winter?

6. Do “good fences make good neighbors”?

The Unknown Citizen

7. Name the four groups that report on the unknown citizen’s activities?

8. If the narrator really wanted to know about the “unknown citizen,” why do you suppose he or she didn’t just ask that “unknown citizen”?

9. Is one’s freedom or happiness defined by others or by self?