Lesson Plans

Assignment to have been completed: Students should have completed the handout on “A Study in Reading Habits,” p. 658 of Perrine’s Literature, and should have written out answers to the first two questions that follow the poem.

Objectives: To interpret the use of an analogy in poetry

Activities:

• A. Review the handout on “Storm Warnings” by Adrienne Rich p. 672 in Perrine’s Literature.

• B. Read “Storm Warnings” aloud – or have one of the students to do so. Ask the students how the tone they hear mirrors their first impressions of the poem’s meaning.

• C. Ask students the following questions.

  • 1. Can you identify a shift in the poem?

    A shift seems to occur in lines 11-13 where the speaker begins the analogy between “weather abroad” and “weather in the heart.”

  • 2. What does the speaker decide to do about the weather? How does this decision reflect the poem’ tone?

    The speaker concludes that she can do nothing to avert the weather, but she does close the shutters and places her candles inside glass shields.

    The overall tone of the poem is calm and accepting of the inevitable. The speaker’s decision and action both reflect a calm acceptance of the inevitability of the coming storm.

  • 3. How does the decision support the analogies to “weather in the heart” and “weather abroad”?

    The speaker seems to assert that storms – whether atmospheric or personal – are inevitable. She accepts that life has turbulence that cannot be prevented though she takes the simplest precautions. The lighting of the candles suggests a reliance on human warmth to cope with the “storm.”

  • 4. What is the impact of the final line—how does it take the meaning of the poem beyond the speaker’ personal concerns?

    The use of the pronoun “we” broadens the scope of her assertions and actions. The lines connect the speaker to what she perceives to be a universal experience. The “troubled regions” are everywhere: no place on earth is free from the threat of some natural disaster. Her advice to accept the inevitable with calm and reason extends to all.

• D. If much time remains in the period, have one of the students read “There’s been a Death, in the Opposite House,” p. 665-666 aloud. Ask the students the following questions about the poem. You may use the responses in bold italics to help you gauge their answers.

  • 1. What can we know about the speaker in the poem?

    The speaker in this poem has not been informed of the death across the way and apparently does not know who has died. He (his sex is revealed in line 12) is not one of the neighbors who “rustle in and out.” Probably he is a visitor in the house from which he watches. But he is no stranger to the ways of country towns: he knows by the signs immediately and intuitively that a death has occurred. He is a sensitive observer, able to report and to interpret precisely and imaginatively what he sees and to enter emphatically into the thoughts and feelings of the children who hurry past.

  • 2. By what signs does the speaker recognize that a death has occurred? Explain them stanza by stanza.

    Stanza 1: He notes the “numb look” of the house. Here “house” is a metonymy for the persons moving about in the house. They are numb with the glut of emotion that accompanies a death in the home.

    Stanza 2: He sees the neighbors “rustle in and out.” These are the women of the town bringing shoulders to cry on and food for the family. He also sees the doctor drive away, his patient no longer in need of his services. Finally, he sees that “A window opens . . . mechanically” as though done by someone almost devoid of consciousness of the action.

    Stanza 3: He observes a mattress being flung out of the house. People rarely kept a mattress on which someone had died; few would have any desire to sleep on it again.

    Stanza 4: He watches the minister enter, solemnly taking up his role as pastor to preside over the funeral activity.

    Stanza 5: He notices that both the milliner and the undertaker come in, the former to take measurements for mourning attire, the latter to measure the corpse for a coffin (and perhaps the passageways themselves to determine the maneuverability of the coffin).

  • 3. Comment on the words “appalling” (18) and “dark” (20).

    The word “appalling” suggests both the horrifying profession of the undertaker and the fact that he literally places a pall over the coffin.

    The funeral procession is a “dark” parade literally because of the black badges of mourning but with the additional connotations of mystery and awesomeness.

Assignment for next class meeting: Read “Chapter Three – Denotation and Connotation,” 674-680 in Perrine’s Literature. Write out complete answers to all five questions under Reviewing Chapter Three.