1a. What three people are addressed by the speaker of the poem?
2a. What scenarios does the speaker describe at the beginning of stanzas 1, 3, and 5?
3a. What feelings do the phrases "Little souls who thirst for fight," "the virtue of slaughter," "a field where a thousand corpses lie," and "the excellence of killing" evoke in the reader?
4a. How does the poet use alliteration to reinforce a mock heroic interpretation of his poem?
5a. Why do you think Crane ends with a stanza focused on a person rather than the regiment of stanzas 2 and 4?
1b. What do the three addressed people have in common?
2b. How is the shared refrain of stanzas 1, 3, and 5 ironic?
3b. What type of attitude does the speaker mock in stanzas 2 and 4? What kind of poetry does he use to mock this attitude?
4b. What is the main message that Crane makes about war?
5b. If you were the parent of a child killed in battle, how would you react to each of the following?
1. a letter from the army informing you of your child's death
2. a letter of condolence from the president
3. a request to contribute your time and talents to the war effort
4. a request to help pay for a war memorial
Irony. Review the definition for verbal irony in the Handbook of Literary Terms. How many examples of verbal irony were you able to illustrate in the chart you completed as you read the poem? Why do you think Crane chose to use verbal irony to express his feelings about war?
Free Verse. Review the definition for free verse in the Handbook of Literary Terms. Free verse tends to sound more like ordinary speech than traditional verse does. What elements in this poem show that it is intended as speech, or one side of an imaginary conversation?
When writing free verse, poets often invent their own unique structures, or organizational patterns, to replace traditional rhyming stanzas. What is the structure of this poem? What do stanzas 1, 3, and 5 have in common? Why might stanzas 2 and 4 be more traditional in their use of poetic devices, such as a regular meter and rhyme, than stanzas 1, 3, and 5?
1a. Who are the two participants in the dialogue?
2a. What does each participant say to the other?
3a. Personification is a figure of speech in which an idea, animal, or thing is described as if it were a person. How does the speaker personify the universe?
4a. In "A Man Said to the Universe," Crane's dialogue presents the world view of the Naturalists. Illustrate an alternate world view by framing a different response by the universe, one that the Romantics would have held. The Romantics, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, placed value on emotion or imagination over reason, the individual over society, nature and wildness over human works, the country over the town, common people over aristocrats, and freedom over control or authority.
1b. What can you infer about the emotional life of the man who speaks in this poem?
2b. According to this poem, what relationship exists between the universe and human beings?
3b. Why does the man reach out to the universe?
4b. Describe a time in your life when you felt no sense of obligation for another human being. If you were to relive that experience, what could you have done to help that person?
Irony. Review the definition for irony in the Handbook of Literary Terms. Why is it ironic that Crane personifies the universe in the poem?
Dialogue. Review the definition for dialogue in the Handbook of Literary Terms. Then make a chart to indicate other exchanges the man and the universe might have. For example, if such a conversation were to continue, you could imagine the other types of topics that could arise, for example, human love, the beauty of nature, and the meaning of life. On the left write what the man would say to the universe if the conversation continued. On the right write what the universe would say in response. It is important that both characters stay in character. One example has been done for you.
1. Write the vows a more sympathetic universe might take with the man. Complete the universe's sentence "I promise to . . ."
2. Write a contract between the man and the universe that meets the man's needs.
3. Write a mock heroic poem in the style of "Do not weep, maiden for war is kind" about a deed of valor. You might want to try using regular meter and rhyme. Select a deed of questionable valor to make your ironic tone more clear.
Hyphens and Proofreading for Capitalization. Read the Language Arts Survey 3.93, "Hyphens and Dashes," and 3.94, "Editing for Capitalization Errors." Then rewrite the following sentences, including correct capitalization and hyphenation.
1. In 1890 Stephen Crane told his mother, "I'm moving to new york city."
2. Among his many accomplishments, Crane was a short story and freelance writer.
3. Henry Fleming is the hero of Red Badge of Courage, Crane's most famous novel, set during the civil war.
4. Ahead of his time, Crane anticipated several strains of twentieth century poetry with The Black Rider and War is Kind.
5. Crane depicted the American west in his short stories, which are considered among the finest in English.
On-Line Book Review.Write your own review of another work by Crane, such as The Red Badge of Courage, "The Blue Hotel," "The Open Boat," or "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky." Then write an on-line review and post it on the Internet.
War Correspondent.Imagine that you are a war correspondent who witnessed the deaths of the lover and father and the funeral of the son depicted in "Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind." Write an article describing all three events, elaborating on the details.
