1a. What combines its power with the sea? What does the sea stop doing?
2a. What do the huge billows do?
3a. What is the speaker doomed to do?
4a. Identify the natural elements Smith refers to in this sonnet.
5a. Evaluate Smith's descriptions of nature. Also evaluate how she relates those descriptions to human experience.
1b. How does the speaker feel in relation to the natural forces she witnesses?
2b. How would you characterize this action? Explain your response.
3b. In what way does the speaker differ from the people she calls "they"?
4b. What attitude does the speaker express toward nature?
5b. Conduct a survey to determine whether men and women react similarly to the idea that to live is to be oppressed by a long storm. Why might a woman of the eighteenth century, such as Smith, have felt like this?
Anaphora. Find the first references in the poem to the moon, the storm, the waves, and the wind. What words or phrases are used as anaphora for these things?
Alliteration. Review the chart you made in Literary Tools. Find instances of alliteration in Smith's sonnet. What sounds are repeated? How frequently are these sounds used elsewhere in the poem? Why do you think Smith may have chosen to use these particular sounds?
1. Write a description of a natural event you have witnessed. It can be a dramatic event, like a storm, or a more common event, such as a sunset.
2. Write a newspaper article about the events described by the speaker of this poem. In your article, answer the questions who, what, when, where, why, and how.
3. Write your own sonnet or other lyric poem about a dramatic event and how it made you feel.
Vivid Verbs. Rewrite the following sentences, replacing the verbs or verb phrases with more vivid and effective words. Some sentences have more than one verb or verb phrase. Use a thesaurus or a dictionary as necessary.
1. The moon affects the tides.
2. In line 4 of the sonnet, the tide arrives on the land.
3. Line 6 tells about how a wave begins.
4. Charlotte Smith influenced the Romantic poets who followed her.
5. Smith worked hard to support her ten children.
Storms at Sea. Choose a topic related to storms and the sea and create a research log. Some possible topics include tracking hurricanes, outlining the effects of a particular hurricane, predicting tsunamis, or identifying ships lost at sea.
Research Findings:
Sources Used:
Public Service Announcement.Identify the kind of storm or other natural disaster most likely to hit your community. Research what to do in case of such a disaster. Then write a public service announcement to share what you have learned.
Type of Disaster:
Public Service Announcement
