1a. What did people think the drowning man was doing?
2a. What do people say caused the man's death?
3a. What does the dying man say about his life?
4a. Compare and contrast the way the man saw himself and how others saw him.
5a. Assess the attitude of the people who knew the drowning man toward his death.
1b. Why did people make this assumption?
2b. How do people feel about his death?
3b. How did the dying man feel throughout his life?
4b. What if the man had been able to ask for help? What difference might this have made?
5b. Compare the attitude toward tragedy in this poem with that in Auden's "Musée des Beaux Arts."
Figurative Language. In what way can people drown figuratively? How might one's surroundings be figuratively cold?
Irony. What is ironic about the attitude of "they" in stanza 2?
1. Write a journal entry from the point of view of the drowned man before he died.
2. Imagine you are a reporter. Write a newspaper article about the drowning. Include an interview with someone who observed the man's behavior in the water.
3. Write a poem about someone drowning figuratively. You may or may not want to use images of literal drowning.
Proofreading. Revise the sentences below as needed to correct errors in underlining and italics. If the punctuation is correct, write OK.
1. The heroine of Stevie Smith's first novels, Novel on Yellow Paper and "Over the Frontier," is much like the writer herself.
2. Her first book of poetry was called A Good Time Was Had by All.
3. After World War II ended, Stevie began to give public readings of her "poems," sometimes chanting them to the tunes of hymns or "folk songs."
4. Stevie's poem "Thoughts about the Person from Porlock refers to the person who interrupted the poet Coleridge as he was writing his famous poem Kubla Khan.
5. The Frog Prince is the best-known poem in Smith's popular 1966 collection of verse.
Making a Study Plan. Make a study plan for the next two weeks. Include any items that are due over the next two weeks and any work you plan to do on long-term projects.
6a.
Monologue / Dialogue.Think of a crisis situation involving one or two characters (for instance, one person on the telephone or two people at a fast-food restaurant. Write a short monologue or dialogue based on the situation and characters you have chosen.
Public Service Announcement. Research CPR procedures. Then write step-by-step directions for how to give CPR to a person who has almost drowned. Use your own paper as needed.
Directions for Administering CPR:
