Transcript Those Winter Sundays” - The Class Down the Hall

Poetry Analysis
Mrs. Kate Hendrix
Pre-AP English II
Madison Central High School
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Think about what the title “Those Winter
Sundays” means to you.
On your paper, write 2-3 sentences describing a
typical “winter Sunday” at your house.
What do you think this poem might be about?
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Throughout the day all of you will be reading
various responses aloud! Be prepared!
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As you read, keep in mind the speaker’s
attitude toward his father.
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Put a slash mark (/) at the end of each
SENTENCE.
Beside the poem, write a paraphrase of each
sentence in the poem.
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SOAPStone is an acronym to remind you to ask
yourself several questions about a poem to establish
some background for understanding.
S = subject of the poem. What is the poem about?
O = occasion. What is the time and place of the poem
and what might have prompted the poet to write it?
A = audience. To whom is the poet writing?
P = purpose. What is the poet’s purpose? Is it to
express emotion, or tell a story, or convince someone
(the audience) something?
S = speaker. What do you know about the speaker,
based on what is in the poem?
Tone = tone. How would you initially describe the
speaker’s tone based on the SOAPS?
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With a partner, complete the SOAPStone
analysis on each of your papers (10 minutes)
S ________________________________________
O ________________________________________
A ________________________________________
P ________________________________________
S ________________________________________
Tone _____________________________________
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Level 1: Questions for which the answer can be
found in the text itself (on the line)
Write a Level 1 question for each of the 5
sentences in the poem.
Answer your own questions, using textual
evidence (QUOTES!) to support them.
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Ex. Sentence 1 – Level 1 question and answer:
 Question: What days did the speaker’s father get up to
make a fire?
 Answer: Every day, “Sundays too”
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Level 2: Questions for which the reader must make
inferences based on the text (between the lines)
Write a Level 2 question for each of the 5 sentences
in the poem.
Answer your own questions, using textual
evidence to support them.
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Ex. Sentence 1 – Level 2
 Question: What kind of man was the speaker’s father?
 Answer: He was hardworking, with “hands that ached from
labor in the weekday weather,” and he took care of his
family even on “Sundays…made banked fires blaze.”
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Level 3: Questions which move outside the text
to larger questions that are universal (beyond
the lines)
For the poem as a whole, write a level 3
question and answer it using textual evidence
to support it.
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In 1-2 sentences, explain how asking questions
makes you understand the poem better.
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You can’t say that it doesn’t help you…it SHOULD
help you. If it doesn’t help you, you’re not working
hard enough!
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Complete the chart that I will hand out to you.
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Comment on at least two examples each of diction,
imagery, and details
The rest of the rows may be completed with
whichever of those three literary elements you
choose
 Basically, you can’t just do all imagery, for example
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You may work with a partner, but both
partners must complete the chart in full!
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Label your chart with your name then indicate your
partner’s name on the line where it asks for your
partner’s name.
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When trying to understand and analyze a
speaker’s tone, it is always important to look for
complexity in that tone.
In other words, a speaker in a poem rarely feels only
one way about the subject, so look for shifts or
changes in the poem.
Those shifts can be revealed by changes in verb
tense, point-of-view, diction choices, or images.
When identifying a speaker’s tone, use more than
one adjective to describe it.
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If you need help thinking of good words, use that TONE
chart I gave you at the beginning of the year!
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In this poem, does the speaker’s attitude
toward his father seem to be the same
throughout the poem? If not, where does the
shift in attitude occur? Explain.
What adjective would you use to describe the
speaker’s tone before the shift?
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Provide textual evidence to support that assertion.
What adjective would you use to describe the
speaker’s tone after the shift?
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Provide textual evidence to support that assertion.
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After reading and analyzing the poem, write a
paragraph in which you explain how the poet’s
use of diction, imagery, and details reveals the
speaker’s complex attitude toward his father.
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If we run out of time in class, this is homework!