Objective: You will examine how pieces of twentieth-century American and British literature treat similar themes or topics.
Examining Literature: In contrast with the presumption that the twentieth century would be marked by overwhelming changes in science and technology, poetry during this time focused on the simple things in life. Furthermore, works of literature often included a serious or somber tone and mood. For this assignment, you will read “Sadness and Joy” by British writer W. H. Davies and “After Apple Picking” by American writer Robert Frost. As you read the poems, identify the topic and theme and consider the way both authors treat the similar themes in their poetry. Then, write a response that explains the way each poem treats a similar topic and theme. Your response should be three, five-sentence paragraphs in length and include the following:
an introduction paragraph that introduces each poem and its author
a thesis statement in the introduction that identifies the topic and theme of each poem as well as how each author develops the topic and theme
a body paragraph that explains how the author of each poem develops the topic and theme
specific examples in the body paragraph that support the thesis statement
a conclusion paragraph that restates the thesis and reviews the points discussed in the body
proper use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure
“Sadness and Joy”
By W. H. Davies
I pray you, Sadness, leave me soon,
In sweet invention thou art poor!
Thy sister, Joy can make ten songs
While thou art making four.
One hour with thee is sweet enough;
But when we find the whole day gone
And no created thing is left —
We mourn the evil done.
Thou art too slow to shape thy thoughts
In stone, on canvas, or in song;
But Joy, being full of active heat,
Must do some deed ere long.
Thy sighs are gentle, sweet thy tears;
But if thou canst not help a man
To prove in substance what he feels —
Then give me Joy, who can.
Therefore sweet Sadness, leave me soon,
Let thy bright sister, Joy, come more;
For she can make ten lovely songs
While thou art making four.
“After Apple Picking”
By Robert Frost
My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it’s like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.
Rubric is Attached!