Thursday, September 10, 2009

Questions for Last Lesson of the Afternoon

1a. What are the persona's feelings described in the first three stanzas of this poem? Explain how the poet described these feelings through the use of alliteration, metaphor and pun.
1b. How is the tone of anger in this poem illustrated?

The persona is feeling angry, impatient and desperate in the first 3 stanzas. He used some literary devices to describe this, including alliteration, metaphor and pun. In the first stanza, the persona was feeling impatient about the student's lack of interest in learning. This can be seen from: “Them again on a quarry of knowledge they hate to hunt.” This uses the device pun, where quarry in this case is used to describe the variety of knowledge. The persona feels that the students hate to hunt for the great variety of knowledge out there. So, the persona is impatient, that the students do not wish to learn in this sentence. The persona also thinks that the students are very rude. It is shown in the sentence: “My pack of unruly hounds! I cannot start.” This shows that the students are very rude. Metaphor is used in this sentence, the word hound. Hound is the meaning of dogs. In this sentence, the persona is angry at the students for being so rude and wild.

In the second stanza, the persona is impatient about what these work would do good for him. It can be seen from: “I am sick, and what on earth is the good of it all?”This shows that the persona does not understand what good all these work does for him. The sentence uses pun. The word sick is a pun, where another meaning is where a person is ill. In this case, the meaning is a person cannot stand a certain thing anymore, and here, the persona cannot stand the students anymore.

In the the third stanza, the persona is emphasizing that he will not take the lack of concern from the students anymore. It can be shown from: “Their dross of indifference; and take the toll, of their insults in punishments?-I will not!-” This shows that the persona does not want to punish himself with the student's lack of concern and their insults. Pun is used with the word toll, where the meaning is punishment in this case.

The persona use three types of illustrating the tone of anger: Personification, Literary devices and choice of words. Firstly, the persona uses personification. An example of personification is: “Goes down the same abyss.” This example gives a more powerful impact on the reader as the learning of theirs goes lost fowever, infinitely, not just forgotten. This lets the poem become more interesting and lets the idea get through through a more proffesional way. This also lets the reader know that the persona is feeling angry, that what he had taught had all gone into total waste.

The second type is literary devices. Literary devices such as pun is used in this poem. An example is : “I am sick, and what on earth is the good of it all?” This example used the pun sick. Puns give a poem a special feeling to it, and sometimes, different meanings could be used. In this case, 'sick' has few meanings, including being ill, and in this case, being unable to stand it anymore. Puns can make the poems interesting.

The third type is choice of words. The choice of words is very important in imprinting a solid meaning into the poem. An example is: “Of several insults of blotted pages, and scrawl.” The choice of words is the use of blotted pages. Blotted pages can create the image of messy work done and poor work quality. This is the impression when someone sees this. So, this is very important as it creates an image of the poem and imprints an impression. In this case, it imprints the impression that he is angry at the messy work done by the students.


  1. Thankyou so much for posting this. keep up the good work. helped me gain a better perspective to go on about the further analysis of this poem. :)