ENGL100 EXAM REVIEW POETRY CHEAT SHEET
ENGL100 FALL EXAM REVIEW: POETRY
RUNDOWN
"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth
• Summary:
◦ 1st stanza: speaker reminisces about a time when he/she walked alone
on a hill (daytime)
◦ 2nd: description of memory and scenery (nighttime)
◦ 3rd: focus on the water and the waves, appreciation for nature's beauty
◦ 4th: description of speaker's current state and environment, states that
they (the speaker) recall back to that memory fondly
◦ Overall: speaker's memory of wandering "lonely as a cloud" but it seems
that they realized that they are not alone?
• Figurative Devices (and their signi cance):
◦ Simile:
• Title: "lonely as a cloud"
▪ Signi cance: demonstrates utter complete solitude; sense
of detachment from the rest of the world, sense of freedom
• "continuous as the stars that shine" (7)
▪ Signi cance: by comparing the host of golden daffodils to
be continuous to the speaker's eye as far as he/she can
see, to the stars, the speaker is implying that there in an
enduring and an everlasting quality of Earth and nature
itself? In a "never-ending" manner?
◦ Personi cation:
• "a crowd/ a host of golden daffodils" (3-4)
▪ Signi cance: speaker talks about being lonely and claims
they are alone, yet by giving the daffodils a human quality
of crowding/hosting, the speaker is implying that they are
not truly alone in nature?
• "ten thousand [stars] saw I at a glance / tossing their heads in a
sprightly dance" (11-12)
▪ Signi cance: stars cannot toss their heads (they have no
heads to begin with), nor do they have eyes to see the
speaker, thus this is another way of the speaker giving
nature human qualities to emphasize that they are actually
not alone, demonstrating the opposite of solitude
• Overall signi cance / additional notes:
fi fi fi fi
, ENGL100 EXAM REVIEW POETRY CHEAT SHEET
◦ William Wordsworth thinks/says the poem is about receiving an
impression on the imagination, rather than the imagination expressing
itself
◦ Some critics say that the poem is like he poet saying what he thinks he's
doing; refers to the 3rd stanza where he is re ecting on a past memory
• What really matters is what he does with the experience (3rd
stanza)
◦ Process of re ection / thought makes it clear this is a LYRIC poetry
◦ "a host of daffodils" could be either an actual host of daffodils OR could
be a spiritual re ection, where using "host" as an allusion o the host in
churches (speaker might be tying his physical experiences to his spiritual
experiences and meditating on it)
• Poem Structural Analysis:
◦ Rhyme pattern: ABAB CC for all four stanzas
◦ Each stanza is a sestet
◦ General type of poem:
• Lyric -- because the audience is overhearing the speaker's
thoughts (the speaker is not speaking directly to the reader but
more to him/herself)
"The Sick Rose" by William Blake
• Summary:
◦ Speaker seems to be talking to the ower rose, which appears to be
infected by a bug and is destroying the rose's life; speaker is talking
about plant disease
• Figurative Devices:
◦ Personi cation:
• "howling storm" (4)
▪ Signi cance:
• "crimson joy" (6)
▪ Signi cance:
• Rose "thou" and "thy"
▪ Signi cance: Rose is not a human entity that can be
addressed as a person and thus, this implies that the
speaker is not merely talking about the ower/plant rose,
but an actual person, a woman named Rose
• Overall signi cance / additional notes:
◦ The speaker is addressing a woman named Rose, talking about how
something is eating away at her
◦ There are hints and mentions of sexuality:
fi fi fifl fl fl fl fl
, ENGL100 EXAM REVIEW POETRY CHEAT SHEET
• "thy bed / of crimson joy" and "dark secret love" insinuates a
sexual repression, which btw, Blake sees as a negative thing (as
hinted by his lamenting of Rose's infestation of worm/bug)
• THUS: Rose being sick could mean her loss of innocence due to
secret love and sexuality
• Structural Analysis:
◦ 2 stanzas
◦ Rhyme scheme: ABCB ABCB
◦ Syllables: 4-6, very consistent
"You Fit Into Me" by Margaret Atwood
• Summary: speaker describes a person tting into them snugly like a sh hook
into an eye
• Literary Devices:
◦ Simile:
• "you t into me / like a hook into an eye"
▪ Signi cance: the comparison of the speaker's relationship
to a sh hook helps readers understand the manner in the
way that the speaker and the intended audience are
ensnared/tangled with each other; suggests a toxic
relationship where the speaker is entrapped
• Overall signi cance / additional notes:
◦ Invokes thoughts of love and sex
• Hook and eye = clothing fastener, bra hooks
▪ Hooks could be a symbol of security; makes you think of
something made for each other, of soulmates, eroticism
◦ BUT hook + eye + painful, unhealthy, sh hook is stuck in the eye
◦ THUS poem is talking about a relationship with a toxic undercurrent
• Structural Analysis:
◦ Two couplets
◦ Lack of capitalization - suggestive informality
◦ No rhyme scheme, but more of repetition of "hook" and "eye"
Independence Day Letter by Donald Hall
• Summary: speaker talks about his/her routine of daily life where
• Literary/Figurative Devices (and their signi cance):
◦ Allusions:
• Title: Independence Day
• "Eagle Pond"
• "Fourth of July"
• "Red Sox"
fifi fi fi fi fi fi
ENGL100 FALL EXAM REVIEW: POETRY
RUNDOWN
"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth
• Summary:
◦ 1st stanza: speaker reminisces about a time when he/she walked alone
on a hill (daytime)
◦ 2nd: description of memory and scenery (nighttime)
◦ 3rd: focus on the water and the waves, appreciation for nature's beauty
◦ 4th: description of speaker's current state and environment, states that
they (the speaker) recall back to that memory fondly
◦ Overall: speaker's memory of wandering "lonely as a cloud" but it seems
that they realized that they are not alone?
• Figurative Devices (and their signi cance):
◦ Simile:
• Title: "lonely as a cloud"
▪ Signi cance: demonstrates utter complete solitude; sense
of detachment from the rest of the world, sense of freedom
• "continuous as the stars that shine" (7)
▪ Signi cance: by comparing the host of golden daffodils to
be continuous to the speaker's eye as far as he/she can
see, to the stars, the speaker is implying that there in an
enduring and an everlasting quality of Earth and nature
itself? In a "never-ending" manner?
◦ Personi cation:
• "a crowd/ a host of golden daffodils" (3-4)
▪ Signi cance: speaker talks about being lonely and claims
they are alone, yet by giving the daffodils a human quality
of crowding/hosting, the speaker is implying that they are
not truly alone in nature?
• "ten thousand [stars] saw I at a glance / tossing their heads in a
sprightly dance" (11-12)
▪ Signi cance: stars cannot toss their heads (they have no
heads to begin with), nor do they have eyes to see the
speaker, thus this is another way of the speaker giving
nature human qualities to emphasize that they are actually
not alone, demonstrating the opposite of solitude
• Overall signi cance / additional notes:
fi fi fi fi
, ENGL100 EXAM REVIEW POETRY CHEAT SHEET
◦ William Wordsworth thinks/says the poem is about receiving an
impression on the imagination, rather than the imagination expressing
itself
◦ Some critics say that the poem is like he poet saying what he thinks he's
doing; refers to the 3rd stanza where he is re ecting on a past memory
• What really matters is what he does with the experience (3rd
stanza)
◦ Process of re ection / thought makes it clear this is a LYRIC poetry
◦ "a host of daffodils" could be either an actual host of daffodils OR could
be a spiritual re ection, where using "host" as an allusion o the host in
churches (speaker might be tying his physical experiences to his spiritual
experiences and meditating on it)
• Poem Structural Analysis:
◦ Rhyme pattern: ABAB CC for all four stanzas
◦ Each stanza is a sestet
◦ General type of poem:
• Lyric -- because the audience is overhearing the speaker's
thoughts (the speaker is not speaking directly to the reader but
more to him/herself)
"The Sick Rose" by William Blake
• Summary:
◦ Speaker seems to be talking to the ower rose, which appears to be
infected by a bug and is destroying the rose's life; speaker is talking
about plant disease
• Figurative Devices:
◦ Personi cation:
• "howling storm" (4)
▪ Signi cance:
• "crimson joy" (6)
▪ Signi cance:
• Rose "thou" and "thy"
▪ Signi cance: Rose is not a human entity that can be
addressed as a person and thus, this implies that the
speaker is not merely talking about the ower/plant rose,
but an actual person, a woman named Rose
• Overall signi cance / additional notes:
◦ The speaker is addressing a woman named Rose, talking about how
something is eating away at her
◦ There are hints and mentions of sexuality:
fi fi fifl fl fl fl fl
, ENGL100 EXAM REVIEW POETRY CHEAT SHEET
• "thy bed / of crimson joy" and "dark secret love" insinuates a
sexual repression, which btw, Blake sees as a negative thing (as
hinted by his lamenting of Rose's infestation of worm/bug)
• THUS: Rose being sick could mean her loss of innocence due to
secret love and sexuality
• Structural Analysis:
◦ 2 stanzas
◦ Rhyme scheme: ABCB ABCB
◦ Syllables: 4-6, very consistent
"You Fit Into Me" by Margaret Atwood
• Summary: speaker describes a person tting into them snugly like a sh hook
into an eye
• Literary Devices:
◦ Simile:
• "you t into me / like a hook into an eye"
▪ Signi cance: the comparison of the speaker's relationship
to a sh hook helps readers understand the manner in the
way that the speaker and the intended audience are
ensnared/tangled with each other; suggests a toxic
relationship where the speaker is entrapped
• Overall signi cance / additional notes:
◦ Invokes thoughts of love and sex
• Hook and eye = clothing fastener, bra hooks
▪ Hooks could be a symbol of security; makes you think of
something made for each other, of soulmates, eroticism
◦ BUT hook + eye + painful, unhealthy, sh hook is stuck in the eye
◦ THUS poem is talking about a relationship with a toxic undercurrent
• Structural Analysis:
◦ Two couplets
◦ Lack of capitalization - suggestive informality
◦ No rhyme scheme, but more of repetition of "hook" and "eye"
Independence Day Letter by Donald Hall
• Summary: speaker talks about his/her routine of daily life where
• Literary/Figurative Devices (and their signi cance):
◦ Allusions:
• Title: Independence Day
• "Eagle Pond"
• "Fourth of July"
• "Red Sox"
fifi fi fi fi fi fi
