What is diction? (5 points)
an author's word choice
words that are inverted
connotation in dialect
formal language in poetry
2.
Which of the following lines from John Muir's "The Calypso Borealis" shows an example of dialect? (10 points)
"I wish you would write me, say once a year,"
I sat down beside it and fairly cried for joy.
How long I sat beside Calypso I don't know.
"What were ye doin' there?"
3.
Read the following paragraph from John Muir's "The Calypso Borealis" and pay close attention to the words in bold. In one paragraph of three to five sentences, explain Muir's use of diction and the mood his choice of words creates. Use proper spelling and grammar in your response.
But when the sun was getting low and everything seemed most bewildering and discouraging, I found beautiful Calypso on the mossy bank of a stream, growing not in the ground but on a bed of yellow mosses in which its small white bulb had found asoft nest and from which its one leaf and one flower sprung. The flower was white and made the impression of the utmost simple purity like a snowflower. No other bloom was near it, for the bog a short distance below the surface was still frozen, and the water was ice cold. It seemed the most spiritual of all the flower people I had ever met. I sat down beside it and fairly cried for joy. (25 points)
In John Muir’s The Calypso Boreals, he paints a picture of beauty in both the complexity and simplicity in a garden in which a calypso grows. By using words like “simple purity” and “softness”, Muir is able convey how beautiful the garden is to him. By utilizing such diction, the author gains the ability to add imagery and emotions into his work.
4.
Which of the following words has a positive connotation? (5 points)
lonely
excursions
freedom
discouraging
5.
Which of the following words has a negative connotation? (5 points)
discouraging
freedom
exhilarated
bulb
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
When I caught my little boy pulling the dog’s ears, I sat him down and talk to him about being kind of animals. (talked)…
- 295 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
1. How does the information contained in this statement aid us in our interpretation of poetry? What does it tell us into utterance? How has a previous equilibrium been unsettled? What is the speaker upset6 about?…
- 4739 Words
- 19 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Humankind’s threat to the earth and the natural world has been a common theme of writing since the industrial revolution and underpins The Crest. Kinsella’s forboding poem presents a powerful analogy with man’s pastoral development and it’s intrusion into the natural world.…
- 1543 Words
- 7 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Paragraph 3 – Explain the distinctive voice of the clerk narrator and what he conveys about the Australian bush and life in the city (focus on craftsmanship/techniques and effect).…
- 287 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
In this way a reader could read either and get the same message; that these men have a very prominent connection to nature that they have chosen very different ways to convey. Wordsworth describes his with syntax in the form of a poem, choosing emotion over education. While Muir describes his connection with connotation and diction in the form of an essay that shows his academic talent. Both of these authors are brilliant in their own ways, their connection to nature that most do not know. However, they have both allowed others to see into their connection through these two works. Two works for the reader to decipher that are great in different ways and should both be read and…
- 472 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The tone of this text is encouraging, and it is created through the imagery described by the author. Some examples of the cheerful imagery include: the sounds of musicians singing and the image of dancing. In the introduction of the essay, the author refers mangroves as artists of the beautiful. The idea of the mangroves being artists of the beautiful is again revisited in the conclusion, when the author describes our planet Earth as an exposed mangrove island beautiful and loose. The author¡¯s choice of diction also shows that the tone of this essay is encouraging.…
- 264 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
B. Thesis: Wordsworth and Muir convey their deep connection and passion for nature by utilizing similes and hyperboles to assert the reader how much nature has affected their life.…
- 584 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
List at least three examples of diction in the text that add to the overall tone. Explain how each word contributes to the emotional power of the piece.…
- 1067 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
The speaker begins by introducing the water lily as a stage for the activity that goes on around it. He describes “a green level of lily leaves” that “reefs the petal’s chamber and paves the flies’ furious arena,”--a cover for the activity below and the ground for the action above. The picture establishes the speaker’s view of nature as a complex body with layers that reach beyond its seemingly inactive surface. The language used by the speaker to describe the lily leaves, marked by alliteration and subtle imagery, also demonstrates the speaker’s appreciation of the beauty of nature’s “outer surface,” the face it shows most plainly to the casual observer. The speaker also personifies nature by describing it as a “lady” with “two minds,” clearly those that exist above and below its surface. Study these, the speaker notes to himself, and only then can one develop an accurate understanding of the heart of nature.…
- 597 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Bibliography: 1 From Don Quixote (1605, trans. 1612), a satirical Spanish novel by Miguel de…
- 446 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
now let me tell you something, your book was not an easy read, not just because of grammatically obtuse diction but also because of the sometimes offensive dialogue present. Now i know why you did it of course, you wanted to portray the common man of this time at his purest in order to stick it to the rich and discriminatory people during the great…
- 66 Words
- 1 Page
Good Essays -
2. Although the poem says these bad things about Scottish dialect – it is written in Scottish dialect.…
- 1482 Words
- 6 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Answer why question to test your thesis and see if your thesis is good. “I want to convince/persuade the reader that …..”…
- 1569 Words
- 7 Pages
Good Essays -
[“Wild Flowers” is undoubtedly one of E. Caldwell's masterpieces. The story being multiordinal the depth of its content opens up to him who can see not only through its rather simple surface plot but through the metaphoric and symbolic layers as well.]…
- 3299 Words
- 14 Pages
Powerful Essays -
6. Paraphrase the poem –“Nutting” given below: 10 marks (Lines 39-44) I heard the murmur and the murmuring sound, In that sweet mood when pleasure loves to pay Tribute to ease; and, of its joy secure, The heart luxuriates with indifferent things, Wasting its kindliness on stocks and stone, And on the vacant air. (Answers for 10 mark questions should not exceed more than 400 words.)…
- 284 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays