Page 170 - 100 Best Loved Poems - Teaching Unit
P. 170
“Barbara Frietchie”
by John Greenleaf Whittier, pages 53-54
Vocabulary
famished – starving, hungry
fourscore year and ten – 90 years old
1. The speaker makes references to the “Lee” (Robert E.), a figure from outside the poem
whom the speaker assumes readers will recognize. What is the literary term for this kind of
reference?
2. The poem is written in rhyming pairs. What is the term for this type of rhyme scheme?
3. What flag does Barbara Frietchie hang in her attic window, that of the Union or the
Confederacy?
4. According to the speaker, how old is Barbara Frietchie?
5. How does his encounter with Barbara Frietchie change Stonewall Jackson?
6. In your own words, explain the last couplet of this poem. What does this play on words
really mean?
S-56
