Page 50 - 100 Best Loved Poems - Teaching Unit

“A Red, Red Rose”
by Robert Burns, page 28

Vocabulary
[none]

1. The poem’s first line is an example of what?

The line is simile, comparing the speaker’s love to a rose.

2. Identify a hyperbole in the second stanza.

The hyperbole is “And I will luve thee still, my dear,/Till a’ the sea gang dry.”

3. Why has the speaker written this poem?

The speaker has written the poem as a means of bidding goodbye to his love.

“Composed upon Westminster Bridge, Sept. 3, 1802”
by William Wordsworth, page 29

Vocabulary
[none]

1. What is the rhyme and meter of this poem? What form of poetry do these schemes reveal the
poem to be in?

The poem is a Petrarchan sonnet, written in iambic pentameter and following the rhyme
scheme of A/B/B/A A/B/B/A C/D/C/D/C/D.

2. Find and record an example of personification from this poem.

Answers may vary. Example: The river is given the human quality of having its own will and
houses “seem to sleep.”

3. What does the speaker compare to a garment? Who/What is wearing it?

The speaker compares the beauty of London to a garment, with the city itself as the model.

4. How would you describe the author’s feelings toward the city? Cite evidence from the poem to
support your answer.

Answers may vary. Example: The author seems enchanted by the city as he watches the sun
rise over it in the morning. He is overwhelmed with its beauty, “all bright and glittering.”
According to him, “Never did the sun more beautifully steep” the world around the author in
its light. The author reports he has never felt “a calm so deep!”

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