Analyze the Title!
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First Impressions Matter
The title "Their Lonely Betters" is one that's a secret cultural literacy question. In Britain especially, the upper classes were known as one's "betters," and here we have this issue raised here.
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Read and Annotate the Poem
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As I listened from a beach-chair in the shade
To all the noises that my garden made, It seemed to me only proper that words Should be withheld from vegetables and birds. A robin with no Christian name ran through The Robin-Anthem which was all it knew, And rustling flowers for some third party waited To say which pairs, if any, should get mated. Not one of them was capable of lying, There was not one which knew that it was dying Or could have with a rhythm or a rhyme Assumed responsibility for time. Let them leave language to their lonely betters Who count some days and long for certain letters; We, too, make noises when we laugh or weep: Words are for those with promises to keep. 1950 |
Move from Big Picture to Small
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Questions About Structure
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Look at the Details
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Questions About Detail
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Find the Message
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Pro Tip: The Title Tells You
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Student Assessment: Write a Multiple-Choice Section for This Poem
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Write Your Own!
Using the directions on this page, students will get in a group of about 5 or so to write a multiple-choice section using the MC question stems and the Auden poem. As a reminder, here are some of the most common stems. Students should come up with at least 5 different questions covering all parts of the poem and using 5 different stems. They should generate at least two distracters and one correct answer for a total of three answer choices per question. Multiple-Choice Stems In order to write an effective multiple-choice passage, you will need to use multiple-choice "stems." Those are the basic questions most AP passages include as part of their question set. Stems (Certain words are underlined for emphasis)
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