Growing Up Poems - SIFTT
Many themes from Tom Sawyer relate to the concept of "growing up." Your task is perform a SIFTT analysis of the two poems listed below. Focus on their connection to "growing up" whenever possible.
Write down each keyword in your notebook or document and answer the questions (you must do this process twice, once for each poem).
Symbols – What significant symbols are in the title? What important symbols are in the poem? Why do you think the poet included these objects? What do they represent?
Imagery – What is the author trying to get you to feel, smell, taste, hear, and see? What phrases and/or words stand out to you? Why?
Figurative Language – What similes, metaphors, or personification examples stand out to you in this poem? Why?
Tone – What is the tone of this piece? (What do you think the poet’s attitude was when writing this poem?)
Theme – What is the life lesson of this poem? What is the poet trying to teach us? Explain.
1) Nature's Green Is Gold by Robert Frost
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
2) If by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!
Learning Target 3. Interpret the craft and structure of various texts. (R, W, S/L)
Write down each keyword in your notebook or document and answer the questions (you must do this process twice, once for each poem).
Symbols – What significant symbols are in the title? What important symbols are in the poem? Why do you think the poet included these objects? What do they represent?
Imagery – What is the author trying to get you to feel, smell, taste, hear, and see? What phrases and/or words stand out to you? Why?
Figurative Language – What similes, metaphors, or personification examples stand out to you in this poem? Why?
Tone – What is the tone of this piece? (What do you think the poet’s attitude was when writing this poem?)
Theme – What is the life lesson of this poem? What is the poet trying to teach us? Explain.
1) Nature's Green Is Gold by Robert Frost
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
2) If by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!
Learning Target 3. Interpret the craft and structure of various texts. (R, W, S/L)