Transcript Atavism

Mod: 9
Sara.C &
Brittany.G
The poem
Sometimes in the open you look up
where birds go by, or just nothing,
and wait. A dim feeling comes
you were like this once, there was air,
and quiet; it was by a lake, or
maybe a river you were alert
as an otter and were suddenly born
like the evening star into wide
still worlds like this one you have found
again, for a moment, in the open.
Something is being told in the woods: aisles of
shadow lead away; a branch waves;
a pencil of sunlight slowly travels its
path. A withheld presence almost
speaks, but then retreats, rustles
a patch of brush. You can feel
the centuries ripple generations
of wandering, discovering, being lost
and found, eating, dying, being born.
A walk through the forest strokes your fur,
the fur you no longer have. And your gaze
down a forest aisle is a strange, long
plunge, dark eyes looking for home.
For delicious minutes you can feel your whiskers
wider than your mind, away out over everything.
William Stafford
Figurative Language Used
“
• Personification a branch waves;
a pencil of sunlight slowly travels its path.”
This shows personification because branches do not wave.
Also pencils do not have their own path.
• Simile: “it was by a lake, or
maybe a river you were alert
as an otter and were suddenly born
like the evening star into wide”
This uses the word like making it a simile , and it also is
comparing two things. It is comparing an otter being born
to an evening star.
Figurative Language Used
• Metaphor: “…..you can feel your whiskers
wider than your mind”
This is a metaphor because it compares a
cat to a human without using like or as.
Imagery
• “Something is being told in the woods: aisles of
shadow lead away….”
The word shadow creates imagery because you can start to imagine a
shadow leading my way into the woods.
• “And your gaze down a forest aisle is a strange, long plunge, dark
eyes looking for home.”
This shows imagery because it uses the words “..dark eyes..” and
“..long plunge..”. They help the reader imagine where the poem
takes place.
Sound devices
• Alliteration: “…eating,
dying, being born.”
This is alliteration because
in repeats the ending sound
of “ing” three times in a row.
Mood/Feeling
• Eerie
• Mysterious
• Gloomy
Message/Theme
The message or theme in this poem is when your alone
things can begin to unravel as a scary moment. This is
because of the line “Sometimes in the open you look up
where birds go by, or just nothing, and wait. A dim feeling
comes you were like this once, there was air,” This line
shows shows that the author is having a bit of Deja-vu.
The very last part “A dim feeling comes you were like this
once, there was air,” Is where we get that from.
Prediction
How do you think this will be shown in The Call of
the Wild?
• We think that in the book The Call of the Wild
the main characters will experience deja-vu in
the middle of a forest that has a lake beside it.
They will see birds flying overhead of the trees
and pure silence will fall among them.