How many syllables are in a line of poetry written in iambic pentameter?

In this excerpt from the poem "Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant, what is the meaning of the word swain?

Thine individual being, shalt thou go

To mix forever with the elements,

To be a brother to the insensible rock

And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain

Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak

Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mold.

Which line of poetry is written in iambic pentameter?

What poetic technique does Henry Wadsworth Longfellow use in this excerpt from the poem "The Day Is Done"?

The day is done, and the darkness

Falls from the wings of Night,

As a feather is wafted downward

From an eagle in his flight.

Which sentence best describes the chief characteristics of blank verse?

As it's used, what is the most likely meaning of sepulchre?

Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down

With patriarchs of the infant world -- with kings,

The powerful of the earth -- the wise, the good,

Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,

All in one mighty sepulchre. The hills

As it's used, what is the most likely meaning of musings?

She has a voice of gladness, and a smile

And eloquence of beauty; and she glides

Into his darker musings, with a mild

And healing sympathy that steals away

As it's used, what is the most likely meaning of mirth?

Plod on, and each one as before will chase

His favorite phantom; yet all these shall leave

Their mirth and their employments, and shall come

And make their bed with thee. As the long train

As it's used, what is the most likely meaning of communion?

To him who in the love of nature holds

Communion with her visible forms, she speaks

A various language; for his gayer hours

She has a voice of gladness, and a smile

Which three lines in this excerpt from William Cullen Bryant's "Thanatopsis" best indicate the theme of the poem?

What two words or phrases in this excerpt from "Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant best help to reveal the meaning of the word blight as it is used in the poem?

She has a voice of gladness, and a smile

And eloquence of beauty, and she glides

Into his darker musings, with a mild

And healing sympathy, that steals away

Their sharpness, ere he is aware. When thoughts

Of the last bitter hour come like a blight

Over thy spirit, and sad images

Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall.

And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,

Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart--

Go forth, under the open sky, and list

To Nature's teachings,

Which two lines in the poem indicate its theme?

A Shadow

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I said unto myself, if I were dead,

What would befall these children? What would be

Their fate, who now are looking up to me

For help and furtherance? Their lives, I said,

Would be a volume wherein I have read

But the first chapters, and no longer see

To read the rest of their dear history,

So full of beauty and so full of dread.

Be comforted; the world is very old,

And generations pass, as they have passed,

A troop of shadows moving with the sun;

Thousands of times has the old tale been told;

The world belongs to those who come the last,

They will find hope and strength as we have done.

Which two lines in this excerpt from the poem "Consumption" by William Cullen Bryant reflect the theme of the poem? (The word consumption refers to tuberculosis.)

The fields for thee have no medicinal leaf,

And the vexed ore no mineral of power;

And they who love thee wait in anxious grief

Till the slow plague shall bring the final hour.

Glide softly to thy rest then; Death should come

Gently, to one of gentle mould like thee,

As light winds wandering through groves of bloom

Detach the delicate blossom from the tree.

Close thy sweet eyes, calmly, and without pain;

And we will trust in God to see thee yet again.

What poetic style is exemplified in the following passage?

There is a quiet spirit in these woods,

That dwells where'er the gentle south-wind blows;

Where, underneath the white-thorn, in the glade,

The wild flowers bloom, or, kissing the soft air,

The leaves above their sunny palms outspread.

(from "The Spirit of Poetry" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

What poetic device is exemplified in the following excerpt?

Ah! what is not a dream by day

To him whose eyes are cast

On things around him with a ray

Turned back upon the past?

(from "A Dream" by Edgar Allan Poe)

What poetic device is exemplified in the following excerpt?

Be comforted; the world is very old,

And generations pass, as they have passed,

A troop of shadows moving with the sun;

Thousands of times has the old tale been told;

(from "A Shadow" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)