Class Participation Assignment for 7/9:

Look at two poems that are related in theme (about parents’ work, and how their children do or do not follow their parents’ footsteps): Seamus Heaney’s “Digging” (p. 1049) and Julia Alvarez’s “Woman’s Work” (p. 1050)

1. Read each poem once for general understanding:
   1. What main ideas do you get from “Digging”?

1. From “Woman’s Work”?

2. Read each poem again and annotate it, marking any interesting, unusual, or repeated words, phrases, or sentence structures:
   1. What words/phrases stand out in “Digging”? Why? If any of these words were changed, how would the tone of the poem change?

1. Who is the speaker of the poem? How can you tell?

1. Are there any similes, metaphors, synecdoche, metonymy, personification, common symbols, or irony/paradox? If so, what does this add to the poem?

1. What words/phrases stand out in “Woman’s Work”? Why? If any of these words were changed, how would the tone of the poem change?

1. Who is the speaker of the poem? How can you tell?

1. Are there any similes, metaphors, synecdoche, metonymy, personification, common symbols, or irony/paradox? If so, what does this add to the poem?

3. Do the scansion for each poem:
   1. What is the typical number of syllables per line, pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables (meter), and rhyme scheme of “Digging”?

1. Are there any places where there are unusual stresses or variations in the number of syllables or rhyme? How do these affect the poem as a whole?

1. What is the typical number of syllables per line, pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables (meter), and rhyme scheme of “Woman’s Work”?

1. Are there any places where there are unusual stresses or variations in the number of syllables or rhyme? How do these affect the poem as a whole?

4. After reading both poems carefully above, what do you think each poem has to offer the other? That is, how does the main idea or form of “Digging” provide a new perspective on the main idea or form of “Woman’s Work”? (Or vice versa.)