Build Vocabulary - PopulationMe.com

Name __________________________________________ __
Date __________
"Success is counted sweetest" and "I dwell in Possibility-" by Emily Dickinson
(text pages 148-149)
"Uncoiling" by Pat Mora (text page 150)
"Columbus Dying" by Vassar Miller (text page 151)
Reading Strategy: Make Inferences
Poets often avoid stating the meaning of their poems directly. Instead, they craft images and
words that you can use as evidence to figure out what the poem means. When you reach conclusions
based on evidence. you make inferences.
A. Practice: Make inferences about the poems based on the evidence given. Write your conclusions
on the lines.
1. The speaker in "Uncoiling" describes the women's songs as "lace lullabies." What can you
infer about the effectiveness of the women's actions from this description?
2. What can you infer about the "House of Prose" from the images in "I dwell in Possibility-"?
3. What words and images help you infer that the speaker of "Columbus Dying" believes the
explorer felt burdened by his discovery?
4. How does the speaker of "Success is counted sweetest" feel about "the purple Hose?
B. Practice: Read the passage. Write your answers to the questions that follow.
Although an exceptional student, Emily Dickinson received no advanced schooling beyond
the required courses for young women-none existed. In keeping with the age, Emily's family
did not encourage her intellectual abilities. It was thought improper for women to follow the
same career paths as men. While her brothers were expected to pursue higher education and
challenging careers, Emily received no such intellectual recognition. Instead, she kept house
for her father for most of her adult years, quietly amassing the hundreds of poems that have
become her legacy-and our national treasure.
1. What inferences can you make about the writer's attitude toward Dickinson? What words
and phrases do you use as evidence?
2. What can you infer about the level of equality that existed between men and women during
Dickinson's lifetime?
© Prentice-Hall, Inc. Success/Possibility/Uncoiling/Columbus 41