READ the following poems: "Sea-Fever, Exaltation is in the Going, Exiled, All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters, From the Shore, Ships That Pass In the Night, Travel, I Like To See It Lap the Miles, Taking the Night Train, Night Journey, Window, High Flight, The Journey is Everything, Sympathy
Answer TWO of the following:
Q1: Why do so many poems use the metaphor of "night journey" in their poems? How does traveling through the night help us see/experience life in a different way? Use at least one of these poems to explain this.
Q2: Dunbar's poem, "Sympathy," is one of the most quoted American poems in the 20th century, with its familiar refrain, "I know why the caged bird sings!" What is being compared to a "caged bird" in this poem? Who might identify with the bird's song/experience? Clues in the poem itself?
Q3: Why do you think so many poems are drawn to water as a metaphor for human experience? How does it lend itself to many other interpretations? Consider a poem like "All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters," which states, "I hear the noise of waters/Far below,/All day, all night, I hear them flowing/To and fro." How does this relate to the way many of this poems talk about (or observe) the "water" all around them?
Q4: Some poems play a guessing game with the reader, and refuse to tell them outright what the subject of the poem actually is. Only be deciphering the clues in the poem (and the metaphor) can we guess its secret identity. For example, what is the poem "I like to see it lap the miles" actually about? And why might it resemble a horse to the poet?
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