Four Poems on Choices & Consequences
English 10 course anthology
Four complete poems for repeated close reading, comparison, oral reading, and revision.
Before the Vote The chair leaves room beside each name. We lift our hands; the clock moves on. Outside, the rain has washed the chalk from where the promised path was drawn. A tidy count, a folded sheet, a motion carried, signed and filed. The doorway holds a waiting coat that someone brought for someone’s child.
Inventory I kept the key, returned the cup, repaired the hinge, erased the date. The list was small enough to fold. I slid it underneath the gate. At home I made another list: the call not made, the borrowed name. The paper weighed the same as air. My pocket did not feel the same.
A Rehearsal Say it as though the room is yours. Say it as though you need to stay. The same five words, the same closed doors, will open in a different way. We stop before the final line. The actor lowers both her hands. The silence isn’t in the script. The other actor understands.
After the Photograph They cropped the pipe, retained the tree, then brightened every patch of green. The bank was clean. The bank was clean. The water slipped between. A child who had not seen the frame asked what the picture meant. We turned it over, wrote the date, and named the part we hadn’t meant.
Original teaching poems written for this course. Speakers and situations are fictional.
Compare form, speaker, and consequence
Question 1
Compare the repeated statement in After the Photograph with the two lists in Inventory. How does each structure complicate an apparently settled account?
A starting hint
Summarize the assigned section first, then select two details and explain how they support or complicate the claim.
Worked solution and marking guidance
The repeated claim emphasizes a true but limited achievement; water remains outside the claim’s reach. The second list adds omissions to completed actions, showing that a tidy accounting does not settle responsibility. Explain the distinct formal effects.
- Accurate account and precise location references.
- Relevant evidence with reasoning.
- A supported qualification or alternative.
Question 2
Perform A Rehearsal twice with different emphasis. What does the final silence add?
A starting hint
Summarize the assigned section first, then select two details and explain how they support or complicate the claim.
Worked solution and marking guidance
The added silence can register recognition or tension. It creates meaning through performance beyond the repeated words. Justify a delivery with the closed doors and the interrupted final line rather than inventing a fixed backstory.
- Accurate account and precise location references.
- Relevant evidence with reasoning.
- A supported qualification or alternative.
Question 3
Analyze Before the Vote without inventing a decision the poem never states.
A starting hint
Summarize the assigned section first, then select two details and explain how they support or complicate the claim.
Worked solution and marking guidance
Names, hands, and a carried motion suggest formal procedure. The washed-out path and waiting coat introduce consequences or needs outside that tidy record, but the poem leaves the exact decision open. A qualified reading preserves the omission.
- Accurate account and precise location references.
- Relevant evidence with reasoning.
- A supported qualification or alternative.