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Check your Understanding
Questioning the Text: Using the text-based questions as a model, ask a question about the speaker’s purpose. Begin your questions with why or how. Remember that you may not know the answer to the question, but you think the answer might be important to understanding the meaning of the passage.
Synthesizing your Understanding:
Reread the passage and underline sentences that you believe express important ideas or opinions. Focus on complete sentences (and complete thoughts) as you work your way through the poem, rather than trying to read each line on its own. Then, work to respond to the questions below about subject, purpose, and attitude.
1.Whatisthesubject?Whoandwhatisthisexcerptabout? Beasspecificasyou can in identifying the subject of the passage.
2. What is the purpose? Now that you have identified the subject of the passage, explain why Shakespeare goes on to describe time in such interesting and unusual ways. What does he hope to communicate to the audience about his subject?
3. What is the poet’s attitude toward the subject of this passage? Now that you have identified the subject and the purpose, make inferences about how Shakespeare feels about his subject. What adjectives can you use to describe the poet’s apparent opinion of time and what it does to us?
Writing Prompt: Using textual evidence to support your thinking, write a paragraph in which you discuss the poet’s attitude toward time and death. Be sure to
• Write a topic sentence that identifies Shakespeare’s tone and opinion.
• Choose several pieces of appropriate textual evidence.
• Explain the significance of your textual evidence.
aCademiC VoCabulaRy
inference: a conclusion or idea based on facts or information provided
Close Reading Workshop 4 • Close Reading of Shakespeare 55
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