Page 39 - SpringBoard_CloseReading_Workshop_Grade8_Flipbook

Close Reading of poetry (continued)
ACTIvITy 1
Guided Practice
You will read the text in this activity at least three times, focusing on a different purpose for each reading.
Preview the Title
The title of the poem is “The Defence of Fort McHenry.” Based on this title, make a prediction about the subject of the poem.
First Reading: First Impressions
Read the following poem silently. Your focus for this first reading should be on understanding the meaning of the poem. As you read, practice diffusing the words you may not know by replacing them with the synonyms or definitions for the underlined words. Use the definitions and synonyms in the margin to help your understanding.
The Defence of
Oh, say can you see by the dawn’s early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight, O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
5 And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep, 10 Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam, In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
From
twilight: the light between sunset and dark perilous: full of danger or risk ramparts: walls or embankments created to defend a fort or structure
reposes: rests; relaxes
Fort McHenry
by Francis Scott Key
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SpringBoard® English Language Arts Grade 8
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