Q3 of 23 Page 78

Answer the following briefly:

What view does the poem give of humanity’s relationship with the Earth?

The poet offers two contrasting views of humanity’s relationship with earth. One image is that of a healthy, fertile and fruitful relationship, where laboring humans receive healthy crops from a fertile land. And the other view is that of an unstable, unreliable earth that yields blighted crops to the starving farmers.


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2

Complete the passage given below by using the words/phrases in the boxes.


Seamus Heaney's poem "1 __________________ ," features two 2__________________ depictions of a potato harvest. In the first section of the poem, the speaker describes a 3__________________ potato harvest with "a mechanical digger" . The second section provides details about what a healthy potato harvest should look like. Heaney uses details and 4 __________________ language to create realistic imagery of the potatos' appearance. He uses a 5 __________________ in line eighteen, "like 6__________________ ;" the poet's diction suggests 7 __________________ and8__________________; the earth has "good smells" and "a clean birth" of the potatoes, using a birth9__________________to describe the harvest.


The third section of the poem offers a 10__________________ to the prior section. In this section, Heaney describes a time when the harvest was 11 __________________ ; his poem conjures imagery of sickness and disease with phrases like "-12 __________________ " and "stinking potatoes-13__________________" He carefully describes the famine's effect on the population by flashing images of the aftermath in tight, controlled phrases. His 14 __________________ tone reflects the speaker's anger at the failure of the crop.


The final section of the poem is a 15__________________of the scene in the first section. Here, the workers sit and have lunch after working at the potato harvest. Heaney uses their 16__________________to contrast the previous section in which the people were starving from the famine. The workers "take their fill" on the "faithless ground;" the depiction of the ground as "faithless" 17 __________________ the earth as not only being uncertain and unreliable, but also suggests a 18__________________ between the earth and the farmers, in which the earth has betrayed the farmers' trust in the past.

3

Answer the following briefly:

Why does the poet compare the two potato harvests?

3

Answer the following briefly:

Contrast the quality of the harvest being described here.


• by machine


• by hand


• during the famine

3

Answer the following briefly:

How is the image of death linked in parts 2 and 3?