Notes

Definitions of Poetic Devices simile a comparison using "as" or "like" alliteration the deliberate repetition of consonant sounds assonance deliberate repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds hyperbole exaggeration for dramatic effect metaphor a comparison not using as or like when one thing is said to be another onomatopoeia "sound echoing sense"; use of words resembling the sounds they mean oxymoron a seeming contradiction in two words put together personification attribution of human motives or behaviors to impersonal agencies rhyme repetition of same sounds tone, mood feelings or meanings conveyed in the poem

WOODCHUCKS
Gassing the woodchucks didn't turn out right.
The knockout bomb from the Feed and Grain Exchange was featured as merciful, quick at the bone and the case we had against them was airtight, both exits shoehorned shut with puddingstone, but they had a sub-sub-basement out of range.

Next morning they turned up again, no worse for the cyanide than we for our cigarettes and state-store Scotch, all of us up to scratch.
They brought down the marigolds as a matter of course and then took over the vegetable patch nipping the broccoli shoots, beheading the carrots.

The food from our mouths, I said, righteously thrilling to the feel of the .22, the bullets' neat noses.
I, a lapsed pacifist fallen from grace puffed with Darwinian pieties for killing, now drew a bead on the little woodchuck's face.
He died down in the everbearing roses.

Ten minutes later I dropped the mother. She flipflopped in the air and fell, her needle teeth still hooked in a leaf of early Swiss chard.
Another baby next. O one-two-three the murderer inside me rose up hard, the hawkeye killer came on stage forthwith.

There's one chuck left. Old wily fellow, he keeps me cocked and ready day after day after day.
All night I hunt his humped-up form. I dream
I sight along the barrel in my sleep.
If only they'd all consented to die unseen gassed underground the quiet Nazi way

“Woodchucks” Analysis

Stanza one

What word does Maxine Kumin use that conjures up images of war?

1. _____________________

The speaker first wants to exterminate the woodchucks using _______________

On a scale of one to ten, rate the speaker’s civility
(One being completely violent, ten being peaceful and civil) _____________

Why? __________________________________________________________________

Stanza two

List the words that Maxine Kumin uses that conjure up images of war.

2. _____________________
3. _____________________

Which part of this stanza shows a justification in the speaker’s mind to start and all out war with the woodchucks? ____________________

On a scale of one to ten, rate the speaker’s civility
(One being completely violent, ten being peaceful and civil) _____________

Why? __________________________________________________________________

Where does Maxine Kumin use alliteration? ____________________________________

Stanza three

Which part of this stanza shows a justification in the speaker’s mind to start an all out war with the woodchucks? ____________________

There are two allusions (something that refers to another piece of literature or history) in this stanza?
1. ___Darwinism _______which alludes to ______________________________

2. ___”fallen from grace” which alludes to ______________________________

3. The last line of this stanza is a contrast. Why? ________________________________________________________________

On a scale of one to ten, rate the speaker’s civility
(One being completely violent, ten being peaceful and civil) _____________

Why? __________________________________________________________________

Stanza Four

Where is the metaphor in this stanza? How does it make the woodchucks seem in the author’s mind? ___________________________________________________________

What line makes the author seem like a hunter? This line is also a metaphor that compares Maxine Kumin to what? __________________________________________

On a scale of one to ten, rate Ms. Kumin’s civility
(One being completely violent, ten being peaceful and civil) _____________

Why? __________________________________________________________________

Stanza Five

There is repetition in this stanza? _____________________________ What does it show

Maxine Kumin has become? _______________________________________________

Where is the allusion in this stanza? _______________________________

On a scale of one to ten, rate Ms. Kumin’s civility
(One being completely violent, ten being peaceful and civil) _____________

Why? __________________________________________________________________

What do you think this poem says about people in wars in general?

________________________________________________________________________