This document provides analysis questions for three poems: "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Sara Teasdale, "Meeting at Night" by Robert Browning, and "The Sound of Night" by Maxine Kumin. It asks the reader to identify examples of literary devices like alliteration in the poems and to analyze how each portrays nature and humanity's relationship to nature. It prompts comparing the poems' descriptions of nighttime settings to accompanying paintings. Finally, it asks the reader to choose a poem and analyze the view of nature represented through examples from the text.

1. What is Our
Place in
Nature?
Poetry Triplet #1 pp. 778-783
Reflection and Analysis

2. “There Will Come Soft Rains”
by Sara Teasdale p. 780
1. What examples of alliteration can you identify in
lines 1-6?
2. What overall feeling do you get from the landscape
shown in the painting Spring Landscape on page
781?
3. According to the speaker in Teasdale’s poem, how
would the natural world react if “mankind perished
utterly”?
4. In lines 1-12, what differences can you identify
between Teasdale’s portrayal of nature and her
portrayal of humankind?

3. “Meeting at Night”
by Robert Browning p. 782
1. Read the first stanza aloud. What rhyme scheme
do you notice?
2. Where does the speaker arrive, and what happens
once he is there? Whom does he meet?
3. Identify words and phrases from the poem that
match the painting Moonrise at the top of page 782.

4. “The Sound of Night”
by Maxine Kuminp. 783
1. What examples of onomatopoeia can you identify in
the first stanza? What do they add to the poem?
2. Compare and contrast the night scene described in
the poem and the night scene shown in the painting
Trees at Night shown at the top of page 783.
3. What time and place are described in Kumin’s
poem?

5. Literary Analysis of the Poetry Triplet
pp. 778-783
1. Which poem did you appreciate most when read
aloud? Explain the qualities that were brought out
in an oral reading.
2. Which poem makes the most obvious use of
alliteration? What feelings or ideas are suggested
by these repeated consonant sounds at the
beginnings of words?
3. Describe the qualities of nature conveyed in each
poem. How are sound devices used to suggest
these qualities? Refer to your sound devices chart
to plan your answer.

6. Literary Analysis
R – Restate/reword the question
O – Give an opinion (original analysis)
Q – Provide quote (s) to support your opinion (analysis)
C – Connect your quote (s) and analysis to an overall theme
1. According to one critic, Teasdale’s poetry “expresses the fragility of
human life where the only real certainty comes from nature.” How does
this comment apply to “There Will Come Soft Rains”?
2. How do people relate to nature in “Meeting at Night” and “The Sound of
Night”? Use specific details from each poem to support your response.
3. In “The Sound of Night,” is nature threatening, or do the speaker’s
perceptions of nature make it seem threatening? Use specific details
from the poem to support your response.
4. Choose one of the poems, and describe the view of nature that the poet
represents. Support your response with three specific examples from the
poem.