1. Most Famous Fireside Poets (Take Notes)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Poems are easily understood and remembered
Poems include universal themes
Had a spirit of optimism
“The Cross of Snow”
Personal Tragedies …

2. Study this picture … how is it that this cross of snow stays frozen so that we can see it?

3. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Cross of Snow“
In the long, sleepless watches of the night, A gentle face--the face of one long dead-- Looks at me from the wall, where round its head The night-lamp casts a halo of pale light. Here in this room she died, and soul more white Never through martyrdom of fire was led To its repose; nor can in books be read The legend of a life more benedight. There is a mountain in the distant West That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines Displays a cross of snow upon its side. Such is the cross I wear upon my breast These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes And seasons, changeless since the day she died.

4. Complete the prompt sheet for “Cross of Snow.”

5. Most Famous Fireside Poets (Take Notes)
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Descendent of Anne Bradstreet (1st notable American female author)
Taught at Harvard for many years
Loved exaggeration, colorful expressions, and quotable statements
“Old Ironsides” is a poem written to protest the destruction of the battleship Constitution that withstood British attacks during the War of 1812.

6. “Old Ironsides” (complete handout)

7. What is a protest poem?

8. Your Poem . . .
-You need to become a person living in NYC during
-Decide what you’d like to protest and HOW.
-Holmes used strategies like …
What strategies can YOU use?
-include minimum of 10 lines
-incorporate at least 2 different types of figurative language such as:
simile
metaphor
personification
hyperbole
understatement
alliteration
-Be ready to reflect on the strategy you used to appeal to your audience.

9. Complete the study guide sheet for “Thanatopsis.”