Poetry Test cloned 12/8/2020

Read the poem below and answers questions 1-4

By the twenty-millionth day

Of indoor recess,

Kept in by the cold,

The rain,

The ice,

The snow,

The cold,

The rainy cold ice snow –

Even the teacher’s tattered cupboard of games looks tired of winter.

And I think,

That if there were just one nice day

That cupboard (if it could!)

would roll itself right down the hall

Out to the playground to play

Read the following poem and answers questions 9-12

I know all the answers

To all of the problems.

I am the best student

In the class.

I drink in the details

And know every book.

I don’t get a desk

I just swim and I swish…

If the teacher just knew

How much I’ve learned.

To get an A+ is my one true wish…

Too bad I’m the classroom

Fish.

Read the following poem and answers questions 13-15

Toadstools

Like tiny fairy houses

mushrooms pop up

after summer rains

orange and white and tan

and sometimes red

clustered together in

miniature villages

they appear overnight

then vanish

just like a fairy would

without a trace.

Read the following poem and answers questions 16-18

To the Bread Found in the Darkest Corner of the Cupboard

You are a miniature world.

Your fuzzy mold like a tiny forest

Of multi-colored trees

Home to who knows what

An entire civilization

Inside a transparent wrapper

And,

Caught between amazement and disgust

I toss your secrets in the trash.

Read the following poem and answers questions 19-22

Puddle Dreams

Even on the gray city street

The puddle reflects the sky:

blue, dreaming, clouds breaking

Like a doorway to another world.

And I half-think that if I jump in

I will fall through

and land in worlds beyond:

kingdoms of elves and unicorns

But when I jump

the sky mirror breaks

dirty water splashes

And I only

get

wet.

Read the 2 poems below and answer questions 23 to 27

Winter by Walter de la Mare

Clouded with snow

The cold winds blow,

And shrill on leafless bough

The robin with its burning breast

5 Alone sings now.

The rayless sun,

Day's journey done,

Sheds its last ebbing' light

On fields in leagues of beauty spread

10 Unearthly white.

Thick draws the dark,

And spark by spark,

The frost-fires kindle, and soon

Over that sea of frozen foam

15 Floats the white moon.

'ebbing: fading

leagues: miles

kindle: begin to burn

Escape at Bedtime by Robert Louis Stevenson

The lights from the parlor and kitchen shone out

Through the blinds and the windows and bars;

And high over head and all moving about,

There were thousands of millions of stars.

5 There ne'er' were such thousands of leaves on a tree,

Nor of people in church or the Park,

As the crowds of the stars that looked down upon me,

And that glittered and winked in the dark.

The Dog, and the Plough, and the Hunter, and all,

And the star of the sailor, and Mars,

These shone in the sky, and the pail by the wall

Would be half full of water and stars.

10 They saw me at last, and they chased me with cries,

And they soon had me packed into bed;

15 But the glory kept shining and bright in my eyes,

And the stars going round in my head.

'ne'er: short for never

Plough: the British spelling of plow; also the British name for the constellation called the Big Dipper in the United States