Before a Painting
By: James Weldon Johnson
I knew not who had wrought with skill so fine
What I beheld; nor by what laws of art
He had created life and love and heart
On canvas, from mere color, curve and line. 4
Silent I stood and made no move or sign;
Not with the crowd, but reverently apart;
Nor felt the power my rooted limbs to start,
But mutely gazed upon that face divine. 8
And over me the sense of beauty fell,
As music over a raptured listener to
The deep-voiced organ breathing out a hymn;
Or as on one who kneels, his beads to tell, 12
There falls the aureate glory filtered through
The windows in some old cathedral dim.
Read the passage above to answer the following questions:
1)
The beads in line 12 are MOST LIKELY
A) used to pray.
B) from Mardi Gras.
C) part of a necklace.
D) something he is selling.
2)
To what does the speaker compare "the sense of beauty" that falls over him as he looks at the painting?
A) the playing of a hymn and the saying of a prayer
B) listening to a hymn and kneeling in an old church
C) quietly breathing in an old church while hymns are sung and someone prays
D) church music and the light from a stained glass window on someone praying
3)
The "He" in line 3 of the poem is
A) the poet.
B) the painter.
C) an observer.
D) the organist.
4)
What is the main purpose of the poem?
A) to show how museums are like cathedrals
B) to reveal how works of art can be religious
C) to try and put into words the power of a painting
D) to explore the relationship between art and worship
Walden (#2)
By: Henry David Thoreau
1 My furniture, part of which I made myself, and the rest cost me nothing of which I have not rendered an account, consisted of a bed, a table, a desk, three chairs, and looking-glass three inches in diameter, an pair of tongs and andirons, a kettle, a skillet, and a frying-pan, a dipper, a wash-bowl, two knives and forks, three plates, one cup, one spoon, a jug for oil, a jug for molasses, and a japanned lamp. No one is so poor that he need sit on a pumpkin. That is shiftlessness. There is a plenty of such chairs as I like best in the village garrets to be had for taking them away. Furniture!
2 Thank God, I can sit and I can stand without the aid of a furniture warehouse. What man but a philosopher would not be ashamed to see his furniture packed in a cart and going up country exposed to the light of heaven and the eyes of men, a beggarly account of empty boxes? That is Spaulding's furniture. I could never tell from inspecting such a load whether it belonged to a so called rich man or a poor one; the owner always seemed poverty-stricken. Indeed, the more you have of such things the poorer you are.
3 Each load looks as if it contained the contents of a dozen shanties; and if one shanty so poor, this is a dozen times as poor. Pray, for what do we move ever but to get rid of our furniture, our exuviæ, at last to go from this worked to another newly furnished, and leave this to be burned? It is the same as if all these tropes were buckled to a man's belt, and he could not move over the rough country where our lines are cast without dragging them, ---dragging his trap. He was a lucky fox that left his tail in the trap. The muskrat will gnaw his third leg off to be free. No wonder man has lost his elasticity. How often he is at a dead set! 'Sir, if I may be so bold, what do you mean by a dead set?' If you are a seer, whenever you meet a man you will see all that he owns, ay, and much that he pretends to disown, behind him, even to his kitchen furniture and all the trumpery which he saves and will not burn, and he will appear to be harnessed to it and making what headway he can. I think that the man is at a dead set who has got through a knot hole or gateway where his compassion where I hear some trig, compact-looking man, seemingly free, all girded and ready, speak of his 'furniture,' as whether it is insured or not.
By: James Weldon Johnson
I knew not who had wrought with skill so fine
What I beheld; nor by what laws of art
He had created life and love and heart
On canvas, from mere color, curve and line. 4
Silent I stood and made no move or sign;
Not with the crowd, but reverently apart;
Nor felt the power my rooted limbs to start,
But mutely gazed upon that face divine. 8
And over me the sense of beauty fell,
As music over a raptured listener to
The deep-voiced organ breathing out a hymn;
Or as on one who kneels, his beads to tell, 12
There falls the aureate glory filtered through
The windows in some old cathedral dim.
Read the passage above to answer the following questions:
1)
The beads in line 12 are MOST LIKELY
A) used to pray.
B) from Mardi Gras.
C) part of a necklace.
D) something he is selling.
2)
To what does the speaker compare "the sense of beauty" that falls over him as he looks at the painting?
A) the playing of a hymn and the saying of a prayer
B) listening to a hymn and kneeling in an old church
C) quietly breathing in an old church while hymns are sung and someone prays
D) church music and the light from a stained glass window on someone praying
3)
The "He" in line 3 of the poem is
A) the poet.
B) the painter.
C) an observer.
D) the organist.
4)
What is the main purpose of the poem?
A) to show how museums are like cathedrals
B) to reveal how works of art can be religious
C) to try and put into words the power of a painting
D) to explore the relationship between art and worship
Walden (#2)
By: Henry David Thoreau
1 My furniture, part of which I made myself, and the rest cost me nothing of which I have not rendered an account, consisted of a bed, a table, a desk, three chairs, and looking-glass three inches in diameter, an pair of tongs and andirons, a kettle, a skillet, and a frying-pan, a dipper, a wash-bowl, two knives and forks, three plates, one cup, one spoon, a jug for oil, a jug for molasses, and a japanned lamp. No one is so poor that he need sit on a pumpkin. That is shiftlessness. There is a plenty of such chairs as I like best in the village garrets to be had for taking them away. Furniture!
2 Thank God, I can sit and I can stand without the aid of a furniture warehouse. What man but a philosopher would not be ashamed to see his furniture packed in a cart and going up country exposed to the light of heaven and the eyes of men, a beggarly account of empty boxes? That is Spaulding's furniture. I could never tell from inspecting such a load whether it belonged to a so called rich man or a poor one; the owner always seemed poverty-stricken. Indeed, the more you have of such things the poorer you are.
3 Each load looks as if it contained the contents of a dozen shanties; and if one shanty so poor, this is a dozen times as poor. Pray, for what do we move ever but to get rid of our furniture, our exuviæ, at last to go from this worked to another newly furnished, and leave this to be burned? It is the same as if all these tropes were buckled to a man's belt, and he could not move over the rough country where our lines are cast without dragging them, ---dragging his trap. He was a lucky fox that left his tail in the trap. The muskrat will gnaw his third leg off to be free. No wonder man has lost his elasticity. How often he is at a dead set! 'Sir, if I may be so bold, what do you mean by a dead set?' If you are a seer, whenever you meet a man you will see all that he owns, ay, and much that he pretends to disown, behind him, even to his kitchen furniture and all the trumpery which he saves and will not burn, and he will appear to be harnessed to it and making what headway he can. I think that the man is at a dead set who has got through a knot hole or gateway where his compassion where I hear some trig, compact-looking man, seemingly free, all girded and ready, speak of his 'furniture,' as whether it is insured or not.
