How can learning more about an author's life you understand the author's work better?

Stephen has just finished composing his first poem, entitled clouded memories, for his poetry slam class. he is slated to recite the first 10 lines during class tonight, and repeats them over and over to himself as he is walking there. this is called

Read the following excerpt from life on the mississippi by mark twain. no girl could withstand his charms. he "cut out" every boy in the village. when his boat blew up at last, it diffused a tranquil contentment among us such as we had not known for months. but when he came home the next week, alive, renowned, and appeared in church all battered up and bandaged, a shining hero, stared at and wondered over by everybody, it seemed to us that the partiality of providence for an undeserving reptile had reached a point where it was open to criticism. how does twain's use of understatement serve his purpose? be sure to use specific details from the text to support your answer.

As you have learned, epic heroes experience trials along their journeys. using your knowledge from beowulf, create a trial you believe an epic hero like beowulf might face. you will need to write a description of the trial using the aspects of a narrative. the trial can be anything you imagine, meaning you can test the hero in any way you see fit. be creative and have fun with this! let your creativity flow. focus on key attributes of beowulf and use his attributes to create a trial that would truly test him. since beowulf is very strong, a trial involving strength and endurance might be to easy. try thinking outside the box to create a trial that would truly test the hero of the geats. examples of beowulf’s attributes: couragous, loyal, strong, persistant, honorable, confident try to use one or multiples of these attribute when designing your trial. a good way to think of this activity is that you are a hunger games game designer. what could you make that would stump beowulf