WHAT IS THE THEME OF THIS POEM/ WHAT DOES IT EVEN MEAN? My grandfather slept in this farmhouse
as a child. Here, this night,
grandfather many times over,
I lie in this same first home
of the grandfather I never knew,
who died before I came to know
a father could have a father.
In mountain darkness I listen
to the silence of the house,
first room hammered square
two and a half centuries past,
beams hand-hewn, timber
from steep slopes eavesdropping now,
the house expanded by generations
coming down the centuries
like logs from the mountainside,
farm name and family name the same.

In the house of my father’s father,
where this mountain stillness
tucked round him like a quilt,
I drift off to sleep,
dream ancestral dreams --
cold dreams of stone fences,
warm dreams of evening lamps
and dinner table din;
gentle dreams of cows,
neck bells clinking them
home for milking time,
plashy dreams of silvery salmon
finning the Suldal River
from the sea to spawn
(I imagine I hear the water
move through the dark).

In the house of his childhood
I dream my grandfather’s dreams
and I am a child as well.
An ocean removed from home
in a country I had never seen,
wrapped in the comforter
of my history, I dream
my grandfather’s dreams.

Comfort in familiarity and fear of change.

Explanation:

This person knows nothing but this farmhouse, and his family generations before him knew the same. The person finds comfort in knowing that no harm came to those before them, and they possibly associate it with staying in that farmhouse, repeating the same routine, and seeing the same things every day. The last paragraph is the most explicative of this theme, as they liken their history to a blanket as if to say that it is something that makes them feel safe and warm.

1. read the following excerpt from franklin d. roosevelt's "fireside chat 19":

on the other side of the picture, we must learn also to know that guerilla warfare against the germans in, let us say serbia or norway, us; that a successful russian offensive against the germans us; and that british successes on land or sea in any part of the world strengthen our hands.

remember always that germany and italy, regardless of any formal declaration of war, consider themselves at war with the united states at this moment just as much as they consider themselves at war with britain or russia. and germany puts all the other republics of the americas into the same category of enemies. the people of our sister republics of this hemisphere can be honored by that fact.  

the true goal we seek is far above and beyond the ugly field of battle. when we resort to force, as now we must, we are determined that this force shall be directed toward ultimate good as well as against immediate evil. we americans are not destroyers — we are builders.

analyze the effectiveness of this excerpt. how does it function within the speech as a whole? how does the structure of the excerpt to convey the speech's purpose and key points? support your argument with evidence from the speech. (10 points)