The Shipwreck Emily Dickinson
GLEE! the great storm is over!
Four have recovered the land;
Forty gone down together
Into the boiling sand.
5
Ring, for the scant salvation!
Toll, for the bonnie souls, -
Neighbour and friend and bridegroom,
Spinning upon the shoals!
10
How they will tell the shipwreck
When winter shakes the door,
Till the children ask, “But the forty?
Did they come back no more?"
Then a silence suffuses the story,
And a softness the teller's eye;
And the children no further question,
And only the waves reply.
15
(1)
1.1 What is the speaker celebrating in the first stanza?
1.2 Four consecutive words in the first stanza tell us about the conditions of the waves. Quote
these words and explain what they tell us about the conditions of the waves. (2)
.13 Is the speaker happy or sad in retelling the story of the storm? Justify your answer with
reasons in the text.
(3)
1.4 How does the speaker answer the children's questions in lines 11 and 12?
(2)
1.5 How does the speaker try to convey emotion in this poem? Justify with relevant examples
from the text.
(2)​