J. Roth                                                                          Name:___________________________

                                   

American Literature 245                                    PARAPHRASING PRACTICE

 

Directions:  In the spaces provided, write a competent line-by-line paraphrase of the following poems:

 

A Decade

 

When you came, you were like red wine and honey,                    ____________________________________________________

And the taste of you burnt my mouth with its sweetness.             ____________________________________________________

Now you are like morning bread,                                                ____________________________________________________

Smooth and pleasant.                                                                 ____________________________________________________

I hardly taste you at all for I know your savour.                           ____________________________________________________

But I am completely nourished.                                                  ____________________________________________________

 

We Wear the Mask

 

We wear the mask that grins and lies,                             ____________________________________________________________

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,                         ____________________________________________________________

This debt we pay to human guile;                                    ____________________________________________________________

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,                          ____________________________________________________________

And mouth with myriad subtleties.                                  ____________________________________________________________

 

Why should the world be overwise,                                 ____________________________________________________________

In counting all our tears and sighs?                                 ____________________________________________________________

Nay, let them only see us, while                                      ____________________________________________________________

We wear the mask.                                                       ____________________________________________________________

 

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries                           ____________________________________________________________

To thee from tortured souls arise.                                   ____________________________________________________________

We sing, but oh the clay is vile                                        ____________________________________________________________

Beneath our feet, and long the mile;                                ____________________________________________________________

But let the world dream otherwise,                                 ____________________________________________________________

We wear the mask!                                                       ____________________________________________________________