Evaluating in Context

These writing prompts are followed by text boxes for your input. If you are working online and your instructor has given you the go-ahead, you can send your work to him or her by clicking the "Submit Answers" button. If you are working offline, you will have to copy your answers (CTRL-C on most systems) and paste them (CTRL-V) into a text document to retain a record of your work.


1		This link will enable you to listen to a BBC interview of Margaret Atwood in which she discusses realism in her novels. Did it add anything to your understanding of Atwood's use of realism in the poem, "At first I was given centuries"?



2		Here is poetry review by the critic Helen Vendler in which she considers Atwood's poems "At first I was given centuries" and "you fit into me." Read it and relate it to your understanding of these poems. What do you think Vendler means when she writes: "Atwood's poems are short, glistening with terse bright images, un-tentative, closing like a vise."? Do you think this remark reflects one of these poems more than the other?



3		Here is a portrait of Margaret Atwood. Study it for a while and read the accompanying text. What do you make of the title of this portrait? What does the portrait painter think of Atwood's creativity? Do you agree with the artist's view of Atwood as a creator? Why or why not?

2003 McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Any use is subject to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
McGraw-Hill Higher Education is one of the many fine businesses of The McGraw-Hill Companies.