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An allusion is a reference in a work of literature to a well-known character, place, or situation from another work of literature, music, or art, or from history. Frequently, the author uses an allusion to draw a comparison, make a larger point, or to fill in information quickly by using the reader’s prior knowledge.
DIRECTIONS: In the following poem, the poet describes her favorite tree and the many changes it experiences. Read the poem and answer the questions that follow it.
DIRECTIONS: In the following poem, the poet describes her favorite tree and the many changes it experiences. Read the poem and answer the questions that follow it.
Sleeping Beauty
1 You once had pink blossoms tumbling around your head like a garland. You were beautiful, you were loved. When people passed, they breathed 5 deep in your folds of fragrance. You grew all summer in blooming youth, heedless of encroaching fall, which like a wicked temptress befriended you only to betray you. Fall plucked off your 10 leaves, left them scattered on the ground. Fall brought you living death. All winter long you stood, stripped of your former beauty, unrecognizable, bare limbs chilled. 15 I pressed my hands and tried to feel the pulse of life, the sap deep within. You slumbered in a deathless sleep in a world with snow, until one day the spring rain returned, 20 kissing the ground, kissing your arms, trying to revive you and one day you awoke, wearing buds like rings down each arm. Once again you stood in the bloom of youth, 25 your hair full of flowers. |
Source: The Princeton Review (2001). READING STRATEGIES AND LITERARY ELEMENTS. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. pages 17-18.