Read the poem. The Whippoorwill
by Madison Julius Cawein

I.

Above lone woodland ways that led
To dells the stealthy twilights tread
The west was hot geranium red;
And still, and still,
Along old lanes the locusts sow
With clustered pearls the Maytimes know,
Deep in the crimson afterglow,
We heard the homeward cattle low,
And then the far-off, far-off woe
Of "whippoorwill!" of "whippoorwill!"

II.

Beneath the idle beechen boughs
We heard the far bells of the cows
Come slowly jangling towards the house;
And still, and still,
Beyond the light that would not die
Out of the scarlet-haunted sky;
Beyond the evening-star's white eye
Of glittering chalcedony,
Drained out of dusk the plaintive cry
Of "whippoorwill," of "whippoorwill."

III.

And in the city oft, when swims
The pale moon o'er the smoke that dims
Its disc, I dream of wildwood limbs;
And still, and still,
I seem to hear, where shadows grope
Mid ferns and flowers that dewdrops rope,
Lost in faint deeps of heliotrope
Above the clover-sweetened slope,
Retreat, despairing, past all hope,
The whippoorwill, the whippoorwill.

Whippoorwill - a nocturnal bird with a distinctive call that is suggestive of its name

Question 1
Part A

What is a theme of “The Whippoorwill”?

One can find serenity and hope in nature.

Memories of our past will always linger.

The mind can play tricks on a person.

Peace found in nature can sustain one in the city.
Question 2
Part B

How does the theme in Part A develop in the poem?

The speaker regrets his move to the city and thinks only of his time in the countryside.

The countryside is full of the sounds of nature and the call of the whippoorwill.

Coming home in the evening to his place in the city, the speaker hears a whippoorwill.

Even though the moon is hidden by smoke in the city, the speaker thinks of the sights and sounds of the country.