TDA on “The Rider” DIRECTIONS: Write your TDA in the box below the prompt.

Prompt:
In the poem “The Rider,” Naomi Shihab Nye discusses how to escape loneliness. Write an essay about what loneliness means to the speaker of the poem. Cite passages from the poem to support your points.

A boy told me
if he roller-skated fast enough
his loneliness couldn’t catch up to him,

the best reason I ever heard
for trying to be a champion.

What I wonder tonight
pedaling hard down King William Street
is if it translates to bicycles.

A victory! To leave your loneliness
panting behind you on some street corner
while you float free into a cloud of sudden azaleas,
pink petals that have never felt loneliness,
no matter how slowly they fell.