Legends And Stories

• The Forsaken - Duncan Campbell Scott (Theme & Image Book 1. Page 24)
• The Ice-Floes - E. J. Pratt (Theme & Image Book 1. Page 27)
• David - Earle Birney (Theme & Image Book 1. Page 32)

1. Write a paragraph that discusses the themes of survival and sacrifice in The Forsaken.
In the poem, the young woman shows great courage and initiative as she travels to a fort for help and shelter. Although she is very cold and there is a raging snowstorm, she stops on a frozen lake and tries to catch fish for herself. Survival for herself and her sick baby, whom she keeps warmly wrapped, is all she cares about. She is reduced to using a piece of her own flesh as bait; this sacrifice enables her to obtain food. Walking through the terrible storm with the danger of wolves close by shows her determination to survive her ordeal. Even when she becomes very old and her family no longer wants her, she shows a great inner strength, and there are no complaints when they walk away from her. She accepts her fate - a chilly death in the snow - with the same calmness that helped her to survive many years prior.

2. Write a paragraph that explains the harsh irony of The Ice-Floes.
In the poem, the sailors felt good about slaughtering the seals. "The day was ours, and our pulses stirred" (stanza 2, line 10). They were so engrossed with their bloody killing that they failed to see signs of a storm. "And not one of us saw, as we gaffed, and skinned, / And took them in tow, that the north-east wind / Had veered off-shore; that the air was colder;" (stanza 7, lines 15 to 17). The sailors tried to reach their ship, but the ice started to crack, and some of the men were carried away and lost. In the end, they lost sixty men. The harsh irony is that the sailors could not escape the storm as easily as the seals, which could go under the ice using bobbing holes. Additionally, the seals were quite used to such conditions. On the surface, they were vulnerable, but the sea was their home. With the coming of a storm, the roles reversed, and it was the sailors who then became vulnerable to the elements.

3. Write a paragraph that describes Birney's technique of foreshadowing in the poem David.
Birney's technique of foreshadowing in this poem is evident in two places. First, there is a dead goat's skeleton (section 3, stanza 4). This hints at the danger of climbing there, as mountain goats are very good at traversing mountainous terrain. Second, David's slaughter of an injured bird (section 5, stanza 3) shows his attitude toward such situations. His thinking appears to be that life is not worth living when one's body has been injured too much to live normally. This theme is repeated at the end when David says "Bob, I want to go over!" (section 8, stanza 6). Due to his fall, his ability to walk (and climb) is likely crippled or gone altogether.

4. Embed a video that features information about one of these poets or poems.