Read the following extract from Maya Angelou's poem, 'When Great Trees Fall', and answer the questions that follow: When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, lions hunker down in tall grasses, and even elephants lumber after safety.
Angelou compares great trees to great souls. Mention two ways in which this comparison is appropriate. What is the mood created by the lines in the above extract?
Topic: Great trees and great souls
Answer
The comparison is appropriate because: (1) a great tree, like a great soul, gives shelter, shade and support to everything around it, and its presence is felt by all who live near it; and (2) its fall leaves a visible emptiness — a gap in the landscape that nothing fills, just as the death of a great person leaves a space in the lives of those left behind. Both, too, are deep-rooted and slow-grown, the work of many years.
The mood of the extract is one of shock, fear and unsettling awe — the whole natural world trembling and seeking safety.
Structure this 2 + 1. For the comparison, give two genuinely different grounds (shelter given; emptiness left) rather than restating one. For the mood, use precise words — shock, dread, awe — and support them from the extract with the shuddering and the hunkering down. Mood questions are marked on the accuracy of the word chosen.