“Black Boy” begins with an unnamed narrator remembering an accident she had when she was about 10 or 12 years old and living with her grandfather in a seaside city. The girl likes to ride her horse along the beach while her Grandfather Puss likes to ride in the chairs along the wooden boardwalk, which…
Tag: Summary
Animal Stories by Jason Brown – Summary
“Animal Stories” opens with Jamie rushing to the hospital because he has just found out that his mother has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. He notes that he drives recklessly, which he gets from his mother. “Any man’s mother is a source of grief until she dies,” he says. Jamie arrives at the hospital…
Hamlet – Act Wise Summary
Act 1, Scene 1 Hamlet opens on the battlements of the castle at Elsinore, in Denmark, where the guard is being changed. Bernardo and Marcellus, accompanied by Horatio, come to relieve Francisco. The first words spoken, ‘‘Who’s there?’’ a nervous inquiry by Bernardo indicating suspicion and the need to find something out, set the tone…
Coriolanus – Act Wise Summary
Act 1, Scene 1 Coriolanus opens with a revolt of the plebeians in ancient Rome. They are out in the streets shouting for bread and the death of Caius Marcius, whom they blame for being the cause of their suffering. They accuse the patricians, members of the upper class, of hoarding the grain for themselves….
The Comedy Of Errors – Act Wise Summary
Act 1, Scene 1 The Comedy of Errors begins in Ephesus, where the duke, Solinus, is punishing Egeon for having trespassed on Ephesian soil. Solinus explains that since the Syracusian duke punished Ephesian merchants simply for doing business in Syracuse, Solinus has decided to likewise punish Syracusian merchants for simply appearing in Ephesus. As such,…
As You Like It – Act Wise Summary
Act 1, Scene 1 In the opening scene of As You Like It, Orlando tells the old family servant Adam of his discontent with his brother Oliver’s management of the family fortune and his treatment of him, for he is being allowed no education and thus will have no means to advance in the world….
Antony and Cleopatra – Act Wise Summary
Act 1, Scene 1 Antony and Cleopatra begins in Cleopatra’s palace in Alexandria. Demetrius and Philo, two of Antony’s veteran soldiers, complain that Antony’s infatuation with Cleopatra has had a bad effect on his qualities as a general. They see him as a great warrior transformed by his passion into a harlot’s slave. Antony enters…
My Mother Pieced Quilts – Meaning – Annotation
Lines 1–4 Acosta begins the poem at the most literal level, introducing the quilts and how they were used: for warmth against winter chill. Using a metaphor, she describes the quilts as “weapons” against “pounding january winds,” perhaps the way a young child would imagine them during the coldest of winter nights. Lines 5–7 Here…
maggie and milly and molly and may – Summary
Line 1 Here the speaker of the poem introduces the four characters. Notice how the repetition of the “m” sound in each of the girls’ names gives this line a musical quality, like a melody, and makes it sound like a nursery rhyme. Such repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words is called…
The Lamb by William Blake – Summary
Lines 1–2 One of the most famous poems in Blake’s collection Songs of Innocence and of Experience, “The Lamb” establishes its theme quickly in the first two lines. When the narrator asks the lamb if it knows who created it, it is not calling attention to the biological parents. The narrator specifically asks about the…