Passage Snowy Mountains
Snowy Mountains
by John Gould Fletcher
Higher and still more high,
Palaces made for cloud,
Above the dingy city-roofs
Blue-white like angels with broad wings,
Pillars of the sky at rest
The mountains from the great plateau
Uprise.
But the world heeds them not;
They have been here now for too long a time.
The world makes war on them,
Tunnels their granite cliffs,
Splits down their shining sides,
Plasters their cliffs with soap-advertisements,
Destroys the lonely fragments of their peace.
Vaster and still more vast,
Peak after peak, pile after pile,
Wilderness still untamed,
To which the future is as was the past,
Barrier spread by Gods,
Sunning their shining foreheads,
Barrier broken down by those who do not need
The joy of time-resisting storm-worn stone,
The mountains swing along
The south horizon of the sky;
Welcoming with wide floors of blue-green ice
The mists that dance and drive before the sun.
“Snowy Mountains” by John Gould Fletcher—Public Domain
Question
How does the poet develop the speaker’s point of view in the second stanza (lines 8–14)?
- Aby describing images of the mountains’ awe-inspiring size and strength
- Bby illustrating the differences among the various ways humans can impact the natural environment
- Cby criticizing society for taking careless, destructive courses of action against nature
- Dby demonstrating how the mountains and the people are able to benefit from each other
Show the answer
Correct answer: C
The question asks how the poet develops the speaker’s point of view in the second stanza. In the second stanza, the speaker criticizes the destructive actions of “the world” (lines 8 and 10) against the mountains—actions such as tunneling “their granite cliffs” (line 11) and destroying “the lonely fragments of their peace” (line 14)—as described in Option C.
Option A is incorrect because the speaker’s descriptions of the mountains’ grandeur mainly occur in the first and third stanzas, while in the second stanza, the speaker focuses on humanity and its negative effect on the mountains.
Option B is incorrect because the wording of the second stanza—“makes war” (line 10), “Splits down their shining sides” (line 12), and “Destroys the lonely fragments” (line 14)—communicates the speaker’s position that people’s main impact on the mountains is destructive; the wording does not illustrate different ways people impact the natural environment.
Option D is incorrect because no benefit to the mountains is described by the speaker in the second stanza.
Question analysis
Students explain how the poet develops the speaker’s point of view in the second stanza of the poem “Snowy Mountains,” the seven lines about what “the world” does to the mountains. The main challenge is staying focused on these lines and their word choice while the four choices range across the poem’s ideas.
- Grade level
- Grade 6 reading and task
- Compared with grade 7
- Below grade 7 Easier than typical grade 7 work: the stanza is short and its attitude comes through plainly in its verbs, so the task resembles grade 6 questions that ask how a point of view is developed.
- Estimated difficulty
- Straightforward: two steps or one careful reading.
- Thinking it demands
- Depth of knowledge 2, skills and concepts · mainly analyze
- What makes it hard
- How, not what moderate
- Figurative or literary language minor
- Evidence
- Answered from one paragraph or stanza
- Reading level
- Passage: 161 words (a poem; reading level not measured); question and choices: about grade 10, 66 words.
- Students, last 30 days
- Not enough answers yet to show (it takes 10).
Why it is hard, traps and wrong answers (shows the answer)
Why it is hard
The speaker’s disapproval is loud in lines 8–14, so most students identify the criticism quickly. The wrong choices work by describing the poem rather than this stanza, or by describing the stanza’s list neutrally and missing its anger. The question rewards staying inside the seven lines and reading the attitude in their verbs.
How, not what moderate Working it out
The stem asks how the point of view is built, and the answer is in the verbs: the world “makes war,” “Tunnels,” “Splits,” “Plasters” and “Destroys,” each casting people as attackers. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001)
Figurative or literary language minor Understanding the question
The stanza personifies the mountains as victims, with “the lonely fragments of their peace,” so the speaker’s criticism of people comes through sympathy for the mountains. (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994; Kintsch, 1998)
Strategy: Underline the verbs in lines 8–14 and ask what attitude toward people they show, then match both that attitude and the way it is expressed to a choice.
Traps
- Twists what the text says: Uses the text's topic and ideas but changes what it says: who did it, how much, when, or why.
- Wrong part of the text: A choice is true of another paragraph, stanza or speaker than the one asked about.
The wrong answers, classified
A Wrong part of the text (Kirsch & Mosenthal, 1990)
Describes the first and third stanzas, which admire the mountains’ height and vastness; stanza 2 mentions “granite cliffs” and “shining sides” only as things people damage.
B Twists what the text says (King et al., 2004)
Sees the list of actions, tunneling, splitting, plastering, but these are all attacks in one “war,” not different kinds of impact laid side by side for comparison.
D Wrong tone or attitude (Graesser, Singer & Trabasso, 1994)
Reads the tunnels and advertisements as people making use of the mountains, a kind of benefit, and misses the hostility of “makes war on them.”
Working it out, step by step
Figure out what the question asks
This asks how the poet shows the speaker’s point of view in lines 8 to 14, the second stanza. Point of view here means the speaker’s attitude, or feelings and opinion. Stay inside these seven lines.
Find the action words
Line 8 says, “But the world heeds them not.” “Heeds” means pays attention to. Then come the verbs, the action words. The world “makes war on them,” “Tunnels their granite cliffs,” “Splits down their shining sides,” and “Plasters their cliffs with soap-advertisements.” Line 14 ends, “Destroys the lonely fragments of their peace.”
Name the speaker’s attitude
Every verb shows people attacking the mountains. “War” is a strong, angry word. The mountains even seem to have feelings. They are lonely, and their peace is broken. So the speaker is criticizing people, or pointing out what they do wrong. People hurt the mountains without caring. That is careless and destructive.
Check each choice
- A is wrong. Awe at the mountains’ size is in stanzas 1 and 3, not stanza 2.
- B is wrong. The stanza lists several harms, but they are all part of one “war.” It does not compare different kinds of impact.
- C fits. The speaker blames people for destroying the mountains.
- D is wrong. No one benefits here. People attack, and the mountains lose their peace.
Choose the answer
The second stanza blames people for attacking the mountains. So the answer is C, “by criticizing society for taking careless, destructive courses of action against nature.”
Why this answer and not the closest wrong one
B is the closest trap, because the stanza does list several actions. But a list of differences would treat them calmly, side by side. These lines are angry. Words like “war” and “Destroys” show blame, which is exactly what C says.
More questions like this
The original DOE question
The passage “Snowy Mountains” as printed (page 142)
