Symphony in Yellow

O. Wilde

Read the poem and answer the questions that follow it.

Exercise 2.

Exercise 1.

What does the writer really think in each of the following sentences?

1. She danced as daintily as a cow.

2. He usually manages to bulldoze his way through the committee meetings.

3. Jasmine is so incredibly beautiful, dignified and intelligent as to be the eighth wonder of the world.

4. The new social centre is a tree growing naturally with strength and beauty to fit the environment in which it had been placed.

5. His unrivalled brilliance as a student of the physical sciences was aptly illustrated by his 10% in the physics examination.

6. I don’t want to be an island but a bridge.

7. His sarcasm often bites like an adder.

8. The furniture was about as comfortable as a cactus.

Sort out the sentences below into two groups tp indicate a positive or a negative opinion.

1. The car is incredibly, heartstoppingly beautiful.

2. My own life had been so respectable and sheltered in comparison.

3. Don’t be so childish!

4. It turned out the most ghastly place you can imagine.

5. You never saw such a barren, boring landscape in your life, like the surface of the moon in a heatwave.

6. Our wedding was particularly gruesome, with the two sets of totally incompatible relatives grinding and grating against each other.

7. Louise was small but shapely built.

8. He took it like a slap in the face.

9. Anne gave me a frosty look.

10. New York was certainly a disastrous choice.

Exercise 3.

What connotations do the following statements suggest?

1. But what can you expect from such a man? Do you find taste in the white of an egg?

2. I’ve managed to stop smoking; now I’m trying to stop nuclear power.

3. Last night I got back to my room wet with wine and good intentions.

4. One cannibal to another while eating a clown: “Does this taste funny to you?”

5. Happiness is like coke — something you get as by-product in the process of making something else.

6. I hate her hypocritical, pretentious, butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-my-mouth air.

7. Diana looks a million bucks today.

8. I wouldn’t trust Bill in your place — he is as treacherous as a snake.

An omnibus across the bridge

Crawls like a yellow butterfly,

And, here and there, a passer-by

Shows like a little restless midge.

Big barges full of yellow hay

Are moved against the shadowy wharf,

And, like a yellow silken scarf,

The thick fog hangs along the quay.

The yellow leaves begin to fade

And flutter from the Temple elms,

And at my feet the pale-green Thames

Lies like a road of rippled jade.

1. Translate the title of the poem. What ideas does the choice of words in the title suggest?

2. What is described in the poem? Through whose perception are the things shown?

3. Consider the vivid comparisons O. Wilde creates. What emotions do they suggest?

4. Do you think any of the metaphors or similes in the text are particularly effective?

5. What general mood do you think is created in the poem?

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