Get Ready
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
:
Is space exploration
What If We Were a daring adventure
or a dangerous risk?
Alone?
Poem by William Stafford
Engage Your Brain
Choose one or more activities to start
connecting with the poem you’re about
to read.
Send Your Signal
Do you think there’s intelligent Universal Connection
life beyond Earth? Raise your Think about any moments when you’ve
index finger if your answer is no. been lonely or a little down. What helped
If your answer is yes, raise three you feel connected to the world around
to five fingers, depending on you? With a partner, fill in a web like the one
how strongly you believe. Briefly below with people or activities that help
discuss your views with your class. you feel connected. One example is given.
Take a Walk
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©adimas/Adobe Stock
Connections
260 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY
Get Ready
Analyze Form
“What If We Were Alone?” is an example of free verse, a
poem without regular rhyme or rhythm, and without a Focus on Genre
fixed stanza pattern or line length. Poets who use free verse Poetry
are free to choose poetic elements that stress an idea or
highlight a mood. They may use stanzas, or groups of lines), • a form of literature structured
into short lines, often arranged
like paragraphs, to change moods and shift topics. They into groups (stanzas)
may use line breaks to emphasize words or ideas.
• often focuses on feelings, and
Free-verse poetry generally follows the rhythms of natural uses words and other elements to
speech. Read “What If We Were Alone?” and think about the create images in readers’ minds
choices the poet made in line breaks, line lengths, rhythm, • often features sound devices that
and word choice. Write what you notice and think about help create meaning
each stanza below. • includes different line lengths
and breaks to help express ideas
STANZA 1 and themes
STANZA 2
STANZA 3
Analyze Theme
Poems often have a theme, or a lesson about life or human nature
that the poet shares with the reader. A theme is rarely stated
directly at the beginning or end of a poem. It is up to you, the
reader, to read closely (several times, if possible, and maybe aloud
as well as silently) and think carefully about questions such as
these:
• Does the title of the poem hint at an important idea?
• What seems to be the main subject of the poem?
•
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
If the poem has several stanzas, how does the main idea of
each stanza relate to the main idea of the other stanzas?
• Are there words or phrases that are repeated or that stand out?
• What images come to mind as you read the poem?
As you think about answers to these questions, ask yourself, “What
big message about life, or about human nature, is the poem trying
to tell me?” Your response probably will be a theme—and possibly
the main theme—of the poem.
What If We Were Alone? 261
Get Ready
Annotation in Action
Here is one reader’s note about the first stanza of “What If We Were
Alone?” As you read, consider how the poet develops a theme.
What if there weren’t any stars? The poet includes a
What if only the sun and the earth made-up quotation
circled alone in the sky? What if about space. The theme
no one ever found anything outside may have something
this world right here?—no Galileo to do with a lesson we
could say, “Look—it is out there, can learn from space.
a hint of whether we are everything.”
Background
William Stafford (1914–1993) was born in Hutchinson,
Kansas. He attended the University of Kansas and earned
a BA and MA. He later earned a PhD from the University of
Iowa. Traveling Through the Dark, his first major collection
of poems, was published in 1962 and won the National
Book Award in 1963. Many of Stafford’s poems have roots
in the natural world he experienced in the West, and they
focus on the lessons that nature can teach.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©AP Images
262 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY
What If
We Were
Alone?
Poem by William Stafford
This poem explores how we feel a NOTICE & NOTE
As you read, use the side
connection to the universe. margins to make notes
about the text.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Robert Llewellyn/Corbis
What if there weren’t any stars?
What if only the sun and the earth
circled alone in the sky? What if
no one ever found anything outside
5 this world right here?—no Galileo
could say, “Look—it is out there,
a hint of whether we are everything.”
What If We Were Alone? 263
ANALYZE FORM
Annotate: Mark the line breaks
in lines 8 and 13.
Analyze: What idea is
emphasized by each line break?
What is the poet contrasting with Look out at the stars. Yes—cold
these line breaks?
space. Yes, we are so distant that
the mind goes hollow to think it.
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company • Image Credits: ©Denis Belitsky/Shutterstock
10
But something is out there. Whatever
our limits, we are led outward. We glimpse
company. Each glittering point of light
beckons: “There is something beyond.”
ANALYZE THEME 15 The moon rolls through the trees, rises
Annotate: In line 15, mark from them, and waits. In the river all
something found in space and night a voice floats from rock
something found on Earth.
to sandbar, to log. What kind of listening
Draw Conclusions: Does the can follow quietly enough? We bow, and
poem’s theme relate only to
20 the voice that falls through the rapids
space? Explain.
calls all the rocks by their secret names.
264 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY
TURN AND TALK ESSENTIAL QUESTION:
How startling to you is the idea of a world with no stars in the Is space exploration a
sky? Discuss your thoughts with a classmate. daring adventure or a
dangerous risk?
Review your notes and
add your thoughts to your
Response Log.
Assessment Practice
Answer these questions before moving on to the Analyze the
Text section on the following page.
1. This question has two parts. First answer Part A, then Part B.
Part A
Which word best describes the mood of the poem?
A frightening
B mysterious
C gloomy
D romantic
Part B
Which line or lines from the poem most clearly contribute to this mood?
A line 1
B line 8
C lines 9–10
D lines 13–14
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
2. Which statement reflects most clearly what is suggested by line 20 of the
poem?
A Earth is deeply connected to space.
B The moon causes Earth to go silent.
C Mysterious things happen in nature.
D Nature is powerful and always present.
Test-Taking Strategies
What If We Were Alone? 265
Respond
Analyze the Text
Support your responses with evidence from the text.
NOTICE & NOTE
1 INFER What phrase is repeated in the title and the Review what you noticed
questions in the first stanza? What does this repetition and noted as you read
the text. The annotations
indicate about the speaker?
can help you answer the
questions.
2 INTERPRET In line 15, the poet repeats the sound of r
in “rolls” and “rises.” How does this repetition affect the poem’s
mood?
3 COMPARE How does the poet suggest that both space and Earth
are mysterious?
4 ANALYZE In the third stanza, how does the poet suggest that
Earth and space are connected?
5 DRAW CONCLUSIONS What do you think is the theme of “What
If We Were Alone?” Why do you think so? Use the chart to fill in your
thoughts.
THEME EXPLANATION
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
266 UNIT 3 ANALYZE & APPLY
Respond
Choices
Here are some other ways to demonstrate your understanding of
the ideas in this lesson.
Writing
Write a Poem
Imagine that an intelligent life form witnesses the arrival As you write and discuss, be
sure to use the Academic
of a group of human space explorers. Create a poem from Vocabulary words.
the life form’s point of view about the newcomers’ arrival.
The poem may use rhyme and rhythm, or it may be in free complex
verse. potential
1. Decide whether the life form is curious, frightened, or rely
angry about the newcomers. Use words that express
emotions. stress
2. Consider how to include the life form’s observations of valid
humans.
3. Draft and revise your poem. Consider the specific
effects of the words and the poem’s theme.
Media Research
Space-Related Memes Astronomy
A meme is a visual idea on social media that can Astronomy is the scientific study of things
take the form of a video or image with text. Create that exist beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
outer-space memes to lighten up the topic of With a partner, research different aspects
space. Pair up with a partner to generate some of astronomy. In a small group, compare
fresh and funny ideas. your findings. Investigate:
• Think about the impressions space makes on • methods used to study the universe in
© Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
you. Maybe you find it fascinating, inspiring, or both ancient times and today
downright frightening.
• three topics that astronomers study
• Write the text for your meme. Find a picture
• two questions that astronomers try to
that works with your text. Use digital media to
answer
combine them. (Meme-generating apps are
available online.)
• Memes can change as they spread from
person to person and spark new ideas. Share
your meme and invite others’ reactions.
What If We Were Alone? 267
