Homework+Questions


 * Homework: Guided Questions about “The Prison Cell”**

1) In the first stanza, Darwish says it is possible to ride a horse inside his prison cell and run away. How is this possible? (he uses his imagination to create another reality in his prison cell)

2) In the second stanza, what does he say it is possible to do? (for prison walls to disappear and become another place or another country)

3) As a poet who writes in the Arabic language, and as a Palestinian who grew up in Israeli-occupied territory, Darwish mentions several specific places in the Arab-speaking world. Name them: (the Nile River, Damascus, Baghdad, Algiers) Why do you think he mentions these places? (he is using their specificity to inform the reader about the diversity of Arab culture, & to give a sense of how beautiful these places are)

4) What happens at line 11? (someone starts asking questions) Do we know who it is right away? (no, we understand it at line 17: “The prison guard got angry.”)  The questions imply what on the part of the guard? (that he, too, can “see” the images the prisoner has made using his imagination)

5) At first, how is the reader to view the guard? (he is angry and demanding, locks the prisoner in his cell, so must be a “bad guy”) Why is he able to see how the cell has changed? (because the poet understands that he is an individual with feelings, too)

6) At line 41, what happens? (the prison guard becomes sad.) Why? (he may have realized that his job is morally or ethically corrupt; or he may now have empathy for the prisoner)

7) In lines 42-43, the roles of the prisoner and the guard change. This is a surprising moment in the poem. How is this change possible? (the poet may imagine that the guard is a victim of circumstance like himself: the guard may be imprisoned in a role he doesn’t like or want)

8) Vocabulary discussion: Note that the language is so simple it can be understood more easily than other poetry you may have read. (Discuss – students can think of examples) Two important words that you may not know (or may need to review) are **__frontier__** and **__dialogue__**. Define them. Why are they fundamental to the understanding the poem? (frontiers can be physical or metaphorical, or exist only in the mind; dialogue between the guard and the prisoner is what makes the change happen at the end of the poem)