Preview
Copywork
About This Passage
Pressed to name her secret, Charlotte refuses and instead builds a periodic sentence whose three 'when...' clauses suspend the reader through an entire sunrise before the main clause arrives; only then, in a short separate sentence, does she release the withheld word 'masterpiece.' The architecture enacts its own meaning, delaying and so dignifying what it finally names. Copying it shows how syntax can govern pace, and how withholding a single word can confer weight.
"I'll tell you in the morning," she said. "When the first light comes into the sky and the sparrows stir and the cows rattle their chains, when the rooster crows and the stars fade, when early cars wh...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Reconstruct the chapter's movement from Templeton's evening foray to Wilbur's sleep. Then name the central tension White develops between the loud public spectacle of the Fair and Charlotte's quiet, private labor and decline, and assess how he holds the two together.
Discussion Questions
- Charlotte cannot read the clipping Templeton brings; she has it read aloud, hears 'humble,' and instantly pronounces it 'Wilbur all over,' glossing its two senses. Construct an argument about what her immediate recognition of the word's aptness reveals about the standard by which she measures Wilbur. Use Charlotte's own words about 'humble' to support your reasoning.
- The book's master wordsmith ends her web-writing not by selecting a word but by accepting, sight unseen, whatever Templeton happens to bring. Make a claim about whether 'humble,' a word she neither chose nor could read, is a fitting or a diminished climax to Charlotte's work as an author, then answer the strongest objection to your claim. Use details from this chapter to support your reasoning.
+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide
Vocabulary
Item 1
Modest and unassuming; the last word woven for Wilbur, carrying both 'not proud' and 'near the ground.'
Item 2
A maker's finest, crowning achievement; what Charlotte calls the secret thing she labors over for herself.
Item 3
Sharp and acutely sensitive; Templeton's keen nose registers every faint smell in the night air.
+ 3 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
+ 7 more questions in the complete study guide
Get the complete study guide — free
Sign up and get your first book with every chapter included. Copywork, discussion questions, vocabulary, and critical thinking.
Sign up free