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Copywork
About This Passage
These three sentences are the chapter’s most concentrated burst of action — the moment the bear hunt turns from triumph to terror and back again. Notice Poe’s economy: the first sentence names the crisis (‘In this extremity’) and the one thing that saved them; the second moves in a single swift arc — ‘Leaping... he plunged... reaching the spinal marrow at a blow’ — so the rescue feels as fast as it was; the third drops the beast ‘lifeless, and without a struggle.’ Copying it shows how short, precise clauses can make a desperate moment feel both instantaneous and exact, and how a writer earns excitement through verbs, not adjectives.
In this extremity nothing but the promptness and agility of Peters saved us from destruction. Leaping upon the back of the huge beast, he plunged the blade of a knife behind the neck, reaching the spi...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell this chapter in order: how the schooner forces its way south through cracking ice into open water; how, past the Antarctic circle, the air and sea grow milder instead of colder; how the crew loses Peter Vredenburgh overboard and passes a colossal iceberg; how a giant white bear storms the boat until Dirk Peters kills it with one stroke; how the crew lands on Bennet's Isle and finds a carved piece of wood; and how, with fuel low and scurvy spreading, Captain Guy resolves to turn back while the narrator presses him to continue. Pause where the chapter most sharply turns from danger to discovery and explain why.
Discussion Questions
- Past the Antarctic circle the air and water grow milder and the ice yields to open sea, the reverse of what reason expects. What might that counterintuitive change lead the crew to believe about the pole, and why? Use details from the chapter.
- With fuel low and scurvy spreading, Captain Guy resolves to turn back, but the narrator presses him to continue. How should a reader weigh the narrator's ambition against the captain's caution here, and why? Use details from the chapter.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Obstacles that block or slow progress.
Item 2
The practical wisdom or advantage of a course of action.
Item 3
Anger at something felt to be unfair or unworthy.
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Critical Thinking
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