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Copywork
About This Passage
These three sentences hold the chapter’s strangest wonder and its biggest hint of what is to come. First Poe describes a careful experiment: a knife drawn across the purple veins of the water leaves no trace, but a knife drawn between two veins splits them apart. Then the last sentence pulls back to call this only the ‘first definite link’ in a ‘vast chain of apparent miracles’ still ahead. Copying it shows how Poe makes the impossible feel real by testing it like a scientist, and how a single closing sentence can promise a reader that far greater mysteries are coming.
Upon passing the blade of a knife athwart the veins, the water closed over it immediately, as with us, and also, in withdrawing it, all traces of the passage of the knife were instantly obliterated. I...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell this chapter in order: how the ship sails on through a warm sea pulled steadily toward the pole and the crew finds a strange white animal; how it reaches wooded islands where Too-wit and his people paddle out in canoes; how the islanders come aboard amazed — believing the Jane is alive, treating the guns with awe, and recoiling in terror when Too-wit sees himself in a mirror; how they prove friendly yet will not approach white things like the sails or an egg; how the narrator persuades Captain Guy to stay only briefly and push on; and how, going ashore, the crew finds a land utterly strange, climaxing in water that flows in separate purple veins. Pause where the chapter most surprises you and explain why.
Discussion Questions
- When Too-wit's people come aboard, both sides are astonished — the islanders by the ship and guns, the crew by the islanders' reactions. What might Poe gain by showing wonder running in both directions during this first meeting, and why? Use details from the chapter.
- Too-wit's people welcome the crew, yet they shrink back from white skin and avoid white things like the sails, an egg, and a pan of flour. How might that repeated fear change the way you read this friendly meeting? Use details from the chapter.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Deep respect mixed with awe.
Item 2
A long, loud speech.
Item 3
Very deep or intense.
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Critical Thinking
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