The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe - Chapter 23

Study guide for 1st – 3rd Grade

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Copywork

About This Passage

This sentence is the heart of the chapter. After trying every side of the hill, Pym and Peters learn the worst: there is no way down. Copying it lets a young writer feel how the long, even words land on the hard truth that the men are trapped on the summit, shut away from the world below.

Thus our fears were fully confirmed, and we found ourselves cut off entirely from access to the world below.

Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.

Discussion Questions

Narration Prompt

Tell the story of this chapter in order. Start with Pym and Peters hiding on the hill, then tell how they run low on food, what happens when they try to climb down the hill, and the strange cracks and marks they find in the black rock. Slow down at the part you think matters most.

Discussion Questions

  1. Pym and Peters leave their safe hiding place because they are running out of food. Do you think that choice was wise, risky, or both? What part of the chapter helps you decide?
  2. Pym and Peters try to climb down every side of the hill, but each path is blocked. What do you think it means for the men when the chapter says they were 'cut off entirely from access to the world below'? Use the chapter's words about the blocked paths to explain.

+ 2 more questions in the complete study guide

Vocabulary

Item 1

The strong, uncomfortable feeling of needing food.

Item 2

A way of getting out of a place you are trapped in.

Item 3

A place you are shut inside and cannot leave.

+ 5 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide

Critical Thinking

+ 4 more questions in the complete study guide

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