Shout: List 2

by Laurie Halse Anderson
In this memoir-in-verse, author Laurie Halse Anderson reflects on the real events behind her acclaimed novel Speak and the aftermath of the book's publication.

Here are links to our lists for the book: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4

Here are links to our lists for other works by Laurie Halse Anderson: Speak, Speak: The Graphic Novel, Chains, Fever 1793
35 words 38 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. undertow
    a current that flows away from the shore after waves break
    riding the undertow

    My parents let me apply to be a foreign
    exchange student
    confident that I’d be rejected
    but wanting me to dream
  2. bewitch
    cast a spell over someone or something
    I would spend a year and a bit
    (thirteen months: delicious, bewitching number)
    living on a pig farm in Denmark
    fluttering my untested wings
  3. eaves
    the overhang at the lower edge of a roof
    rode the ferry from one island to another and
    drove to the farm
    where I had a small room tucked under the eaves
    with a window that faced the sunset
  4. marzipan
    confection made of sugar, almond paste, and egg whites
    Mor made a kransekage
    a tower of marzipan cake adorned
    with Danish flags and icing
  5. rite of passage
    a ritual performed when an individual changes status
    when the harvest was done,
    the older of our two brothers
    was confirmed in the Lutheran church,
    an important rite of passage
    Danes take their celebrations seriously
  6. kindred
    similar in quality or character
    ...hygge
    is sitting on a dark winter’s night
    with friends or family, the room candlelit,
    everyone knitting or crocheting
    sipping coffee or beer, eating pastry or smorrebrod
    talking, talking, listening, talking, enjoying
    the pleasure of kindred spirits with the winds
    howling outside
  7. reflexive
    without volition or conscious control
    Danes express gratitude sincerely,
    reflexively, constantly
    thanking their parents for every meal,
    thanking teachers for help, friends
    for last night’s party,
    the butcher for a good cut of meat
  8. oblivion
    total forgetfulness
    the temptation is to hide behind shields,
    play defense, drown ourselves in sorrow
    or drug our way to haunted oblivion
    until death erases hope
  9. reorient
    set or arrange in a new or different determinate position
    My home in Denmark taught me how to speak
    again, how to reinterpret darkness and light,
    strength and softness
    it offered me the chance to reorient my compass
    redefine my true north
    and start over
  10. hew
    make or shape as with an axe
    we
    used axes to hew logs for the frame
    tied fat bundles of saplings and green branches
    for the foundation, dumped them in the water
    like offerings to the bog
  11. interstitial
    of or relating to small spaces between things
    we shoveled dirt to fill the interstitial spaces
    formed a line to pass big rocks
    hand to hand
    body to body
  12. pomp
    ceremonial elegance and splendor
    to add the grave pomp
    called for by the circumstance,
    she shook my hand
    “Congratulations,” she said, formally.
    “You have graduated.”
  13. prodigal
    recklessly wasteful
    The Church
    that had cast him out, her broken son,
    gave back his dignity, his calling
    and his God after six years in the wilderness

    We moved again after his prodigal return
    this time to a rural church filled
    with farmers, teachers, and nurses.
  14. fraught
    marked by distress
    When I was two, he drove us
    all the way to Florida, me roaming
    in the back of the station wagon untethered,
    waving to horrified strangers
    for fifteen hundred fraught miles.
  15. whim
    a sudden desire
    Daddy’s face softened, for a moment
    he was the father who’d take us out of school
    on a whim to go mountain climbing
    or buy ice cream for every kid on the block.
  16. portent
    a sign of something about to happen
    Ten thousand pearls hung
    from the dress, the fruit of relentless
    irritation, the day’s slippery portent of doom
    though, in the manner of crowds, no one noticed.
  17. spindle
    a stick or pin used to twist the yarn when making thread
    But recessionals play in a minor key;
    the princess pricked her finger on a spindle,
    was shattered by mirrors, cursed by fairies,
    banished from the kingdom, and hunted
    down by dogs.
  18. scorn
    look down on with disdain
    Rich people scorn the way the poor
    buy lottery tickets,
    but what would you pay for an hour
    of untainted hope, of happiness unfettered?
  19. untainted
    (of reputation) free from blemishes
    Rich people scorn the way the poor
    buy lottery tickets,
    but what would you pay for an hour
    of untainted hope, of happiness unfettered?
  20. unfettered
    not bound or restrained, as by shackles and chains
    Rich people scorn the way the poor
    buy lottery tickets,
    but what would you pay for an hour
    of untainted hope, of happiness unfettered?
  21. molder
    decay or break down
    No, it was my job in hell,
    I mean, at the mall, selling shirts
    folding sweaters, moldering into a minimum-
    wage service clone, clothing store sorter
    of boxes of socks of urgent priority, avoider
    of the manager
  22. ensue
    take place or happen afterward or as a result
    For me the first step was to try college,
    then a university, if I could get a scholarship,
    to study translation: the art, science, and magic
    of distilling meaning from one language
    to another

    but complications ensued
    and the plot twisted, hard.
  23. bulbous
    rounded and bulging
    My sweet, fangless professor drew
    big, bulbous buttocks
    like heavy, low-hanging fruit
  24. rift
    a narrow fissure in rock
    the melting begins at the waterline
    as young icebergs prepare to calve from glaciers
    the breaking off is always preceded by a rift
    rarely seen by outside eyes
  25. warily
    in a manner marked by keen caution and watchful prudence
    I went shopping with a new sorta-friend
    my first semester at Georgetown, aliens
    warily circling each other, sniffing for clues,
    both of us desperate and lonely
  26. arpeggio
    a chord whose notes are played in rapid succession
    we spooned in heaps of melting honey
    added thick cream, already heated
    and stirred silver spoons in an arpeggio
    of satisfaction, tink, tink, tink
  27. curdle
    turn from a liquid to a solid mass
    I picked up the slice
    of lemon and I squuuuuuuuuueeeeeezed
    it into my dream cup

    It curdled instantly, it damn
    near turned into cottage cheese
  28. tenure
    give life-time employment to
    Shielded by ivy curtains, tenured lions
    force their prey to sprint from the water hole
    in any direction that seems safe
    even if it takes them far afield from their goals
  29. afield
    far away from home or one's usual surroundings
    Shielded by ivy curtains, tenured lions
    force their prey to sprint from the water hole
    in any direction that seems safe
    even if it takes them far afield from their goals
  30. lede
    the attention-grabbing introductory section of a news story
    I asked questions, took notes,
    wrote, wrote, wrote, wrote, wrote, wrote
    revised, sniffed out lies, unburied
    the lede, factual recitations
    my specialty, I inquired
    as required
  31. demystify
    make something easier to understand
    I tried a new thing—revision—
    and persisted, dismissing my doubts, risking
    my pride

    demystifying a process
    that consisted of untwisting the trysting words
    in my brainpan and convincing them
    to behave
  32. extortion
    the crime of exacting money, as by threats
    ...planned on marriage or extortion
    as she cried on the stand, long blonde hair
    in front of her face, a curtain for her sanity
  33. gangly
    tall, thin, and awkward
    Years later, walking in the mall
    with my daughters tall and gangly
    I saw him again
  34. etymology
    a history of a word
    so I wasn’t as trapped between languages
    as I thought
    and the hour spent swimming
    in multilingual etymology
    was its own reward
  35. modulate
    fix or adjust the time, amount, degree, or rate of
    I am often distracted, diverted
    from my path when I explore old wounds
    it’s a defensive reaction,
    a way to modulate my feelings
    and cope with the discomfort
Created on Wed Apr 03 13:43:36 EDT 2019 (updated Thu Apr 04 08:41:48 EDT 2019)

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