"The Last Word"

According to Peter Davison, verbs are the words that really show what a writer means. The speaker in his poem emphasizes this by making his last word in a conflict a speech-ending action.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 12 Unit 1's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: My Papa's Waltz, in just-, The Last Word, Mushrooms, I Remember, Invisible Man, Four Skinny Trees, Dirty Work, On Seeing England for the First Time, Speaking with Hands, The White Man's Burden, The Poor Man's Burden, Shooting an Elephant, Lindo Jong: Double Face, Stranger in the Village
10 words 57 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. bow
    bend one's knee or body, or lower one's head
    When I saw your head bow, I knew I had beaten you.
  2. shed
    pour out in small quantities
    You shed no tear--not near me--
  3. deliver
    carry out or perform
    but held your neck
    Bare for the blow I had been too frightened
    Ever to deliver, even in words.
  4. plummet
    drop sharply
    And now,
    In spite of me, plummeting it came.
    Frozen we both waited for its fall.
  5. remember
    recall knowledge; have a recollection
    Most of what you gave me I have forgotten
    With my mind but taken into my body,
    But this I remember well:
  6. strain
    an intense or violent exertion
    the bones of your neck
    And the strain in my shoulders
  7. heave
    lift or elevate
    as I heaved up that huge
    Double blade
  8. snap
    move or strike with a noise
    and snapped my wrists to swing
    The handle down and hear the axe's edge
  9. nick
    cut a nick into
    Nick through your flesh
  10. creak
    make a high-pitched, squeaking noise
    and creak into the block.
Created on Tue Mar 03 16:14:13 EST 2015 (updated Wed Mar 04 20:25:19 EST 2015)

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