Inglese (testo letterario)

Esame di stato di liceo linguistico - 2003

Tema di: lingua straniera

Testo letterario – lingua inglese

(comprensione e produzione in lingua straniera)

The Hill

Where are Elmer, Herman, Bert, Tom and Charley, 1 the fighter?

The weak of will, the strong of arm, the clown, the boozer,

All, all, are sleeping on the hill.

One passed in a fever,

5 One was burned in a mine,

2

One was killed in a brawl,

One died in a jail, 3

One fell from a bridge toiling for children and wife

All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.

10 Where are Ella, Kate, Mag, Lizzie and Edith,

The tender heart, the simple soul, the loud, the proud, the happy one?

All, all, are sleeping on the hill.

One died in shameful child-birth,

4

One of a thwarted love, 5

15 One at the hands of a brute in a brothel,

One of a broken pride, in the search for heart’s desire,

One after life in far-away London and Paris

Was brought to her little space by Ella and Kate and Mag

All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.

20 Where are Uncle Isaac and Aunt Emily,

And old Towny Kincaid and Sevigne Houghton,

And Major Walker who had talked

With venerable men of the revolution?

All, all, are sleeping on the hill.

25 They brought them dead sons from the war,

And daughters whom life had crushed,

And their children fatherless, crying

All, all are sleeping, sleeping, sleeping on the hill.

6

Where is old Fiddler Jones

30 Who played with life all his ninety years,

7 8

Braving the sleet with bared breast, 9

Drinking, rioting, thinking neither of wife nor kin,

Nor gold, nor love, nor heaven?

10 11 12

He babbles of the fish-frys of long ago,

Lo!

35 Of the horse-races of long ago at Clary’s Grove,

Of what Abe Lincoln said

One time at Springfield.

(from E. L. Masters “Spoon River Anthology” - The MacMillan Publishing Co. - 1942)

Note

1 boozer: person who drinks alcoholic in large quantities

2 brawl: noisy quarrel, fight

3 toiling: working hard

4 thwarted: opposed

5 brothel: house where men pay to have sex

6 Fiddler: person who plays the violin

7 Braving: facing something without showing fear

8 sleet: snow mixed with rain

9 kin: one’s family and relatives

10 Lo: look!

11 he babbles: he chatters in a confused way

12 fish-frys: a meal, as a picnic, featuring fried fish

Answer the following questions:

• What do you think the “Hill” is?
• Can you find common features in the lives, characters and death of the people named in the poem?

Look at the choice of language and at other rhetorical devices. Support your statements quoting from the text.