Count That Day Lost, The Poverty Gap and Helen Keller

February 24, 2019

Count That Day Lost / George Eliot

If you sit down at set of sun

And count the acts that you have done,

And, counting, find

One self-denying deed, one word

That eased the heart of him who heard,

One glance most kind

That fell like sunshine where it went --

Then you may count that day well spent.

But if, through all the livelong day,

You've cheered no heart, by yea or nay --

If, through it all

You've nothing done that you can trace

That brought the sunshine to one face--

No act most small

That helped some soul and nothing cost --

Then count that day as worse than lost.

Count That Day Lost by George Elliot

4-5 Point Literature

1) Who is the author of the poem?

2) Identify three Rhymes….

3) What makes a day well spent?

4) To whom is the speaker addressing?

5) Why do you think the poem takes place at the set of sun? Why not at sunrise?

6) Name three things that make the day “well spent”

7) Name two things that make the day “worse than lost”

8) How does the meaning of sunshine differ in the first vs the second stanza? (stanza means paragraph)

9) “The greatest treasures are invisible to the eye” ~anonymous

Make a connection to the poem…..

10) How do you think the environment of the Victorian Age in England influenced the content of George Elliots writing? In short, why did she write this during the Victorian Age?

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