SHSAT: Poetry reading: timeline, memory and a repeated image
Learn to separate a poem's present from what the speaker remembers, follow the order of events, and read a repeated sound or image that links the two.
How do you keep track of events in a poem that moves between the present and a memory?
Short answer
Mark each stanza as now or remembered, using tense and place words. Then list the present events in order, and notice how a repeated sound or image carries the memory into the present.
Know first: Verb tense, Imagery
Step 1 of 5
Sort the stanzas into now and then
Some poems move between the present moment and a memory. Questions like Which event occurs in the poem? test whether you can keep them apart. A remembered event happened before, often somewhere else; it isn't part of the poem's present action.
Tense is your best clue. Present-tense verbs (I pour, the bell rings) mark the poem's now. Past-tense verbs, often with a time or place word like back then or in my old room, mark memory.
| Clue | Signals | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Present tense | What happens now | I lift my bag. |
| Past tense or had | A memory | My aunt had sung... |
| Time and place words | Which setting | now, back then, in my old room |
| A repeated sound or image | A link between now and then | A song from childhood returns years later. |
Step 2 of 5
Build the timeline, then read the echo
A short poem
First Shift The bakery lights come on at five.1 I tie the apron strings behind me. Years ago, on Sunday mornings,2 my grandmother braided my hair,3 three strands, over and under. Now I lift three ropes of dough and cross them, over and under,4 while the ovens hum behind me.
- Present: the speaker's early shift.
- A time phrase: what follows is a memory.
- Past tense: braided happened before the shift.
- The remembered pattern returns in the present.
Worked example: Which events occur?
Which sequence of events occurs in the poem?
- AThe speaker braids the grandmother's hair, then ties on an apron.
- BThe speaker ties on an apron, recalls a grandmother's braiding, and braids loaves of dough.
- CThe grandmother teaches the speaker to braid dough at the bakery.
- DThe speaker leaves the bakery early to visit the grandmother.
- 1
Mark the stanzas
Stanza 1: now (come on, tie). Stanza 2: memory (Years ago, braided). Stanza 3: now (lift, cross, hum).
- 2
List the present events
The lights come on, the speaker ties an apron, then lifts and braids three ropes of dough.
- 3
See why the others are there
A turns the remembered braiding into a present action and swaps who braids whom. C merges the grandmother into the bakery scene. D invents a trip the poem never mentions.
Answer
B. The speaker ties on an apron, recalls a grandmother's braiding, and braids loaves of dough.
Wrong: My grandmother braided my hair happens during the bakery shift.
Right: Braided is past tense, and years ago sets it before the shift, so it is a memory.
Tense and time words, not the order of the lines, tell you when an event happens.
Step 3 of 5
Keep now and then apart
Check yourself · Question 1
In First Shift, what does the phrase over and under do when it appears the second time?
Answer: C
The same words describe the grandmother's braiding and the speaker's dough. Repeating them connects the memory to the present task.
Check yourself · Question 2
Which detail places the third stanza of First Shift in the present, at the bakery?
Answer: B
Present-tense hum and the bakery ovens place the stanza in the speaker's shift.
Trap answer: *over and under*
A link mistaken for a time marker
- Why it looks right
- It is the most noticeable phrase in the stanza, and it does connect the two scenes.
- Why it's wrong
- Because the phrase appears in both the memory and the present, it links them; it can't tell you which one the stanza belongs to.
- The right answer
- The ovens hum behind me uses present tense and names the bakery.
Common mistake
I counted a remembered event as something that happens in the poem.
- Why it's tempting
- Memories are vivid and full of detail, so they feel like events.
- Do this instead
- Check the tense and setting of every event in a choice. Memories happen before the poem's present, and often somewhere else.
Step 4 of 5
What to remember
Remember
- Mark each stanza as now or remembered, using tense and place words.
- List the present events in order and test every choice against that list.
- Follow a repeated sound or image to see how a memory carries into the present.
Step 5 of 5
Practice on a real question
Use what you just learned on this question, then check the explanation.
In your own words
In the practice poem, which stanza is a memory, and which words tell you so?