The Insight Tree: From Annotations to Outline – How to Organize Literary Insights into Body Paragraphs

A Heap of Stones

I asked directions
at a farmhouse door:
they pointed to a field
high on the hillside
where they said
the Giant’s Grave
stood, and waited,
watching by their gate,
an old man
and his wife, watching
till I turned the road,
wondering perhaps why
a man would climb
half a mountain to see
a heap of stones.

Over the ditch and through
the rising bog spotted
with tiny spits of wild cotton
I moved, a mile
an hour, until the land
below became a mood,
long shadows sweeping
inland, eating light …

Armed with bright pictures
of club and claw
I searched until suddenly
it grinned at me:
filling the hole in a crazy hedge
it overflowed into the field –
great tables impaled
upon a pencil of stone;
a tabernacle1 of ancient death
dug deep as an evil eye
in the skull of the hill.
I banished urgent images
from my downward path and one
by one unclenched
the stone cold fingers round my brain.

1 tabernacle: place of worship

Outline:

1. Body Paragraph 1: Atmosphere of Morbidity & foreboding:

1. Metaphor: “Tabernacle” of Ancient death”
2. Visual Imagery: “Skull of the hill” “from my downward path and one by one unclenched the stone cold fingers round my brain.”
3. Diction: “Banished”
4. Third person plural pronoun: “they pointed to a field”
5. Ambiguous subject “stood, and waited,”
6. Alliteration “watching by their gate, an old man and his wife, watching till I turned the road, wondering perhaps why”
7. mood of caution/curiosity “watching till I turned the road, wondering perhaps why”
8. Personification “long shadows sweeping, inland, eating light …”
9. Adjective “filling the hole in a crazy hedge”
10. Diction “I banished urgent images”

2. Body Paragraph 2: Exploratory and adventurous tone:

1. Diction – weaponry/defence
2. Alliteration – “I moved, a mile” “of club and claw” (semantic field)
3. Visual Imagery: “Over the ditch and through the rising bog spotted with tiny spits of wild cotton”
4. Tonal Shift and Personification: “I searched until suddenly it grinned at me:”
5. First person point of view “I asked for directions”
6. Characterization “a man would climb”

3. Body Paragraph 3: Setting:

1. Visual imagery: “at a farmhouse door high on the hillside”
2. Semantic field/ interesting diction “great tables impaled upon a pencil of stone;”
3. Contrast: Transition from “where they said the Giant’s Grave stood” to “a man would climb half a mountain to see a heap of stones.”
4. Enjambment “the Giant’s Grave”
5. Titular image “a heap of stones”
6. Metaphor “an hour, until the land below became a mood”