“The trees stir with a noise like taffeta skirts of women who have lost themselves in the woods and hunt round hopelessly for the way out.”
Angela Carter, “The Erl-King”
Have you used this sample in your class? If so, please let us know how. What did you discuss? What activities did you do? How did students respond? Comment below!
Rutgers University-Camden 
The first thing the class noticed was the ominous tone of the sentence and so we tried to work out what exactly made the sentence ominous. One thing we focused for a while on was the metaphor & imagery of the taffeta skirts, how you can hear the sound of the trees. Though the sound itself is not a creepy one, in the context of the sentence it becomes one. They pointed out Carter’s word choices – lost, hunt, hopelessly. Even though I read the sentence at first, I had a student read it aloud as well and asked the class if they noticed anything. One student realized that there’s no punctuation, no points of rest during the sentence, and the class pointed out the the lack of rests makes the sentence feel frantic, like you’re rushing to the end, while at the same time you might be looking for an end to the sentence but it just keeps going.
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