Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
Common Core State Standards, Grade 8, Reading: Literature · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026
What RL.8.4 Means in Plain English
Eighth graders work out what words mean in a poem or story, literal and figurative, and how the writer’s choices set the tone. They also unpack analogies and allusions. Calling a tired mother “a Sisyphus” brings a whole myth of endless labor in two words.
In 7th grade (RL.7.4) students studied how rhyme and repeated sounds like alliteration shape a stanza. Eighth grade adds comparisons and references to other texts. In grades 9 and 10 (RL.9-10.4) students weigh the cumulative effect of word choices, such as a formal tone or a sense of place.
RL.8.4 I Can Statements
I can explain what an allusion borrows from the text it names.
I can unpack an analogy and say what it compares.
I can describe how specific word choices shape a poem’s tone.
RL.8.4 Worked Example
A short poem about a mother’s night shifts, with one allusion and one analogy. The question is what they do to the tone.
Read the Story
My mother clocks out at six a.m., / a Sisyphus in hospital bluewho pushes the same stone of hours uphill / and watches it roll back down by ten tonight.She calls her paycheck a bucket under a leak: / filled, emptied, filled.But on Sundays she laughs with her whole body, / and the stone, for one day, stays at the top.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: What does the allusion to Sisyphus mean in this poem, and how do the allusion and the bucket analogy shape its tone, especially in the last two lines?
Not Yet“Sisyphus is a man from Greek mythology who pushed a rock up a hill. The mom works a lot.”It identifies the source correctly and stops there. It never says what the allusion adds to the mother, or how the last lines change it.
Meets the Standard“In the myth, Sisyphus is punished by pushing a boulder uphill forever and watching it roll back down. Calling the mother ‘a Sisyphus in hospital blue’ says her work never finishes, and the paycheck analogy says the same about money: ‘filled, emptied, filled.’ Those choices make the tone weary, close to hopeless. The last lines bend the myth: on Sundays ‘the stone, for one day, stays at the top.’ The poem borrows a story of endless punishment to give her the one day the myth never gave him, and the tone turns tender and a little defiant.”It explains the source, says what the allusion and the analogy each carry into the poem, and tracks how the final lines rewrite the myth to shift the tone.
Question Stems to Use
What story or text does this word or name point to?What does the writer borrow from that story?What two things does this analogy compare, and what do they share?How would the tone change with a plainer word?Where does the tone shift, and which word marks it?
Common Mistakes with RL.8.4
Identifying the allusion and stopping
“Sisyphus is from Greek mythology.”
Try this: Follow every identified allusion with two questions: what does the writer borrow from that story, and what does the writer change?
Naming the tone with a vague word
“The tone is sad.”
Try this: Ban sad, happy and good for tone, and require a precise word like weary or defiant with the word choice that creates it.
Reading an analogy literally
“Her paycheck goes into a bucket because the roof leaks.”
Try this: Have students fill in “Her paycheck is like a bucket under a leak because both…” before they write about meaning.
Vocabulary Worksheet GeneratorFree ToolBuild a worksheet from the allusions and figurative phrases in a class novel, with meanings and the sentences they came from.AllusionsFigurative languageGrade 8
When does the mother finish work, and when does she go back?
She clocks out at six in the morning and goes back by ten at night.
What two things does the bucket analogy compare?
Her paycheck and a bucket under a leak: both fill up and empty again, over and over.
How do the last two lines change the Sisyphus allusion?
In the myth the stone always rolls back down. On Sundays, when she laughs, the stone “stays at the top,” giving her a rest the myth never gave Sisyphus.