From "The Streets - Night" (55-56)

What strikes you about this passage? Anything goes: language, images, rhetorical techniques, specific detail, word choice, tone/change in tone, perspective/point of view, characterization, emerging themes, etc.  Of course, no passage exists in isolation, so while I want you to pay attention to the details of this passage, you can (eventually) talk about how it fits (or not) into the piece as a whole.

"That wretched woman with the infant in her arms, round whose meagre form the remnant of her own scanty shawl is carefully wrapped, has been attempting to sing some popular ballad, in the hope of wringing a few pence from the compassionate passerby.  A brutal laugh at her weak voice is all she has gained.  The tears fall thick and fast down her own pale face; the child is cold and hungry, and its low half-stifled waiting adds to the misery of its wretched mother, as she moans aloud, and sinks despairingly down, on a cold damp doorstep.
     Singing! How few of those who pass such a miserable creature as this, think of the anguish of heart, the sinking of soul and spirit, which the very effort of singing produces.  Bitter mockery! Disease, neglect, and starvation, faintly articulating the words of the joyish ditty, that has enlivened your hours of feasting and merriment, God knows how often!  It is no subject of jeering.  The weak tremulous voice tells a fearful tale of want and famishing; and the feeble singer of this roaring song may turn away, only to die of cold and hunger."

A Brief Description of Close Reading

I know that you are seniors and have more than a passing acquaintance with the skill of close reading.  But summer has a way of putting these skills way in the back of our mental closets.  So here is a brief description of close reading from our friends at Harvard: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~wricntr/documents/CloseReading.html