Introduction to poetry

Questions
1. Who is the speaker (“I”) in the poem? Who do the pronouns “them” (lines 1 and 9) and “they”
(lines 12 and 15) probably refer to?

2. Give some thought to the meanings of the descriptions of poetry reading in each stanza. Don’t
worry about getting them “right”—let your imagination roam freely and try to have fun with the
process.

a. What might it mean, for example, to “hold [a poem] up to the light like a colour slide” (lines 2-3)?

b. What do a hive (line 4) and a mouse (line 5) have to do with a poem?

C. Discuss other significant ideas and images in the poem.

3. What is the tone of the poem? Consider the attitude the speaker has toward poetry and how it
contrasts with the attitude of the people he’s talking about (who want to “torture a confession out of
it”). What opinion do you think the speaker has about “find[ing] out what it really means” (line 16)?

4. Based on these factors, how would you describe the purpose of the poem? Explain.

5. Discuss the use of rhetorical devices (especially various kinds of figurative language) in the poem.
What specific examples can you find, and what effect do they have in relation to the poem’s
purpose?

Toads
Questions
1. Think about work. Why do humans work? Broadly speaking, what different kinds

of work are there? How is work different in different cultures? Is there such a thing as good work or
bad work? Discuss your ideas with a partner.

2. Read these quotations:

‘We work to become, not to acquire.’

(Elbert Hubbard)

‘How many years of fatigue and punishment it takes to learn the simple truth that work, that
disagreeable thing, is the only way of not suffering in life, or at all events, of suffering less.’

(Charles Baudelaire)

‘The joy about our work is spoiled when we perform it not because of what we produce but because
of the pleasure with which it can provide us, or the pain against which it can protect us.’

(Paul Tillich)

‘When work is a pleasure, life is a joy. When work is a duty, life is slavery.’

(Maxim Gorky)
What do the four writers say about work? Which one shows a negative attitude? What is the general
idea presented in the other three? Do you agree with what they say? Why/why not?

3. Read the poem ‘Toads’ by Philip Larkin.

4. How would you sum up the poet’s attitude to work?

5. Answer these questions about the subject of the poem:

a) What is the significance of choosing a toad as a metaphor for work? List other words he uses to

describe the toad in the first two verses. What effect do they have?

c) What does he set in opposition to the toad work? Why?

d) What does he see as the purpose of work? What is out of proportion?

e) In verse 3 he lists people he considers don’t work. What are they? How do they survive?

f) What sort of people is he describing in verses 4 and 5?

g) What would he like to do in verse 6, and why won’t he? Do you recognize, or can you find the
source of, the quotation used in the final two lines of this verse?

h) What does he say about himself and his attitude to work in verses 7 and 8?

i) What do you understand from the final verse?

6. Answer these questions about the structure of the poem and techniques used in it:

a) What is the verse form?

b) Does it rhyme? If not, what does it do? Give some examples. Look at verse 3. What technique is

used? What is its effect? Where else in the poem is this technique used?

7. Summarize the poet’s attitude to work in 50 words:

Sonnet 30
Questions
1. What are the last two lines of the poem called?

2. How is the meaning of the last two lines different from the rest of the poem?

3. In the opening lines of the poem, how does the speaker refer to his memories?

4. How does the speaker generally feel about remembering the past?

5. In line 5, what does “drown an eye” mean?

6. Which thoughts cause the speaker to “drown an eye”? Why?

7. What is the speaker describing in lines 10-12?

8. How would the effect of this poem be different without the final two lines?
A young man’s thoughts before the 16th of June
Questions
1.Identify three things that the poet knows he will have to give up once he embarks on his journey of
protest. (3)

2.Match the lines in the table below with their literary characteristics: (5)

Line/s Literary characteristics

Line 7 Enjambment
Line 3-4 Euphuism
Line 13 Alliteration

3.Discuss the context in which this poem was written. (3)

4.What is the meaning of the last two lines of the poem? (5)

5.Choose the answer that you think best sums up the main message of this poem from the options
below:

(a)The poem concentrates on the human aspects of this young freedom fighter, rather than his
political intentions.

(b)The poem expresses the anger that people felt about the inferiority of their education.

(c)The poem expresses a longing for home and family life. (1)