Questions on "One or two things" by Mary Oliver

1. In stanza 2 of the poem, the flight of a butterfly is described. Comment on the significance of this in the poem as a whole.

2. What is the effect created by lines 18-20, "dog voice / crow voice / frog voice." What is it telling use about the god of dirt?

3. Discuss the meaning of the the first stanza "don't bother me / I've just / been born"

4. What is the message that the poetic voice is trying to convey in the poem?

5. Pick one aspect of the poem (punctuation, metaphors, assonance, rhythm, etc) that you find to be particularly interesting and explain why that is so.

Questions on "Ice" by Mary Oliver

1. What is the overall tone of the poem, and how is this established?
2. What is the relationship between the poetic voice and other members of her family and how is this communicated?
3. What is the effect of the two-line stanzas and how does this affect the reading of the poem?
4. What connotations does 'black ice' have in the thirteenth stanza?
   
5. Why does the poetic voice ask her mother to 'please save everything' in the last stanza?
   

Questions on Mary Oliver's Sleeping In The Forest

1. Explain the plot of the poem.
2. What is the tone of the poem?
3. Comment on the structure of the poem.
4. What are the poetic voice's actions referring to? What is the effect?
5. List the literary devices used in the construction of this poem. What are each of their purpose?

Questions on Dream

1. What is the effect of the rhymes in the last three lines of stanza 3?
2. What does the rain represent in the poem?
3. What is the significance of the foliage referred to in stanza 2?
4. What does the diction use in the first 2 lines of stanza 2 suggest?
5. What does the poetic voice mean by "before they turn some corner and became two graves under the leaves"?

Questions: New York Is a Subway Stop - 1969

1. What is the tone of the poem?

2. How is New York personified in the poem? What is the effect of this?

3. What does the imagery of "odd" lovers add to the poem?

4. What is the poetic voice saying about New York?

5. What do the last three lines of the poem suggest about New York? Is this different to the previous image that has been created in the poem?

Sunrise Questions

1. What is the tone of the poem?

2. What/who is the poetic voice in the poem?

3. What is the effect of starting the poem with the idea of death?

4. What does it mean to "enter fire" in the last stanza?

Lorna Goodison's 'On Houses' - Questions

1. Who is the speaker in the poem? Who is the speaker referring to as 'you'?

2. What does the fifth and sixth line mean?

3. Comment on the shift in tone between the first and last three stanzas in the poem. What is the effect?

4. What is "careful money" referring to?

5. What is the effect of the 7th stanza containing merely one line?

Acid by Mary Oliver Questions

1. How is the boy in the poem described? What effect does this have on the persona's feelings for the moment?
2. What connotations does 'a bead of acid' have?
3. How is pain and suffering conveyed through the language used?
4. What is the phrase 'the great movers' referring to?
5. What are the main themes of the poem?