Poetry Packet Questions
Name______________
“The Ballad of Birmingham”
1. Why doesn’t the mother let her daughter go to the Freedom March?
2. The mother smiles after she sent her daughter to sing in the children’s choir. To what kind of place
does the mother believe she has sent her child?
3. The irony in this poem intensifies it emotional impact. From the outset, what do you know that
the mother and daughter do not know? Why is line 22 especially ironic?
4. Of all the emotions that this ballad expresses, anger and bitterness at racial violence seem
noticeably absent. What is the overriding emotion created by the ballad? (How did it make you
feel?)
“Edward, Edward”
5. Immediately, this ballad plunges us into a dramatic situation. What scene do you visualize as the
story begins?
6. This ballad tells its story in dialogue. Who asks the questions? Who answers them?
7. What lies does Edward tell to account for his bloody sword?
8. At what point in the ballad do you find out exactly what Edward has done?
9. – 12. We might think that this climactic moment is the end of the ballad, but the questions go
on. What four questions does the mother then ask Edward? What is his answer?
Questions
Answers
a.
b.
c.
d.
13. The real meaning of this ballad is not stated; we have to infer the meaning from the details
provided. What shocking fact do you infer from Edward’s last answer to his mother?
14. Ballads never tell us the whole story, what motives do you think the mother might have had for
giving Edward these “counsels?” What do you think these “counsel’s” were?
15. Why do you think Edward lied to his mother at first?
16. Who do you think is the real villain in the poem?
“The Demon Lover”
17. This ballad is basically a dialogue between two people. Who speaks first, and what does the
speaker want to know? How does the person answer?
18. Surprisingly enough, the woman agrees to join the man—even though it means abandoning her
husband and babies. What are her motives ?
19. In line 34 the story changes. What details in the description of the boat hint that the poem has
shifted into something fantastic?
20. Identify the line that reveals the man is a demon?
21. This poem is in the category of folk poetry in which the natural and the supernatural are
intertwined. Such a story was meant to teach its listeners a lesson or to point out a moral they
might take to heart. What is the lesson or moral that people should learn from this poem?
“Old Christmas”
22. Where are the speakers as the poem opens?
23. What question does Sally Ann Barton ask her old friend Lomey Carter in line 13? How does
Lomey Carter answer?
24. What horrible crime has Taulbe committed?
25. What did Lomey Carter see on the graveyard hill?
26. What happened as Lomey Carter came back down through the meadow?
27. What evidence can you find in the poem that Sally Anne Barton knew all along what had
happened on graveyard hill?
28. Once we know what happened on the hill, what conclusion do you come to about who Lomey
Carter really is?
29. Lines 38-41 introduce matters we can only guess about. What might have been the one word that
her man spoke to Lomey Carter as he bent and kissed her?
“The Cremation of Sam McGee”
30. – 40. Write and acrostic poem, using phrases or sentences entitled “Sam McGee” or “Cremation.”
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“Casey at the Bat”
41. – 51. Write a cinquain entitled “Casey.”
Title
Two adjectives that describe.
Three words ending in –ing that show action.
A four word phrase that shows feeling or emotion.
A one word synonyms for the title.
Casey
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52. – 62. Write a cinquain entitled Daedalus or Icarus.
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“Clementine”
63. What details tell you where Clementine lived?
65. Who is the speaker?
66. What happened to “darling Clementine?”
67. This song is a good example of the kind of joke based on exaggeration and surprise, also known
as “frontier humor.” Identify the surprises and exaggerations.
Surprises
Exaggerations
68. – 70. A parody is a comical, exaggerated imitation of something serious. This song is a parody of a
sentimental love song about a delicate young woman. How would we expect a romantic
speaker to react when Clementine falls into the duck pond? How does the speaker actually
react? Find two other examples that reveal unromantic sentiments about Clementine?
“She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways”
71. What two details do we know about the place where Lucy lived?
72. How did most people feel about Lucy during her lifetime? How did they react to her death?
73. How were the speaker’s feelings about Lucy different from everyone else’s?
74. Identify the metaphor in stanza 2.
75. Identify the simile in stanza 2.