Sure, here are 15 questions based on the poem “Revolving Days” by David Malouf:
1. What does the speaker mean by “that year I had nowhere to go”?
2. How does the speaker describe his experience of falling in love?
3. What is the significance of the “old tug at the heart”?
4. What do the “urgencies that boom under the pocket of a shirt” symbolize?
5. Why does the speaker remember the color of the shirts?
6. What was the speaker’s intention behind buying the shirts?
7. How does the speaker describe his new life as a lover?
8. What is the significance of the “Ivy League” shirt?
9. Why does the speaker mention “we never write”?
10. What does the speaker mean by “one of those selves I had expected steps into the room”?
11. Who is waiting in the next room and why?
12. What is the promise that the speaker and the person in the next room made to each other?
13. What does “Revolving days” symbolize in the context of the poem?
14. Who is the speaker writing for and why?
15. What does the speaker mean by “I’m not holding my breath for a reply”?
Sure, here are 15 questions that cover all aspects of the poem “Small Towns and the River” by
Mamang Dai:
1. What is the significance of small towns reminding the speaker of death?
2. How does the speaker describe their hometown?
3. What does the phrase “it is always the same” suggest about the speaker’s hometown?
4. How does the speaker use the elements of nature (dust, wind) to describe the town?
5. What is the impact of someone’s death on the speaker and the town?
6. How does the speaker perceive the rituals associated with life and death?
7. What does the personification of the river suggest about its role in the poem?
8. How does the river’s behavior in summer reflect the speaker’s emotions?
9. What does the river seeking “a land of fish and stars” symbolize?
10. How does the river’s knowledge of “the immortality of water” relate to the theme of life and death?
11. What is the significance of the “shrine of happy pictures” marking the days of childhood?
12. How does the speaker express the town’s anxiety for the future?
13. Why are the dead placed pointing west and what does it symbolize?
14. What does the phrase “life matters, like this” suggest about the speaker’s view of life?
15. What does the desire to “walk with the gods” reveal about the aspirations of the people in small towns by the
river?
Sure, here are 15 questions that cover all aspects of the poem “A Far Cry from Africa” by Dereck
Walcott:
1. What does the phrase “A wind is ruffling the tawny pelt of Africa” symbolize?
2. How does the poet describe the Kikuyu people in the poem?
3. What is the significance of the phrase “Corpses are scattered through a paradise”?
4. How does the poet portray the impact of colonial policy on Africa?
5. What does the reference to the “white child hacked in bed” suggest?
6. How does the poet use the imagery of “ibises whose cries have wheeled since civilization’s dawn”?
7. What does the poet mean by “the violence of beast on beast is read as natural law”?
8. How does the poet depict the brutality of wars in the poem?
9. What does the phrase “the gorilla wrestles with the superman” symbolize?
10. How does the poet express his internal conflict of being “poisoned with the blood of both”?
11. What is the significance of the poet’s dilemma of choosing between Africa and the English tongue?
12. How does the poet express his feelings towards the British rule in Africa?
13. What does the poet mean by “How can I face such slaughter and be cool?”?
14. How does the poet express his struggle of turning away from Africa?
15. Overall, how does the poem depict the effects of colonialism on Africa and its people?
Sure, here are 15 questions that cover all aspects of the poem “Tonight I Can Write” by Pablo
Neruda:
1. What is the significance of the repeated line “Tonight I can write the saddest lines”?
2. How does the poet use the imagery of the starry night and the night wind?
3. What does the poet convey about his relationship with the woman through the line “I loved her, and
sometimes she loved me too”?
4. How does the poet express his longing and loss in the lines “To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have
lost her”?
5. What does the phrase “the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture” suggest about the poet’s feelings?
6. How does the poet express his dissatisfaction and longing in the line “My soul is not satisfied that it has lost
her”?
7. What does the line “The same night whitening the same trees” symbolize in the context of the poem?
8. How does the poet express the change in his feelings towards the woman in the line “I no longer love her,
that’s certain, but how I loved her”?
9. What does the poet mean by “She will be another’s. As she was before my kisses”?
10. How does the poet describe the woman in the line “Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes”?
11. What does the line “Love is so short, forgetting is so long” suggest about the nature of love and loss?
12. How does the poet express his enduring pain in the line “Though this be the last pain that she makes me
suffer”?
13. What is the significance of the “last verses” that the poet writes for the woman?
14. How does the poet use the imagery of the singing in the distance in the poem?
15. Overall, how does the poem depict the themes of love, loss, and longing?
