This document contains discussion questions for analyzing several poems: - "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke, focusing on the speaker's relationship with his father and the significance of the final line. - "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen, examining how word choices convey the horror of war and the poem's message that glorifying death in battle is a "lie." - "This is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams, discussing the relationship between the speaker and addressee and whether it is truly a found poem about eating plums. - Several other poems are discussed, with questions about theme, tone, language use, and meaning.

1. I, Too" (1945) by Langston Hughes (1902-1967) "My Papa's Waltz"...
I, Too" (1945) by Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
"My Papa's Waltz" (532): a. Who is the speaker in this poem? b. What has happened? c. Pick
out the words and phrases that indicate the speaker remembers his father fondly and the
ones that indicate the speaker remembers his father negatively. d. Discuss the significance
of the poem's final line. What is Roethke did not include this image of the boy "still
clinging"?
"Dulce et Decorum Est" (521): a. Wilfred Owen was very young when he composed this
poem, but he describes his soldier-comrades in the terms of old age and disease using
ordinary, unpoetic words like "coughing." How do these word choices set the scene
described in the poem? b. The speaker uses numerous images to describe the scene: "like
old beggars under sacks," "sludge." List several images from the last stanza. How do these
images build suspense in the poem? c. The poem's title says one thing, and the poem
describes the opposite experience. The Latin poem's end means, roughly, "It is sweet and
proper to die for one's country." The images would suggest nothing sweet about it. What is
"The old Lie"? How does the poem's vivid description of war's horror prepare the reader for
the last lines of this poem?
"This is just to say" (511): a. What do you think the relationship between the speaker and
the "you" in the poem is? b. What is the effect of the description of how delicious the plums
were? c. Do you think this is a found poem? Do you think Williams really wrote a note to his
wife, fessing up to eating her plums? If so, does that change the way you read the poem?
And if it's not a found poem, why write it in such a way? d. The big question: is this even a
poem? Why or why not?
"I, Too" (handout): a. What kind of character is the speaker? B. How does this poem make
you think about what it means to be an American? An African American? C. How is
"America" presented in this poem, and how does it make you feel about America?
"Funeral Blues [Stop All the Clocks]" (530): a. What do you think the speaker is responding
to in this poem, and what does the title convey? b. How do such phrases as "muffled drum,"
"mourners," and "crepe bows," the traditional trappings of a funeral, contrast with the
actual occasion of the poem? What is the actual occasion of the poem? Could it be something
other than the death of a lover, such as a break-up? c. There's wild exaggeration in the last
stanza's set of instructions" "pack up the moon and dismantle the sun"—as if we could
indeed "pour away the ocean" and "put out" the stars. What does this tell us about the
emotion of the speaker?

2. "We Real Cool" a. Who is the "We" of the poem? What happens to this "We"? b. How does
the informal diction of the poem affect your sense of the speaker? Advising young readers
on how to recite this poem aloud, Brooks wrote, "Say the 'We" softly." Why do you think she
wanted this word quieter than others? What does it reveal about the confidence of the
speaker?
"in Just-" (523): a. Discuss the line arrangements here and the use of lowercase letters. How
do they influence the mood/tone of the poem? b. Why does e.e. cummings conjoin the
names of the marble-playing boys, the dancing girls, and the balloonman? c. What does the
repetition of "far and wee" suggest, and did he mean to say, instead, "far and wide"?
"Barbie Doll" (handout): a. Who is the speaker? What is her tone/attitude? b. Note the child-
like language, condescension in the first stanza. Is it critical of something? What? c. Contrast
the healthy and positive language used in the next stanza.
"When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" (handout): a. Compare the language used in the
two settings. How does it contribute to our understanding of two ways of learning? (Note
the differences between the structured traditional setting for learning and the Romantic
setting emphasizing imagination, intuition, the individual, and love of nature.) b. How can
the theme of this poem be described?