1. What does being a citizen mean to you? 2. How do you defi ne where you belong or what country you are a citizen of?
Understand
1. According to the poem, what does it mean to be a ‘citizen of the world’? 2. What do you think the line ‘with a smile or a fi st’ means? 3. What barriers do people face in this world, according to the speaker? 4. There are many oxymorons in the fourth stanza. Make a list of these oxymorons.
Explore
1. With a partner, fi nd an example of personifi cation in the poem and discuss whether you think this example is effective.
2. ‘and all over the world, though you feel alone / are millions like you, like a great flock of swallows’
Rewrite this sentence, replacing the simile with another comparison. For example, ‘like a swarm of bees’.
3. Which of the images below do you think would best accompany a reading of this poem? Explain your choice.
4. (a) Read back over this poem and ‘Refugees’ on page 214. There is a lack of punctuation in both poems. Why do you think this is?
(b) Find some other poetic devices that both poems have in common and suggest why both poets may have used these devices.
Create
Write an article for your school magazine describing what you feel it means to be a citizen of the world.
