PRE-READING 1. What age do you think a child or a person has to be to understand death?
2. At what age do you think it is appropriate for a child to attend a wake or a viewing?
COMPREHENDING AND RESPONDING 1. Do you think the title of this poem is well chosen? Give reasons for your answer.
2. What picture of the parlour do you form, having read stanza one? Refer to the poem in your answer.
3. What does the child’s description of the loon in stanza two reveal about her understanding of death, in your opinion?
4. Each stanza of this poem is like a picture. What scene do you envisage after reading stanza three?
5. The description of Arthur in stanza four has been described as ‘upsetting’. Do you agree or disagree with this? Give reasons for your answer.
6. In stanza five do you think the child has come up with the explanation of Arthur being the smallest page at court by herself or has someone else given this explanation to her? Give reasons for your answer.
7. What impact does the rhetorical question at the end of the poem have on you as a reader?
8. Discuss the use of repetition in this poem and state what impact you think it has on the reader.
9. What similes and metaphors in this poem tell us that the speaker is a child? 10. What, in your opinion, is the theme of this poem?
11. Contrast this poem with another poem of Bishop’s which explores the theme of childhood.
CREATING 1. Write a discursive essay entitled ‘It’s not always easy to be a child’.
2. Write a speech for a public speaking contest inspired by this quotation: ‘It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.’ (Marcus Aurelius)
3. Write an article for your school website in which you advise staff and students about how best to support members of your school community who have suffered a loss.
4. Imagine you were making a short film of this poem. Describe how you would shoot each of the five stanzas and what soundtrack you would use to convey the emotion in the poem.
