1. What does the word ‘aesthetic’ mean? Are school buildings, hospitals, garda stations , etc. generally aesthetically pleasing, in your opinion?
2. Have you encountered any other poems or songs about hospitals? Why do you think you have/have not encountered poems with this setting and/or theme?
3. Do you have a favourite place in your school (the building or the grounds)? If so, why is this place your favourite?
COMPREHENDING AND RESPONDING
1. Do you think it is possible to fall in love with ‘the functional ward/ Of a chest hospital’? Give reasons for your answer.
2. Explain the following lines in your own words: ‘But nothing whatever is by love debarred,/ The common and banal her heat can know.’
3. What do you think the speaker means by the ‘inexhaustible adventure’ of the hospital yard?
4. What is our duty to love, according to the sestet?
5. What image do you form of the hospital from reading this poem? Write or draw a description with as much detail as possible.
6. ‘“The Hospital” is a poem about the transformative effect of love.’ Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Discuss with reference to the poem.
7. your answer.
8. this sonnet, and some of his other sonnets, why do you think Kavanagh prefers this form of poetry? Refer to this sonnet and two or more other sonnets in your answer.
CREATING 1. Write a descriptive essay about a place that you consider beautiful.
2. short story where the main character is transformed by an encounter with love.
3. Write an email to a friend in which you describe an experience that made you think about life in a different way.