Poetry Support

I. Read the following poem and answer the questions that follow.
Select an answer you think is correct in each section:

Girls in a factory

Seated in rows at the machines
Their heads are bent; the tacking needle
Stitches along the hours, along the seams.

What thoughts follow the needle
Over the fields of cloth,
Stitching into the seams
Perhaps a scarlet thread of love.
A daisy-chain of dreams?

Dennis Glover
(In Poets and poetry (1992). R.K. Sadler, T.A.S. Hayllar & C.J. Powell (Eds.). Melbourne: Macmillan Education.)

1. The subject-matter of this poem is:
a) A long day possibly in a clothing/curtain factory.
b) Thinking of my loved one.
c) Girls working at sewing machines in what is probably a clothing/curtain factor

2. Whose voice is heard in the poem?
a) the girls'.
b) the factory manager's.
c) the poet's who has observed the girls in the factory.

3. The theme of the above poem is:
a) Monotonous work can be drugged with daydreams.
b) Hours of tedious work are an opportunity to daydream.
c) Hard work is the lot of all women working in a factory.

4. If this poem were entitled: "Working girls", would it still be possible to glean the clothing factory setting from the content?
a) Yes, because of specific nouns and noun groups used in the poem.
b) Yes, because the women are seated "in rows".
c) No, because the poet speaks of "scarlet threads of love" and "daisy chains".

II. Read the poem below and then answer the questions that follow.

It was a heartfelt game, when it began -
Polish and cook and sew and mend, contrive,
Move between sink and stove, keep flower-beds weeded -
All her love needed was that it was needed,
And merely living kept the blood alive.

Now an old habit leads from sink to stove,
Mends and keeps clean the house that looks like home,
And waits in hunger dressed to look like love
For the calm return of those who, when they come,
Remind her; this was a game, when it began.

(From Judith Wright: "Portrait")
(In The Forms of poetry (1990). P. Abbs & J. Richardson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)

5. Who is speaking the poem?
a) The poet.
b) The person who did and does these actions.

6. Out of what situation does the poem arise?
a) A domestic scene which no longer exists.
b) A domestic scene which no longer exists but is simulated every day.
c) A very ordered situation.

7. What kind of feelings are being communicated?
a) Depression, loneliness and neediness.
b) Gratitude for the past.
c) Fond regret.

8. The theme of the above poem is:
a) Things are not always what they seem to be.
b) People need to be appreciated for themselves not their function.
c) Life was once so good.

III. Read the poetic extracts below and then tick what you think is the correct statement:

The springtime it brings on the shearing,
And it's then you will see them in droves,
To the west-country stations all steering,
A-seeking a job off the coves.

(From E.J. Overbury's " The springtime it brings on the shearing")
(In The Language of poetry (1998). J. McRae. London: Routledge.)

9. As a reader of the above extract how can you identify it as being set in Australia?
a) Words and phrases peculiar to the Australian outback.
b) The fact that it is springtime and the shearing is taking place.
c) That people seem to be looking for jobs.

10. Whose voice is telling this story?
a) The poet's.
b) Perhaps a fellow in the pub over a pint of beer.
c) A prejudiced onlooker

Here's health to you, Father O'Flynn,
Slainte, and slainte, and slainte agin;
Powerfulest preacher, and
Tenderest teacher, and
Kindliest creature in ould Donegal.

(From A.P. Graves's "Father O'Flynn, 1899")
(In The Language of poetry (1998). J. McRae. London: Routledge.)

11. As a reader of the above extract, would you say that the setting is:
a) Among Irish Catholics in the Australian outback.
b) Among the Irish in Donegal?
c) Among the Scottish Celts?

IV Read the extract below and tick the correct answer:

Friends,
Our dear sister
Is departing for foreign
In two three days,
And
We are meeting today
To wish her bon voyage.

You are all knowing friends,
What sweetness is in Miss Pushpa.
I don't mean only external sweetness
But internal sweetness.
Miss Pushpa is smiling
Even for no reason
But simply because she is feeling.

Miss Pushpa is coming
From very high family.
Her father was renowned advocate
In Bulsar or Surat,
I am not remembering now which place.

From Nissim Ezekiel's "Goodbye party for Miss Pushpa T.S.")
(In The Language of poetry (1998). J. McRae. London: Routlege.)

12. The speaker in the above extract is an Indian. How do you know?
a) Because he is speaking very kindly about Miss Pushpa?
b) Because he uses language features common to spoken Indian English?
c) Because he is using standard English and refers to Bulsar and Surat which are both in India.

13. The theme of the above extract seems to be:
a) People sometimes pretend to appreciate one another.
b) Appreciation of another's role
c) People are worthy of appreciation because they have "good" connections.

The red globes of light, the liquor-green,
The pulsing arrows and the running fire
Split on the stones, go deeper than a stream;
You find this ugly, I find it lovely.

(From Kenneth Slessor's "William Street")
(In Poets and poetry (1992). R.K. Sadler, T.A.S. Hayllar & C.J. Powell (Eds.). Melbourne: Macmillan Education.)

14. The setting in this poem is:
a) A busy William Street during the day
b) A busy William Street at night
c) A busy William Street on a rainy night

Score = /14
Correct answers: