LITR 3731: Creative Writing 2008

Lauralie Pope

LITR 3731 Dr. White

Discussion Leader: Poetry

01-24-08

Discussion Questions for
Christina Holmes’s Poem “The Witch”

I like the emotion that is expressed in the first stanza. The reader gets a sense right away of the author’s emotions.

Questions to the Author:

1.       You have an interesting title.  How did you come to choose your title and what does it refer to in the poem?

2.      Who are the “we” in the poem?

3.      I get a sense that the speaker is feeling sympathy in stanza 3 or needs to explain why the subject continues to do what he does.  Is this your intension?

4.      What do you mean by back and forth and forth and back dip and dap, heavy stuff?

Questions to the audience:

1.      What do you like most about the Poem?

2.      I like the emotion that is expressed in the first and fourth stanzas.  The reader gets a sense right away that the person speaking is frustrated, confused by the subject’s actions, and angered by them.  Do you agree or disagree and why?

3.      I am not sure if I feel a sense of relief that the suffering is over, or a sense of tragedy over his death at the end.  How does the ending make you feel?

4.      How do you think the author feels at the end?

5.      What do you think the author wants the reader to “get” from this poem?

Discussion Questions for
Christina Holmes’s Poem “God in the Garden”

Questions for the Author:

1.       I think there is potential to see not only flowers but the good in people, or children in this poem. Did you intend for the reader to “get” a double meaning?

Questions for the Audience:

1.      What do you think the author wants you to learn or get out of this poem?

2.      What do you like most about it?

3.      Which poem do you like the most?