"Today" by Billy Collins

Which of the following is the best summary of the poem?

• The speaker describes the perfect day as a warm spring day that makes you want to go outside and enjoy.

• The speaker describes the perfect day as a winter's day spent in a snow-covered cottage.

• The speaker describes the perfect day as one where birds are set free from cages and are flying through the sky.

• The speaker describes the perfect day as one spent holding hands with the one you love.

Which word best describes the feeling that the poet created in the poem?

• bewildered

• embarrased

• lighthearted

• loving

Read the following lines (10-15) from the poem:

that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight

on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants

from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,

The reader can infer that the poet is describing --

• a lamp

• a picture

• a snowglobe

• a cottage

On line 6, the word jamb is referring to --

• a preserve of fruit, slightly crushed and boiled with sugar

• the act of squeezing tightly between two things

• a mass of objects unable to move

• the sides, or frame, of a doorway

Read the following lines (8-10) of the poem:

a day when the cool brick paths

and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight

These lines are an example of --

• imagery

• rhyme

• simile

• personification

On line 17, "...this larger dome of blue and white," is referring to --

• a bowl in the kitchen

• the sky

• a flower in the garden

• a hat on the speaker's head

The poet titled this poem "Today" most likely because --

• He could be talking about any day of the year.

• He may want everyday to be like the one described in the poem.

• He possibly wrote it on a perfect spring day.

• He has probably never experienced a day so perfect.

Which poetic structure is found in the poem?

• A rhyme scheme of ABAB

• A combination of very long and very short lines

• Repetition of a phrase in each stanza

• 9 Stanzas of two lines each

What is the message of the poem?

• People should go outside and enjoy when the weather is right.

• Keeping birds in cages is cruel and should never be done.

• Freedom comes from destroying things with a hammer.

• Everyone believes spring is better than winter.

Which lines indicate that the speaker is inspired to spring into action?

• that it made you want to throw

  open all the windows in the house (lines 3-4)

• a day when the cool brick paths

  and the garden bursting with peonies (lines 7-8)

• a hammer to the glass paperweight

  on the living room end table, (lines 11-12)

• into this larger dome of blue and white,

  well, today is just that kind of day. (lines 17-18)