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.

Tags

CCSS.RI.6.2

CCSS.RI.7.2

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RL.6.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

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

• bewildered

• embarrased

• lighthearted

• living

Tags

CCSS.RL.7.10

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.7.5

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.8.5

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

Tags

CCSS.RL.7.10

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.7.5

CCSS.RL.8.10

CCSS.RL.8.5

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

Tags

CCSS.RI.6.4

CCSS.RI.7.4

CCSS.RL.6.4

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

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

Tags

CCSS.RL.6.4

CCSS.RL.7.10

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.7.5

CCSS.RL.8.4

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

Tags

CCSS.RI.5.5

CCSS.RI.6.5

CCSS.RI.7.5

CCSS.RI.8.5

CCSS.RI.9-10.5

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.

Tags

CCSS.RL.7.10

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.7.5

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.8.5

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

Tags

CCSS.RL.6.4

CCSS.RL.7.10

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.7.5

CCSS.RL.8.5

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.

Tags

CCSS.RL.7.10

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.7.5

CCSS.RL.8.10

CCSS.RL.8.5

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)

Tags

CCSS.RL.6.4

CCSS.RL.7.10

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.RL.7.5

CCSS.RL.8.4