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Worksheets"Today" by Billy Collins
Total questions: 10
Worksheet time: 3hrs 30mins
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)
