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Year 9 English · Poetry analysis

Name: ______________________

Date: ____________

1. What is enjambment?
- ☐ (a) A pause in the middle of a line
- ☐ (b) A sentence continuing over a line break without punctuation
- ☐ (c) A rhyming pair of lines
- ☐ (d) A group of lines
2. In 'Drought Year', what does the metaphor 'The dam is a cracked plate' suggest?
- ☐ (a) The family is wealthy.
- ☐ (b) The dam is full.
- ☐ (c) The dam is dry, broken and empty.
- ☐ (d) Dinner is ready.
3. Which line from the poem contains a caesura?
- ☐ (a) The dam is a cracked plate. Dad does not speak.
- ☐ (b) He walks the fence line every evening, counting
- ☐ (c) unclenching, every gutter singing.
- ☐ (d) the sky owed him something.
4. What is the 'persona' of a poem?
- ☐ (a) The title
- ☐ (b) The rhyme scheme
- ☐ (c) The final stanza
- ☐ (d) The speaking voice of the poem
5. What is the best description of the tone at the end of 'Drought Year'?
- ☐ (a) Bitter
- ☐ (b) Relieved and joyful
- ☐ (c) Bored
- ☐ (d) Sarcastic
6. What is the term for a turn or shift in a poem's thought or tone? (one word)
7. What is a group of lines forming a unit in a poem called? (one word)
8. 'Every gutter singing' gives gutters a human action. Name the device. (one word)

Answer sheet

1. A sentence continuing over a line break without punctuation — Enjambment carries a sentence across a line break.
2. The dam is dry, broken and empty. — A cracked plate is empty and damaged, like a dried-out dam with a cracked bed.
3. The dam is a cracked plate. Dad does not speak. — The full stop mid-line creates a strong pause.
4. The speaking voice of the poem — The persona is the speaker, who may differ from the poet.
5. Relieved and joyful — The world 'unclenching' and gutters 'singing' express release and joy.
6. Volta — A volta marks a change of direction in a poem.
7. Stanza — Stanzas work like paragraphs in poetry.
8. Personification — Gutters cannot sing; they are given human qualities.