Monday, May 08, 2006

Study Questions for Skillman

Study Questions

General

  1. Is Skillman’s poems entertaining, informative, didactic, philosophical, argumentative, or some combination of these?
  2. Do the titles enhance the poems? Are they symbolic or misleading impressions of the poem?
  3. Is her work difficult to read? Why?
  4. Did your first impression change as you read all the way through?
  5. What type of imagery does Skillman use? Figurative language?

Specific

  1. Skillman uses quite a few titles that incorporate music but the poems themselves do not talk about music. Why do you think she does this? Is it the music in the words of the poem?
  2. In most of Skillman’s poems she talks about birds. Do you think that in some way they influence her? Are they a symbol for something?
  3. Beethoven and the Birds was one of her first books and Storm, was right after that one. Do you notice a difference in her poems between the two books?
  4. Can poems be considered music? They can produce pitch and rhythm, but are they the same as say Beethoven’s music?
  5. Do you think that music can be as much of an influence as a person can be? In a way music is a person if you look at it like the composer as your influence not just the music.

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