The Soho Leopard by Ruth Padel

1.    What was your favourite/least favourite poem? Why?

2.    Why do you think the book was divided into sections? Do the sections make sense?

3.    How did you feel about the collection overall? Did you like/dislike it? Why?

4.    Many of the poems are based on myths or stories – did you like this? Did they work as poems?

5.    Did you notice any particularly striking uses of simile/metaphor?

6.    Could you relate to the subject matter of the poems?

7.    Animals feature very strongly in this collection - did you have any favourite animal poems? Did you like the theme? Was it too much?

8.    Did you notice any particular moods or feelings within the writing?

9.    The book is very “wordy” did you like this rich language?

10. What did you think of the title poem? Did you like/dislike it? Why do you think it was the title poem?

11. Did you find the notes at the end of the book helpful?

12. Did you have any other thoughts about individual poems or the collection as a whole?

Skin Divers by Anne Michaels

1.    What was your favourite/least favourite poem? Why?

2.    Why do you think the book was divided into sections? Do the sections make sense?

3.    How did you feel about the collection overall? Did you like/dislike it? Why?

4.    Did you notice any particularly striking uses of simile/metaphor?

5.    Could you relate to the subject matter of the poems?

6.    Nature and natural themes feature quite strongly in this collection, how did you feel about the language and use of natural imagery? Did you like/dislike it? Was it too much?

7.    Did you notice any particular moods or feelings within the writing?

8.    Did you get much sense of the author or narrator from reading these poems?

9.    Did you notice any recurring themes and ideas within the collection? 

10. How did you feel about the title poem?

11.  In the poem Fontanelles there are quite a few references to different scientists and also to characters from classic literature, did you mind this? Did it exclude you from the text? Did it enhance your reading of it?

12. What did you think of the title poem? Did you like/dislike it? Why do you think it was the title poem?

Glossary:

Werner Karl Heisenberg – one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics. Awarded Nobel Prize in Physics in 1925. Considerable controversy surrounds his work on atomic research during World War II.

Jacques Lucien Monod – French biologist. One of the founders of molecular biology. Won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1965.

Jacques Loeb - German-born American physiologist and biologist.  Loeb was nominated many times for the Nobel Prize but never won. Loeb was able to cause the eggs of sea urchins to begin embryonic development without sperm.

Irène Joliot-Curie – daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie. Along with her husband, Joliot-Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1935 for their discovery of artificial radioactivity.

Kid by Simon Armitage

1. What was your favourite/least favourite poem? Why?
2.  How did you feel about the collection overall? Did you like/dislike it? Why?
3. Did you notice any particularly striking uses of simile/metaphor?
4. Could you relate to the subject matter of the poems?
5. How did you feel about the language used in the collection? Is it accessible?
6. There is quite a lot of humour in the collection – did you like/dislike this? Was it always successful?
7. There is a sequence about Robinson dotted through the collection, did you get a feeling as to the character of Robinson? What type of person was he? Do you think he is a type? Is he a character with universal attributes? Or is he perhaps based in part on the author?
8. There seems to be a sense of discontent within the collection – did you notice this? How did you feel about it? Did it seem to be related to one particular theme or was it more general?
9. Did you get much sense of the author or narrator from reading these poems?
10. Did you notice any recurring themes and ideas within the collection? 
11. How did you feel about the title poem?
12. What did you think was happening in the poem “Shrove Tuesday”?
13. Not the Furniture Game is a list poem – what is the cumulative effect of the statements in the list? What feeling do the statements give you about the character? Does the list give you a sense of the physical shape of the man an/or his emotional state? What effect do the final two stanzas have and would the poem be as effective without them? What sense did you get of the relationship between the he and the she in the poem?
14.  Who do you think the she is, who is referred to in “Lines though to have been Written…”?
15. What do you think is the mysterious thing that has happened in the poem “8 p.m. and Raining…”?
16. Eighteen Plays on Golfing as a Watchword pays homage to Wallace Stevens’ Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, do you see any similarities between the poems (apart from the numbering and the title)? Is it a successful poem? Is it ironic?
17. What did you think of the final poem in the collection “About His Person”? Did the list draw a picture of the character that owned them? What do you think happened to the character? Does the poem say anything about what we value or the meaning of life? Did it make you think about what might be found on your person?
18. Do you think Armitage’s job, as a parole officer is evident as an influence in this collection?
19. Would you seek out more of the author's work?

Stag's Leap by Sharon Olds

1. How did you feel that Olds handled the subject matter of the collection? Did you feel it was handled lightly? Sensitively? Heavy-handedly?
2. Did you feel that she gave an accurate portrayal of a divorce?
3. Did the subject warrant a whole book?
4.   We are only hearing one voice in this collection – did you feel that it was too one-sided?
5.    How did you feel about Olds’ portrayal of her ex husband?
6. 6  How did you feel about the collection overall? Did you like/dislike it? Why?
7. What was your favourite/least favourite poem? Why?
8.  Did you notice any particularly striking use of simile or metaphor?
9. Would you read more of Olds’ work?
10.  Had you read this kind of ‘confessional’ style poetry before? What are your thoughts about this style of seemingly very personal writing?
11.   Did the collection feel too long/too short/just right?
12.  If you had a friend getting divorced would you share this book with them?

Grace – Esther Morgan

1)      What the main or recurring themes in this collection? Were there words or ideas that kept cropping up?

2)      In the title poem Grace what do you think it is that the narrator is waiting for?

3)      What do you think the poet means by Grace? Does the title poem and the collection as a whole fit with these ideas?

4)      There are several poems in the collection that are inspired by works of art – do these work well as stand-alone poems? Did you feel the need to look at the artwork? If so did this change or enhance your reading of the poem?

5)      What was your favourite/least favourite poem in the collection? Why?

6)      Morgan mainly writes in two and three line stanzas – did you feel that this spare form suited the themes that she is writing about?

7)      There is a feeling of unexplored potential or of things not quite resolved in these poems – how did this make you feel? Did you want more resolution? Or were you happy to be left with a sense of unknowing?

8)      This collection has been described as being slightly bleak and religious in tone – would you agree with this?

9)      What was your impression of the collection as a whole? How did it make you feel? What do you remember most about it?

10)  Have you read any of Morgan’s other work? Would you seek it out having read Grace?

Ariel by Sylvia Plath

1)      What was your impression of the collection as a whole? Have you read it before/studied it? Did your impressions change or opinions differ on re-reading? Did you gain any new insights?

2)      How do you feel Plath depicts motherhood (in poems like “Morning Star”). Do you think she sees it as a positive or negative experience?

3)      Do you feel that the content and themes of these poems bears any relation or relevance to life today?

4)      Did you notice any particular images of the “feminine” in the poems - mythological women or women from history for instance? Robert Lowell stated that, in these poems, "almost everything we customarily think of as feminine is turned on its head"? Do you agree with this?

5)      Is it possible to read the collection without being influenced by what we know of Plath’s life and death? Or is this an integral part of understanding the collection?

6)      Death is a defining presence in the collection - in what guises does death appear?

Is death counter-balanced in any way with images of birth, rebirth or renewal?

7)      There are numerous allusions to Nazi brutality and the Holocaust, in "Lady Lazarus" and some other poems, are these justified? What do you think is their purpose?

8)      Is there a single poem that you think embodies Plaths’ poetic voice more than any other?

9)      Did you have a favourite/least favourite poem? Why?

10)  Images of illness, disintegration appear frequently within the collection - what is the overall effect of this? What impression does it give?

11)  Daddy is a character that appears several times in this collection - what do you think was Plath’s relationship to her father? Hughes said in “Birthday Letters” that "a god / That was not your [Plath's] father / Was a false god." Do you agree with this?

12)  Plath writes often about nature and the elements - do you think these poems are effective? Do they fit with her other themes?

The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin

1)      What was the overall tone/mood of the collection?

2)      Thinking about the title poem “The Whitsun Weddings” – who is the speaker in the poem? What is your impression of the speaker? How would you describe his attitude to what he sees? Did the layout and the stanza breaks add anything to your reading of the poem?

3)      What function do you think Mr Bleaney performs in the poem Mr Bleaney?

4)      What impression did you get of Larkin’s views of humanity? Marriage?

5)      What was your favourite/least favourite poem? Why?

6)      Did you notice anything about the forms of the poems or the rhyme schemes?

7)      How did you feel about Larkin’s use of language?

8)      What do you think Larkin was trying to achieve in the poem about the shop “The Large Cool Store”? Are the shop and the clothes it sells analogies for something else?

9)      Did you notice any pre-occupations or emerging themes within the collection?

10)  Poems like “The Whitsun weddings” and “Nothing to be Said” give a sense of changing ways of life and the passing of time, how life ultimately leads to death – do you think Larkin does this effectively? Are lines like “Life is a slow dying” too melodramatic?

11)  Does the collection give away anything about the writer’s state of mind?

12)  Did you enjoy the collection as a whole? What did you particularly like/dislike about it? Did the order of poems work for you? 

13)  Larkin is widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century – would you agree with this? Why?

Rapture - Carol Ann Duffy

1. "Rapture" is a collection of love poems - what was your overall feeling about the collection? Did you enjoy it/dislike it? Why?
2. How did you feel about the two main characters (the writer and the addressee)?
3. What was the relationship like? Did it seem healthy/dysfunctional? Why?
4. How did you feel about the use of rhyme within the collection?
5. Duffy uses a lot of old fashioned and 'poetic' words in these poems (i.e. grace, pardon, gold) and these words crop up several different poems. What do you think Duffy was trying to achieve by using this type of  language? Does it work?
6. Did you have a favourite/least favourite poem? Why?
7. What do you think of Duffy's use of form in this collection - for example there are quite a few sonnets, does the form fit the subject matter? What did you think about the way that the poems were laid out on the page?
8. What was the cumulative effect of the collection on the reader? Is it too much/just right? How did it make you feel? 
9. Could you relate to the sentiments conveyed?
10. Did this book make you more likely/less likely to read another collection by the same author?
11. Carol Ann Duffy is the poet laureate, did this collection have any bearing on your feelings about that?