Nil Nil by Don Paterson

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?
6. Paterson uses some unusual words within the poems and as titles - would you have liked footnotes or a glossary? Did the lack of one affect your reading of the poems?
7. Quite a few of the poems were written in the sonnet form - did you feel that these were successful?
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. How did you feel about the attitude to women in this collection?
12.  Did the collection feel too long/too short/just right?
13. Would you seek out more of the author's work?

Useful glossary:

Exeunt - used as a stage direction to specify that all (or certain named) characters leave the stage.
Heliographer - A device for transmitting messages by reflecting sunlight.
Perigee - the point in the orbit of the moon or a satellite at which it is nearest to the earth.
Orchitis - inflammation of one or both of the testicles.

Obeah - a term used in the West Indies to refer to folk magic, sorcery, and religious practices developed among West African slaves, specifically of Igbo origin.

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?

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?