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.

Electric Shadow by Heidi Williamson

1)      Did you notice any recurring themes and ideas within the collection?

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

3)      Williamson was poet in residence at The Science Museum – was this evident in her work? If there were any scientific themes how do you feel that these work? Are they accessible to the general reader?

4)      Williamson’s writing tends to be quite spare – shortish poems, and a lot of white space around them – how do you feel about Williamson’s style? Are the poems successful? Did you want more?

5)      What did you think of the Matroyshka series – what do you think that the author was trying to achieve.

6)      Reviewers have talked about a thread or theme of light running through the collection – did you notice this?

7)      How did you feel about the collection overall? Did you enjoy it? Were there themes or ideas that you could connect with?

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?

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?