Exploring the Text

Access the text here.

  1. When does the poem shift from flashback—or memory—to the present moment? How does Robert Hayden keep this shift from being too abrupt?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - When does the poem shift from flashback—or memory—to the present moment? How does Robert Hayden keep this shift from being too abrupt?
  2. Citing specific lines from the poem, characterize the speaker’s relationship with his father and the home in which the speaker grew up.

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Citing specific lines from the poem, characterize the speaker’s relationship with his father and the home in which the speaker grew up.
  3. What is the meaning of “love’s austere and lonely offices” (l. 14)? What effect does Hayden achieve by choosing such an uncommon, somewhat archaic word as offices?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - What is the meaning of “love’s austere and lonely offices” (l. 14)? What effect does Hayden achieve by choosing such an uncommon, somewhat archaic word as offices?
  4. What is the effect of the repetition in the second-to-last line of the poem?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - What is the effect of the repetition in the second-to-last line of the poem?
  5. What is the grown speaker’s feeling about his father? How does it differ from the feeling the speaker had as a child? What does the adult speaker understand about the father that he did not understand as a child?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - What is the grown speaker’s feeling about his father? How does it differ from the feeling the speaker had as a child? What does the adult speaker understand about the father that he did not understand as a child?
  6. What do you think is this poem’s purpose? What strategies does Hayden use to achieve it?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - What do you think is this poem’s purpose? What strategies does Hayden use to achieve it?