Page 1088 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing

Discussing the Poem

1. Where is the first stanza set? Could the decision that the

speaker faces operate on two levels and have both a literal

meaning and a figurative meaning?

2. In the fourth stanza, the speaker imagines himself telling the

story “ages and ages hence.” How does he imagine that the
story changes? Why do you think it changes?

Topics for Writing

Essay 1: Choices