Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- What effect do the transportation-related images in this poem have on you as a reader? How do they ask you to think about the act of reading?
- How do books take us on these imaginary journeys? What happens to you when you read?
- What is the significance of the phrase "the Human soul" in line 8? Why not say "the Human imagination," or something like that?
- The idea of reading being a kind of actual portal or a trip to another world is pretty common in literature and in the movies (we're thinking of The Never-Ending Story – a totally Eighties-style blast from the past). Can you think of any books or movies you've encountered that play with this idea?
- Would this poem work if it were about movies? "There is no Frigate like a Film…" Why or why not?