Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- What do you think the relationship between the speaker and the "you" in the poem is?
- What is the effect of the line lengths on the rhythm of this poem? On the meaning of the poem?
- What is the effect of the description of how delicious the plums were?
- Have you ever done something that you knew you shouldn't do? What was it? How did it make you feel? If you apologized, how did you do it? Try writing your own poem, just like this one, about something that you should apologize for.
- What effect does the title have on how you read the poem? If the title were moved down and made the first line, what title would you give this poem?
- Do you think this is a found poem? Do you think Williams really wrote a note to his wife, fessing up to eating her plums? If so, does that change the way you read the poem? And if it's not a found poem, why write it in such a way?
- Big Question: is this even a poem? Why or why not?