Finding a Small Fly Crushed in a Book - Poem

Question 1

What major theme is explored?

Answer 1

Inevitability of Death

Question 2

What is the structure and form of the poem?

Answer 2

• 14 line poem
• Rhyme scheme (ABABCDDCEFEFGG)
• Iambic pentameter

Question 3

What literary devices are used?

Answer 3

1. Alliteration
2. Caesura
3. Metaphor

Question 4

What happens in lines 1 - 4?

Answer 4

• Addresses fly suing a technique called apostrophe
• The fly can’t understand speaker or respond

Question 5

What happens in lines 5 - 8?

Answer 5

• Writer connects fly’s body with a memory of life.
• ‘thou art is gone’ reminds speaker of mortality

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Question 6

What happens in lines 9 - 14?

Answer 6

• Directs his word broadly
• Death and danger
• Fly’s death is a metaphor of how we never know when we can dis
• Comparison between what humanity leaves behind and fly

Question 7

What does the writer say humanity is not going to have?

Answer 7

A marker of the fly’s life which is it’s wings