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Reading Poetry Closely is a free printable Grade 4 English worksheet on reading a poem well enough to explain its structure and figures, aligned to Common Core standard RL.4.10. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two pupils in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Reading Poetry Closely

RL.4.10

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Quarry, Filled

Stanza one: They took the hill away in carts for ninety years, and then they stopped. The hole they left filled up with rain until the rain had reached the top. Stanza two: Now people swim where men once cut. The water hides the ledge, the crane, the drill-marks in the standing rock, the tracks, the shed, the loading lane. Stanza three: The children diving off the edge have never heard the word for it. They call it "the lake". They are not wrong. A thing becomes what people make of it.

  1. 1. "They are not wrong" — what does the poem mean by this?
  2. 2. Determine a theme of this poem and support it from the text.
  3. 3. "They took the hill away in carts" — is this literal?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Low Water

Stanza one: Twice a day the sea walks out and leaves the harbour standing, the boats set down on their own keels like birds that have stopped landing. Stanza two: The mud shines. Old anchors show, a bicycle, a broken chain, the whole forgotten underneath made briefly plain. Stanza three: Then, without a sound at all, it turns and starts to come. The bicycle goes under first. The harbour lifts. The boats go dumb.

  1. 1. "Like birds that have stopped landing" — what is being compared?
  2. 2. Why does the bicycle go under first?
  3. 3. "The sea walks out" — what kind of figurative language is this, and what does it mean?

LessonPrint · RL.4.10 · Set 2 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Reading Poetry Closely

Set 2. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. That calling it a lake is true now, whatever it used to be. 2. A place is what it is used for now — "A thing becomes what people make of it." 3. Largely literal — quarrying removed the hill — but stated so plainly it sounds impossible.
  2. 2.1. The grounded boats are compared to birds caught mid-landing, sitting on the mud. 2. Because it lies lowest in the harbour, so the returning water reaches it first. 3. The sea is described as a person walking away, meaning the tide goes out.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RL.4.10 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.