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Reading Poetry at Grade 5 is a free printable Grade 5 English worksheet on reading poetry closely enough to analyse its structure, aligned to Common Core standard RL.5.10. 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 at Grade 5

RL.5.10

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

What We Kept

Stanza one: We kept the table, which was too big, and the clock, which had never gone, and a tin of buttons nobody wanted, and the habit of turning lights off. Stanza two: We gave away the good chairs. We gave away the china, all of it. We gave away the piano to a school because none of us could play. Stanza three: Ten years on, I would not know the chairs if I saw them in a window on a street. But I turn the hall light off behind me every single time, and think of her.

  1. 1. "The clock, which had never gone" — what does this tell you about why it was kept?
  2. 2. What does the hall light stand for by the end of the poem?
  3. 3. What does "disposal" mean?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Bell

Stanza one: The church has gone. They took the stone for walls and gateposts, load by load. Where the aisle was there is a field. Where the door was there is a road. Stanza two: The bell they could not sell or break. It hung in a barn for eighty years, green with the damp, out of the way, mute as a stone among the gears. Stanza three: Last spring they hung it in the school. It rings at nine and rings at three. The children do not know its age and ring it anyway, and it is free. Stanza four: So the building went, and the faith went, and the road runs where the door was cut, and still the sound the masons heard goes out at nine, and comes back, and stops.

  1. 1. What is a "mason"?
  2. 2. What does "mute" mean?
  3. 3. "The faith went" — what does this mean, and how is it different from "the building went"?

LessonPrint · RL.5.10 · Set 8 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Reading Poetry at Grade 5

Set 8. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. It was kept for reasons that had nothing to do with usefulness. 2. The person who taught the habit — turning it off is how the speaker remembers her. 3. Getting rid of things.
  2. 2.1. Somebody who builds in stone — here, the people who built the church. 2. Silent — making no sound. 3. The building went by demolition and the faith went by change of belief; the poem sets the two losses side by side.

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RL.5.10 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.