The message of a poem, line by line

Grade 8 Reading Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Rewriting the Letter (original poem)

   Stanza 1
   [1] Draft one: “Sorry you were upset.”
   [2] I read it twice. It sounds like weather,
   [3] something that happened to us both,
   [4] and I crumple it into a tidy ball.

   Stanza 2
   [5] Draft two: “I'm sorry, but the bus was late,
   [6] and you know how the group chat gets.”
   [7] That little “but” sits in the middle like a stone.
   [8] I tear the page along its folded edge.

   Stanza 3
   [9] Draft three is slow. I cross out every excuse.
   [10] “I told Tala your secret. I thought it was funny.
   [11] It wasn't. You trusted me, and I laughed.”
   [12] My hand feels heavy, but the words stay put.

   Stanza 4
   [13] This one I fold and slide beneath the door
   [14] before I can decide to take it back.
   [15] It is the hardest of the three to write,
   [16] and the first one that doesn't sound like someone else.
   Annotations: stanza 1 = the first try; stanza 2 = the second try; stanza 3 = the third try; stanza 4 = the delivery.

2. 1.

   Esme thinks about the speaker's situation: three drafts of one apology. Which theme links that situation to the poem's message?

   • Good friends forgive quickly, so a short apology sent soon is better than a long one sent late.
   • The speaker writes three drafts of a letter to a friend, throws out two, and slides the last one under a door.
   • Each new draft of an apology gets closer to owning the harm, which is why the honest one costs the most.
   • Adding the word but to an apology makes the excuse weigh more than the harm, as line 7 shows.
3. 2.

   Jun looks for the change in the drafts. All four lines are true. Which line proves this most strongly: “By the third draft, the speaker admits the secret broke the friend's trust”?

   • [3] something that happened to us both,
   • [10] “I told Tala your secret. I thought it was funny.
   • [11] It wasn't. You trusted me, and I laughed.”
   • [15] It is the hardest of the three to write,
4. 3.

   Kira follows the drafts from stanza 1 to stanza 4. Which theme includes how the speaker's idea of an apology changes?

   • A person who writes three honest drafts has repaired the friendship, so the letter was worth sending.
   • An apology moves from sounding smooth to sounding true as the speaker stops excusing and starts owning what happened.
   • A short word like but can turn an apology into an excuse, which weakens the whole letter.
   • An apology moves from sounding true to sounding smooth as the speaker learns which words friends like to hear.
5. 4.

   Luz looks at where the poem ends: a letter slid beneath a door. Which theme links that ending to the poem's message?

   • Saying what really happened takes nerve, and it is the version that finally sounds like the speaker's own voice.
   • The first draft sounds like weather because it treats the trouble as something that happened to both friends.
   • The speaker folds the last draft and slides it beneath a door before there is time to take it back.
   • Writing a letter several times before sending it is the safest way to say sorry to a friend.
6. 5.

   Milo looks for how the speaker feels about the second draft. All four lines are true. Which line proves this most strongly: “The speaker feels the excuse in draft two as a weight”?

   • [4] and I crumple it into a tidy ball.
   • [5] Draft two: “I'm sorry, but the bus was late,
   • [12] My hand feels heavy, but the words stay put.
   • [7] That little “but” sits in the middle like a stone.
7. 6.

   Noah marks the weather comparison, the stone and the ending. Which theme shows how the speaker's sense of a good apology develops?

   • Calling trouble something that happened to both friends makes a problem feel lighter, as the first draft shows.
   • A good apology should sound as smooth as possible, so the speaker is right to polish each draft further.
   • An apology that names the harm will be forgiven right away, so the speaker no longer needs to worry.
   • A good apology is judged less by how smooth it sounds than by whether the speaker can stand behind every word.

8. Attic Inventory (original poem)

   Stanza 1
   [1] Grandpa's attic holds an inventory:
   [2] three lamps without a plug, a trunk of maps,
   [3] a clock that stopped at ten past two, a coat
   [4] that smells like cedar and some distant rain.

   Stanza 2
   [5] The plan is simple: keep, donate, toss.
   [6] I make three piles and feel just like a judge,
   [7] until the toss pile fills with what was cheap:
   [8] a bent spoon, a cracked mug, a whistle that won't blow.

   Stanza 3
   [9] I hold the whistle up. “Where did this come from?”
   [10] Grandpa laughs. And suddenly an hour is gone:
   [11] a lake, a broken boat, a borrowed oar,
   [12] a summer told in what the pile had saved.

   Stanza 4
   [13] By dark the keep pile fits inside a shoebox.
   [14] The toss pile leaves in bags, but not the stories;
   [15] I've folded each of those where I can find it.
   [16] The attic is an ordinary room again.
   Annotations: stanza 1 = the inventory; stanza 2 = the sorting; stanza 3 = the stories; stanza 4 = what is kept.

9. 7.

   Pia thinks about the speaker's situation: sorting a grandparent's attic into three piles. Which theme links that situation to the poem's message?

   • The speaker sorts a grandparent's attic into keep, donate and toss piles and finishes with a small box.
   • A person sorting old things can feel like a judge, deciding what is worth keeping from what looks cheap.
   • An old object matters for the story it carries, and the story can be kept after the object is gone.
   • Old attics hold more useful things than people expect, so families should check carefully before throwing anything out.
10. 8.

    Tala follows the sorting from stanza 2 to stanza 4. Which theme includes how the speaker's idea of worth changes?

    • Judging objects as keep, donate or toss makes a person feel powerful, like a judge in a courtroom.
    • Worth moves from how an object looks to the stories it holds, and stories can stay when the object goes.
    • Worth moves from the stories an object holds to how it looks, so the speaker keeps the things that look valuable.
    • Stories about old objects are how families are remembered, so the family should keep the whole attic.
11. 9.

    Zee thinks about the ending: an ordinary room at the end of a long day. Which theme links that ending to the poem's message?

    • An attic full of lamps without plugs and clocks that stopped can look strange before anyone has sorted it.
    • A room can go back to being ordinary because what made it special was the stories, not the room itself.
    • Ending a big job at dark shows that careful planning, with three clear piles, makes any cleanup easy.
    • The speaker finishes sorting, fills a shoebox and bags the toss pile, so the attic is just a room again.
12. 10.

    Ari looks at what leaves the attic. All four lines are true. Which line proves this most strongly: “The objects leave the attic, but the stories do not”?

    • [13] By dark the keep pile fits inside a shoebox.
    • [14] The toss pile leaves in bags, but not the stories;
    • [15] I've folded each of those where I can find it.
    • [11] a lake, a broken boat, a borrowed oar,