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?

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

   • [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,
   • [3] something that happened to us both,
4. 3.

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

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

   • 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.
   • The first draft sounds like weather because it treats the trouble as something that happened to both friends.
   • Saying what really happened takes nerve, and it is the version that finally sounds like the speaker's own voice.
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”?

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

   Ren looks for what the toss pile holds. All four lines are true. Which line proves this most strongly: “The cheap things in the toss pile turn out to hold a whole summer”?

   • [14] The toss pile leaves in bags, but not the stories;
   • [12] a summer told in what the pile had saved.
   • [8] a bent spoon, a cracked mug, a whistle that won't blow.
   • [10] Grandpa laughs. And suddenly an hour is gone:
10. 8.

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

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

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

    Bo marks the three piles, the whistle and the shoebox. Which theme shows how the speaker's view changes as the sorting goes on?

    • Grandparents tell the truest stories, so a family should ask them about each object before sorting.
    • A person who begins by keeping stories can end by judging objects, which makes the sorting feel colder.
    • Old objects that look cheap or broken, such as a bent spoon, can be thrown out without a second thought.
    • A person who begins by judging objects can end by keeping the stories that give the objects their worth.