THE SIMPLE GIFT

What is Free Verse Poetry?

The Simple Gift is written as a collection of interrelated poems that tell a story. They are
written in a style know as Free Verse. This form of writing is often free from the normal rules
of poetry. The writer decides how their poems should look, feel, and sound without having
to necessarily abide by certain writing conventions.

The poet may choose to include some rhyming words but the poem does not have to rhyme.
A Free Verse poem may be just a sentence that is artistically laid out on the page or it can be
pages of words. Some forms of free verse separate, or split, phrases and words between
lines. Punctuation may be absent or it may be used to place greater emphasis on specific
words. Lines can also be shortened for speed, or segmented into clots of words or syllables
to slow down reading.

The main object of Free Verse is to use colorful words, punctuation, and word placement to
convey meaning to the reader. Free verse poetry will often make use of visual and sound
effects. This style of poetry became popular and acceptable during the 20 th century, although
scattered examples of the style were found previously.

Look at the examples of poetry on the following page and answer these questions:

1. What features of the Free Verse poem ‘Winter Poem’, comply with those mentioned
above?

2. What are the main features of the other two poems? (Look for things like: Use of
punctuation, use of rhyme, the length of lines, use of images etc).

3. How does this particular Free Verse poem, ‘Winter poem’ differ from the other two
examples shown?

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 Free Verse Poetry

Winter Poem

Nikki Giovanni

Once a snowflake fell

on my brow and i loved
it so much and i kissed
it and it was happy and called its cousins
and brothers and a web
of snow engulfed me then
i reached to love them all
and i squeezed them and they became
a spring rain and i stood perfectly
still and was a flower

Examples of other forms of Poetry

I Need Someone The Test Pilot

I need someone to hold me tight A Plane builder needed a pilot,

Through dark of night, So Bob told the guy, he would try it.
Who won’t go ’way When Bob took to the air,
At break of day. Plane parts fell everywhere.
Bob radioed “where shall I pile it?”
Someone whose love will mend the seams
Of broken dreams,
And give me back
The trust I lack.

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 SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

Please answer all questions using FULL SENTENCES. Make use of specific examples or quotes
from the text to support your answers when appropriate.

1. The poems within The Simple Gift are written from the First Person (“I”) perspective.

What is the effect of this? Why might Steven Herrick have chosen to write in this
way?

2. Each of the eleven chapters within the book has a cover page.
What is contained on these pages? What might be their purpose?

3. Identify some of the images Billy uses to describe the town he lives in ‘Longlands
Road’? What do these images suggest about his home town?

4. How does Billy feel about going to school? How has he gone about much of his
learning? What quotes or images from the book support this?

5. Describe what occurs in the poem ‘Men’. What comparison does Billy make? What
does this suggest about Billy’s life before he ran away from home?

6. Identify some of the ways in which Ernie and Irene the Librarian help Billy
when he first arrives in Bendarat.

7. In ‘Lord of the Lounge’ Billy says, “You can’t trust those who want to
break the rules and you certainly can’t trust those who make the rules,
so
you do the only thing possible, to avoid the rules” (Page 23).
What do you think he means by this? How
does this relate to his life and
his current situation?

8. In ‘Lunch’ Billy claims, “I’m poor, homeless, but I’m not stupid” (Page 26).
Identify some of the ways in which Billy is able to make a home in Bendarat, despite
the fact that he is poor and homeless?

9. What do we learn about the character of Caitlin in the poem ‘Too rich’? What is her
reason for working at McDonalds? Why is the job so important to her?

10. Describe Billy’s first impression of Caitlin? What images or quotes from the book
support this?
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11. In what ways is Caitlin’s life in “The richest house in Bendarat”, very different from
the life that Billy leads?

12. In ‘Breakfast’ Billy claims that, “Bendarat is the perfect town” (Page 39)
Why might Billy feel that Bendarat is the perfect town? What does it provide for him?

13. In ‘Breakfast’, Billy reflects on the fact that he doesn’t want to meet up with Caitlin at
Bendarat Grammar. Why do you think this is so? Why might it be difficult for Billy to
relate to Caitlin’s friends?

14. In Chapter Four ‘The Hobbo Hour’, Billy meets Old Bill. He gives him his father’s carton
of cigarettes. He later says “I help Old Bill because of Ernie and Irene and their
friendliness” (Page 85).
Identify some of the ways in which Billy continues to help Old Bill throughout the
book. Why might Billy feel it is so important to help Old Bill?

15. Old Bill often refers to the carriage that he and Billy live in as ‘The Bendarat Hilton’.
Why is this an example of an ironic statement?

16. Steven Herrick often uses flashbacks within The Simple Gift.
What is a flashback? What might be the purpose of including this narrative technique
within the book?

17. What do we learn from Old Bill’s flashback in the poem ‘Old Bill’s Fall?’ How
does this help us to understand his situation?

18. In ‘Caitlin’ Caitlin claims, “I am not a spoilt brat, but I am spilt with boredom
and I am smart enough to realise that none of this means anything” (Page
88).
What does she mean by this? Why might Caitlin be so unhappy with her
life?

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19. What is Caitlin’s reaction to seeing Billy having breakfast with Old Bill? Why does this
reaction trouble her? What does she do in response to this?

20. In ‘Man’ Caitlin says, “Billy was sixteen years old and already a man, while I am
seventeen, nearly eighteen and still a school girl”.
Suggest some reasons why Caitlin may feel this way.

21. Identify some of the ways in which the character of Old Bill changes throughout the
book. Why do you think these changes occur?

22. In ‘Going Nowhere’ Billy says, “This morning I woke and I knew where I was going
for the next few months — to the Library to McDonalds to the river and home
here to the Hilton — a circuit of plans with Caitlin at the centre” (Page 70).
What do you think this suggests about his connection to Bendarat and Caitlin?

23. In ‘Comfort’ Billy thinks of Caitlin and says, “I wonder what she sees in me, I hope
it’s someone to talk to someone to look in the eye knowing they’ll look back”
(Page 103)
Suggest some reasons why Caitlin is attracted to Billy, despite the fact that she lives
such a different life from him.

24. In ‘Billy, dancing’, powerful and descriptive language is used to describe the scene
Billy creates for Caitlin with the candles in his train carriage.
“I have twenty-four candles burning in my carriage and each throws a dancing
shadow on the walls” (Page 134).
“ I wait for Caitlin to walk into the brilliant soft light of twenty-four candles dancing
for her”. (Page 134)
What do you think Herrick has used this sort of imagery within this poem? What
might be its intended impact?

25. Find another example of where imagery is used within The Simple Gift. Look at the
language used within these scenes. What parts of language are commonly utilized
within these scenes? (E.g. nouns, verbs, adverbs or adjectives). Why is this so?

26. What happens to Billy in ‘Closing in’? What is his reaction to this? Who does he go to
for help?

27. What do we learn about Old Bill in ‘All that knowledge’? How is he able to help Billy?
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28. In ‘Billy’, Old Bill gives Billy the keys to his old home Wellington Road. “I knew that Old
Bill was giving me more than the keys he held”. (Page 165)
Why do you think offering his old home to Billy is such a difficult thing for Old Bill to
do? Why do you think he did it anyway?

29. Describe Billy’s reaction to this gesture. What images or quotes from the book
support this?

30. What vowel does Billy make to himself in the poem “Midnight’? Why might he think
this is important?

31. Metaphors are language techniques that often feature in poetry, and are used by
Steven Herrick within The Simple Gift. What is a metaphor? Find three examples of
metaphors in the Simple Gift and explain their intended impact.

32. The characters within The Simple Gift face many complex issue and problems. Do you
think that a definite resolution is reached for all of these issues by the end of the
book? Which of these seem unresolved? Why might of Herrick opted to do this?

33. Identify the individual resolutions that are managed to be reached for Billy, Old Bill
and Caitlin by the end of the book? Have their lives changed for the better? How?
What images or quotes from the text support this?

34. In what ways are the poems within The Simple Gift similar to other poetry you have
come across? In what ways are they different?
(Think about some of the language techniques often used within poetry, such as
rhyme, repetition, symbolism and metaphors).

35. Choose three different poems from the book. Identify the ways in which they comply
with the features of Free Verse poetry that are mentioned on the ‘What is Free Verse
Poetry’ worksheet. Are there any differences?

36. Suggest some reasons why Steven Herrick might have chosen
to write The Simple Gift as a collection of Free Verse Poems.

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