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.
Set 1 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.
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. Why does the bicycle go under first?
2. Determine a theme of this poem and support it from the text.
3. "Like birds that have stopped landing" — what is being compared?
2.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. "They took the hill away in carts" — is this literal?
2. "They are not wrong" — what does the poem mean by this?
3. Why have the children never heard the word for it?
LessonPrint · RL.4.10 · Set 1 · free to copy for classroom use
Answer key — Reading Poetry Closely
Set 1. Prints on its own sheet.
1.1. Because it lies lowest in the harbour, so the returning water reaches it first. 2. What is hidden is only briefly visible — "the whole forgotten underneath made briefly plain". 3. The grounded boats are compared to birds caught mid-landing, sitting on the mud.
2.1. Largely literal — quarrying removed the hill — but stated so plainly it sounds impossible. 2. That calling it a lake is true now, whatever it used to be. 3. Because the quarry stopped working before they were born, so it has only ever been a lake to them.
Questions about Reading Poetry Closely
What does the Reading Poetry Closely worksheet cover?
It practises reading a poem well enough to explain its structure and figures — 2 questions for Grade 4, all on Common Core RL.4.10: Read and understand Grade 4-5 stories, plays and poems by the year's end. The instruction to pupils is “Read the text, then answer the questions”, and the answer key follows on the next sheet.
Which Common Core standard does Reading Poetry Closely practise?
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.10 — RL.4.10, in the Reading: Literature domain for Grade 4. The published standard reads: “By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, in the grades 4-5 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.” The worksheet assesses that standard rather than a paraphrase of it.
What age or grade is this worksheet for?
Reading Poetry Closely is written for Grade 4, typically ages 9-10. It is one of the sheets on RL.4.10, so it suits any pupil working at that standard — including older pupils revisiting it and younger ones working ahead.
Does Reading Poetry Closely come with an answer key?
Yes. All 2 answers are generated from the same problems as the questions, so the key cannot drift out of step with the sheet. It starts on a fresh sheet of paper, after the questions, so it is not handed out with the class by accident.
How many different versions of Reading Poetry Closely can I print?
25 — one per pupil, and all 25 ask different questions. Set 1 downloads the whole class as a single PDF. Every version is fixed to its own address, so a sheet printed today holds the same problems when you reopen it next week.
Is Reading Poetry Closely free to print and photocopy?
Yes. Reading Poetry Closely, its answer key and its 25 versions are free to print and photocopy for your own class, with no account, no email capture and no subscription at the download step. Please do not resell them or republish them as your own.
More practice for RL.4.10
Read and understand Grade 4-5 stories, plays and poems by the year's end.