31 pages 1 hour read

Linda Pastan

To a Daughter Leaving Home

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1998

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Literary Device Questions

1. “To a Daughter Leaving Home” most closely follows which poetic form?

A) sonnet

B) free verse

C) blank verse

D) elegy

2. How does Pastan’s use of enjambment affect the reader’s experience of the poem?

A) it slows the reader’s sense of passing time

B) it makes the poem flow smoothly

C) it causes the reader to pause frequently in reading

D) it creates a sense of speed and drama

3. The poem’s title and opening line, “When I taught you,” establish this poem as an example of what poetic form?

A) ode

B) apostrophe

C) haiku

D) epic

4. The lines “the hair flapping / behind you like a / handkerchief waving / goodbye” utilize what poetic device?

A) anaphora

B) caesura

C) simile

D) metaphor

5. Give one example of consonance in the poem. (Write a one-sentence response using details from the text.)