1: Explain the effect of the use of personification here. What does it make the barn sound like?

2: In your own words, describe, in about two or three lines, what the barn’s floor would look like.

3: In about three lines, describe how the simile gives the reader the impression that the barn would be incredibly hot.

4: For each of the three poetic techniques, explain why they are effective. You should write about two lines for each technique.

5: Explain what the phrase (… when bats were on the wing…’) means and say what sort of atmosphere there would be in the barn.

6: Why is the simile ‘great blind rats’ used? What does it make you think of?