If I were a Giant

1. a. If I were a giant I wonder if I

could stand on my tiptoes and paint the sky.
i. In these lines, what does the poet ‘wonder’?
The poet wonders if she would be able to stand on her tip-toes and paint the sky
if she were a giant.

ii.Give another word or expression for ‘fashion’.

Another word for fashion is craft or design.

iii. If the poet were a giant, how would she fashion paintbrushes?
If the poet were a giant, she would fashion paintbrushes from trees.

b. I’d stride to the mountains and gather the snow to paint

snow-white blossoms where blossoms should grow.
i. Which word does the poet use to describe the walk of a giant?
The poet uses the word stride to describe the walk of a giant.

ii. Why does the poet want to gather the snow?

The poet wants to gather snow to paint snow-white blossoms where blossoms
should grow.

iii. In these lines the poet imagines painting blossoms. List five other things the poet
imagines she could paint.
The poet imagines she could paint the sky, daisies, sunrise, golden beaches and
the sun.

2. Where does the poet imagine getting these colours from?

a. black – shadows;
b. white – snow;
c. yellow – corn;
d. pink and red – autumn leaves;

3. List two examples of personification from the poem.

Two examples of personification used in the poem are:
a) cover the sun as she set off to bed;
b) I’d hunt all the shadows that hide from the light

4. Why does the poet chose to use the word ‘splash’ when she describes how she
would paint a sunrise on the sky? The poet chose the word splash because at the
time of the sunrise, it usually looks like a lot of colour has been splashed onto the
sky.

5. What inspires the poet to dream about being a giant?

Nature, and the wondrous things she does, inspires the poet to dream about
being a giant.
6. Would you say this is a good poem? How does this poem help you to see the world with
new eyes?

We take many of the wonderful things mentioned in this poem for granted because
we see them every day, such as the sunrise, snow-white blossoms and golden
beaches. However, the colourful imagery and language in this poem helps us to
see them with new eyes again. The poem gives us a chance to exercise our powers of
imagination, and see nature in an artistic way. These are some of the reasons why we
could say that this is a good poem.