Available Answers

1. 1.

   Who is being addressed in the poem - who is 'you'? Are they present, or even alive? How can we tell? (line 2)

2. 2.

   There are two dances mentioned in the first stanza. Which are they? What does each of them represent?

3. 3.

   What is left of the cranes which used to dance in the fields? Do the words 'all that remain' indicate that a lot remains or that very little remains? What is the condition of what remains?

4. 4.

   Who views / listens to the poor-quality audio / video material? How do they react to it? Is there a big contrast between their reaction and the speaker's?

5. 5.

   The speaker obviously admired the dancing cranes when they lived. Now the city-dwellers watch documentaries and 'marvel at the wonders the world once held'.

   1. Does this mean that the city-dwellers have the same attitude to the cranes as the speaker?
   2. Would the city-dwellers feel deeply sad if the documentaries disappeared, in the way the speaker is sad that the cranes are gone?
6. 6.

   What do expressions like 'lost', 'empty now' and 'only ghosts' indicate? Choose one of these.

   1. a sense of changing times
   2. a sense of loss
   3. a note of protest

   Now, choose two more expressions that show us that the speaker is talking about the distant past.