(1) Determine the direction, shape, and clarity of Ammons’ best nature poems. Comment on his intent to order in verse an impersonal, constantly shifting universe.
(2) Contrast Ammons’ portrayal of an emotion with reality in “The City Limit.”
(3) What does the title “The City Limit” mean? What does the city symbolize?
(4) How does Ammons conceive of God in “Easter Morning”? Does God play an active role in human life according to the poem?
(5) Compare the wonder and sufficiency of the soaring bird in Ammons’ “Easter Morning” with Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “The Windhover.”
(6) Summarize how Ammons resolves questions of religious faith in “Hymn,” “The Foot-Washing,” “Christmas Eve,” and “The Dwelling.”
