31 pages • 1 hour read
Linda PastanTo a Daughter Leaving Home
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1998A 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.
Discussion Starters
1. Describe the mood of the poem. How does the poem make you feel? Does it inspire personal memories? Share lines from the text that support your answer.
2. A metaphor compares two unrelated things. Discuss the extended metaphor in “To a Daughter Leaving Home.” What is Pastan comparing? How does Pastan use the metaphor to comment on her daughter’s transition to independence?
3. What does the speaker mean when she observes her daughter riding farther away and becoming “more breakable / with distance” (Lines 16-17)? How does this make the speaker feel? Describe the relationship between mother and daughter.
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By Linda Pastan
