Count that Day Lost – Analysis and Interpretation

1. What can a person do, to have “a day well-spent”? Give ONE answer.

2. What is the main difference between the first and the second stanza?

3. What literary devices are used to create these stanzas?

4. Explain the meaning of the word ‘count’, and its unique meaning in the poem.

5. Why do you think the poet relates only to acts “most small” (line 14)?

6. Why does the poet want the readers to count their deeds “at the set of sun”?

7. Explain how the rhyming scheme and the form of the poem contribute to the understanding of the poem.

8. “No “No act most small / That helped some soul and nothing cost –” Explain in your own words what the speaker means by the words “nothing cost”

9. “One glance most kind /That fell like sunshine where it went –” Why do you think the poet uses the word “sunshine” in this quote?

10. What is the message of the poem?