Possibilities

Discussion Questions: Possibilities by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1. Close Reading | AQA AO2 / AP Close Reading: The poem's tone shifts markedly between its octave and sestet. How does Longfellow use the structure of the sonnet form itself to enact this emotional movement from elegy to optimism, and what does this structural choice suggest about his attitude toward the future of poetry?

1. Theme – Ambition & Art | IB Guiding Question: Longfellow uses the image of a bow drawn to full tension as a symbol of total artistic commitment. What does this symbol imply about the difference between adequate and truly great poetry, and how does it connect to the poem's broader argument about what poetry should aspire to be?

1. Theme – Identity & Fate | AP Argument: The poem presents an unexpected vision of the next great poet as an untrained, wandering youth rather than a learned scholar. What does Longfellow's choice of this figure suggest about his beliefs regarding where poetic greatness comes from, and how does this challenge traditional assumptions about literary achievement?

1. Historical & Biographical Context | AQA AO3 / IB Context: Longfellow wrote Possibilities at a time when American literature was measuring itself against the towering European tradition. How does his use of references to classical and mythological standards (such as Olympian heights) reflect the cultural anxieties of nineteenth-century American writers about their literary identity?

1. Irony & Authorial Intent | AP Rhetorical Analysis: Given that Longfellow was himself one of the most widely read poets in the English-speaking world at the time, how does his apparent lament about the absence of great poets complicate or enrich your reading of Possibilities? What might this irony reveal about his deeper intentions?

1. Symbol – The Argosies | AQA AO2 / Close Reading: The image of grand ships sailing toward an undiscovered continent is used to represent large-scale, ambitious poetry. How does this extended metaphor shape your understanding of what Longfellow values in poetry, and what does the idea of an unmapped destination suggest about the relationship between originality and tradition?

1. Tone & Voice | IB Literary Analysis: The poem's overall tone has been described as one of "restless faith" — a belief that great work is coming, even as it hasn't arrived yet. How does Longfellow balance frustration with hope throughout Possibilities, and what effect does this tension have on the reader?

1. Theme – Hope & Journey | AP Thematic Essay: The closing image elevates the imagined future poet to the rank of an admiral leading entire fleets. How does this final metaphor reframe the journey motif that runs through the poem, and what two qualities does Longfellow ultimately prize most in the poet he imagines?

1. Language & Form | AQA AO2: Longfellow chose the sonnet—a form with deep European roots—to argue for poetry that ventures beyond established traditions into uncharted territory. How does the tension between using a traditional form and advocating for radical originality add complexity to the poem's central argument?

1. Wider Connections | IB Global Issue / AP Synthesis: Possibilities raises the question of whether greatness in art is a product of formal education and cultural inheritance, or of raw experience and individual vision. How does this question resonate beyond the nineteenth-century American literary context, and what does the poem suggest about the relationship between background, freedom, and artistic potential?