- Many students may not know what a "lanyard" is. For those who do not, have them look it up in a dictionary, or find an online image of one.
- Write a poem with a friend or two in which you each describe the same object. Then braid your lines together the way lanyards are woven.
- How is the gift of the lanyard similar to the gift of a poem? How does Collins set up the parallel between the two gifts? (Consider the imagery at the beginning of the poem, the realization at the end of it, and even the form of the poem, with its square, evenly sized stanzas.) Also, how is the gift of the poem different from the gift of the lanyard?
- As a rule, good poems avoid or give new life to clichés of expression and sentiment. How does Collins keep his poem from simply repeating the "worn truth / that you can never repay your mother"?
- The images of a typewriter, a bookshelf, an envelope, and a dictionary are accompanied by a piano. What does a piano have in common with these things? What does that collection tell us about the speaker? How does the lanyard differ from all of these?
- What is the effect of humor in this poem? Where is it funniest? Where is it most serious? How and when do the transitions occur?
- In your experience, what are some objects that have the ability to suggest powerful memories? Write about one of these objects, telling your readers how you came to possess it and what you did with it. The word "ricochet" was first used in a French story called a fable du ricochet, in which the speaker keeps evading the listener's questions. To what extent is this speaker evading questions? What are some of these questions?