Choose one person or event alluded to in "Deep Woods" and find out all you can about your subject. Write an essay explaining the person's or event's significance in history and tell why Nemerov may have selected the allusion for this poem.

Write a poem from the perspective of the "giant oak" that leans against the birch trees instead of falling "as heroes should." What would the oak think of the human being passing by in the woods? How would it describe its own situation?

Read Robert Frost's poem "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" and write an essay comparing it to "Deep Woods." Other than the obvious difference in length, how does the Frost poem contrast to Nemerov's? In what ways are the two similar?

Howard Nemerov had a famous sister, also in the arts field. Find out who she...