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‘Storyteller’ by Liz Lochead.
Liz Lochead was born in 1947 in an area of Scotland called Motherwell. This poem is the introduction to a
series of poems called The Grimm Sisters. This collection of poems are based on well-known fairy-tales but
told with irony and from a female viewpoint. In this particular poem we can see how powerful and important
storytelling was during long, cold and dark winter evenings before other entertainment such as radio or
television came along.
A. Initial response:
Read the poem once and find answers for the following questions:
Who is the main character in the poem? What does she do?
What can you say about the words the poet uses? The sounds? The structure? (hint: look at the punctuation;
rhyme or lack of it; number of lines in a stanza).
B. Comprehension: match the words to the appropriate definitions.
A
B
scoured
Salted away
1
2
Kitchen shelves displaying dishes
Washed vigorously by scrubbing
C
clacked
3
Scrupulously stored
D
dresser
4
chattered
E
husk
5
Curled form, referring to the outside of the ear.
F
shiftless
6
The dry outer shell of corn
G
whorl
7
Mending clothes
H
darning
8
lazy
I
sloven
9
Usually used as a noun meaning an untidy, dirty person
Write your answers here:
A)
F)
B)
G)
C)
H)
D)
I)
E)
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C. Questions on the poem: comprehension and evaluation of language
Stanza one:
1. Where is the woman? What has to be done before she can start storytelling?
2. The place she is in is clean - also, there is a sense that things are old and worn. Find evidence in stanza
one. What image do your chosen quotations give us of the woman and her surroundings, and what do
they add to the atmosphere?
Description
Clean
Quotations
Comment:
Old and worn
Stanza two:
1. This stanza describes the audience listening to the stories. They are presented as one whole mass, not
individuals. They are depersonalised: how?
Look closely at the verbs and their subjects. What is the effect of this depersonalisation?
2. List three things the audience is doing while listening to the stories. In your opinion, is the audience
male or female? How do you know?
Things that the audience are doing
1)
2)
3)
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3. “No one could say the stories were useless”: who, in your opinion, might think that they were useless?
4. Find an example of alliteration and explain why you think Lochhead used it.
Stanza three:
1. Stanza three is written with unusual syntax, which means that words are put together in an unusual and
surprising way. This helps the poet put emphasis on the SOUNDS of certain words. What sound is
repeated in lines one and two?
2. Does this strange order of words make the poem sound modern, or quite antiquated (old)? Why?
3. The words ‘never’ and ‘daily’ appear at the beginning of the lines. Why do you think these words in
particular are being emphasised by the poet?
4. What simile is used to describe the action of storytelling? Why do you think the poet uses this particular
image?
5. If the audience already knows the ending to the stories, what keeps their interest?
Stanza four:
1. This stanza describes what happens to the audience after the storytelling is finished. How are the women
described as they start the new day?
2. “thin grey washed over flat fields”. What is the effect of this description of the landscape? How does it
make it sound and what mood does it evoke?
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3. As the women get back to the reality of their lives, what happens to the stories?
4. The stories don’t dissolve or disappear for the children, however. The poet uses a metaphor to describe
what happens to the stories. What is the metaphor and explain what it makes you think of. Also, explore
why Lochhead chose that particular image.
Thematic links: Comment on the following
Themes
Poems
Muliebrity
Women / Role in Society
She dwelt among untrodden ways
Plenty
Characters
Farmhand
Monologue
Stories and the Imagination
Little Boy Crying
Before the Sun