JABBERWOCKY
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogroves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
‘Beware the Jabberwock, my son !
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch !
Beware the Jubjub bird and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch !’
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood a while in thought
And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffing through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came !
One, two ! One, two ! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack !
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
‘And hast thou slain the Jabberwock !
Come to my arms my beamish boy !
O frabjous day ! Callooh ! Callay !’
He chortled in his joy.
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogroves,
And the mame raths outgrabe.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Page 1 of 26
Lesson Plan S005L7001
Class
7 (1)
Learning Objectives
Sentence 2,8
Reading 6,8
Jabberwocky
Golden Five Minutes (at start of NEXT lesson)
What is a noun phrase?
How do poems make us ‘see’ particular things?
Procedure
Issue rat text and put on OHP. Read through. Work through 2 sections.
Get them to do next two sections.
In class work out final new paragraphing for last section on white board
[15 minutes]
Discuss which sentence in each para. gives the para. subject. (TOPIC Sentence) . Give them time to
identify the last by themselves and then Q&A
What is a poem. Interactive discussion
Issue Jabberwocky sheets. Read out poem.
Ask for questions - that is what makes a good poem - makes us want to ask questions.
[10 minutes]
Them to draw a picture of what they see in the poem.
[15 minutes]
Interactive discussion of what they saw/drew.
Discuss other’s drawing in pairs and note 3 differences/similarities. 3 minutes
[15 minutes]
Circle on their picture and draw a line or lines to the words in the poem which made them see what
they saw.
Pleniary
[5 minutes]
 Create 3 noun phrase descriptions of THEIR jabberwocky on the sheet. Hand in ALL sheets.
Homework

None
Learning outcomes
Familiarity with paragraphing for topic.
Reinforce use noun phrases
Introduce literary criticism and evaluation.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Page 2 of 26
Sonnets Project
Sonnet
lyric poem comprising 14 rhyming lines of equal length:
iambic pentameter in English – 10 syllables
alexandrines in French – 12 syllables
hendecasyllables in Italian – 11 syllables
Rhyme schemes follow two basic patterns – Petrarchan and Shakespearean
Major form of love poetry in 14th century Italy and adopted in Spain, France, England in 16th
century and Germany in 17th – standard subject matter in early sonnets being torments of sexual
love, usually within a courtly love convention, but in 17 th century John Donne extended scope to
religion and Milton to politics.
Neglected in 18th century revived in 19th by Wordsworth, Keats and Baudelaire and still widely
used.
Some poets have written connected series known as sonnet sequences or cycles – English
examples:
Sir Philip Sidney Astrophel and Stella (1591)
Edmund Spenser Amoretti (1595)
Shakespeare Sonnets (1609)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti The House of Life (1881)
W H Auden In Time of War (1939)
Group of sonnets linked by repeated lines – ‘crown of sonnets’
Irregular Variations - Elizabethan 12 line; G M Hopkins – 10.5 line ‘curtal sonnets’; George
Meredith’s sequence Modern Love (1862)
_____________________________________________________________________________
Page 3 of 26
Petrarchan Sonnet
Francesco Petrarch (1304-74)
Characteristic of, or derived from love lyrics or sonnets – also known as Italian sonnet
Divided into octave of two quatrains rhyming
+ sestet rhyming
abbaabba
cdecde or cdcdcd
Transition from octave to sestet usually coincides with a ‘volta’ or ‘turn’ in argument/mood.
(John Milton used variant where turn delayed to about 10th line. Also Wordsworth used Miltonic
feature and relaxed rhyme scheme of octave to abbaacca)
Also Petrarchan conceit – exaggerated comparison or oxymoron through which for example a
lady’s eyes are compared with the sun or love described in terms of pleasurable pain
Widespread imitation in Europe reaching height in 16th century – with increasingly conventional
presentation of courtly love.
Shakespearean Sonnet/English Sonnet
14 lines of usually 10 syllables – 3 quatrains + rhyming couplet:
lst quatrain
2nd quatrain
3rd quatrain
abab
cdcd
efef
rhyming couplet – gg
(Elizabethan variation by Edmund Spenser links three quatrains by rhyme – abab bcbc cdcd ee)
Turn comes in final couplet – sometimes epigram
_____________________________________________________________________________
Page 4 of 26
Petrarchan Sonnet
12
On leaving some Friends at an Early Hour
Give me a golden pen, and let me lean
On heap’d-up flowers, in regions clear, and far;
Bring me a tablet whiter than a star,
Or hand of hymning angel, when ‘tis seen
The silver strings of heavenly harp atween:
And let there glide by many a pearly car,
Pink robes, and wavy hair, and diamond jar,
And half-discover’d wings, and glances keen.
The while let music wander round by ears,
And as it reaches each delicious ending,
Let me write down a line of glorious tone,
And full of many wonders of the spheres:
For what a height my spirit is contending!
’Tis not content so soon to be alone.
(abbaabba cdecde)
_____________________________________________________________________________
Page 5 of 26
Shakespearean Sonnet
17
Who will believe my verse in time to come
If it were filled with your most high deserts?
Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tome
Which hides your life and shows not half your parts.
If I could write the beauty of your eyes,
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say “This poet lies,
Such heavenly touches ne’er touched earthly faces.”
So should my papers, yellowed with their age,
Be scored, like old men of less truth than tongue,
And your true rights be termed a poet’s rage
And stretchèd meter of an antique song:
But were some child of yours alive that time,
You should live twice, in it and in my rhyme.
(abab cdcd efef gg)
_____________________________________________________________________________
Page 6 of 26
Task 1
In your envelopes are two sonnets, which have been
cut up into pairs of lines. One sonnet is the
Petrarchan form, the other is in the Shakespearean
form. Sort and sequence the pairs to find the original
sonnets.
Task 2
To write your own Shakespearean sonnet – can be on
any subject - parody
See sheet for various different examples of how some
poets’ have used the form and conventions
_____________________________________________________________________________
Page 7 of 26
Doth God exact day-labour, light-deny’d
I fondly ask: but patience to prevent
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide
And that one talent which is death to hide,
Lodg’d with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, least he returning chided,
That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts, who best
Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best, his state
Is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait.
Doth God exact day-labour, light-deny’d
I fondly ask: but patience to prevent
When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide
And that one talent which is death to hide,
Lodg’d with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, least he returning chided,
That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need
Either man’s work or his own gifts, who best
Bear his milde yoak, they serve him best, his state
Is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Page 8 of 26
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all to short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But they eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all to short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But they eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Page 9 of 26
Sonnet
Hand trembling towards hand; the amazing lights
Of heart and eye. They stood on supreme heights.
Ah, the delirious weeks of honeymoon!
Soon they returned, and, after strange adventures,
Settled at Balham by the end of June.
Their money was in Can, Pac, B. Debentures,
And in Antofagastas. Still he went
Cityward daily; still she did abide
At home. And both were really quite content
With work and social pleasures. Then they died.
They left three children (besides George, who drank):
The eldest, Jane, who married Mr Bell,
William, the head-clerk in the County Bank,
And Henry, a stock-broker, doing well.
Rupert Brooke
Sonnet
He had two hands until an aeroplane’s
Propellor chopped one off. Now just a stump
That’s warm and round and touchable remains
For those he trusts to feel that fleshy lump.
Outside, though, gloved plastic hides the absence.
A source of fun for kids inside becomes
A thing to be concealed, in his defence,
From staring sneering commentary that numbs.
The same with drink a secret that he kept
Far better than the stump, form those he knew.
It killed him one night while he and we all slept –
His knowledge of impending death he’d kept from view.
The hidden death ironically revealed
The thing in life successfully concealed.
Daniel Gillman
_____________________________________________________________________________
Page 10 of 26
Death, Be Not Proud,
Though Some Have Called Thee
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death; nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure: then from thee much more must flow;
And soonest our best men with thee do go –
Rest of their bones and souls’ delivery!
Thou’rt slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well,
And better than thy stroke. Why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more: Death, thou shalt die.
John Donne
Santa Claus
His sullen kinsmen, by the winter sea,
Said he was holy: then, to his surprise,
They stripped him, flayed him, tied him to a tree,
Sliced off his tongue, and burnt out both his eyes.
The trampling reindeer smelt him where he lay.
Blood dyeing his pelt, his beard white with rime,
Until he lurched erect and limped away,
Winter on winter, forward into time.
Then to new houses squat in brick he came
And heard the children’s birdlike voices soar
In three soft syllables: they called his name.
The chimney shook: the children in surprise
Stared up as their invited visitor
Lifted his claws above them, holes for eyes.
Dom Moraes
_____________________________________________________________________________
Page 11 of 26
Something This Foggy Day
Something this foggy day, a something which
Is neither of this fog nor of today,
Has set me dreaming of the winds that play
Past certain cliffs, along one certain beach,
And turn the topmost edge of waves to spray:
Ah pleasant pebbly strand so far away,
So out of reach while quite within my reach,
As out of reach as India or Cathay!
I am sick of where I am and where I am not,
I am sick of foresight and of memory,
I am sick of all I have and all I see,
I am sick of self, and there is nothing new;
Oh weary impatient patience of my lot!Thus with myself: how fares it, Friends, with you?
Christina Rossetti
Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert … Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Links with Curriculum - Sonnets
En2 Reading
Knowledge, skills and understanding
Understanding texts
Understanding the author’s craft
(1) To develop understanding and appreciation of texts, pupils should be taught:
_____________________________________________________________________________
Page 12 of 26
g how language is used in imaginative, original and diverse ways
j how techniques, structure, forms and styles vary
k to compare texts, looking at style, theme and language, and identifying connections
and contrasts
English Literary Heritage
(2) Pupils should be taught:
a how and why texts have been influential and significant
b the characteristics of texts that are considered to be of high quality
c the appeal and importance of these texts over time
Texts from different cultures and traditions
( 3) Pupils should be taught:
b the significance of the subject matter and the language
c the distinctive qualities of literature from different traditions
e to make connections and comparisons between texts from different cultures
_____________________________________________________________________________
Page 13 of 26
En3 Writing
Compositions
(1) Pupils should be taught to draw on their reading and knowledge of linguistic
and literary forms when composing their writing. Pupils should be taught to:
Writing to imagine, explore, entertain
a draw on their experience of good fiction, of different poetic forms and of reading,
watching and performing in plays
b use imaginative vocabulary and varied linguistic and literary techniques
c exploit choice of language and structure to achieve particular effects and appeal to the
reader
Planning and drafting
(2)
To improve and sustain their writing, pupils should be taught to:
a plan, draft, redraft and proof read their work on paper and on screen
b judge the extent to which any or all of these processes are needed in specific pieces of writing
c analyse crucially their own and others’ writing
The Lady Of Shalott
Part One
On either side the river lye
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro’ the field the road runs by
To many-tower’d Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott.
Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Thro’ the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four gray walls, and four gray towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Page 14 of 26
By the margin, willow-veil’d,
Slide the heavy barges trail’d
By slow horses; and unhail’d
The shallop flitteth silken-sailed
Skimming down to Camelot:
But who hath seen her wave her hand?
Or at the casement seen her stand?
Or is she known in all the land,
The Lady of Shalott?
Only reapers, reaping early
In among the bearded barley,
Hear a song that echoes cheerly
From the river winding clearly,
Down to tower’d Camelot:
And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy,
Listening, whispers ‘Tis the fairy
Lady of Shalott’
Lesson Plan-Year seven.
 Take out key words leaving gaps for the class to fill in with their own words.
 After 6 minutes ask the class to read out their poems with the gaps filled in.
 Then hand out the correct version of the poem for the class to read aloud. They
can then compare this with their own interpretation of the poem.
 Discuss key words: rhyme, metaphor, simile, rhythm, and alliteration.
 Then ask the class what do they think of the Lady of Shalott? What is she
described as?
 Possible activity could be to get the class to write a description of the Lady of
Shalott and draw a picture for display.
 Pupils could be shown the painting of the Lady of Shalott and asked if this is how
they pictured her in the poem.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Page 15 of 26
Cold Knap Lake
Gillian Clarke
We once watched a crowd
pull a drowned girl from the lake.
Blue-lipped and dressed in water’s long green silk
she lay for dead.
5
10
Then kneeling on the earth,
a heroine, her red head bowed,
her wartime cotton frock soaked,
my mother gave a stranger’s child her breath.
The crowd stood silent,
drawn by the dread of it.
The child breathed, bleating
and rosy in my mother’s hands.
My father took her home to a poor house
and watched her thrashed for almost drowning.
15
20
Was I there?
Or is that troubled surface something else
shadowy under the dipped fingers of willows
where satiny mud blooms in cloudiness
after the treading, heavy webs of swans
as their wings beat and whistle on the air?
All lost things lie under closing water
in that lake with the poor man’s daughter.
Cold Knap Lake
Gillian Clarke
This poem tells the story of a childhood memory of the poet. A
young girl is apparently found drowned in a lake and is pulled out
and resuscitated by the poet’s mother as a crowd watch on. The
girl is taken home by the poet’s father to a run-down house where
she is beaten for getting herself into trouble. A theme from this
poem could be the suffering of the innocent and this is something
you may wish to explore with a class, although some sensitivity
would have to be used.
The poem is included in the AQA GCSE Anthology so is obviously
appropriate for Y10 an 11. However this poem could, I suggest,
still be used for an upper ability Y9 class. The following is not a
lesson plan but rather a collection of ideas and themes which you
could pick and choose from to use with your class.
Language Analysis
 Ask the class to re-read the poem and pick out word which are
unfamiliar or that they do not know the meaning of. Feedback
and get the class to suggest definitions and explanations.
 Identify the metaphor in line 3. What is the effect of this?
 Does the phrase ‘her wartime cotton frock soaked’ place the
poem in a particular time ie. 1950s?
 How does the poet feel about her mother? Give some evidence
to support this e.g. ‘a heroine’.
 Pick out the words in the final stanza which are sad or dark e.g.
‘troubled’, ‘shadowy’, ‘cloudiness’, ‘heavy’.
 The question ‘Was I there?’ has impact. Ask for ideas as to why
this is used and what it means e.g. Is she recalling distant
memories? Was she not there but has recalled the story as she
was told it?
 The imagery of this poem lends itself to some kind of
illustration. Ask the class to close their eyes as you are reading
to form images in their minds and then ask them to choose one
image they have from the poem and try to draw a picture of it.
They may like to choose the image of the girl laying in the lake,
with twisted green weeds wrapping around her almost like the
image of Ophelia or The Lady of Shalot. They may choose to
draw the poor house or the mother resuscitating the girl.
Rhythm and Structure
 The first 3 stanzas are written in narrative form. There is a clear
storyline to follow: the drowned girl is found in the lake; the
poet’s mother resuscitating the girl; the poet’s father taking the
girl home where she is punished. Stop reading at the end of the
third stanza and ask the class to continue with the narrative what happens next?
 On worksheets, take out all of the punctuation from the poem
and ask the class to put it back in where they think appropriate.
Stanza 3 is particularly difficult so a number of possibilities may
work. To differentiate, you could give them each punctuation
mark alongside the poem on an OHT or write them up on the
board, that way they can cross them off as they are used.
 The final stanza has a different structure and rhythm to the rest.
Why is this and what effect does it have? Identify that the final 2
lines are a rhyming couplet. Ask the class to practice reading
out the final stanza with their partner to get them really thinking
about rhythm.
Comparisons with other poems
If you are working on this poem with a GCSE group you will need
to compare it to other poems written by other poets. Comparisons
should be made as to what the poet write about (themes, ideas,
attitudes, emotions) and how the poems are written. The AQA
suggests the following possible comparisons from the Anthology:
 Heaney: Mid-term break, Death of a Naturalist, Digging.
 Pre-1914: Ulysses, Inversnaid, The Song of the Old Mother, On
my first Sonne, Tichborne’s Elegy, The Affliction of Margaret.
Charley Eddolls
English
by Richard N. Krogh
I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
On hiccough, thorough, slough and through?
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps.
Beware of h____, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And DEAD; it is said like b__, not bead;
For goodness sake, don’t call it deed!
Watch out for m___ and great and thr___
(They rhyme with suite and str____
and debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in b____, broth in br_____.
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and f___ for bear and _ear,
And then there’s dose and r___ and loseJust look them up – and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and w___
And font and front and word and _word.
And do and go, then thwart and cart,
Come, come, I have hardly made a st___.
A dreadful language? Why, man alive,
I’d learned to talk it when I was fi__,
And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn’t learned it at fifty-five.
eard
eat
other
aight
ard
p
rother
art
s
ose
eat
ed
ve
ear
English
By Richard N. Krogh
I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
On hiccough, thorough, slough and through?
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps
To learn of less familiar traps.
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And DEAD; it is said like bed, not bead;
For goodness sake, don’t call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight
and debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there’s dose and rose and loseJust look them up – and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go, then thwart and cart,
Come, come, I have hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Why, man alive,
I’d learned to talk it when I was five,
And yet to write it, the more I tried,
I hadn’t learned it at fifty-five.
Read the poem out to the class and then present them with the
worksheet to work on in pairs. You may wish to provide the
extracted pieces of text separately so they can just match them up for
differentiation purposes.
Discuss as a whole class the spelling patterns that arise,
expanding on other possible words that we could substitute.
Then in pairs or small groups get them to write lists of words that
we could replace some of the text with. Perhaps divide up the text
between the groups. I would suggest that this would be advisable
as some of the text is harder than others (the section with suite,
straight and debt would be a bigger challenge whereas the heard
and bed section would be easier).
You could then come back as a group bringing your new
suggested section of the poem with you.
This would then move on to looking at other spelling patterns.
This could then be moved on to developing their own poems that
play with spelling patterns. Perhaps providing a new
structure/framework in which they could do this and using the
patterns covered in the class. This would again depend on how
much scaffolding the class require.
I also think that an extension of this scheme would be looking into
homophones.
Like a rocket shot to a ship ashore
The lean red bolt of his body tore,
Like a ripple of wind running swift on grass;
Like a shadow on wheat when a cloud blows past,
Like a turn at the buoy in a cutter sailing
When the bright green gleam lips white at the railing,
Like the April snake whipping back to sheath,
Like the gannet’s hurtle on fish beneath,
Like a kestrel chasing, like a sickle reaping,
Like all things swooping, like all things sweeping,
Like a hound for stay, like a stag for swift,
With his shadow beside like a spinning drift.
Reynard the Fox
by John Masefield
Lesson ideas:
This poem is an excellent poem to use in a drama session.
Lesson objectives:
1) to encourage children to be creative with poetry and to enjoy performing poetry.
2) to realize the power and effect that choral speaking of a poem can have.
3) to enable pupils understanding of a poem by adding movement and voice variations
Homework/ previous lesson: prior to the lesson you could have given this poem out to the
class for homework or have studied it in a previous lesson. Could ask them to read it and
think of an appropriate title for it (nb. The title is missing on the attached handout). Also could
ask them to analyse it and make brief notes about the language – it is packed with examples
of simile, alliteration, assonance, etc.
The lesson:
Can start lesson off with a drama game/ exercise to get them focused and to realize THIS IS
DRAMA!!
The poem:Possible title ideas? Has anyone got it right?
In the lesson ask class to read the poem aloud walking round the room, change direction on
any punctuation marks. Ask them what this does? Does it help their understanding of it? Does
this add sense to the poem?
Look at the language? What is this poem packed with? Similes? Alliteration? Assonance? Ask
class for examples (should have thorough knowledge if already analysed it in previous lesson/
homework). Do they help create an effect? What effect does the language have?
Give each pupil a specific line to focus on. There are 12 lines, so 2/3 pupils on each line. Ask
them to work in their pairs/ groups and work on the line and come up with a specific action for
it. So they say the line together and do a specific action/ movement with it. Give them 5
minutes to do this.
See a couple of examples. Give them a further 5 minutes to develop their ideas. Encourage
lots of bold movements, look at the words, say them out loud, what do they make you feel like
doing? How can your body express the words??
Finally, get every group to perform the poem in order – each doing their line. Ask them to do it
for a second/ third time. Quickening the pace and really going for it more! ENERGY PLEASE!!
Early Purges
Seamus Heaney
I was six when I first saw kittens drown.
Dan Taggart pitched them, 'the scraggy wee shits',
Into a bucket; a frail metal sound,
Soft paws scraping like mad. But their tiny din
Was soon soused. They were slung on the snout
Of the pump and the water pumped in.
'Sure, isn't it better for them now?' Dan said.
Like wet gloves they bobbed and shone till he sluiced
Them out on the dunghill, glossy and dead.
Suddenly frightened, for days I sadly hung
Round the yard, watching the three sogged remains
Turn mealy and crisp as old summer dung
Until I forgot them. But the fear came back
When Dan trapped big rats, snared rabbits, shot crows
Or, with a sickening tug, pulled old hens' necks.
Still, living displaces false sentiments
And now, when shrill pups are prodded to drown
I just shrug, 'Bloody pups'. It makes sense:
'Prevention of cruelty' talk cuts ice in town
Where they consider death unnatural
But on well-run farms pests have to be kept down.
1. Used the cutting up the poem method to get them to read it several times.
2. We then went through the poem picking out the main ideas after working together in
groups for several minutes.
3. Then while asking the questions of the different groups I can see who has not really
understood the poem. I then give them another 5 mins to pick out quotes from the
poem to help sum up Dan’s character.
4. While they are getting on with this I work with the groups that didn’t really get it.
5. Feedback from the groups will inevitably show that they think Dan is horrid.
6. That should be the lesson.
7. Next lesson I introduced them to the idea of empathy. I read them out a passage from
To kill a Mockingbird where Atticus tells Scout that “you never really know a man until
you take the time to walk in his shoes”.
8. So after that we spend some time looking into farms and the necessary things that
they have to do that we would find hard.
9. We then plan a monologue together where Dan is talking to an animal rights
campaigner (as a tip don’t call him Swampy they don’t know who he is).
10. They write the speech from Dan’s point of view using to the best of their ability his
mannerisms and language.
11. This goes down a treat as they get to swear and spell badly without losing marks.
12. That should be two lessons.
13. http://www.nth-dimension.co.uk/vl/title_list.asp?letter=e this site will stop you having
to type poems.
Two Scavengers in a Truck,
Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes
At the stoplight waiting for the light
nine a.m. downtown San Francisco
a bright _______ garbage truck
with two garbagemen in _______ plastic blazers
standing on the back stoop
one on each side _______ _______
and looking down into
an elegant open Mercedes
with an elegant couple in it
The man
in a hip three-piece linen suite
with shoulder-length blonde hair and _______
The young blonde woman so casually coifed
with a short skirt and colored stockings
on the way to his architect’s office
And the two _______ up since four a.m.
_______ from their route
on the way home
The older of two with grey iron hair
and hunched back
looking down like some
_______ _______
And the younger of the two
also with sunglasses & long hair
about the same age as the Mercedes driver
And both _______ gazing down
as from a great distance
at the cool couple
as if they were watching some _______ TV ad
in which everthing is always possible
And the very _______ light for an instant
holding all four close together
as if anything at all were possible
between them
across that small gulf
in the high seas
of this _______
Identify the contrasts in the poem between the Scavengers and the
Beautiful Couple
Scavengers
Beautiful Couple