LEARNING OBJECTIVE

Read and interpret a wide range of poems

Think of as many silver things as you

can in thirty seconds.

SILVER – WALTER DE LA MARE

SILVER – WALTER DE LA MARE

Slowly, silently, now the moonWalks the night in her silver shoon;

This way, and that, she peers, and seesSilver fruit upon silver trees;

One by one the casements catchHer beams beneath the silvery thatch;

Couched in his kennel, like a log,With paws of silver sleeps the dog;

From their shadowy cote the white breasts peepOf doves in silver feathered sleep

A harvest mouse goes scampering by,With silver claws, and silver eye;

And moveless fish in the water gleam,By silver reeds in a silver stream.

SILVER – WALTER DE LA MARE

What images can you see in your

head?

What words tell you…That it was a moonlit scene?

That everything is still and calm?

That it is set in the countryside?

DEFINITIONS! There is some difficult

language in this poem. In pairs, underline words that you don’t understand and discuss what they could

mean.

DEFINITIONS! shoon – shoes

casements – windowsCouched

lying downCote

dove coteMoveless

motionless

GOLDEN Fiercely, brightly, now the sunClimbs the sky in his golden cloak;This way, and that, he glares and seesGolden fruit upon golden trees;

GOLDEN What would the mood of the poem be? What time of day would it be? Would it be a town or country scene?

LEARNING OBJECTIVE Read and interpret a wide range of poems

WALTER DE LA MAREWalter de la Mare uses

imagery and sound to write mysterious poems.

Walter de la Mare was an English author and poet,

probably best known for his children’s poetry. He was born

in 1873 and died in 1956.

THE LISTENERSThe Listeners was published in 1913. It

uses literary words that are not often used today.

‘champed’,‘smote’, ‘spake’, ‘Ay’.

THE LISTENERS

THE LISTENERS

Why do they think the poem is called

The Listeners and not The Traveller?

THE LISTENERSFrom what viewpoint is this poem told

from?

PERSPECTIVEThe poem begins with the reader seeing things from the Traveller’s point of view and, at the end, leaves the reader with the listeners’ point of view:

‘... the silence surged softly backward,When the plunging hoofs were gone’.

IT’S A MYSTERY…The poem does not explain everything

about the mysterious situation. Readers have to use their imagination

to fill in the gaps.

THE LISTENERS‘Is there anybody there?’ said the

Traveller, Knocking on the moonlit door; And his horse in the silence champed the grasses Of the forest’s ferny floor: And a bird flew up out of the turret, Above the Traveller’s head:

THE LISTENERSAnd he smote upon the door again

a second time; ‘Is there anybody there?’ he said. But no one descended to the Traveller; No head from the leaf-fringed sill Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes, Where he stood perplexed and still.

THE LISTENERSAnd he felt in his heart their strangeness,

Their stillness answering his cry, While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf, ’Neath the starred and leafy sky; For he suddenly smote on the door, even Louder, and lifted his head:— ‘Tell them I came, and no one answered, That I kept my word,’ he said.

THE LISTENERSNever the least stir made the listeners,

Though every word he spake Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house From the one man left awake: Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup, And the sound of iron on stone, And how the silence surged softly backward, When the plunging hoofs were gone.

THE LISTENERSWhose house is it? Who are

‘they’?Who is the Traveller and

why did he come?Who are the listeners?

Where does the Traveller ride away to?

TASKTo write a short recount of the story of the listeners.

To write a diary entry from the perspective of the traveller.

To write a short newspaper article of what happened at the old inn door.

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

Identify and explain poetic devices for creating images.

THE LISTENERSThe Listeners is a

poem that they have to listen to very

carefully, because it uses sounds very

effectively.

What can you tell me about the rhythm?

What can you tell me about the rhyme?

What do you think ‘soft sounding’ words are?

What do you think ‘hard sounding’ words are?

LET’S FIND…RhythmRhyme

AlliterationOnomatopoeias

Hard sounding wordsSoft Sounding words

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

To use figurative language to begin to write imagery poems.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

I am going to say a word or phrase, on

your mini – whiteboards, write

the name of the literary device.

A MYSTERYtoday we are going to begin

to create our own poems about a mystery character, the poem will mainly focus on the description of the

character, rather than attempting to tell a story.

OUR CHARACTERThis man can be found sitting on the platform of this train station. He sits and he waits and waits, always glancing towards the clock, but never getting on a train. He never speaks, he never smiles, he just waits and waits…What is he waiting for? Why?

OUR CHARACTER•Do we need to explain

why he is waiting in our poem?

•Why might we leave out this piece of vital

information?

SUCCESS CRITERIA•With your partner,

discuss what you think we should

include in our success criteria for our poem.

Structure of a Free Form Poem

Lines

• Begin a new line on your page for each line of the poem

Stanzas

• Break up lines with a similar theme into stanzas.

Rhythm and Rhyme

• Try and include some rhythm and rhyming words

Language of a Free Form Poem

• Describe using adjectives,

similes and powerful verbs.

• Use onomatopoeias.

• Use alliteration.

Language of a Free Form Poem

• Use metaphors

• Use adverbial starters

• Use Prepositional starters.