Stinging Nettles

Hear the poem

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/poetryrelationships/nettlesact.shtml

‘Nettles’ by Vernon Scannell

LO – To select key imagery from ‘Nettles’ and create my own piece of writing.

My son aged three fell in the nettle bed.'Bed' seemed a curious name for those green spears,That regiment of spite behind the shed:It was no place for rest. With sobs and tearsThe boy came seeking comfort and I sawWhite blisters beaded on his tender skin.We soothed him till his pain was not so raw.At last he offered us a watery grin,And then I took my billhook, honed the bladeAnd went outside and slashed in fury with itTill not a nettle in that fierce paradeStood upright any more. And then I litA funeral pyre to burn the fallen dead,But in two weeks the busy sun and rainHad called up tall recruits behind the shed:My son would often feel sharp wounds again.

Nettles

Underline all of the words related...

...to war in the poem.

By using war imagery within the poem, how are the nettles presented?

In your books...

...list the quotes that show how ‘protective’ the father is over his son.

Extended Writing...

...You’re going to have 15 minutes to re-create this

poem.

Change it from a poem, into a story. You can re-write it

from the perspective of the child, or the father.