Listening exercise  (Page 7/2)

English home language

Grade 7

Module 1

Listening exercise

Listening exercise

Your teacher will read to you the poem Silver , written by Walter de le Mare.

Instructions:

1. Listen to the poem with your eyes shut and picture what the moon sees.
2. Make a quick list of the things you remember.
3. Listen again and then add to your list if necessary.
4. Using wax crayons, draw the scene in detail, using your list to help you. Use white wax (or ordinary white candle) where you want your touches of silver. Once you are satisfied with your drawing, wash over the entire page with dark blue or navy or black ink (watered down a bit) or water paint.
5. Check the answers on your list as read out by your teacher.

[LO 1.1, 1.2.1]

Checklist:

1. fruit on trees
2. thatched house with windows
3. dog in his kennel
4. doves asleep in a cote
5. mouse
6. fish
7. reeds
8. stream

Painting:

Extra points are awarded to the touches of silver:

1. silver fruit
2. silver trees
3. silver thatch
4. paws of dog
5. feathers of doves
6. claws and eye of mouse
7. reeds
8. stream

The windows and fish may be silver too to show that they have caught the gleam from the moonbeams.

What sound do you notice being repeated in this poem? Why do you think the poet used this ‘trick’?

“A picture paints a thousand words” … but words paint pictures as well as create atmosphere. Poets select words carefully in order to awaken these in your imagination.

By repeatedly using the s -sound in this poem, the poet has made use of alliteration . In this case, it helps to create a quiet atmosphere of silvery silence.

Alliteration =

[LO 1.3]

Another ‘trick’ used by poets is called simile . To make the picture clearer, one thing is compared to another. The words as or like are part of the comparison.

Couched in his kennel, like a log

Now we know that the dog was stretched out and not curled up.

Take a look at these clever simile poems:

SPIDER

Legs crouched like a lunar module

He descend slowly

Towards a gentle touchdown.

VACUUM CLEANDER

What is that weaving about

Like a silver elephant’s snout?

Complete these similes by adding words of your own.

1. He is as hungry as a _________
2. It is as light as a _________
3. She was as cool as a __________
4. I feel as sick as a __________
5. My teacher is a proud as a ________of my neatness.

[LO 3.7.1]

The poet also selects verbs very carefully. Consider the choice of peers instead of looks . Discuss it in your group and report your opinion.

[LO 3.7.1]

The following words have to do with using your eyes. Use each of them as verbs in sentences of your own.

see peep squint

[LO 4.3]

Now find the only FAST word in the poem. Why did that creature need that action?

[LO 3.7.1]

SILVER

Slowly, silently, now the moon

Walks the night in her silver shoon;

This way, and that, she peers, and sees

Silver fruit upon silver trees;

One by one the casements catch

Her 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 peep

Of doves in a silver-feathered sleep;

A harvest mouse goes scampering by,

With silver claws, and silver eye;

And moveless fish in the water gleam,