1
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
Dear Beloved Year Six,
Please try to work through these sheets before term.They will be used in our extension lessons and for interview discussions. I
have chosen extracts which should interest and challenge you, and flex up your mental muscles for interviews and other
comprehension-type exercises. Do discuss them with your family too. These sheets complement the materials given by Paul C ,
Joe J and Janet. Such materials help you as you face the possible exams in January and beyond. The three poems at the end
are pretty demanding and I am going to let you wrestle with them. I will give you a Crunchie if you can memorise ‘The
Darkling Thrush’: it is one of the greatest poems ever written. I have provided some stimulus material to help you grapple
with it. Understanding, and wanting to understand a great poem can be much more useful than reading a mediocre novel!
We want you all to have a good holiday and although this looks like work, you know it isn’t really! It is a Christmas Gift to stimulate
you when you are bored of TV silliness. X- factor, Transformers 7 and your presents!
Please download the electronic version of this booklet to your computer. It is on the St. Anthony’s website, under
Curriculum, and has been sent to your family’s e-mail addresses.
Turn over for your first treat: another stocking, full of of simply execrable puns. Can you divide them into TYPES of pun? How many
types can you spot or define? They are from the brillaint comedian Tim Vine.
2
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
Please get into the habit of looking up words you don’t know.
Execrable (/ˈɛksɪkrəb(ə)l/)
adjective: execrable
extremely bad or unpleasant.
"execrable cheap wine"……
lamentable;
synonyms: appalling, awful, dreadful, terrible, frightful, atrocious, very bad,
Pun /pʌn/
noun
plural noun: puns
1.
a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which sound alike but have
different meanings.
"the Railway Society reception was an informal party of people of all stations (excuse the pun) in life"
synonyms: play on words, wordplay, double entendre, double meaning, innuendo, witticism, quip; bon mot, jeu de mots;
verb
3rd person present: puns
1.
make a pun.
"Freeth adopted the nickname Free in punning allusion to his beliefs"
3
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
These are what are commonly thought of as his 10 Best Jokes!
Puns and jokes like this are a good test of your sense/grasp of the various meaning of words.
1. Exit signs? They're on the way out!
2. Black Beauty? Now there's a dark horse!
3. Velcro? What a rip-off!
4. Crime in multi-storey car parks. That is wrong on so many different levels.
5. Eric Bristow asked me why I put superglue on one of his darts. I said you just can't let it go can you?
6. I saw this advert in a window that said: “Television for sale, £1, volume stuck on full.” I thought, “I can’t turn that down.”
7. I've just been on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. I'll tell you what, never again
8. Conjunctivitis.com – that’s a site for sore eyes
.
9. So I said to a Scottsman 'did you have terrible spots as a kid?' He said 'ac ne'
10. Do you ever get that when you're half way through eating a horse and you think to yourself, 'I'm not as hungry as I thought I
was'
4
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
Pun: a joke exploiting the different possible meanings of a word or the fact that there are words which
sound alike but have different meanings.
Can you explain these jokes? Where you are not sure, check with a friend or member of your family: this is fun
and painless way to test your comprehension and vocabulary.
I phoned the local gym and I asked if they could teach me how to do the splits. He said, "How flexible are you?" I said, "I can't make
Tuesdays."
"He said 'I'm going to chop off the bottom of one of your trouser legs and put it in a library'. I thought 'That's a turn-up for the
books.'"
"So I was getting into my car, and this bloke says to me "Can you give me a lift?" I said "Sure, you look great, the world's your
oyster, go for it.'"
"You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today. They left a little note on the windscreen, it said 'Parking
Fine.' So that was nice."
" I was stealing things in the supermarket today while balanced on the shoulders of vampires. I was charged with shoplifting on
three counts.
I bought some Armageddon cheese today, and it said on the packet 'Best Before End...'
So I went to buy a watch, and the man in the shop said "Analogue." I said "No, just a watch."
I went to the doctor. I said to him "I'm frightened of lapels." He said, "You've got cholera."
So this bloke says to me, "Can I come in your house and talk about your carpets?" I thought "That's all I need, a Je-hoover's
witness".
"You know, I'm not very good at magic - I can only do half of a trick. Yes - I'm a member of the Magic Semi-circle"
5
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
You see I'm against hunting, in fact I'm a hunt saboteur. I go out the night before and shoot the fox.
You see my next door neighbour worships exhaust pipes, he's a catholic converter.
So I went to the dentist. He said "Say Aaah." I said "Why?" He said "My dog's died.'"
"So I got home, and the phone was ringing. I picked it up, and said 'Who's speaking please?' And a voice said 'You are.'"
"So I rang up a local building firm, I said 'I want a skip outside my house.' He said 'I'm not stopping you.'
I have spent the afternoon re-arranging the furniture in Dracula’s house… I was doing a bit of Fang-Shui
I want to tell you a bit about myself.. I’m a very quiet and secretive person, and that’s it really.
"So I was in my car, and I was driving along, and my boss rang up, and he said 'You've been promoted.' And I swerved. And then
he rang up a second time and said "You've been promoted again.' And I swerved again. He rang up a third time and said 'You're
managing director.' And I went into a tree. And a policeman came up and said 'What happened to you?' And I said 'I careered off
the road.'
This policeman came up to me with a pencil and a piece of very thin paper. He said, "I want you to trace someone for me."
So this lorry full of tortoises collided with a van full of terrapins. It was a turtle disaster.
So I told my girlfriend I had a job in a bowling alley. She said "Tenpin?" I said, "No, it's a permanent job."
So I told my mum that I'd opened a theatre. She said, "Are you having me on?" I said, "Well I'll give you an audition, but I'm not
promising you anything."
So this cowboy walks in to a German car showroom and he says "Audi!"
So I fancied a game of darts with my mate. He said, "Nearest the bull goes first" He went "Baah" and I went "Moo" He said "You're
closest"
6
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
So I met this bloke with a didgeridoo and he was playing Dancing Queen on it. I thought, that's aboriginal.
I visited the offices of the RSPCA today. It's tiny, you couldn't swing a cat in there.
A friend of mine always wanted to be run over by a steam train. When it happened, he was chuffed to bits!
So I went to the record shop and I said “What have you got by The Doors?” He said: “A bucket of sand and a fire blanket!”
I was in the army once and the Sergeant said to me: “What does surrender mean?” I said: “I give up!”
Practice Good Punmanship

The secret to writing good puns is using a puncil instead of a pen.

If your writing becomes infected by puns, go to the nearest writer’s clinic for a shot of punicillin.
7
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
Look carefully at this picture and then read the article below.
Behold, the River Thames is frozen o’er,
Which lately ships of mighty burdens bore!
Now different acts and pastimes here you see
Anonymous, 1814
8
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
In late December of 1813, London experienced a severe frost. Already known for its tendency toward fog, the
city was encased in thick clouds for eight days. The fog became so dense that “the usual lamps appeared
through the haze not larger than small candles;” when the fog finally lifted, “a tremendous fall of snow”
descended upon the city blocking the Northern and Western roads, the two main roads into London.Sealed off
from communication with the outside world, Londoners turned to the Thames, the city’s waterway, only to
discover that the river itself was frozen. While the freezing of the Thames was not unknown to Londoners, the
relatively temperate climate of London meant that the river froze only rarely.
When the river did freeze solid, as it did in January of 1814, Londoners often promoted “frost fairs” upon the ice.
The first of these fairs dates back to at least 695 AD when booths selling goods were built upon the river after it
had frozen. By the sixteenth century, a period when the weather was colder than it is today, the freezing of the
Thames brought out revelers in full force.
In 1564, Queen Elizabeth and her courtiers joined the city’s residents at what many scholars agree was “the first
really notable frost fair.” That winter, boys “plaied at the football as boldlie there as if it had been on the drie
land; divers [courtiers]...shot dailie at [targets] set upon the Thames and the people, both men and women, went
on the Thames in greater numbers than in anie street of the City of London.” The revelries came to a halt only
when the river thawed in January. Just over forty years later, in 1608, the Thames froze again. According to one
contemporary, “The Thames began to put on his Freeze-coate about a week before Christmas and hath kept it
on til now this latter end of January.” As had been true of the Thames in 1564, “the river shows not now...like a
river, but like a field where archers shoot while others play at football...It is an alley to walk upon without dread.”
All was not fun and games, however, as cold temperatures and the city’s isolation led to food scarcities and
rising prices across the city. The frozen river also presented dangers, as holes appeared when the ice froze,
thawed, and froze again. As a result, “one [boy who was playing on the ice] stumbled forward, his head slipt into
9
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
a deepe hole, and there was hee drownd.” Cautionary tales abounded. Those who were tempted to engage in
heavy drinking on the ice, for example, had only to remember the “poor fellow...[who] having heated his body
with drinke, thought belike to coole it on the water, but comming to walke on the Ice, his head was too heavy for
his heeles, so that downe he fell and there presently died.”
The seventeenth century actually witnessed repeated ice fairs, with one of the most famous of these occurring in
December of 1683. Between December and February, when the Thames iced over, Londoners brought out their
sleds and went “sliding with skeetes [skates].” As they ran, or in some cases rode up and down the frozen river,
they could see “bull-baiting, horse and coach races, [and] puppet-plays.” Noting with some disapproval the
“tipling” and other “lewd” activities occurring on the ice, John Evelyn described the fair as “a bacchanalian
triumph or carnival on the water.”
In many ways, the revelry in which these Londoners engaged during that frost fair may have stemmed as much
from the temper of the times as it did from the freezing of the river. After decades of civil war and religiouspolitical tensions, the English had achieved an uneasy peace. While Charles II was not universally popular
throughout his reign, the early 1680s did see a resurgence of popularity for the king.
John Forde clearly made a habit of purchasing printed cards at Frost Fairs, photo courtesy Univ. of Cambridge.
If nothing else, the placement of a printing press on the ice, which operated without any real oversight, signaled
that Britain was a very different society than it had been previously.The printer who brought his press onto the
ice knew, however, that Londoners were not eager to buy anything overtly political. Instead, recognizing that the
“people and ladyes tooke a fancy to have their names printed, and the day and yeare set down when [it was]
printed on the Thames,” this printer cranked out what we today would regard as souvenir cards which he then
10
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
Later frost fairs followed this tradition of including printing presses on the ice, with multiple printers competing to
turn out not only cards but also ballads and poems celebrating the icing over of the Thames--as well as the icing
of other rivers in Britain. In 1740, Thomas Gent set up his printing press at a frost fair on the river Ouse in York.
Gent had the misfortune to set up his press at “a dangerous spot on the south side of the bridge.” There he
began printing verses in which he noted that the name of “King George was most loyally inserted.” To attract
customers, he began reading the verses out loud but as he read his audience “almost as quickly ran away,
whilst I, who did not hear well...wondered at them for retiring so precipitately.”
Gent had failed to hear the ice cracking as he read. But the cracking proved only to be a shifting of the ice and
Gent’s audience returned allowing him to take “some pence [from] amongst them.”
That year---1740---had seen such severe weather across Europe that the Empress Anna of Russia was able to
build an entire ice palace with walls that were three feet thick on the River Neva. Britons, however, did not
aspire to build on that scale on their rivers. Instead, they continued to set up simple booths and small-scale
structures made out of the ice as they had done for centuries.
By 1814, when the last frost fair was held, Londoners were adept at creating what John Evelyn had described as
a “bacchanalian triumph or carnival on the water.” Newspapers that year claimed, “at every glance the spectator
[at that frost fair] met with some pleasing novelty. Kitchen fires and furnaces were blazing...and animals from a
sheep to a rabbit and a goose to a lark, were turning on numberless spits.” Best of all, “gaming in all its
branches, threw out different allurements...and the drinking tents [were] filled by females and their companions.”
Although stock images of what we have come to think of as a “Dickensian” Christmas often highlight skaters on
the ice, the Victorian era brought an end to the frost fairs. Eager to improve the city’s sanitation (sewage from
the Thames often overflowed during the summer months), nineteenth-century Londoners advocated for and
began to build embankments to hold the river at bay.
11
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
Beginning in 1862, embankments were built along the river, reclaiming land and eventually allowing for the
creation of London’s subway system. Unfortunately, they also intensified the flow of the river; the more rapidly
flowing river has meant that the river freezes very infrequently. This isn’t to say that the Thames has not frozen
since 1862---it has. It has simply not sparked the same sort of revelry.
12
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
Word from passage
Definition: can you define what these words mean? Find out!
Type in your defintions. (I have done a few…) Type in another
sentence proving you know the meaning.
severe
encased
tremendous
relatively temperate climate
booths
revelers in full force.
courtiers
divers
adjective
archaic or literary
Of varying types; several:
‘They had lived in divers places’
isolation
13
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
scarcities
Cautionary tales abounded.
bacchanalian (triumph)
adjective
Characterised by or given to drunken revelry:
‘The Kaiser Chiefs end-of -tour parties were known for their bacchanalian revelry!’
stemmed
the temper of the times
political tensions,
resurgence
overtly political.
ballads
retiring so precipitately.”
aspire to
adept at creating
14
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
“bacchanalian triumph
(Numberless) spits.”
noun
A long, thin metal rod pushed through meat in order to hold and turn it while it
is roasted over an open fire:
‘Paul simply loved eating chicken which had been cooked on a spit’
allurements...
Verb: Allure
Powerfully attract or charm; tempt:
‘Will sponsors really be allured by such opportunities?’
stock images
sanitation
advocated
Publicly recommend or support:
‘Voters supported candidates who advocated a Scottish Assembly.’
15
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
reclaiming ( land)
Bring (waste land or land formerly under water) under cultivation:
‘much of the Camargue has now been reclaimed’
(as adjective reclaimed) ‘reclaimed land’
The idea was to build the new airport on recalimed marsh land.
16
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
A Famous Christmas Moment
PRIVATE HEATH LETTER: North Mail, Friday January 9th 1915
Out of the dozens of Christmas Truce letters transcribed to date, this one stands out from all the rest. Partly, it's
because Private Heath writes about the whole truce, from beginning to end. But also it's the beautiful way it is
written. Was he a writer? Sadly, we know nothing about him other than his name and this letter. It was found and
transcribed by Marian Robson. Please read this account carefully. Please pay careful attention to the
words/phrases highlighted in yellow. Try to work out their meaning in context, then do the exercise
which follows.
17
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
That Christmas Armistice
A Plum Pudding Policy Which Might Have Ended The War
Written in the trenches by Private Frederick W. Heath
The night closed in early - the ghostly shadows that haunt the trenches came to keep us company as we stood
to arms. Under a pale moon, one could just see the grave-like rise of ground which marked the German trenches
two hundred yards away. Fires in the English lines had died down, and only the squelch of the sodden boots in
the slushy mud, the whispered orders of the officers and the NCOs, and the moan of the wind broke the silence
of the night. The soldiers' Christmas Eve had come at last, and it was hardly the time or place to feel grateful for
it.
Memory in her shrine kept us in a trance of saddened silence. Back somewhere in England, the fires were
burning in cosy rooms; in fancy I heard laughter and the thousand melodies of reunion on Christmas Eve. With
overcoat thick with wet mud, hands cracked and sore with the frost, I leaned against the side of the trench, and,
looking through my loophole, fixed weary eyes on the German trenches. Thoughts surged madly in my mind; but
they had no sequence, no cohesion. Mostly they were of home as I had known it through the years that had
brought me to this. I asked myself why I was in the trenches in misery at all, when I might have been in England
warm and prosperous. That involuntary question was quickly answered. For is there not a multitude of houses in
England, and has not someone to keep them intact? I thought of a shattered cottage in -- , and felt glad that I
was in the trenches. That cottage was once somebody's home.
Still looking and dreaming, my eyes caught a flare in the darkness. A light in the enemy's trenches was so rare at
that hour that I passed a message down the line. I had hardly spoken when light after light sprang up along the
German front. Then quite near our dug-outs, so near as to make me start and clutch my rifle, I heard a voice.
There was no mistaking that voice with its guttural ring. With ears strained, I listened, and then, all down our line
18
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
of trenches there came to our ears a greeting unique in war: "English soldier, English soldier, a merry Christmas,
a merry Christmas!"
Friendly invitation
Following that salute boomed the invitation from those harsh voices: "Come out, English soldier; come out here
to us." For some little time we were cautious, and did not even answer. Officers, fearing treachery, ordered the
men to be silent. But up and down our line one heard the men answering that Christmas greeting from the
enemy. How could we resist wishing each other a Merry Christmas, even though we might be at each other's
throats immediately afterwards? So we kept up a running conversation with the Germans, all the while our hands
ready on our rifles. Blood and peace, enmity and fraternity - war's most amazing paradox. The night wore on to
dawn - a night made easier by songs from the German trenches, the pipings of piccolos and from our broad lines
laughter and Christmas carols. Not a shot was fired, except for down on our right, where the French artillery
were at work.
Came the dawn, pencilling the sky with grey and pink. Under the early light we saw our foes moving recklessly
about on top of their trenches. Here, indeed, was courage; no seeking the security of the shelter but a brazen
invitation to us to shoot and kill with deadly certainty. But did we shoot? Not likely! We stood up ourselves and
called benisons on the Germans. Then came the invitation to fall out of the trenches and meet half way.
Still cautious we hung back. Not so the others. They ran forward in little groups, with hands held up above their
heads, asking us to do the same. Not for long could such an appeal be resisted - beside, was not the courage up
to now all on one side? Jumping up onto the parapet, a few of us advanced to meet the on-coming Germans.
Out went the hands and tightened in the grip of friendship. Christmas had made the bitterest foes friends.
19
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
The Gift of Gifts
Here was no desire to kill, but just the wish of a few simple soldiers (and no one is quite so simple as a soldier)
that on Christmas Day, at any rate, the force of fire should cease. We gave each other cigarettes and exchanged
all manner of things. We wrote our names and addresses on the field service postcards, and exchanged them
for German ones. We cut the buttons off our coats and took in exchange the Imperial Arms of Germany. But the
gift of gifts was Christmas pudding. The sight of it made the Germans' eyes grow wide with hungry wonder, and
at the first bite of it they were our friends for ever. Given a sufficient quantity of Christmas puddings, every
German in the trenches before ours would have surrendered.
And so we stayed together for a while and talked, even though all the time there was a strained feeling of
suspicion which rather spoilt this Christmas armistice. We could not help remembering that we were enemies,
even though we had shaken hands. We dare not advance too near their trenches lest we saw too much, nor
could the Germans come beyond the barbed wire which lay before ours. After we had chatted, we turned back to
our respective trenches for breakfast.
All through the day no shot was fired, and all we did was talk to each other and make confessions which,
perhaps, were truer at that curious moment than in the normal times of war. How far this unofficial truce
extended along the lines I do not know, but I do know that what I have written here applies to the -- on our side
and the 158th German Brigade, composed of Westphalians.
As I finish this short and scrappy description of a strangely human event, we are pouring rapid fire into the
German trenches, and they are returning the compliment just as fiercely. Screeching through the air above us
are the shattering shells of rival batteries of artillery. So we are back once more to the ordeal of fire.
20
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014

























squelch
sodden
trance of saddened silence
in fancy
no cohesion
prosperous.
multitude
involuntary
guttural ring.
boomed
fearing treachery,
enmity and fraternity
war's most amazing paradox
the pipings of piccolos
recklessly
brazen invitation
benisons
the parapet,
Imperial Arms
armistice.
our respective trenches
confessions
German Brigade, composed of Westphalians.
rapid fire
batteries of artillery.
21
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
Fill in the missing part of the grids. I have done quite a lot for you; fill these in USING the electronic
copies! The boxes will expand with your typing or picture pasting!
Tricky
Give Definition! Give helpful image to define Write out 2 alternative
Word/phrase?
the word/idea/phrase.
sentences showing you
know
what
the
word/phrase means!
squelch
sodden
adjective:.
saturated
with liquid, especially
water; soaked through.
"
"the sodden ground"
antonyms: dry, arid
•
22
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
trance of
silence
saddened
in fancy
superficial or transient
feeling of liking or
attraction.
‘He was able to indulge his
fancy to own a Porsche’
"this was no passing
fancy, but a feeling
he would live by"
the faculty of
imagination.
"he is prone to flights
of fancy"
no cohesion
There was no cohesion in the
England Cricket team; it fell apart
under pressure.
23
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
prosperous.
successful in material
terms;
flourishing
financially.
This area is full of prosperous
middle-class professionals
"prosperous
middleclass professionals"
involuntary
adjective: involuntary
She gave an involuntary shudder.
1.done without will or
conscious control.
antonyms: voluntary,
deliberate
2. done against
someone's will.
multitude
guttural ring.
Adjective
He heard guttural shouts in a
foreign language.
guttural (of a speech
sound) produced in the
throat; harsh-sounding.
synonyms: throaty,
husky, gruff, gravelly,
growly, growling,
croaky, croaking, harsh,
harsh-sounding, rough,
rasping,
24
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
boomed
verb
Thunder boomed in the sky.
past tense: boomed;
make a loud, deep,
resonant sound.
synonyms:
reverberate, resound,
resonate; More
fearing treachery,
25
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
enmity and fraternity
war's most amazing
paradox.
the
pipings
piccolos
of
recklessly
He drove so recklessly, it was lucky
nobody was killed.
brazen invitation
It was odd that Mr Cameron should such
make a brazen invitation to Mr Milliband.
26
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
benisons
noun literary
noun: benison; plural
noun: benisons
He enjoyed the rewards
benisons of a good school!
and
a blessing.
the parapet,
Imperial Arms
27
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
armistice.
An armistice is a situation
in a war where the warring
parties agree to stop
fighting.
It
is
not
necessarily the end of a
war, since it might be just
a cessation of hostilities
while an attempt is made
to negotiate a lasting
peace.
It is derived from the Latin
arma, meaning weapons
and statium, meaning a
stopping.
our
trenches
respective
28
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
confessions
German Brigade,
composed
Westphalians.
of
rapid fire
batteries of artillery.
29
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
Please read these three poems really carefully and be ready to discuss them in our extension lessons
when we come back in January. Look at the You-Tube links too.
Snowflakes
Out of the bosom of the Air.
Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
Silent and soft and slow
Descends the snow.
Even as our cloudy fancies take
Suddenly shape in some divine expression,
Even as the troubled heart doth make
In the white countenance confession,
The troubled sky reveals
The grief it feels
This is the poem of the air,
Slowly in silent syllables recorded;
This is the secret of despair,
Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,
Now whispered and revealed
To wood and field.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlLiJDsBDBA
30
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
31
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
32
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
The Darkling Thrush
I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.
The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.
Thomas Hardy 1840–1928
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BQDH2W4aq0
33
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
Think about these difficult lines; think about the words in the table.
a coppice (gate)
noun
An area of woodland in which the trees or shrubs are
periodically cut back to ground level to stimulate
growth and provide firewood or timber:
‘coppices of oak were cultivated’
spectre-(grey),
spectre
(ˈspɛktə) or specter
n
1. (Alternative Belief Systems) a ghost; phantom;
apparition
2. a mental image of something unpleasant or
menacing: the spectre of redundancy.
dregs
[C17: from Latin spectrum, from specere to look at]
plural noun
The remnants of a liquid left in a container, together
with any sediment:
‘coffee dregs’
The most worthless part or parts of something:
‘the dregs of society’
desolate
(Of a place) uninhabited and giving an impression of
bleak emptiness:
‘a desolate Pennine moor’
Feeling or showing great unhappiness or loneliness:
‘I suddenly felt desolate and bereft’
(The tangled) bine- noun
A long, flexible stem of a climbing plant, especially
the hop.
lyres,
noun
A stringed instrument like a small U-shaped harp with
strings fixed to a crossbar, used especially in ancient
Greece. Modern instruments of this type are found
mainly in East Africa.
34
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
(Beruffled) plume,
A long, soft feather or arrangement of feathers used by a
bird for display or worn by a person for ornament:
ecstatic (sound)
Adjective
Feeling or expressing overwhelming happiness or
joyful excitement:
‘ecstatic fans filled the stadium’
terrestrial things
trembled (through)
Involving an experience of mystic self-transcendence:
‘an ecstatic vision of God’
Archaic: Relating to the earth as opposed to heaven.
verb
[no object]
Shake involuntarily, typically as a result of anxiety,
excitement, or frailty:
‘Isobel was trembling with excitement’
Hardy’s poetry, like his fiction, is characterized by a pervasive fatalism. In the words
of biographer Claire Tomalin, the poems illuminate “the contradictions always
present in Hardy, between the vulnerable, doomstruck man and the serene
inhabitant of the natural world.
35
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
pervasive
adjective
(Especially of an unwelcome influence or physical effect)
spreading widely throughout an area or a group of
people:
fatalism
‘ageism is pervasive and entrenched in our society’
noun
The belief that all events are predetermined and
therefore inevitable:
vulnerable,
‘fatalism can breed indifference to the human costs of war’
adjective
Exposed to the possibility of being attacked or
harmed, either physically or emotionally:
‘we were in a vulnerable position’
‘small fish are vulnerable to predators’
Doomstruck
?????? You do some work!
serene (inhabitant) adjective
adjective: serene; comparative
superlative adjective: serenest
adjective:
serener;
calm, peaceful, and untroubled; tranquil.
"her eyes were closed and she looked very serene"
inhabitant
synonyms: calm, composed, collected, {cool, calm, and
collected}, as cool as a cucumber, tranquil, peaceful, at
peace, pacific, untroubled, relaxed, at ease, poised, selfpossessed, unperturbed, imperturbable, undisturbed,
unruffled, unworried, unexcitable, placid, equable, eventempered
noun: inhabitant; plural noun: inhabitants
a person or animal that lives in or occupies a place.
synonyms: resident, occupant, occupier, dweller, settler;
36
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
Find a picture which goes with the definition and paste it in to the table
below.
a coppice (gate)
spectre-(grey),
dregs
desolate
(
(The tangled) bine-
lyres,
37
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
(Beruffled) plume,
ecstatic (sound)
terrestrial things
trembled through
Now look at how a website presents
the poem!
38
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
The Darkling Thrush
I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter’s dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.
The land’s sharp features seemed to be
The Century’s corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
39
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited ;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carolings
Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.
40
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
Little Tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little
you are more like a flower
who found you in the green forest
and were you very sorry to come away?
see i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly
i will kiss your cool bark
and hug you safe and tight
just as your mother would,
only don't be afraid
look the spangles
that sleep all the year in a dark box
dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine,
the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads,
put up your little arms
and i'll give them all to you to hold
every finger shall have its ring
and there won't be a single place dark or unhappy
then when you're quite dressed
you'll stand in the window for everyone to see
and how they'll stare!
oh but you'll be very proud
and my little sister and i will take hands
and looking up at our beautiful tree
we'll dance and sing
"Noel Noel"
e e cummings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKOkBmCA3T8
41
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014
Write a description of these two paintings and your response to them:
spend 20 minutes writing.
42
Paul’s Year Six Christmas Cracker: 2014