Miles of white-lit moon dust
Never soft stirred
By fox’s tipped brush
Or breeze or bird.
No rain makes mud
Of that dull dust,
No glow of petals stains
Distant, dead, lunar crust.
Mysterious and new,
The old moon rocks between
Plain prints of boots, deep-ridged,
Forever lie to show
Where earth-men have been.
Gwen Dunn
Prints’ reproduced by permission of the author, Gwen Dunn
Prints
1.
This poem tells us about two places
The first part is about the
.
The second part is about the
.
2 marks
2.
What time of day do you think it is at the beginning of the poem?
How do you know this?
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2 marks
3.
I’ve left my mark!
What mark does the person leave and how is it made?
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2 marks
4.
my hand prints go
What happens to make the hand prints go?
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1 mark
5.
Never soft stirred
By fox’s tipped brush
Or breeze or bird.
There are many ‘s’ and ‘b’ sounds in these lines.
What effect do they have?
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1 mark
6.
This poem talks about some things that are old and others that are new.
Look at the whole poem and name two things that are old
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and two things that are new.
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4 marks
The lights are all on, though it’s past midday.
There are no more indoor games we can play.
No one can think of anything to say,
It rained all yesterday, it’s raining today.
It’s grey outside, inside me it’s grey.
I stare out of the window, fist under my chin,
The gutter leaks drips on the lid of the dustbin,
When they say ‘cheer up’, I manage a grin,
I draw a fish on the glass with a sail-sized fin,
It’s sodden outside, and I’m damp within.
Matches, bubbles and papers pour into the drains,
Clouds smother the sad laments from the trains,
Grandad says it brings on his rheumatic pains,
The moisture’s got right inside of my brains,
It’s raining outside, inside me it rains.
by Brian Lee
‘Rain’, by Brian Lee from Six of the Best, ed. Anne Harvey, Penguin, 1989.
How beautiful is the rain!
After the dust and heat,
In the broad and fiery street,
In the narrow lane,
spout!
How beautiful is the rain!
How it clatters along the roofs,
Like the tramp of hoofs!
How it gushes and struggles out
From the throat of the overflowing
Across the window pane
It pours and pours;
And swift and wide,
With a muddy tide,
Like a river down the gutter it roars
The rain, the welcome rain!
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
‘Rain in Summer’, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, from Footprints on the Page,
compiled by Fiona Waters, Evans Brothers Ltd, 1998.
These questions are about the poem Rain.
1.
Tick two bad effects of the rain in the first poem:
Tick two.
keeps you indoors
water falls on the dustbin
dulls your imagination
your hair gets wet
the air cools down
1 mark
2.
What did the poet do while it was raining?
Write down two things.
1.
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2.
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2 marks
3.
In each verse, all the lines end with the same rhyme.
How does this add to the meaning of the poem?
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2 marks
These questions are about the poem Rain in Summer.
4.
Why does the poet think rain is beautiful?
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1 mark
5.
Why do you think the poet chooses the words clatters and tramp of hoofs to describe
the sound of the rain?
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1 mark
6.
What is the main purpose of the second verse of the poem?
Tick one.
to create a picture of the way rain moves
to show how rain can work with heat
to make the reader feel miserable
to show the effect of rain on people’s lives
1 mark
This question is about both poems.
7.
Explain how each poet gives a different feeling about the rain.
You will need to think about:
•
the effect of rain on the writer
•
how the rain is described.
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3 marks
© Gwen Dunn
Spinner
1.
What creature is this poem about?
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1 mark
2.
What sorts of places does the Spinner look for in the first part of the poem?
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2 mark
3.
What two changes take place in the second part of the poem that give
the Spinner’s secrets away?
1 ............................................................................................................................
2 ............................................................................................................................
2 marks
4.
The last line of the poem is: Is shown.
What would you see if you were there?
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2 marks
5
Find five words to do with darkness in the first part of the poem.
Write one word next to each dot.
•
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•
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•
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•
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•
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2 marks
6.
In the third part of the poem, the webs are described as:
diamond lace.
What does the word diamond tell you about the webs?
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2 marks
7.
The second part of the poem is different from the first and third parts.
Write down one main way in which it is different
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1 mark
8.
What are the main contrasts the poet makes in the first and third parts of the poem?
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3 marks
9.
In the second part of the poem we read:
… the night
Thins
Explain what these words mean and why you think the poet chose the word thins.
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3 marks