Revision cards Teaching notes
These cards are designed to aid students in their revision of the poems:
 ‘What mystery pervades a well’
 ‘A narrow Fellow in the Grass’
 ‘I heard a Fly buzz’
 ‘A Bird came down the Walk’
 ‘There’s a certain Slant of light’.
Revision snap
‐
Put students into pairs and give them a set of cards. They should take it in turns to
put down a card, face up. If they think they can make a link between the previous
card and the one which has just been put down, they should shout ‘snap!’ and
explain the link they would make. If it is viable, they can take all the cards on the
desk. Play continues until one player has all the cards.
Revision pairs
‐
Put students into pairs and give them a set of cards. They should spread the cards
out face down and take it in turns to turn over two cards. If they can explain a link
between the cards, they keep the cards. Otherwise, they have to turn them face
down again. Play continues until one player has all the cards.
Language revision
‐
‐
Put students into pairs and give them a set of cards. They should spread the cards
out face down and take it in turns to turn over a card. If they can make a comment
about the poet’s use of language in the quote, they keep the card. Otherwise, they
have to turn it face down again. Play continues until one player has all the cards.
This could also be used as a quick starter – give each student a card as they enter
and ask them to think of a language point to make about the quotation.
Other ideas:
‐
‐
Use the cards as a template, adding quotations from other poems students have
studied – or get them to do this, thinking carefully about which quotations they
select.
After playing revision snap, get students to come up with other revision games – for
example, Dickinson Trivial Pursuit or Dickinson Snakes and Ladders!
© www.teachit.co.uk 2013
20617
Page 1 of 3
Revision cards What mystery pervades a
well!
What mystery pervades a
well!
What mystery pervades a
well!
‘an abyss’s face!’
‘a neighbor from another
world /
‘those who know her, know
her less /
Residing in a jar’
The nearer her they get.’
A Narrow Fellow in the
Grass
What mystery pervades a
well!
A Narrow Fellow in the
Grass
‘But nature is a stranger
yet:’
‘a whip lash, / Unbraiding in
the Sun’
I heard a Fly buzz
I heard a Fly buzz
‘I heard a Fly buzz – when I
died –’
‘With Blue – uncertain –
stumbling Buzz –’
There’s a certain Slant of
light,
I heard a Fly buzz
I heard a Fly buzz
‘Breaths were gathering firm
/ For that last Onset – when
the King / Be witnessed –’
‘And then the Windows
failed – and then / I could
not see to see –’
‘When it comes, the
Landscape listens – /
Shadows - hold their breath –
’
© www.teachit.co.uk 2013
20617
‘The grass divides as with a
comb, /
A spotted shaft is seen’
A Bird came down the Walk
‘A Bird came down the Walk:
/
He did not know I saw –’
Page 2 of 3
Revision cards I heard a Fly buzz
There’s a certain Slant of
light,
A Narrow Fellow in the
Grass
‘Between the light – and me
–’
‘Heavenly Hurt, it gives us –/
‘a tighter breathing/
We can find no scar,’
And zero at the bone.’
A Narrow Fellow in the
Grass
A Bird came down the Walk
‘when a boy, and barefoot, /
‘They looked like frightened
beads, I thought / He stirred
his velvet head’
I heard a Fly buzz
‘The Stillness in the Room /
Was like the Stillness in the
Air - / Between the Heaves
of Storm –’
A Bird came down the Walk
‘He bit an angle-worm in
halves / And ate the fellow,
raw.’
I more than once at noon’
A Bird came down the Walk
‘butterflies, off banks of
noon, /
Leap, plashless, as they
swim.’
There’s a certain Slant of
light,
A Bird came down the Walk
‘he unrolled his feathers /
And rowed him softer home’
‘There’s a certain Slant of
light, / Winter Afternoons –/
That oppresses, like the Heft
/
What mystery pervades a
well!
‘What mystery pervades a
well!’
There’s a certain Slant of
light,
‘An imperial affliction /
Sent us of the Air’
Of Cathedral Tunes –’
© www.teachit.co.uk 2013
20617
Page 3 of 3