Читать книгу English for Life Reader Grade 7 Home Language - Elaine Ridge - Страница 7

Pre-reading
1.	What do you picture when you hear the word ‘silver’?
During reading
2.	While reading, notice how often the word silver is repeated. What effect does this have?

Silver

Walter de la Mare

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 a silver eye;

And moveless fish in the water gleam,

By silver reeds in a silver stream.

shoon – shoes

cote – place where doves sleep

casements – windows

Post-reading
3.	What is the effect of the word silver appearing in so many places in the poem?Refer to line 4: “Silver fruit upon silver trees”. Are fruit or trees usually silver? What has made them and many other things silver now?
4.	The poem has a clear rhyme scheme. The word “moon” at the end of line 1 rhymes with “shoon” at the end of line 2. The first line is always “a” and because the second line rhymes with it, it is also “a”. The word “sees” does not rhyme with lines 1 and 2, so we call this “b”. The word “trees” in line 4 rhymes with the word “sees” in line 3, so is also “b”, so the rhyme scheme of the first four lines is aabb. Complete the rhyme scheme of the poem.
5. a)	Work out how many syllables each of the lines has. Note: a syllable is a unit of sound, e.g. (1)slow(2)ly, (3)si(4)lent(5)ly (6)now.
b)	Based on your answer, suggest a reason why the poet might have chosen to write the poem in this way.