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The sheep

Ann and Jane Taylor

“Lazy sheep, pray tell me why

In the pleasant fields you lie,

Eating grass, and daisies white,

From the morning till the night?

Everything can something do,

But what kind of use are you?”

“Nay, my little master, nay,

Do not serve me so, I pray;

Don’t you see the wool that grows

On my back, to make you clothes?

Cold, and very cold, you’d be

If you had not wool from me.

True, it seems a pleasant thing,

To nip the daisies in the spring;

But many chilly nights I pass

On the cold and dewy grass,

Or pick a scanty dinner, where

All the common’s brown and bare.

Then the farmer comes at last,

When the merry spring is past,

And cuts my woolly coat away,

To warm you in the winter’s day:

Little master, this is why

In the pleasant fields I lie.”

1. There are two narrators in the poem. Who are they?

2. What characteristic does the boy give to the sheep? Why?

3. “Do not serve me so” – Rewrite this in your own words.

4. Besides their wool, what other uses do sheep have?

5. In stanza 3, the sheep mentions three bad things that he has to endure. What are they?

6. Use a dictionary and choose the meaning from column B to match the expression in column A.

Vocabulary

pray – please

nip – bite off sharply

scanty – slumpy, scarcely enough

common’s brown and bare – the pasture where all the sheep graze is without green grass, there is no food

The most magnificent fishing

Robert D. Hoeft

Stars swim in the heavens

Like fish of sparkling light

So I am going fishing

To catch some stars tonight.

I’ll make a line of spider webs

And bait my hook with gold.

I’ll wrap myself in blankets,

For the nights get awfully cold.

And I will sit ’til sunrise

As patient as can be,

Pulling shiny silver stars

Out of the moon-drenched sea.

1. In stanza 1, line 2 the poet uses a simile to describe the stars. Quote the simile. To what does the poet compare the stars?

2. Write down two consecutive words that describe the brightness of the stars.

3. What plan does the poet make to catch some stars?

4. The poet says that he is patient. How do we know he is telling the truth?

5. Someone who has confidence is confident. Complete the following. Someone who:

a) has courage is . . .

b) dominates others is . . .

c) shows aggression is . . .

d) shows affection is . . .

Vocabulary

bait – something used to lure a fish to your hook

moon-drenched sea – it seems as if the sea is totally filled with the reflection of the moon

Answer to a child’s question

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Do you ask what the birds say? The Sparrow, the Dove,

The Linnet and Thrush say, “I love and I love!”

In the winter they’re silent – the wind is so strong;

What it says, I don’t know, but it sings a loud song.

But green leaves and blossoms, and sunny warm weather,

And singing, and loving – all come back together.

But the Lark is so brimful of gladness and love,

The green fields below him, the blue sky above,

That he sings, and he sings; and forever sings he –

“I love my Love, and my Love loves me!”

Vocabulary

linnet – type of finch

thrush – small songbird

brimful – filled to the top edge

1. To whom do the “him” in line 8 and the “he” in line 9 refer?

2. Why is “I love and I love” in line 2 written between quotes?

3. What do the “green leaves”, “blossoms” and “sunny warm weather” in line 5 indicate?

4. What does the word “brimful” in line 7 mean?

5. Why does “love” in line 10 start with a capital letter?

6. The title of the poem is “Answer to a child’s question.” Now after you have read the “answer” in the poem, what do you think was the question that the child asked?

Fairy tale for a runaway

Fanie Viljoen

A fairy tale mostly begins

With Once upon a time,

But this great one begins

With Once upon a rhyme.

A boy once saw an ode

Scribbled on a subway wall.

It told him of a road

And hope for one and all.

All who went along this way

Past the city’s damp decay

Will find hope without an end

Will have their broken hearts all mend.

This tough road, the rhyme read

Requires pardon and true pity,

Only then will you be led

From this cold and darkened city.

The boy still knew his worth

So he left the city streets

For his beloved place of birth

Where his rhyming heart still beats.

1. Look at the title of the poem. What is the poem about?

2. What was the message of the poem on the wall?

3. Find a word in stanza 3 that has an opposite meaning to “decay”.

4. The first line of stanza 4 has an example of alliteration. Write down the line and underline the words repeated.

5. Why is the city described as “cold and darkened”? This is an example of a . . . ?

6. Does the poem end on a happy note like all fairy tales – and they lived happy ever after . . . ? How do you know?

Vocabulary

ode – a lyric poem where the narrator is speaking to someone

subway – an underground tunnel for trains

scribbled – written down hurriedly

decay – rotten or ruinous state

pardon – to excuse or to forgive

worth – what a person or thing is worth

The rooks

Jane Euphemia Browne

The rooks are building on the trees;

They build there every spring:

“Caw, caw,” is all they say,

For none of them can sing.

They’re up before the break of day,

And up till late at night;

For they must labour busily

As long as it is light.

And many a crooked stick they bring,

And many a slender twig,

And many a tuft of moss, until

Their nests are round and big.

“Caw, caw.” Oh, what a noise

They make in rainy weather!

Good children always speak by turns,

But rooks all talk together.

Vocabulary

rooks – black birds, belonging to the crow family

labour – work

tuft – bunch

1. At what time of the year do the rooks build their nests?

2. What is the difference between a semi-colon (;) as in line 1 and a colon (:) in line 2?

3. There is an example of onomatopoeia (imitation of sound) in line 3. Write it down.

4. Are the rooks lazy birds? Why?

5. What do they use to build their nests? What do the nests look like?

6. The diminutive of branch is twig. What are the diminutives of the following?

a) tree

b) goat

c) pig

d) bird

7. What is the biggest difference between rooks and good children?

Daddy fell into the pond

Alfred Noyes

Everyone grumbled. The sky was grey.

We had nothing to do and nothing to say.

We were nearing the end of a dismal day,

And then there seemed to be nothing beyond,

Then Daddy fell into the pond!

And everyone’s face grew merry and bright,

And Timothy danced for sheer delight.

“Give me the camera, quick, oh quick!

He’s crawling out of the duckweed!” Click!

Then the gardener suddenly slapped his knee,

And doubled up, shaking silently,

And the ducks all quacked as if they were daft,

And it sounded as if the old drake laughed.

Oh, there wasn’t a thing that didn’t respond

When Daddy fell into the pond!

Vocabulary

grumbled – complained

dismal day – miserable day

duckweed – plants that grow on or just under the surface of the water

daft – silly, foolish

1. Have you ever had an embarrassing experience? What happened?

2. Is it good manners to laugh at adults when they are in an embarrassing situation? Why?

3. The poet makes use of short sentences to create a certain mood. What is the mood in the first line?

4. Why were the children unhappy?

5. How did this incident affect

a) the children in general?

b) Timothy?

6. Who asked for a camera? Why?

7. In stanza 2, line 4 we find an example of imitation of sound. Quote the word and say what it is called.

8. The masculine of duck is drake. What is the masculine/feminine of the following?

The world inside my mirror

Robert D. Hoeft

I wonder what lives in the mirror

Besides that glass echo of me.

There might be forests of ladybugs

By the shore of a crystal sea.

There might be herds of dandelions

That growl with a silver roar

And tiny diamond houses

Each with a see-through door.

There might be mountains of butterflies

Piled mile high in the air

And ranging bands of dinosaurs

With long, white, feathery hair.

There might be giant shimmering bees

With wings of beaten gold

And little snowflakes flaming hot

And fire that’s always cold.

There might be gardens of happiness

Where flowers bloom into smiles

And all the rivers have emerald fish

And ruby crocodiles.

1. How many lines are there in a stanza? What is it called?

2. Name the three different insects and three precious stones that are mentioned in the poem.

3. Look at the collective nouns as they appear in the poem. Provide the correct collective noun for each one.

a) forests of ladybugs

b) herds of dandelions

c) mountains of butterflies

d) bands of dinosaurs

4. What is an echo (line2)?

5. In line 2, stanza 3 the word “mile” is used to describe distance. What is the word we use instead?

6. Can a roar be silver? What do you think the poet means?

7. Why do you think the speaker decided to say that the dandelions (line 5) roar and growl (line 6)?

Vocabulary

echo – the repetition of sound through sound waves

ladybug – a bug of reddish-brown colour and black spots, also known as a ladybird

crystal – clear, transparent mineral

dandelions – plants that bear large bright yellow flowers

Lunar light

Jeanne du Plessis

The saddest part of a summer’s day

is dusk, when the light leaks away,

the sun’s last rays eaten by the night

all colour fading out of sight

But the gloom is banished, it takes flight

the sky is ignited by moon and starlight

how lovely would it be, how terribly bright

if there was one star and a thousand moons

flooding the sky with radiant lunar light.

Vocabulary

lunar – of the moon

dusk – evening, sunset

gloom – darkness, sadness

banished – chased away

ignited – lit

radiant – sending out rays of light