that keeps the sun in mist,
that cloaks the sun in smoke,
that weakens the sun’s eye,
that does not let it rise,
and brings much illness
to us.
It is, they say,
the hare that does it,
a hare like mist,
a hare like smoke,
the mirage in it,
the !kho of it.
It is, they say,
a smoke resembling mist
blue mist like smoke
that does it.
| Post-reading | |
| 3. | What about the hare would make it seem like “blue mist resembling smoke” in real life? |
| 4. | On a very hot day it sometimes looks as if there is water on the road ahead, but that is just a mirage. Here the mirage at daybreak is supposedly caused by the hare. What does it do to the sun? |
| 5. | What effect does !kho have on humans (according to the myth)? |
| 6. | Write down two examples of personification in the poem and say what they contribute to the poem. |
| 7. | The speaker says ‘our mothers used to say’, and then uses ‘they say’ three times more when describing the myth. What does it suggest about his attitude to the myth? |
| Pre-reading | |
| 1. | Bats and birds both fly. How do they look different from one another? Is there anything in the illustration that you did not know before? |
| During reading | |
| 2. | When do you recognise that the poem is not mainly about birds and bats? |
In a small city at dusk
Martin Carter
In a small city at dusk
it is difficult to distinguish
bird from bat. Both fly fast:
one away from the dark
and one toward the dark.
The bird to a nest in the tree.
The bat to a feast in its branches.
Strangers to each other they seek
planted by beak or claw or hand
the same tree that grows out of the great soil.
And I know, even before I came to live here,
before the city had so many houses
dusk did the same to bird and bat and does
the same to man.
| Post-reading | |
| 3. | Look at the illustration. As you can see bats and birds are very different. Explain why it is difficult to distinguish between them at dusk. |
| 4. | Why does each of them seek out the same tree? |
| 5. | Explain how a tree can be planted by “beak or claw or hand”. |
| 6. | In what way are the bat and the bird strangers to each other? |
| 7. | Explain the parallel the speaker draws right at the end of the poem between what dusk does to these two creatures and what it does to humans. |
| Pre-reading | |
| 1. | Look at the title of the poem. What do you expect the poem to be about? |
| During reading | |
| 2. | What is the actual story and who tells it? |
Bedtime Story
Chris Mann
The bath, the brushing of teeth,
the dragging on of pyjamas
worked through with threats and pleas,
the sprinting, wrestling and bouncing
at last diminishing.
I light a candle on the toy-chest,
step across a carpet mined with Lego
and bend towards the five-year-old
who opens his arms in reply.
Sitting on the foot of the bed
I ask the worst and best of his day,
trying to imagine a pre-primary universe,
its Liliputian taps and urinals,
its lockers with towels and mugs on hooks
with battered brown cases on shelves,
its corridors boisterous with children.
He turns and stretches a moment,
the heel of a foot shoved in the air,
rubbing at a sticker
of dinosaurs rearing on the wall,
then says with a grimace,
‘At break I was so lonely,
I went to the swings and when I came back
the friends I was playing with had gone.’
The words pierce my adult composure.
I find little comfort in thinking that pain matures us
that he is already his own human being.
I start to make healing suggestions,
which he considers for a moment
then grunts at in reply,
the silence deepening,
the heel continuing to rub at the door.
pierce – to make someone feel a strong emotion
composure – the state of being calm
| Post-reading | |
| 3. | Quote one line that tells you that the child is reluctant to get ready for bed. Why do you think the boy does not want to go to bed yet? |
| 4. | How does the child
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