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- Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
This anthology presents the set selection of verse and prose pieces for Learners entering LAMDA Graded Examinations in Communication: Speaking Verse and Prose from Entry Level to Grade 8, and LAMDA Introductory Graded Examinations from Stage 1 to Stage 3 (Solo and Group). The collection includes 155 pieces in total: a range of celebrated poems alongside prose extracts from bestselling classic and contemporary novels. It also features original material written specifically for this anthology, including the winner and runners-up of LAMDA Learners' Poetry Prize 2023. Also included is a foreword by Joseph Coelho, Waterstones Children's Laureate 2022–24. For Learners taking LAMDA Examinations, this anthology offers a wide choice of themes, topics and worlds to explore. With many performance possibilities, it is a perfect resource to help Learners practise and develop their communication skills. For the general reader, it is the ideal starting point for discovering contemporary poets and novelists, such as Maya Angelou, Malorie Blackman, Sally Rooney and Michael Rosen, as well as reconnecting with celebrated writers of the past, including Jane Austen, T. S. Eliot and William Wordsworth.
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Verse and Prose Anthology: Volume 20
First published in 2024 by the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, 155 Talgarth Road, London W14 9DA, United Kingdom, Tel: +44 (0)208 834 0530, www.lamda.ac.uk and Nick Hern Books Limited, The Glasshouse, 49a Goldhawk Road, London W12 8QP, United Kingdom, Tel: +44 (0)20 8749 4953, www.nickhernbooks.co.uk
This ebook published in 2024
Copyright © 2024 LAMDA Ltd. Foreword Copyright © 2024 Joseph Coelho Edited by Georgina Murphy
LAMDA Ltd. is hereby identified as author of this compilation in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The contributors are hereby identified as authors of their contributions.
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise be circulated without the publisher’s consent in any form of binding or cover or circulated electronically other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on any subsequent publishers.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design and layout by n9design.com
ISBN – PB: 978-1-83904-329-1
Contents
Foreword
Solo Introductory Stage 1
Flippin’ Eck by Brian Bilston
I’m Nobody! Who are you? by Emily Dickinson
From Aliens Stole My Underpants by Brian Moses
Sugarcake Bubble by Grace Nichols
Night Thoughts by Li Bai, translated by Amy Lowell
Hurt No Living Thing by Christina Rossetti
Group Introductory Stage 1
The Laugh by Joseph Coelho
From I Am/I Say by Sabrina Mahfouz
Jungle Noises by Nick Teed
Solo Introductory Stage 2
There’s a Shark in my Tea! by Leo Alderin
Gibberish by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge
Cold Toast by Claudine Toutoungi
The Storm by Sara Coleridge
Let Thine Eyes Whisper by Ameen Rihani
Bird, Bell, and I by Misuzu Kaneko, translated by Sally Ito and Michiko Tsuboi
Group Introductory Stage 2
Hopaloo Kangaroo by John Agard
The Last Shot by Kwame Alexander
Wallaby Trouble by Monika Johnson
Solo Introductory Stage 3
Dis Breeze by Valerie Bloom
The Slime Takeover by Joseph Coelho
Ariel’s Song by William Shakespeare
I am angry by Michael Rosen
From The First Tooth by Mary and Charles Lamb
Bertie Beaky by Claudine Toutoungi
Group Introductory Stage 3
The Both of Us by Joshua Seigal
The Flibbit by Kate Wakeling
The Months by Sara Coleridge
Entry Level
The Shockadile Crocodile! by Joseph Coelho
From the Arabic by Ameen Rihani
Seasons by Valerie Bloom
Colour by Christina Rossetti
Chameleon Kids by Matt Goodfellow
Ball of Yarn by Shuntarō Tanikawa, translated by William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura
What a to-do! by Claudine Toutoungi
Song of the Witches by William Shakespeare
Grade 1
Bush Fire by Jackie Kay
The Blue-Green Stream by Wang Wei, translated by Amy Lowell
Whenever you see a tree by Padma Venkatraman
Say How You Feel by Joseph Coelho
Riddle by Anna Laetitia Barbauld
Advice from a Caterpillar by Rachel Rooney
The Music of Beauty by James Nack
The Land of Nod by Robert Louis Stevenson
Grade 2
Home by Rosa Terry
December, 1919 by Claude McKay
A Tip of the Slongue by Joseph Coelho
Superpowers by Ruth Awolola
This World is not Conclusion by Emily Dickinson
Filter by Suma Subramaniam
From
On the Beach at Night by Walt Whitman
Extinct by Monika Johnson
Grade 2 Prose
Contact by Malorie Blackman
There May Be a Castle by Piers Torday
Sad Book by Michael Rosen
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis
Sona Sharma, Looking After Planet Earth by Chitra Soundar
The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde
A Different Kind of Princess Story by Aimee McGoldrick
Grade 3 Verse
Can I Sit There? by Avni Patel
Count That Day Lost by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
Difficult Damsels by Nikita Gill
Comparative Guidance for Social Distancing by Brian Bilston
We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar
I skipped school today by Kwame Alexander
Something About That Day by Kirsten Charters
I Shall Return by Claude McKay
Grade 3 Prose
Ghost by Jason Reynolds
Waiting for Anya by Michael Morpurgo
When Life Gives You Mangoes by Kereen Getten
West African Folk-Tales by W. H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair
The Traitor Game by B. R. Collins
Heidi by Johanna Spyri, translated by Louise Brooks
A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Grade 4 Verse
Alexa, What is There to Know about Love? by Brian Bilston
To My Excellent Lucasia, on Our Friendship by Katherine Philips
Dancing Disk in the Sky by Hibaq Osman
On Forgetting That I Am a Tree by Ruth Awolola
The Tiger by William Blake
Voyage to the Bottom of My Bowl by Claudine Toutoungi
How to Cut a Pomegranate by Imtiaz Dharker
A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky by Lewis Carroll
Grade 4 Prose
Medusa by Jessie Burton
Song Beneath the Tides by Beverley Birch
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Cats We Meet Along The Way by Nadia Mikail
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashi, translated by Cathy Hirano
The Red-Headed League ( The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes) by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Heart of Happy Hollow by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Grade 5 Verse
Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth
The Sky is Too Wide for Two Birds to Collide by Kareem Parkins-Brown
George Moses Horton, Myself by George Moses Horton
Front Door by Imtiaz Dharker
Fear by Khalil Gibran
The Naming of Cats by T. S. Eliot
Street Cries by Sarojini Naidu
Grade 5 Prose
Attention Seekers by Emma Brankin
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Amari and the Night Brothers by B. B. Alston
Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet
Tsunami Girl by Julian Sedgwick and Chie Kutsuwada
Grade 6 Verse
If We Remain Civil and Obedient Now by Nikita Gill
He Thinks of his Past Faces by John Canfield
The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy
Ghareeb by Fatimah Asghar
Fairy Song by Louisa May Alcott
On the Discomfort of Being in the Same Room as the Boy You Like by Sarah Kay
The Queen of Hearts by Christina Rossetti
A Beach On A Foggy Day by Jade Anouka
Grade 6 Prose
Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
Boys Don’t Cry by Malorie Blackman
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
Grade 7 Verse
I Hope You Stopped for the Swans by Cecilia Knapp
The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats
What You Mourn by Sheila Black
From The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Because I could not stop for Death by Emily Dickinson
Another Planet by Dunya Mikhail, translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid
The Other Side of a Mirror by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge
Life Doesn’t Frighten Me by Maya Angelou
Grade 7 Prose
Educated by Tara Westover
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Black and British: A short, essential history by David Olusoga
Cranford by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Grade 8 Verse
Edward Hopper and the House by the Railroad by Edward Hirsch
The Flowers of the Forest by Jean Elliot
Sing with Me and do not Die of Thirst by Theresa Lola
Keep A-Pluggin’ Away by Paul Laurence Dunbar
A Green Land Full of Rivers by Sabrina Mahfouz
From The Lotos-Eaters by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Air and Angels by John Donne
Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou
Grade 8 Prose
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Sula by Toni Morrison
A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy by Laurence Sterne
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Circe by Madeline Miller
Title Index
Author Index
Copyright and Acknowledgements
Foreword
There is a magic that occurs when words are spoken aloud, there is a music that fills that space between audience and performer that is punctuated by the words of the voice. It is a spell that begins with the writer but is only complete when you, the performer, share these words with an audience, when you share in the creation of an image, a sight, a scent or a sound that is birthed within the mind of the listener.
Approach this book with all the reverence you would for a true book of spells and know that you are one of the spell wielders, for the poems and prose contained within are seeds that you get to plant in fertile minds, it is no small thing. To run with the planting metaphor – a seed that isn’t sown deep enough, or indeed too deep will not germinate, and likewise a performance of words that does not bridge that gap between stage and seat will not birth an experience in the listener’s mind. So, take these words seriously, listen to them as you commit them to memory, let them sprout forth in your mind with all their fruits of emotion and truth so that you can pass that magic on.
Contained within you have the gift of the very best words by some incredible writers. Let the wonderful poetic silliness of Brian Moses intermingle with the power of John Agard, let the depth of Kate Wakeling’s words intersperse with the glorious delights of Shakespeare and Ruth Awolola and Michael Rosen and C. S. Lewis. Become one with them, with me. As you read and then as you perform, bring us all together for that one timeless moment when there is an electricity dancing the auditorium, from our pens to your mouth to the listener’s ears. Good luck.
Joseph Coelho
Children’s
Author Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2022-2024
Introduction
This anthology has been carefully selected to offer Learners a broad range of material when taking their LAMDA Examinations. Throughout the collection, we engage with contemporary writers who write for the modern world, whilst looking back to classical material from writers whose work has stood the test of time.
We also feature new, original material from writers who have a connection to LAMDA – including the winner and runners-up of LAMDA Learners’ Poetry Prize 2023 – and it is a privilege to publish their work in this anthology. To LAMDA’s Learners, we hope that this collection makes you excited to take your Examinations, whilst sparking your curiosity in different writers and the themes and topics they explore.
It is a pleasure to hand over to the likes of Bernardine Evaristo, Joseph Coelho, Louisa May Alcott and Oscar Wilde, and we hope you enjoy reading, studying and performing the works contained in this anthology.
Note on the Pieces
This anthology contains the set pieces for Learners taking LAMDA Graded Examinations in Communication: Speaking Verse and Prose from Entry Level to Grade 8, and LAMDA Introductory Graded Examinations from Stage 1 to Stage 3 (Solo and Group).
You may notice that in the case of certain selections, the spelling of some words may vary from piece to piece, representing either standard British or American spelling. To the best of our ability, LAMDA Examinations has selected pieces that are age-appropriate for Learners taking our Exams. However, some of the complete texts may contain themes, language or terminology that Learners may find offensive or unsettling. Please bear this in mind when teaching younger Learners, and note that LAMDA Examinations does not endorse any discriminatory terminology that appears.
LAMDA Examinations is constantly exploring ways to make our anthologies as inclusive as possible. We work with the industry to create positive change and encourage conversations around inclusivity. When selecting pieces for Learners, we recommend approaching this with sensitivity and consideration of the themes of the verse and prose selections, particularly in relation to religion, race, gender and disability.
Thanks
LAMDA Examinations would like to thank all the authors, translators, publishers and agents who made the development of this anthology possible. Special thanks are also due to Vinota Karunasaagarar, Stephen Mitchell, Githanda Githae, Karen Roberts, Oleksandra Spiegler, Andy Pitts, Linda Macrow, Marcia Carr, Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway and Beyond The Canon, Matt Applewhite and Nick Hern Books.
Solo Introductory: Stage 1
Flippin’ Eck
by Brian Bilston
I’m Nobody! Who are you?
by Emily Dickinson
FromAliens Stole My Underpants
by Brian Moses
Sugarcake Bubble
by Grace Nichols
Night Thoughts
by Li Bai, translated by Amy Lowell
Hurt No Living Thing
by Christina Rossetti
Flippin’ Eck
Brian Bilston
This Speaker writes a poem using the method of making a pancake. Turn your book upside down to discover their recipe.
I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Emily Dickinson
This Speaker considers what it is like to be an outsider.
I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!
How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell one’s name – the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!
FromAliens Stole My Underpants
Brian Moses
This poem explores the Speaker’s relationship with aliens.
To understand the ways
of alien beings is hard,
and I’ve never worked it out
why they landed in my backyard.
And I’ve always wondered why
on their journey from the stars,
these aliens stole my underpants
and took them back to Mars.
Sugarcake Bubble
Grace Nichols
This poem describes the bubbling of a sugarcake.
Sugarcake, Sugarcake
Bubbling in a pot
Bubble, Bubble Sugarcake
Bubble thick and hot
Sugarcake, Sugarcake
Spice and coconut
Sweet and sticky
Brown and gooey
I could eat the lot.
Night Thoughts
Li Bai, translated by Amy Lowell
This poem portrays the Speaker’s longing for home.
In front of my bed the moonlight is very bright.
I wonder if that can be frost on the floor?
I lift up my head and look at the full moon, the dazzling moon.
I drop my head, and think of the home of old days.
Hurt No Living Thing
Christina Rossetti
This poem communicates the importance of looking after all living creatures.
Hurt no living thing:
Ladybird, nor butterfly,
Nor moth with dusty wing,
Nor cricket chirping cheerily,
Nor grasshopper so light of leap,
Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat,
Nor harmless worms that creep.
Group Introductory: Stage 1
The Laugh
by Joseph Coelho
FromI Am/I Say
by Sabrina Mahfouz
Jungle Noises
by Nick Teed
The Laugh
Joseph Coelho
This poem explores how infectious a laugh can be.
It started as a tickle
as a wriggle on my lips.
It turned into a giggle,
a wiggle of the hips.
It turned into a jitter,
a titter of the teeth.
My face is turning red
and it’s begging for release.
It gasps into a guffaw!
Into a great big belly laugh.
If I whoop any louder
‘Call the security staff!’
Now it’s spreading to my friends
in snickers, chuckles and snorts.
If we roar any louder
we’ll get a school report!
Now our sides our splitting!
We’re on the floor laughing!
We cannot stop!
We will not stop!
It’s threatening to choke!
And all because of the telling
of a wonderfully silly joke.
FromI Am/I Say
Sabrina Mahfouz
This poem celebrates and protects the natural world.
We are part of the heart of the world
Don’t break it
Don’t break it.
We don’t have the power to make it turn
But we have the power to learn.
Don’t shake it
like a fizzy drink,
Too much up and down
Too much throwing around
The pressure mounts
The insides explode
Goes all over your clothes
No!
We all have the power to learn
To turn it all around
Care for the earth from below the ground
To the rumbles of clouds
I say
I say
I may be small
But I want more than sweets
Give me a world that beats
With the beauty it was given
Before any of us were living.
We are part of the heart of the world
Don’t break it.
Jungle Noises
Nick Teed
This poem explores the sounds and noises of animals.
What’s in the jungle?
Let’s go explore!
Look, there’s a tiger!
Roar!
Roar!
Roar!
What’s in the jungle?
Let’s take a peek!
Look, there’s a jungle rat!
Squeak!
Squeak!
Squeak!
What’s in the jungle?
Let’s take a walk!
Look, there’s a parrot!
Squawk!
Squawk!
Squawk!
What’s in the jungle?
Let’s look at this!
Look, there’s a snake!
Hiss!
Hiss!
Hiss!
What’s in the jungle?
No time to nap!
Look, there’s a crocodile!
Snap!
Snap!
Snap!
It’s great here in the jungle,
Bathed in the sun!
Seeing all the animals!
Fun!
Fun!
Fun!
Solo Introductory: Stage 2
There’s a Shark in my Tea!
by Leo Alderin
Gibberish
by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge
Cold Toast
by Claudine Toutoungi
The Storm
by Sara Coleridge
Let Thine Eyes Whisper
by Ameen Rihani
Bird, Bell, and I
by Misuzu Kaneko, translated by Sally Ito and Michiko Tsuboi
There’s a Shark in my Tea!
Leo Alderin (Runner-up in LAMDA Learners’ Poetry Prize 2023)
This Speaker sees something suspicious in their cup of tea.
There’s a shark in my tea!
How did it get in there?
It’s bobbing up and down
Giving me quite a scare.
I’m so glad I saw it
Before I took a sip
Otherwise it might have tried
To bite me on my lip!
I can’t believe my eyes
It is a great big fin…
Oh dear… I need to tell Mum
That she left the tea bag in!
Gibberish
Mary Elizabeth Coleridge
This is poem of nonsense, where birds blossom and flowers sing.
Many a flower have I seen blossom,
Many a bird for me will sing.
Never heard I so sweet a singer,
Never saw I so fair a thing.
She is a bird, a bird that blossoms,
She is a flower, a flower that sings;
And I a flower when I behold her,
And when I hear her, I have wings.
Cold Toast
Claudine Toutoungi
In this poem, the Speaker sends some toast in the post.
I made you some toast
It went in the post
I mailed it first class
with jam on one half
When it lands on your mat
it should be quite flat
if a little bit burnt
(though I scraped off the worst)
Cold toast it will be
but if you chew vigorously
and drink some hot tea
it will slip down wonderfully
The Storm
Sara Coleridge
This poem depicts a raging storm, before it clears into a brighter day.
See lightning is flashing,
The forest is crashing,
The rain will come dashing,
A flood will be rising anon;
The heavens are scowling,
The thunder is growling,
The loud winds are howling,
The storm has come suddenly on!
But now the sky clears,
The bright sun appears,
Now nobody fears,
But soon every cloud will be gone.
Let Thine Eyes Whisper
Ameen Rihani
This Speaker provides comfort to someone struggling with grief and regret.
Grieve not, for I am near thee;
Sigh not, for I can hear thee;
Wash from thy heart all memory of past wrong;
Doubt not that doubts besmear thee;
Speak not, for I do fear thee;
Let thine eyes whisper love’s conciling song.
Bird, Bell, and I
Misuzu Kaneko, translated by Sally Ito and Michiko Tsuboi
This poem celebrates difference and individuality.
Even if I spread my arms wide,
I can’t fly through the sky,
but still the little bird who flies
can’t run on the ground as fast as I.
Even if I shake my body about
no pretty sound comes out,
but still, the tinkling bell
doesn’t know as many songs as I.
Bird, bell, and I,
We’re all different, and that’s just fine.
Group Introductory: Stage 2
Hopaloo Kangaroo
by John Agard
The Last Shot
by Kwame Alexander
Wallaby Trouble
by Monika Johnson
Hopaloo Kangaroo
John Agard
This poem playfully describes the movement of a kangaroo.
If you can jigaloo
jigaloo
I can do the jigaloo too,
for I’m the jiggiest
jigaloo kangaroo
jigaloo all night through
jigaloo all night through
If you can boogaloo
boogaloo
I can do the boogaloo too
for I’m the boogiest
boogaloo kangaroo.
boogaloo all night through
boogaloo all night through
But bet you can’t hopaloo
hopaloo
like I can do
for I’m the hoppiest
hopaloo kangaroo
hopaloo all night through
hopaloo all night through
Gonna show you steps
you never knew,
And guess what, guys?
My baby in my pouch
Will be dancing too.
The Last Shot
Kwame Alexander
In a competitive basketball game, the team take their last shot of the match.
They DOUBLE-team me
I’m in DOUBLE trouble
Trying not to DOUBLE dribble
Gotta get out the DOUBLE trap
So I juke one
But number two follows
So I QUICKLY
DOUBLE cross (and it works)
And he f
a
l
l
s WHOOPS!
Hits the Splits,
I wanna shoot baaaaaaaaaaaad
But I. Don’t. Know.
If. I. Can. Make. It.
If I can shake this
F E A R
Plus it’s only
Seven seconds
On the clock
And if I miss it’s
C L E A R
This. Game. Is. Over.
But if I s.c.o.r.e.
We win
And I’m the HERO!
(Don’t screw it up, Charlie)
Roxie’s at the free-throw line
(I once saw her make like fifteen in a row)
I shoot her
The ball
And it goes over
Her head almost, but
She snatches it
Out the air
Plants her feet
On the line
TOP of the key
No one on her
She’s FREE
Ready to SHINE
Like she’s a STAR
Like she was made
For this shot
FOR THE LAST SHOT
And she was
And she is
And she shoots
And she
misses.
Wallaby Trouble
Monika Johnson
This poem follows the Speaker’s relationship with their new pet: a naughty wallaby.
I had a brand-new wallaby
I got him from the zoo.
He just looked kind of lonely
with nothing much to do.
So, whilst my teacher and my mates
saw the big baboon,
I popped Wally in my lunchbox
between my yogurt and my spoon.
Wally liked adventures
he didn’t miss the zoo.
I made him all domestic
like all good owners do.
On Monday we played football
we were winning 7-2
but then Wally jumped the goalposts
and gave the referee the boot!
Ouch.
Last Friday we went skating –
we whizzed past George and Lou!
Then Wally bounced and broke the ice
and soaked us all wet through!
I think having a pet wallaby
is harder than it looks.
They don’t like eating pancakes
and they chew up my school books.
I know that I’ll miss Wally
when he goes back to the zoo.
But wallabies aren’t made for pets
So, I’ve got a kangaroo!
Solo Introductory: Stage 3
Dis Breeze
by Valerie Bloom
The Slime Takeover
by Joseph Coelho
Ariel’s Song
by William Shakespeare
I am angry
by Michael Rosen
FromThe First Tooth
by Mary and Charles Lamb
Bertie Beaky
by Claudine Toutoungi
Dis Breeze
Valerie Bloom
This poem explores the mischievousness of a breeze.
Dis breeze is an air conditioner,
Dis breeze better than any fan,
Dis breeze blow soft an’ warm
Dry me face an’ foot an’ han.
Dis breeze don’t have no manners,
Dis breeze is much too bold,
Look how dis breeze lift up me skirt
And show me knickers to the world!
The Slime Takeover
Joseph Coelho
This poem explores the colour, texture and movement of slime.
Slipping, shimmering, stinking slime,
sloppy cerise or shades of scarlet sublime.
It sticks and sucks and spits and spools,
snaking slime slumping several school walls.
The slime swells, and stretches, and starts to sprout,
sliming several school halls as students scream and shout.
‘Scary Slime Subsumes Schools’,
say a slew of scandal sheets.
Their swan song headline
as the slime swallows scores of the city’s streets.
Ariel’s Song
William Shakespeare
This poem portrays the image of a man lying on the ocean floor.
Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes,
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea Nymphs hourly ring his knell.
Ding dong.
Hark, now I hear them.
Ding dong bell.
I am angry
Michael Rosen
This poem is an expression of the feeling of anger.
I am angry. really angry. angry, angry,
angry, angry. I’m so angry
I’ll jump up and down. I’ll roll on the ground
Make a din. Make you spin
Pull out my hair. Throw you in the air
Pull down posts. Hunt down ghosts
Scare spiders. Scare tigers
Pull up trees. Bully bees
Rattle the radiators. Frighten alligators
Cut down flowers. Bring down towers
Bang all the bones. Wake up stones
Shake the tiles. Stop all smiles
Silence birds. Boil words
Mash up names. Grind up games
Crush tunes. Squash moons
Make giants run. Terrify the sun
Turn the sky red. And then go to bed.
FromThe First Tooth
Mary and Charles Lamb
This poem explores an older sister’s envy towards her little brother.
Through the house what busy joy
Just because the infant boy
Has a tiny tooth to show!
I have got a double row,
All as white and all as small;
Yet no one cares for mine at all.
He can say but half a word,
Yet that single sound’s preferr’d
To all the words that I can say
In the longest summer day.
He cannot walk; yet if he put
With mimic motion out his foot,
As if he thought he were advancing,
It’s prized more than my best dancing.
Bertie Beaky
Claudine Toutoungi
This poem depicts life with a pterodactyl in the kitchen.
The pterodactyl in my kitchen
– Mr Beaky, if you please –
likes to skim around the ceiling,
likes to share a plate of cheese.
Mr Beaky is quite something
(though he very rarely sings).
He can play the concertina
with his creased-up, crooked wings.
And he’ll dive-bomb the recycling
to sort the plastic from the glass.
Mr Beaky is a marvel
of the very topmost class.
Group Introductory: Stage 3
The Both of Us
by Joshua Seigal
The Flibbit
by Kate Wakeling
The Months
by Sara Coleridge
The Both of Us
Joshua Seigal
This poem uses contrast to explore companionship and loneliness.
I used to be a butterfly
but now I’m just a slug.
I used to be a toothy grin
but now I’m just a shrug.
I used to be a rainforest
but now I’m just a tree.
It used to be the both of us
but now it’s only me.
I used to be an estuary
but now I’m just a brook.
I used to be a library
but now I’m just a book.
I used to be a sanctuary
but now I’m just a zoo.
It used to be the both of us
but now there isn’t you.
I used to be a dinosaur
but now I’m just a mouse.
I used to be a cityscape
but now I’m just a house.
I used to be a bakery
but now I’m just a bun.
It used to be the both of us
but now there’s only one.
I used to be a symphony
but now I’m just a note.
I used to be democracy
but now I’m just a vote.
I used to be Mount Everest
but now I’m just a stone.
It used to be the both of us
but now I’m all alone.
The Flibbit
Kate Wakeling
This poem portrays the antics of a mischievous and mysterious flibbit.
Here’s the thing about the flibbit,
as it’s time someone explained:
she’s quick as light and light as air,
with mischief on the brain.
When you’re sitting somewhere solemn
and it’s crucial you don’t sneeze,
she’s what tickles at your nostrils
(with her small and knobbly knees).
Or if you’ve put your shoes on
and are ready to step out
but find an itch between your toes,
well, reader, have no doubt:
it’s the flibbit, yes the flibbit,
minor mayhem is her mission,
she’s the overlord of awkward,
irritation’s top magician.
That tingle on your scalp you get
when someone mentions nits?
Mull no more, for in your hair
a certain someone sits.
It’s the flibbit, yes the flibbit,
who is fiddling with your follicles,
this flibbit loves the whipping up
of just such little obstacles.
She’s Ninja of the Niggle,
the nano nag you can’t ignore,
but take note: her naughty knack
is only nuisance, nothing more.
So if you find yourself in trouble
for a fretful sort of fidget,
remember just to answer:
NOT MY FAULT, IT WAS THE FLIBBIT.
The Months
Sara Coleridge
This poem presents a catalogue of the months of the year, each with unique qualities.
January brings the snow,
Makes our feet and fingers glow.
February brings the rain,
Thaws the frozen lake again.
March brings breezes loud and shrill,
Stirs the dancing daffodil.
April brings the primrose sweet,
Scatters daises at our feet.
May brings flocks of pretty lambs,
Skipping by their fleecy damns.
June brings tulips, lilies, roses,
Fills the children’s hand with posies.
Hot July brings cooling showers,
Apricots and gilliflowers.
