A theme is a central idea that the poet intends the audience to engage deeply with.

Imagery involves the use of vivid and sensory language to create vivid mental pictures, enhancing the emotional impact of a poem.

To justify means to show or prove something using evidence.

A sensory chart is a table where readers can note down sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and textures in a poem.

Identifying key themes in 'The Listeners' by Walter de la Mare

English

'The Listeners: reading’ has language that is antiquated, requiring contextual knowledge and several strategies to decode. ’Sherlock Holmes: descriptive and letter writing’ contains language of the Victorian era. The reading sessions develop these skills further.

In 'The Highwayman: narrative writing’ pupils will have explored a narrative poem, and written outcomes based on it. In ’The Listeners: reading’ pupils will read and respond to a narrative poem, developing reading strategies and examining language and structure.

In this unit, pupils read and respond to the poem, 'The Listeners' by Walter de la Mare. They learn about the poet and examine the structure and language in the poem. Finally, pupils explore the imagery used and the key themes from the poem.

'The Listeners': reading

Which words from 'The Listeners' appeal to the sense of sight?

True or False? The narrative of the poem 'The Listeners' by Walter de la Mare is fully resolved at the end.

an idea that the poet intends the audience to engage with

the use of sensory language to create mental pictures

to show or prove something using evidence

is a table where readers can note down sensory information

Which of the following are themes that could be justified within the poem ‘The Listeners’?

when two adjectives are used to describe a noun

speech that compares two different things using the words 'like' or 'as'

when a line in poetry continues onto the next line without pause or punctuation

repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words

What is a possible definition of the poetic term, **enjambment**?

The angry storm pounded on the roof all night.

Her mind was a busy beehive, full of ideas.

Her smile was as bright as sunlight on water.

Match the following poetic features to their examples.

True or False? Alliteration is when words start with the same letter and have to be next to one another.

Which of the following are examples of poetic devices?

Which of the following is an example of personification?

Starter Quiz