A poet is a writer who uses verse to convey emotions.

A poem is a piece of writing that uses creative and rhythmic language to express thoughts, feelings or ideas.

Walter de la Mare is an English poet. His poetry often explores themes of imagination and fantasy.

Supernatural beings include gods, giants, magic and other mystical, ancient elements.

A stanza is a group of lines within a poem, often separated by line breaks. Stanzas contribute to a poem’s organisation and structure.

First impressions and engaging with '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

a writer who uses verse to convey emotions

writing that uses creative language to express thoughts

magic and other mystical, ancient elements

a group of lines within a poem, usually separated by breaks

can control how a reader engages with their work

guarantees all readers will understand their work in the same way

draws inspiration from the world around them

uses language to express themselves in a creative or artistic way

Which of the following is true of a poet?

True or False? Walter de la Mare wrote lots of poems with themes of the supernatural.

Which of the following are texts written by Walter de la Mare?

Match the following dates to the event that happened in Walter's life.

Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land on the Moon

Walter de la Mare lived from 1873 to 1956. Select the key historical events that he lived through.

Which of the following titles are likely to be poetry collections?

informational books that cover a wide range of topics

writing that uses creative & rhythmic language to express thoughts and feelings

traditional stories passed down through generations

True or False? A poem must be a certain length.

In poetry, what do we call a group of lines that form a unit in a poem?

central idea or message conveyed by the poem

evokes feelings and moods through language and tone

organised arrangement of lines, stanzas and verses

use of symbols to represent deeper meanings

correspondence of sounds, often at the end of lines

Match the poetry feature with its definition.

Which of the following are features you might expect to find in a poem?

Starter Quiz