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

"Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight"

“Fell echoing through the shadowiness”

"Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes"

Select the lines from 'The Listeners' which best match to auditory sense.

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’?

"a host of phantom listeners that dwelt in the lone house"

Which of the following descriptions are used to describe the outside of the house?

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**?

Match the following information from the poetry collection below.

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?

Exit Quiz