This type of poem simply depends on finding a sound which produces a number of rhymes and then seeing what you can create out of them.
Learning Activity 1 Reading
Read the following poems and see how they are created from words that rhyme.
Here is a set of rhymes:
discuss, fuss, minibus, octopus, oesophagus Below is a little monorhyme made from them:
Now, please don’t make a fuss But get on the mini-bus And then we can discuss Both your dear octopus And my new oesophagus!
Here is another set of rhymes:
birthplace, briefcase, case, chase, face, Grace, trace
A monorhyme created from the rhyming words is as follows:
I was sure I knew that face:
It belonged to dear Grace.
But why did she chase The man with the briefcase?
So now we’d have to trace Her back to her birthplace.
It was a most difficult case.
Learning Activity 2 Writing
Make use of some of these rhymes to create your own little poems.
• brick, broomstick, chick, click, kick, lovesick, lunatic, pick, quick, sick, stick, thick, tick, trick
blink, drink, ink, link, pink, rink, shrink, sink, stink, think, wink, zinc
Andrew, bamboo, barbecue, blue, canoe, clue, crew, few, dew, due, flu, interview, kung fu, new, pooh, shampoo, shoe, Sue, threw, through, tissue, too, true, two, view, you, wu shu
boat, coat, devote, float, goat, note, promote, quote, throat, vote, wrote
ache, bake, brake, break, cake, earthquake, fake, heartbreak, lake, make, mistake, outbreak, shake, snake, steak, stomachache, take, wake
T94
Teacher’s Notes
If the words in the example poems are too challenging for students, teachers might like to consider replacing them with other rhyming words that are more accessible to students. For example,
“oesophagus” in the first poem could be replaced by “compass” or “platypus”. This would not affect the content much as the content of this type of poems is often amusing rather than serious.
Monorhyme writing could be a good activity for enhancing students’ fluency in writing as the focus is on rhyme and playfulness instead of meaning or organisation. Teachers might like to encourage students to be as creative as they can and write down whatever they can associate the rhyming words with.
T95
Narrative Poems
Learning Activity Reading and Speaking
There is a tradition in English of funny narrative poems for children. Here is one warning children to be obedient. Of course, it is not meant to be serious but to make young readers laugh.
Read the following narrative poem and answer the questions that follow.
Jim
There was a boy whose name was Jim;
His friends were very good to him.
They gave him tea, and cakes, and jam, And slices of delicious ham,
And chocolate with pink inside, And little tricycles to ride,
And read him stories through and through, and even took him to the zoo –
But there it was the dreadful fate Befell him, which I now relate. 1
You know – or at least you ought to know, For I have often told you so –
That children never are allowed To leave their nurses 2 in a crowd.
Now this was Jim’s especial foible 3, He ran away when he was able, And on this inauspicious 4 day He slipped his hand and ran away.
He hadn’t gone a yard 5 when – BANG!
With open jaws, a lion sprang, And hungrily began to eat The boy, beginning at his feet.
Now, just imagine how it feels
When first your toes and then your heels, And then by gradual degrees,
Your shins 6 and ankles, calves 7 and knees, Are slowly eaten, bit by bit.
No wonder Jim detested 8 it!
No wonder that he shouted ‘Hi!’
The honest keeper heard his cry, Though very fat, he almost ran To help the little gentleman.
‘Ponto!’ he ordered as he came (For Ponto was the lion’s name),
‘Ponto!’ he cried with angry frown,
‘Let go, sir! Down, sir. Put it down!’
The lion made a sudden stop, He let the tasty morsel 9 drop, And slunk reluctantly to his cage 10 Snarling 11 with disappointed rage.
The honest keeper’s eyes were dim.
The lion having reached his head, The miserable boy was dead.
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
T96
When nurse informed his parents, they Were more concerned than I can say: – His mother, as she dried her eyes, Said, ‘Well, it gives me no surprise, He would not do as he was told!’
His father, who was more self-controlled, Bade all the children round attend 12 To James’ miserable end,
And always keep a-hold 13 of nurse For fear of finding something worse.
Hilaire Belloc
45
50
1Befell him, which I now relate: happened to him as I now will tell
2nurses: nannies or maids taking care of the child
3foible: strange habit
4inauspicious: unlucky
5a yard: slightly shorter than a metre
6shin: bony side of lower leg
7calf: fleshy side of lower leg
8detested: hated
9morsel: snack
10moved slowly and unwillingly
11snarling: growling angrily
12Bade all the children round attend: told them to pay attention
13a-hold: hand-in-hand
The following questions look at how you would perform the poem. Think about tone, stress and drama in order to make the performance interesting.
1. How are the rhymes organised? ______________________________
2. How many syllables are there in the lines? ______________________
3. What is the purpose of the first verse?
(a) Sets __________________
(b) Introduces __________________
(c) Describes Jim’s __________________
4. Look carefully at the first verse. Would you change your reading tone anywhere in this verse and why?
_______________________________________________________________________________
5. Where would you put the strongest stress in the first line of the second verse and why?
_______________________________________________________________________________
6. The third verse has a lot of action. Explain what facial expressions and speed of reading you would use in the third verse.
Facial expression: ____________________
Speed: _________________ because _______________________________________________
T97 7. What is the tone of the fourth verse?
_______________________________________________________________________________
8. How upset are Jim’s parents? (Circle one) (a) Don’t care
(b) A bit upset (c) Are really upset
9. What effect does Jim’s parents’ reaction have for the listener?
_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
Teacher’s Notes
Students should be familiar with the terms rhyme and tone but they need to think about how they can change their voice and facial expressions to give an effective performance. It may help students to do this in pairs and then in groups so that they can share their ideas before the teacher goes over the answers with the whole class. Students need to be able to say why they chose their answers.
Learning Activity Reading and Speaking Suggested answers:
1. Rhyming couplets: a/a/b/b/c/c etc.
2. 7/8.
3. (a) Sets the scene (b) Introduces Jim
(c) Describes Jim’s lifestyle
It also shows Jim is a very lucky boy who should obey his parents. After reading the poem students might think he was spoilt and that is why he didn’t listen to his parents.
4. After an ordinary and joyous opening, the atmosphere becomes dramatic in the last two lines, which need a deeper and slower voice to add to the drama.
5. “Ought”, for emphatic purposes. Students may come up with different answers and they need to be able to say why they chose the word/phrase.
6. Facial expression: Grimace to express the grisly nature of a lion eating a boy.
Speed: Slow and with emotion so the listener can catch all the details and imagine the lion eating the boy. We should feel the horror of the boy being eaten.
After the loud surprise “BANG!” of the first line, the face needs to grimace like a lion while the voice becomes throaty and later almost hissing (“beginning at his feet”). Then a slower, careful and increasingly excited and terrible tone is needed to describe the boy’s being eaten bit by bit – the reciter may, however, have a grim smile on his face. A climax is reached with
“detested it”.
7. The fat man almost running and scolding the lion, with its silly name, as if it is a schoolboy, is comic/ineffectual.
8. They are not particularly upset (i.e. “a bit upset” should be circled) – only “concerned” – and the mother dries her tears very quickly. Jim deserves his end because of his behaviour and so sympathy is out of place.
9. His parents’ reaction may make readers feel sorry for Jim as they are only a bit concerned about Jim’s miserable death.
T98