Please download the poem and either print out your answer and hand it to me in hardopy on the 28th September or send the softcopy to my email address prss.jumiah@gmail.com
Read this poem carefully,
and then answer the questions that follow it.
Bird in the Classroom by Colin Thiele
|
The
students drowsed and drowned
In
the teacher’s ponderous monotone –
Limp
bodies looping in the wordy heat,
Melted
and run together, desks and flesh as one,
Swooning
and swimming in a sea of drone.
|
5
|
|
Each
one asleep, swayed and vaguely drifted
With
lidding eyes and lolling, weighted heads,
Was
caught on heavy waves and dimly lifted,
Sunk
slowly, ears ringing, in a syrup of his sound,
Or
borne from the room on a heaving wilderness of beds
|
10
|
|
And
then, on a sudden, a bird’s cool voice
Punched
out song. Crisp and spare
On
the startled air,
Beak-beamed
Or
idly tossed,
Each
note gleamed
Like
a bead of frost
|
15
|
|
A
bird’s cool voice from a neighbour’s tree
With
five silver calls – mere grains of sound
Rare
and neat
Repeated
twice…
But
they sprang the heat
Like
drops of ice.
|
20
|
|
Ears
cocked, before the comment ran
Fading
and chuckling where a wattle stirred,
The
students wondered how they could have heard
Such
dreary monotones from man,
Such
wisdom from a bird.
|
25
|
(i)
What
impressions do you form of the teacher and students in the poem?
(ii)
How
does the poet make the scene vivid for you in the poem?
Support your answer by close reference to the words and
images that he uses.
