Powerful Poetry!

This week, St. Agnes Class showed off their poetic skills to create this marvellous poem! Inspired by reading 'The BFG', they worked together with Mrs Parrott and Ms Bibbon to write a spectacular poem:

The children offered ideas for lines for the poem and we wrote them on strips of paper. We made sure that we included some similes, alliteration, interesting adjectives and powerful verbs. Then, we made a ladder with the strips of paper and moved them around until we felt that it was in the correct order. Next, we went through the editing process, changing a few words to improve the rhythm of the poem and adding punctuation where necessary. Our final job was to come up with the perfect title for the poem. 

Here is our wonderful (if a little gruesome!) final poem- we are very proud of it!

Nether Nightmare

I was having a gruesome nightmare,

Scary snakes slithering slowly,

Crocodiles munching like scarab beetles crunching.

Creepers exploding as they drag you through the screaming portal,

Revolting vampires gobbling people's disgusting brains,

Fire-shooting ghosts floating like hot air balloons through Nether.

Will I ever wake up?

By St. Agnes' Class

Can you spot any similes the children have used? Can you see any alliteration? 

Here are some excellent examples of poems that children in St. Agnes wrote on their own after our shared poem:

In Year 5 this week, we have also been writing poetry. We spent some time analysing William Blake's 'The Tyger'.

Source: nassrgrads

The children were able to identify some complex ideas demonstrated in the poem- they discussed Blake's use of metaphors and the connotations of the words he used and why he might have chosen particular combinations. We looked at the rhyme scheme, which led to some impressive linguistic detective work- we realised that the pronunciation of some words in English must have changed since 1794, when the poem was written.

Inspired by Blake, we wrote our own poem about a dangerous animal- the wolf:

Wolf, Wolf, Stalking Death

(After William Blake)

Are you sure you are as frightening as a yeti?

Wicked wolf, eyes piercing through the dark like fireflies illuminating the void,

Its bold grey-coated fur shining in the obscured moonlight,

Creeping silently, covered in pearl white snow, invisible to others,

The blood-thirsty phantom looming through the night forest,

Ravenous beast stalking his fated prey.

The powerful hound dancing with the wind,

Panting with mighty breath, as warm as the logs on the burning fire.

Death-defying animal from the wild, rapidly dashing through the haunted dark forest,

Rattling the sound barrier with its desperate howl,

Its hopeless prey crying out, like a baby without its mum, to its pack,

The blood-curdling beast cloaks its prey,

As fierce as a hyena, the wolf takes a pounce and grabs on with his claws.

Are you as deadly as a Widow Spider? 

By St. Clare's Class