The first poem that I would recommend to the year sevens next year is “The Lesson”. This poem has lots of humour in it and brutality, which I would think many year sevens, would love. “The lesson” is about a class that is quite crazy and really annoys their teacher. The teacher then one day comes into class and starts brutally killing the children. This poem is probably aimed at young children
or maybe teachers as well. The poems sequence is couplets because each stanza has two lines that rhyme. Weaved into the fun and humour in this poem are the numerous language techniques used to convey various things about the poem. The first line I’d like to concentrate on is ‘then sword in hand he hacked his way’. The first thing you would notice is the alliteration with the letter ‘h’. This gives us an aural image of his sword swinging through the air when it makes that noise. If you look at this line closely, you would notice that it says ‘hacked’. This gives us an image of a jungle where a man is hacking his way through the jungle. In addition, the class is a bit like a jungle with the naughty kids and dysfunctional teacher. Personification is used when the poem says ‘silence shuffled forward [with its hands up in the air’. This line is near the end of the poem when all the students are dead. This signifies that everyone is surrendering and silence is all that is left of the class.
The next poem I would recommend to the year sevens next year is ‘The Man From Snowy River’. This is a classic poem that I have heard of ever since my childhood. Many people would have been down to the snowy mountains and the snowy river so they can easily relate to the poem. This poem is a big part of Australian heritage and the poet, Banjo Patterson wrote Waltzing Matilda. The main plot of this poem is a bunch of Australians going to capture a horse that has been lost. This poem for the year sevens would be a great poem for them to read. All Australians should know it. This poem however does not have as many writing techniques at all. It is more telling a story. This poem however has some superb visual imagery. When it is describing the Snowy mountains you can really imagine it, even if you have never been there before. The purpose of this poem is probably to give a very descriptive explanation of the beautiful snowy river as described in the poem. It also gives people from different countries a brief description about us. It used in colloquial language so every Aussie can relate to it.
Both these poems i have enjoyed a lot and i can bet that a lot of year sevens next year will enjoy them just as much as I did. One of them is weaved with various language techniques and one is a classic Aussie poem. Both would be enjoyed by year sevens next year a great deal.