Preparatory 1 – Writing

Choose the best words

Read this poem about a snake and answer the questions below:

To the Snake

Green Snake, when I hung you round my neck

and stroked your cold, pulsing throat
as you hissed to me, glinting
arrowy gold scales, and I felt
the weight of you on my shoulders,
and the whispering silver of your dryness
sounded close at my ears —
Green Snake — I swore to my companions that certainly
you were harmless! 

Denise Levertov

1. Would you do what the poet does in the poem? Why/Why not?

2. What words or phrases does the poet use to describe:

(a) the sounds of the snake

(b) the colour of the snake

(c) the ‘feel’ of the snake

3. What powerful verbs does the poet use and what effect do they have on the reader?

4. What vivid adjectives does the poet use and what effect do they have on the reader?

5. Does the poet use any adverbs? Give an example of a sentence that includes an adverb that
you could add to the poem.
 Preparatory 1 – Writing

The P ___________
Parts of a Sounds and
Colours Body parts
tree movements
1. r___
1. s_______
2. y______
2. s_____ wings
3. g______ b_________
f______ 3. p________
_
4. b______
4. gracefully
_
5. g______
5. bright
New words and their meaning:

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other useful Sounds and The W___________

Colours Body parts
words movements

1. moon
1. s_____
2. night
1. s____
2. r___ s______
c____
s_____ 3. d_______
3. h______
2. f______
4. m_______
4. g_____
5. p____

New words and their meaning:

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 Preparatory 1 – Writing

other useful words Sounds and movements

The M____________
1. j____

2. a____

tree 3. s____
branches
alert 4. p_____ b_____
danger
tail 5. f_____

6. p_____ fruit
New words and their meaning:
7. c_______

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verbs nouns adjectives adverbs

The D___________
t ___________ w______ s________ gracefully

d___________ f______ p_______

s___________ t________ s___________

_
o_______ p__________
s___________
s_________
_

New words and their meaning:

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 Preparatory 1 – Writing

Choose one of the animals from the previous to pages and write a poem about it. You can give it the
title, ‘To the Parrot/Wolf/Monkey/Dolphin.’ Use the words you learned in the lesson and Levertov’s
poem to help you.

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After you write your poem, fill in the table below:

My feedback: A peer’s feedback:

(Yes / No) (Yes / No)
I have used interesting words to
describe sounds.
I have used interesting words to
describe movement.
I have described my feelings
about the animal.

General comment to your peer (1 thing you liked and 1 thing they could improve.)
I liked that _______________________________________________________________
I think you could _______________________________________________________________