Think

Write

Look at the book cover and the title. On your own write down any predictions or feelings you might have about this novel. Share your thoughts with the rest of your table.

WarHorse

Aim: To begin to consider and explore the context of a novel

Quiz, Quiz, Trade

Walk around the room and pair up with someone. Ask them your question. Show them your question (while covering the answering) If they don t know try and help them Give them the answer. Other person asks (go through same steps) Swap cards.

The Blind, Obedient Dead

Their bones lie glistening on the veldt, their shoes are rusted red, They are gone where spur and rifle are at rest, Good dreams to all that legion of the blind, obedient dead! Good pasture in their islands of the blest! Knowing nothing of the combat, recking nothing if they won When the echoes of the last shot died away; They are dreaming of the far-off bush and creeks, and shade and sun, And the gallops at the breaking of the day. Did they wonder at the trumpet-call that urged them to the onset, And the harder, tenser hand upon the rein, Than the hand that held them steady for the station roofs at sunset, Or the girl across a dozen miles of plain?

When the purple dusk grows deeper, and the Four White Stars look down, And an eastern wind blows oversea from home; To their white bones, shining silver, from the bush and from the town, Does a sigh of dear remembrance never come? When the mob breaks through the timber, do the stockmen never sigh Do their hearts in idle pipe-dreams never yearn For our horses in their long sleep where we sent them out to die, To an exile past retrieval and return? The girls who tingled, waiting at the slip-rails, quick to hear The ring of hoofs at moonrise through the trees Will they waken for a moment from their love-sleep, with a tear For the silent hoofs at rest across the seas?

Their bones are glistening on the veldt, their shoes are rusted red, They are gone where spur and rifle are at rest. Good dreams to all that legion of the blind, obedient dead! Good pasture in their islands of the blest!

Questions
What is the fate of the horses in South Africa? If they could remember their New Zealand life, what might they recall of its pleasures? Why will the farmers and the girls miss them? What does the title mean? Which is the angriest line in the poem? What does the poem s title suggest? What, generally, does the poet think about the use of horses in war?