Silver
ENGLISH WORKSHOP – Solutions
1. If you were asked to draw a detailed picture of the scene described in the poem, what objects, animals, natural features, etc. will you show in the picture? Make a list.
Objects: Casements (windows), kennel, silvery thatch (roof)
Animals: Dog, doves, harvest mouse, fish
Natural Features: Moon, silver trees, silver fruit, silver reeds, silver stream
(These are all mentioned in the poem and would create a silver-lit night scene.)
2. Write the rhyming words and the rhyme scheme of the poem.
Rhyming Words:
- Line 1: moon – shoon
- Line 2: peers – sees
- Line 3: catch – thatch
- Line 4: log – dog
- Line 5: peep – sleep
- Line 6: by – eye
- Line 7: gleam – stream
Rhyme Scheme: AABBCCDDEEFFGG
- (Each pair of lines rhymes, forming couplets: AA for lines 1-2, BB for lines 3-4, and so on.)
3. Underline the word silver/silvery in the poem. In which lines does it occur? What pattern does it show?
Lines where “silver” or “silvery” occurs:
- Line 2: “Walks the night in her silver shoon”
- Line 4: “Silver fruit upon silver trees”
- Line 6: “Her beams beneath the silvery thatch”
- Line 8: “With paws of silver sleeps the dog”
- Line 10: “Of doves in silver feathered sleep”
- Line 11: “With silver claws, and silver eye”
- Line 13: “By silver reeds in a silver stream”
Pattern: The word “silver” (or “silvery”) appears repeatedly, often twice in a line (e.g., lines 4, 11, 13), emphasizing how the moonlight bathes everything in a silver glow.
4. Can you think of a parallel scene of dawn or evening when everything is steeped in golden light?
- At dawn, the sun rises and spreads golden light everywhere. Trees and leaves shimmer with a golden hue, birds sing as they wake up, and the river sparkles like liquid gold. A dog might stretch in the warm light, and flowers open with a golden glow, creating a bright and cheerful scene, unlike the calm silver night in the poem.
5. The same landscape appears different at different times. What message can we draw from this?
- The message is that time and light change how we see the world. Just like the moon makes everything silver at night, the sun can turn it golden during the day. It shows that beauty and perspectives depend on the moment, teaching us to appreciate things in different ways at different times.
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