English for Life Reader Grade 8 Home Language. Elaine Ridge
and invent words to echo them.
| Pre-reading | |
| 1. | Have you ever had to wait for someone who is not there on time? How did you feel about it? Did you have any doubts? |
| During reading | |
| 2. | One line is used as a kind of refrain (“Why doesn’t she come?). What purpose does it serve? |
Why doesn’t she come?
A.P. Herbert
Why doesn’t she come?
I know we said eight
Or was it half-past?
That clock must be fast
Why doesn’t she come?
She’s ten minutes late,
I’ll sit by the door
And see her come in;
I’ve brought her a rose.
I’ve borrowed a pin.
I’ll be very severe,
I’ll tell her, ‘My dear
You mustn’t be late.’
It’s a quarter-past eight.
Why doesn’t she come?
Why doesn’t she come?
This must be the place.
She couldn’t forget,
Or is she upset?
Why doesn’t she come?
Am I in disgrace?
Oh, well if it’s that,
We were both in the wrong
I’ll give her the rose
And say I was wrong.
I’ll give her a kiss
And tell her I’m sorry –
‘I’m terribly sorry …’
Why doesn’t she come?
Perhaps she is ill –
I fancied last night
Her eyes were too bright –
A feverish chill?
She’s lying in bed –
She’s light in the head
She’s dying – she’s dead!
Why doesn’t she come?
Why doesn’t she come?
She’s tired of me – eh!
I’ve noticed a change;
Last night she looked strange.
So this the end?
Why couldn’t she say?
Well, never again!
She needn’t explain.
I know who it is –
I know who it is!
I’ve done with her now
Why doesn’t she come?
Why doesn’t she come?
It’s nearly half past.
Well, never again!
I’ll send her the rose,
I won’t say a word,
Just send her the rose –
She’d laugh I suppose!
A flirt and a fraud!
I’ll travel abroad.
I’ll go to the East;
I’ll shoot a wild beast,
And now for a drink,
I’ll have a stiff drink –
A brandy I think –
And drown myself in it.
I’ll shoot myself? … Oh
How I loved her! … Hul-lo!
What? LATE? Not a minute!
| Post-reading | |
| 3. | Think of some suitable words to describe how the man feels as he waits for his friend/beloved. |
| 4. | What signs are there that he is becoming increasingly desperate? |
| 5. | His imagination takes over! List five of the reasons he gives for her lateness and comment on how reasonable they are or are not. |
| 6. | Say where the climax occurs and why it is amusing. |
| 7. | How does the poet highlight the speaker’s desperation? |
| Pre-reading | |
| 1. | What is an inventor? In your view, what makes an invention good? Use an example to show what you mean. |
| During reading | |
| 2. | What do you expect the poem to be telling us about Uncle Dan? While you are reading the poem, decide what the speaker’s attitude to his uncle is. |
Uncle Dan
Ted Hughes
My Uncle Dan’s an inventor, you may think that’s very fine,
You may wish he was your Uncle instead of being mine –
If he wanted to he could make a watch that bounces when it drops,
He could make a helicopter out of string and bottle tops
Or any really useful thing you can’t get in the shops.
But Uncle Dan has other ideas:
The bottomless glass for ginger beers,
The toothless saw that’s safe for the tree,
A special word for the spelling bee
(Like Lioncerangoutangadder),
Or the roll-uppable rubber ladder,
The mystery pie that bites when it’s bit –
My Uncle Dan invented it.
My Uncle Dan sits in his den inventing night and day.
His eyes peer from his hair and beard like mice from a load of hay.
And does he make the shoes that will go walks without your feet?
A shrinker to shrink instantly the elephants you meet?
A carver that just carves from the air steaks cooked and ready to eat?
No, no, he has other intentions –
Only perfectly useless inventions:
Glassless windows (they never break)
A medicine to cure the earthquake
The unspillable screwed-down cup,
The stairs that go neither down nor up,
The door you simply paint on a wall –
Unce Dan invented them all.