Term 1 - Hoërskool Hans Moore

A Newly-Born Calf
- Oswald Mtshali
A newly-born calf
is like oven-baked bread
steaming under a cellophane cover.
The cow cuts
The shiny coat
as a child would
lick a toffee
with tongue as pink as
the sole of a foot.
The calf sways on legs
filled with jelly and custard
instead of bone and marrow;
and it totters
to suck the teats
of its mother’s udder.
English Home Language
Gr 9 Poetry – Term 1
Questions:
1.1 How many similes are there in this poem?
1.2 Write each simile down.
2. The new-born calf is born in a thin see-through cover.
How does the cow help it get out of this cover?
3.1 Are the calf’s legs actually filled with jelly and custard?
3.2 Why do you think the poet has said they are?

Going Up Going Down
- Nibor Nalam
In the big city
In the shopping malls
High tall buildings
Father calls skyscrapers
We’re off to play the lifts
First get past the security guards
Duck and dive and slither past!
The ones I like best
Are the fish-bowl ones
That slide up and down on the outside
You can see everyone
And everyone can see you
Security guards too
But they can’t catch you
Because up you shoot
Fast!
opsh!
o
o
o
o
Who
Where’s my stomach gone?
Then push Ground again and
Ker
d
o
o
o
oink!
Stomach’s down in my boots
Let’s go and try another one
Wait, first get my
S a
c H T
o m
back
h c a
S T O M
In its

S O A h
T m c
usual
s t o m a c h
place.
Questions:
1. The shape of this poem shows movement.
1.1 What is moving?
1.2 How is it moving?
2. The word “stomach” is scrambled up three times before it is spelt correctly.
Why?
3. A shape poem is a poem that has the same shape as the thing it describes.
Try to write your own shape poem.

Days
- Michele Friend
wednesday is dreamday
dullday tiredday
need a holiday
thinking of Saturday
saturday is stanleyday
townday dateday
needed a funday
thinking of Sunday
sunday is sleepday
beachday eatday
needed a coolday
thinking of schoolday
Questions:
1. Find an example in the poem of alliteration using a “d” sound.
2. Do you prefer listening to poetry or reading it? Why?
3. What are the differences between reading poetry silently and speaking it out loud?

One Day
- Tyrone August
i’m going to
pick up
all the commas
and semi-colons
and full stops
i’ve ever used
roll them up
with all
the brackets
and hyphens
and colons
and all the
question marks
and inverted commas
and apostrophes
and throw
them all out again
as one big
exclamation mark
Questions:
1.1 List all the punctuation marks that are mentioned in this poem
1.2 Write a use for each punctuation mark.
1.3 Write your own sentence, showing how each punctuation mark should be
correctly used.
2. What do you find most difficult about learning a language?
3. Why do you think the poet has not used any capital letters within the poem?