Christmas Quiz Week 7 (final Week)

At last I hear you all cheer this is the last for the Christmas author and poet quiz. Please get your entries into Mr Walker by December the 10th.

Poet 7

Author 7

Robin's Song

"This poem reminds me of my Nan because she loved robins"  Chosen by Keisha


Robins sang in England
Frost or rain or snow
All the long December days
Endless years ago.

Robins sang in England
Before the legions came
Before our English fields were tilled
Or England was a name.

Robins sang in England
When forests dark and wild
Stretched across from sea to sea
And Jesus was a child.

Listen! in the frosty dawn
From his leafless bough
The same brave song he ever sang
A robins singing now

Rodney Bennett

The Reading LIon Quiz Week 6

Getting very near the finish line now !

Week 6 Author

Week 6 Poet

Good Luck !

Aim High

An unusual way to display a poem !

What other shapes could be used to show a piece of work.

See
The
Sky
Now.
Aim
And
Fly!
There's so much
You can achieve
Just set your mind and focus
Don't let anything stand in your way
Because God has a divine plan for you
Look at the sky when in doubt,don't stop
For the sky is the limit and you can do it
You can do anything that you dream about
Just aim very high and accomplish anything
You desire,don't be afraid,just fly and then
(Soar)

Who did I grow up to be ?

The Reading Lion Christmas Quiz Week 5

No long to go now! Keep going!

Poet Week 5

Author Week 5

November

November is such a grey month this was thought appropriate. Thanks to Mr. Crumpton for the recommendation.

No sun--no moon!
No morn--no noon!
No dawn--no dusk--no proper time of day--
No sky--no earthly view--
No distance looking blue--

No road--no street--no "t'other side this way"--
No end to any Row--
No indications where the Crescents go--

No top to any steeple--
No recognitions of familiar people--
No courtesies for showing 'em--
No knowing 'em!

No travelling at all--no locomotion--
No inkling of the way--no notion--
"No go" by land or ocean--

No mail--no post--
No news from any foreign coast--
No Park, no Ring, no afternoon gentility--
No company--no nobility--

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member--
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds--
Movember!

Thomas Hood

5 Ways to Kill a Man.

This is a very provocative poem and as always we are interested in your opinion.

In Edwin Brocks own words:

“This poem was written after hearing for the first time Benjamin Britten called ‘The War Requiem’. It was one of those poems which wrote itself. I can remember quite distinctly sitting rather stunned at the end of ‘The War Requiem’, pulling out a piece of paper and starting to write and within a very short time, perhaps half an hour, the poem was written and I can’t remember that I ever changed a line”

There are many cumbersome ways to kill a man:

you can make him carry a plank of wood

to the top of a hill and nail him to it. To do this

properly you require a crowd of people

wearing sandals, a cock that crows, a cloak

to dissect, a sponge, some vinegar and one

man to hammer the nails home.

Or you can take a length of steel,

shaped and chased in a traditional way,

and attempt to pierce the metal cage he wears.

But for this you need two white horses,

English trees, men with bows and arrows,

at least two flags, a prince and a

castle to hold your banquet in.

Dispensing with nobility, you may, if the wind

allows, blow gas at him. But then you need

a mile of mud sliced through with ditches,

not to mention black boots, bomb craters,

more mud, a plague of rats, a dozen songs

and some round hats made of steel.

In an age of aeroplanes, you may fly

miles above your victim and dispose of him by

pressing one small switch. All you then

require is an ocean to separate you, two

systems of government, a nation’s scientists,

several factories, a psychopath and

land that no one need for several years.

These are, as I began, cumbersome ways

to kill a man. Simpler, direct, and much more neat

is to see that he is living somewhere in the middle

of the twentieth century, and leave him there.

Edwin Brock

The Reading Lion Christmas Quiz Week 4

It's week 4 so you should have nearly half the answers by now, just 3 more weeks after this !

Week 4 Author

Week 4 Poet

Remember if you've missed a week just click on the label  quiz to see the previous entries.

Dodger by Terry Pratchett

Dodger is an action packed book whick is a great read for 13+ year olds. I found this book a non-stop read from start to finish. It's a very understadable read and I had no problems following the plot. I would recommend this book to anyone with a taste for adventure,excitement and even romance.

Written by Oscar.

Ode to Autumn

Autumn in upon us now so what better poem to start the new term with.


Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

John Keats

Coraline

Neil Gaimans award winning book Coraline is ten years old and to celebrate Neil has chosen to create a video of himself and various friends reading chapters of the book. You may have seen the film and now wish to enjoy listening to the book, if so click on her name and be transported to the strange world of Coraline.

The Reading Lion Christmas Quiz Week 3

We hope everyone had a good break, here is the next author and poet for your competition entry.

Author 3

Poet 3
















If you have missed any questions so far you can click on the label at the right hand side marked quiz and see the previous questions.