National
Poetry Day »
This year's poems
Four UK poets have shared their dream poems for NPD
2007; read their work here and download creative ideas for exploring the
poems in the classroom.
The teaching ideas for use with the poems were developed
by education consultant Cathrin Howells of Creative Contexts.
Scotland
About Jacob's Dream
There was a ladder, you see,
A ladder that reached from earth to heaven.
Was it a rope ladder? Did God drop it down from the sky?
What was it made of?
It was made of hope.
It was the longest, strongest ladder ever.
And there were angels climbing up and down it.
Angels? Why did they need a ladder? Didn't they have wings?
These were early angels. Wings came later.
But wouldn't the angels going up
Bump into the angels coming down?
Did some of them fall off?
No, no. They were nifty and skinny.
They were acrobatic angels. They could balance on a rung
with one foot without holding on. And they had such pretty feet!
What were they doing on earth?
Visiting friends.
Like who?
Like us. All of us.
But it was only a dream?
Asleep you see with different eyes. Maybe what you see
in dreams is just as true as what you see awake.
If I was God I'd give the angels an escalator.
Maybe there is one. Keep your dream eyes open.
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Download teaching ideas for 'About Jacob's Dream'
England
Lines
I must never daydream in schooltime.
I just love a daydream in Mayshine.
I must ever greydream in timeschool.
Why must others paydream in schoolway?
Just over highschool dismay lay.
Thrust over skydreams in cryschool.
Cry dust over drydreams in screamtime.
Dreamschool thirst first in dismayday.
Why lie for greyday in crimedream?
My time for dreamday is soontime.
In soontime must I daydream ever.
Never must I say dream in strifetime.
Cry dust over daydreams of lifetimes.
I must never daydream in schooltime.
In time I must daydream never.
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teaching ideas for 'Lines'
Northern
Ireland
From 'Lightenings' VIII
The Monks of Clonmacnoise
The annals say: when the monks of Clonmacnoise
Were all at prayers inside the oratory
A ship appeared above them in the air.
The anchor dragged along behind so deep
It hooked itself into the altar rails
And then, as the big hull rocked to a standstill,
A crewman shinned and grappled down the rope
And struggled to release it. But in vain.
'This man can't bear our life here and will drown,'
The abbot said, 'unless we help him.' So
They did, the freed ship sailed, and the man climbed back
Out of the marvellous as he had known it.
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teaching ideas for 'The Monks of Clonmacnoise'
Wales
The Water Horse
Sometimes when I’m sleeping
The sea taps on my door.
Soon the tide is lapping round me
And sand spreads on the floor,
And I am riding a white horse
In the breaking waves on the shore.
The moon shines on the water,
It silvers the wet sand,
And tonight I’m the sea’s daughter
And I know where dreams are found -
In a shell in a box in a secret cave
Where ships have gone aground.
My horse turns into ocean,
His muscle and his bones.
His breath is the wave’s commotion,
His hooves are shining stones.
His mane and tail are breaking foam
As white as cuttlebones.
Then my horse is lost in sea-wrack,
The tide goes out on the shore,
The treasure’s locked in the ship’s wreck
And my dream curls up with a snore
In a mussel shell on the windowsill,
And morning’s at the door.
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teaching ideas for 'The Water Horse'
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