As part of our Literacy unit on Narrative Poetry, Year 5 have been reading the poem entitled 'The Highwayman' by Alfred Noyes. This is a tale of love, tragedy, revenge, jealousy and betrayal.
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Firstly, we looked at the way that a highwayman dresses, in particular the hat and mask that were always worn to disguise their identity.
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We used a Story Sack in which had been placed items relating to the poem. There were examples of red velvet and some lace; pictures of Bess and Tim; photos of pistols, a rapier and of King George's soldiers. This experience helped us to understand the poem better.
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We looked very carefully at the figurative (descriptive) language used in the poem. We found examples of metaphors, similes, repetition, rhythm and rhyme.
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight, over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding-
Riding-riding-
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
We enjoyed some drama activities based on the text and wrote our own letters from Tim, the Ostler, to the highwayman. Why not come into 5V to see our display?
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We really enjoyed this work and look forward to our next unit of work on Poetry.
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