Poems can be about everything and anything- and Walter Scott's short poems certainly are! In this selection of eight poems we meet a mermaid, and a young woman who doesn't want to wake up early; we read musings on luck, and a call to arms. Each poem is short, or is a short excerpt from a longer poem, and is accompanied by three understanding questions and one open-ended prompt, in order to support and encourage understanding of the poem. Thematic questions, which ask the students to find similarities between the poems, are provided separately and can be used as a stretch activity. These activities are most clearly linked to Literacy & English, including interpreting and analysing material, understanding and recognising literary techniques, and forming and sharing ideas and opinions.
- A note for Teachers (Word:short poems teachers notes WORD / PDF: short poems teachers notes PDF) contains a little context, answers to the questions (worksheet for pupils given below), questions which can be used as an extra activity, and a Word Bank which can be printed out and given to the pupils.
- This worksheet of poems and questions (available as both Word: Short Poems and Questions WORD and PDF: Short Poems and Questions PDF) contains excerpts of all eight poems, together with questions about these excerpts, is ready to be printed out and given to pupils.
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This work was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council Grant Number AH/V011111/1.
It is part of The Edinburgh Edition of Walter Scott's Poetry: Engaging New Audiences. It was developed by Dr Anna Fancett as part of the Walter Scott Research Centre at the University of Aberdeen with the support of Abbotsford, Scott's home in the Scottish Borders and The Association for Scottish Literature.
