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Geography Lesson
Brian Patten
About Brian Patten
Brian Patten (b 1946) was born in Liverpool and grew up in a working class neighbourhood. His first collection of poems was Little Johnny's Confessions, published when he was twenty one years old. Patten is also well known for his best-selling poetry collections for children most famously Gargling with jelly (1985) and Juggling with Gerbils (2000) from which this poem has been taken.
Our teacher told us one day he would leave
And sail across a warm blue sea
To places he had only known from maps,
And all his life had longed to be.
The house he lived in was narrow and grey
But in his mind's eye he could see
Sweet-scented jasmine clinging to1 the walls,
And green leaves burning on an orange tree.
He spoke of the lands he longed to visit,
Where it was never drab2 or cold.
I couldn't understand why he never left,
And shook off the school's stranglehold.
Tien halfway through his final term
He took ill and never returned.
He never got to that place on the map
Where the green leaves of the orange trees burned.
The maps were redrawn on the classroom wall;
His name forgotten, he faded away3.
But a lesson he never knew he taught
Is with me to this day.
l travel to where the green leaves burn,
To where the ocean's glass-clear and blue,
To places our teacher taught me to love--
But which he never knew.
Available Answers
- 1.
Complete the following:
- The teacher talks about _________________________.
- The teachers's house was _______________________.
- The speaker couldn't understand why ______________.
- Halfway through the final exam ___________________.
- 2.
But in his mind's eye he could see
Sweet-scented jasmine clinging to the walls,- Who is he in the above lines?
- What do you understand by the mind's eye?
- How was what he saw different from his routine life?
- 3.
I couldn't understand why he never left,
And shook off the school's stranglehold.- Where does he want to go?
- Why do you think he never left?
- What does stranglehold mean?
- 4.
But a lesson he never knew he taught
Is with me to this day.- What was the lesson that he taught?
- Why does he not know what he taught?
- How is the lesson still with the speaker?
- 5.
When the maps were redrawn, do you think the speaker really forgot his teacher?
- 6.
Do you think the speaker's teacher taught him a valuable lesson? Justify your answer.
Comments
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16 Mar 2023Rohan C.e
16 Mar 2023Rohan C.