Description

Classic Poetry Assembly

Choosing just ten poems was the hardest part of this assembly as was choosing an excerpt from each. The reading of the poems in their entirety was not considered to be a viable option though this can, of course, be done – all poems in their entirety are provided. The assembly is thus very much a moveable feast – using as much or as little of the poems as works.

Cast of 30, Speakers (Child 1 – 29) plus Narrator

Duration: Around 15 minutes but this can easily be extended by (a) adding performance – whereby the lines of the poem could be acted out (b) adding lines of poetry (c) adding background information about the poets themselves.

Poems:

1.     If – Rudyard Kipling

2.     Smugglers Song – Rudyard Kipling

3.     The Listeners – Walter de la Mare

4.     The Highwayman – Alfred Noyes

5.     The Owl and the Pussycat – by Edward Lear

6.     Macavity the Mystery Cat – T.S. Elliot

7.     The Pied Piper of Hamelin – Robert Downing

8.     Night Mail – W.H. Auden

9.     Monday’s Child – Anon

10.  Waltzing Matilda – A.B. (Banjo) Paterson

Sample Text:

Whole cast:     Five and twenty ponies,
Trotting through the dark —
Brandy for the Parson,
Baccy for the Clerk;
Laces for a lady, letters for a spy,
And watch the wall, my darling,
While the Gentlemen go by!

Narrator:         (Shivering) Ooh! That sends goose bumps up and down my arms just listening to it! What an amazing piece of verse!

Child 22:          Dramatic, right? We loved the way you could almost feel you were there – at midnight, listening to the sound of the ponies, carrying contraband.

Child 23:          And that sinister warning about watching the wall

Narrator:         While the Gentlemen go by! (Pauses) Smugglers, right?

Child 24:          Right! And it was definitely the case that, the less you knew the safer you were!

Also Available off www.plays-r-ussell.com

The first five on the list:

1.     If – Rudyard Kipling

2.     Smugglers Song – Rudyard Kipling

3.     The Listeners – Walter de la Mare

4.     The Highwayman – Alfred Noyes

5.     The Owl and the Pussycat – by Edward Lear

plus

The Pied Piper of Hamelin – Robert Downing

are all available as separate assemblies as are collections of Nursery Rhymes.