Reading for understanding

TASK: Read "Bell-birds" by nineteenth century Australian Kenry Kendall, and answer the questions with quotations. The 25 marks are noted in brackets.

1. What is the poet saying? (3)

2. What images can you pick out? Are they connected? How? (4)

3. Find two examples of hyerbole. (2)

4. Quote two examples of personification. (2)

5. Quote three examples of alliteration. (3)

6. The poet speaks in his own voice in the last fifth stanza. How does he finish or apply the observations made earlier? (3)

7. What is the tone/atmosphere of the poem? Explain and quote. (3)

8. Supply its rhyme scheme / pattern. (1)

9. Some months are mentioned: September, May, December. Why? (2)

10. Give your opinion of the poem. While it is merry with rhyming with a regular beat, how does the beauty of the bush liven up his own sadness? Does this work for you? (4)

1.Kendall looks with nostalgia to a sweeter time in childhood when the bell-birds gave him comfort. They lead the lost traveller to safety, they endure hardships and yet continue to sing. It is a celebration of the beauty of the Australian fauna and flora as was common in the time before federation (1901).

2.Waterfalls in gorges, hidden boweries in the bush, rain and sunbeams mingling, dripping rocks gleam, leafy pools glisten, mosses and sedges in hidden ledges, fiery December bushfires and heat in the bush. Yes they all recollect the beauties of the bush as distinct from the streets and alleys of the cities.

3.Light is love to the flowers, birds hide with their fear, waters unkissed by the summer.

4.October is like a golden haired maiden sitting in the cool quiet rock pools, Fiery December sets foot in the forests,

5.Woodlands have warning, channels of coolness, softer than slumber, running and ringing, feathers unfolden, sunbeams shine, sing in September, bell-birds.

6.His childhood was mixed with the sounds of the bell-birds in the bush. He finishes his observations with the nostalgic note that he still gets comfort from those memories. They charm and numb his present losses.

7.The poem creates charm about the tinkling of the unseen bell-birds in the bush. They live where the bush is most wilderness ,"wildwood" and they act like its enlightening spirits and its enduring guardians. The voices of the bbs "direct him to spring and to river" whereby travellers may find passage to safety.

8. The poem's metric pattern is four rhyming couplets: aa, bb, cc, dd

9.The bell-birds are there all the time, not migratory birds, inhabiting as native birds. They bring September joy (spring tunes to wintry May), and they live through thunder and lightning and fiery December too.

10. The rhythm and rhyme are enjoyable and very fluent making the poem a pleasure to read. There are some quite memorable lines. It is a quaint celebration of the Australian bush and reminds us it has its own beauty. So far somehow the bell-birds do endure in Australians southern parts despite man's exploitation.Not having those childhood memories myself unfortunately I can only try to relate to his joy in the b-bs.

Author: © G Smith 2006

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