Unseen Poetry

Read the poem below and then answer part (a) and part (b).

 

The Sea

The sea is a hungry dog.

Giant and grey.

He rolls on the beach all day.

With his clashing teeth and shaggy jaws

Hour upon hour he gnaws

The rumbling, tumbling stones,

And ‘Bones, bones, bones, bones!’

The giant sea-dog moans,

Licking his greasy paws.

And when the night wind roars

And the moon rocks in the stormy cloud,

He bounds to his feet and snuffs and sniffs,

Shaking his wet sides over the cliffs,

And howls and hollos* long and loud.

But on quiet days in May or June,

When even the grasses on the dune

Play no more their reedy tune,

With his head between his paws

He lies on the sandy shores,

So quiet, so quiet, he scarcely snores.

James Reeves

*’hollos’ : cries or calls used to attract attention or call encouragement

 

 

Part (a)

What picture of the sea do you think the poet creates in this poem?

 

and then Part (b)

 

How does the poet create this picture by the ways he writes about the sea? (18 marks