Dr Bickley's series of five graded poetry anthologies POEMS TO ENJOY is a well-established tool for learning and teaching English at all levels. Useful notes and a teaching guide are included. The poems in Book 5 are grouped as Poems to Speak, Pictures in Poetry and The Poet as Storyteller. Among them are some which are traditional and timeless, as well as poems that inform us how children and adults thought at different periods of time, including at an earlier period of technological sophistication. As in this five-book anthology as a whole, individual poems in Poems to Enjoy: Book Five express and model many emotions - tenderness, amusement, admiration, wonder, sadness - and elicit many others - sympathy, concern. Some of the descriptive poems express and teach observation and appreciation of the human and natural worlds. The poems concern various topics which can be used for class or other discussion, written response, and/or personal consideration: Human Life; Mystic Experience; Love, devotion, loyalty, innocence, modesty, keeping a promise, providing for one's family; Sadness and nostalgia; The emotions provoked by war; the immorality of war; Politics and history; Repetitive work and the exploitation of the individual craftsman; Noise pollution; various Perspectives on the sea and life at sea in the days of sailing-ships (conveying also a variety of human inter-relationships, courage and also patriotism); Different perspectives on the simple life; Leisure activities; Descriptions and evaluations of a person or type of person and Lessons drawn from their behaviour with a variety of tone; Animals; Culture; Philosophy. A variety of Language use, Technique and Poetic Form is used. The Teaching and Learning Notes and Guide contain suggestions for choral arrangements; definitions and explanations of words and phrases; suggestions for illustration work and story-writing and questions for discussion. They also point at features such as Alliteration, Rhythm and Rhyme, Repetition, Description, Matching of form and subject and consider the varying constraints of Lyrics and Narrative poems, Sonnets, Blank verse. Some of the narrative poems have been well-known and popular for well over a hundred years (e.g. 'The Lady of Shallott'). 'How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix' describes what seems to be, but was not an actual historical event and some demonstrate a type of patriotism (e.g. 'Marching Along'). At least one of the narrative poems has a very direct moral: wickedness will be punished ('Bishop Hatto'). One of the poems in Book Five has been a favourite choice for poetry-speaking competitions for many decades because of its narrative line of subconscious wish-fulfillment, its use of assonance, alliteration, rhythm, the opportunities it gives for changes of pace, tone and mood, its communication of sensual emotions and the wonderful ending ('The Ice-Cart'). One poem cleverly links a description of the sun at different times of day with the lives of the people and creatures who live in a specific location ('An Indian Summer on the Prairie'). Another draws philosophy from a careful description of a tropical storm at sea ('Tropic Rain'). Taken as a whole, this group of five books is suitable for all students, teachers and parents. Book 5 can be used and enjoyed by those aged 14 or 15 or over. Students, parents, teachers and other adults will enjoy and find useful Dr Bickley's selection of poems as well as his very helpful reading and performance notes.
About the Author: VERNER BICKLEY, MBE, PhD, is a well-known "voice", educationist, and adjudicator, who has held director-level positions in Universities and Government Departments. He is Chairman of the English-Speaking Union (HK) and Co-Founder of the International Proverse Prize for unpublished writing. He travels frequently to judge public-speaking competitions and regularly adjudicates verse and prose speaking and reading, as well as drama and choral speaking.