The Early Purges Worksheet
The Early Purges Worksheet
Seamus Heaney
1
Name:
Section 1: Vocabulary
Word Meaning
Scraggy
Frail
Scraping
Din
Soused
Slung
Sluiced
Glossy
Sogged
Snared
Sentiment
Pest
1. Choose any five words and put them into sentences to show the
meaning of the word:
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Name:
6. What did Dan Taggart do with the kittens once they were dead?
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Section 3: Summarizing
Fill in the following grid (in your own words)to explain what is happening in
each stanza of the poem.
Stanza 1 The poet sees Dan Taggart throw kittens into a metal bucket.
Stanza 2
Stanza 3
Stanza 4
Stanza 5
Stanza 6
Stanza 7
P→POINT
Q→QUOTE
E→EXPLAIN
Name:
1. How does the small boy feel about the kittens dying?
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The Early ________ is a poem written by Seamus Heaney. This poem is mainly
told from the point of view of __________. It shows what life was like for
Heaney as a ___________. Heaney remembers an incident when he was
___________ and he watched “kittens drown”. After his first encounter with
death, Heaney is __________ by the cruelty shown to them by Dan Taggart. He
refers to them as “__________ wee shits”. He cannot understand how Taggart
can be so ___________. However as the poem progresses, Heaney is older and
___________ this as part of life on a farm.
Name:
1. A simile is when one thing is compared to another using the words ‘like’
or ‘as’.
Find one simile in the poem and write the quote here:
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2. Alliteration is when words close together in a poem start with the same
letter.
Find an example of alliteration in the poem and write the quote here:
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Section 7: Speech
The poem ends with the line: ‘on well- run farm pests have to be kept down’.
Write a speech in which you argue for or against this motion. Plan your speech
below first and ask yourself the following questions:
Rough Work
Name:
Speech:
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Name:
Section 8: Story-board
Complete the story board for the poem. You must include images and words.
Stanza 1 Stanza 2
Stanza 5 Stanza 6
Stanza 7
Name: