Hi Everyone!! This article will share The English Lesson Explanation.
This poem is written by Richard Krogh. In my previous posts, I have shared the questions and answers The Stranger, Around The World in Eighty Days and The Echoing Green so, you can check these posts as well.
The English Lesson Explanation
In this poem, the poet brings forward the funny aspect of the language wherein the words having the same spelling except of the first letter vary in their pronunciation. The humour in the poem is how it can be a nightmare for the learners
Explanation
Stanza 1 & 2
“I take it……………………. sounds like bird.”
In the first two stanzas, the poet gives examples of words ending with ‘ough’ and yet have a different pronunciation. The poet is sure that others can hesitate but not you (learner), as you have become familiar to these traps by now. The part gives an example of the word ‘heard’ calling it a dreadful word as it sounds like bird and looks like beard.
Stanza 3 & 4
“And dead…………………………….. bear and pear.”
In the next to stanzas, the poet brings forward some more examples like ‘dead’ that rhymes with bed but it is not rhyming with ‘bead’. The poet has many words to highlight the funny aspect of the words like moth in mother, both in bother, etc. The spelling of dear and bear being the same produce different sounds.
Stanza 5 & 6
“And then there’s…………………………. at fifty-five!”
In the last two stanzas, the poet concludes the poem with more examples of words like cork and work, rose and lose, font and front etc. In the last line, the poet expresses his humour by saying that man is still alive by this dreadful language and moreover, started mastering it when he was just five.
So, this was The English Lesson Explanation.