Editorial note

Nuria Smyth believes she learned the activity from Mario Rinvolucri, but the choice of the poem is hers.

1 Choose a poem that relates in some way to the subject of your lesson or module. Remove the first letter of each word, which then the students fill in, e.g.:

A beheading

_rite  _he  _irst  _etter  _f  _ach  _ord!

2 Ask the students to replace the first letters where they can.

 

Vegetarians

by Roger McGough

_egetarians  _re  _ruel,  _nthinking  _eople.
_verybody  _nows  _hat  a  _arrot  _creams  _hen  _rated.
_hat  a  _each  _leeds  _hen  _orn  _part.
_o  _ou  _elieve  _n  _range  _nsensitive
_o  _humbs  _ouging  _ut  _ts  _lesh?
_hat  _omatoes  _pill  _heir  _rains  _ainlessly?
_otatoes,  _kinned  _live  _nd  _oiled,
_he  _oil’s  _ittle  _obsters.
_on’t  _ell  _e  _t  _oesn’t  _urt
_hen  _eas  _re  _ipped  _rom  _he  _crotum,
_he  _ide  _layed  _ff  _prouts,
_abbage  _hredded,  _nions  _eheaded.

_hrow  _n  _he  _rowel
_nd  _ay  _own  _he  _oe.
_ow  _o  _ore
_et  _y  _eople  _o!

 

3 Let the students compare their answers and then check against the key.

Vegetarians

by Roger McGough

Vegetarians are cruel, unthinking people.
Everybody knows that a carrot screams when grated.
That a peach bleeds when torn part.
Do you believe an orange insensitive
to thumbs gouging out its flesh?
That tomatoes spill their brains painlessly?
Potatoes, skinned alive and boiled,
the soil’s little lobsters.
Don’t tell me it doesn’t hurt
when peas are ripped from the scrotum,
the hide flayed off sprouts,
cabbage shredded, onions beheaded.

Throw in the trowel
and lay down the hoe.
Mow no more
Let my people go!

 

4 Discuss the answers. Explain any unknown vocabulary.

5 Ask the students to look at the list of words and chunks and say what food or ingredients they can relate to:

grated

torn apart

bleed

gouging out the flesh

spill their brains

skinned alive

boiled

ripped from the scrotum,

hide flayed off

shredded

beheaded

6 Discuss the message of the poem. Do you agree with it?

 

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