Teacher's notes
This creative writing exercise is based on The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier, set in Warsaw. The exercise involves:

1. text manipulation
2. an examination of imagery
3. the differences between poetic and narrative form.

Look at an extract of narrative that begins in Chapter 4 of the novel with the sentence:

It took Joseph four and a half weeks to walk to Warsaw.

Continue to the sentence:

Never had Joseph seen railway lines gleam as these did - eight lines of polished steel along which, day and night, the busy trains poured.

• Involve the pupils in highlighting all the descriptive language, imagery and adjectives.
• Delete the rest of the text.
• Experiment with adopting a suitable form for this imagery in an attempt to create a piece of poetry evoking images of war-torn Warsaw.
• Encourage pupils to add their own words or phrases, to experiment with alliteration and possibly consider a final contrasting stanza of hope (sprouting tree) or simply contrast (gleaming railway).

A poem written by a Year 8 pupil

WARSAW

Bleak and silent as the craters of the moon.

Warsaw, Warsaw

Crumbling walls, tracks of rubble

Leading nowhere.

People wandering, pale and hungry eyed

Digging caves in the rubble.

Warsaw, Warsaw.

In the ruins, a purple crocus

Signaling a kind of hope.

Warsaw, Warsaw.