Iron Man

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 1

IRON MAN

Ted Hughes

The Iron Man came to the top of the cliff. How far had he walked? Nobody knows.

Where did he come from? Nobody knows. How was he made? Nobody knows.

Taller than a house, the Iron Man stood at the top of the cliff, on the very brink, in the darkness.

The wind sang through his iron fingers. His great iron head, shaped like a dustbin but as big as a bedroom, slowly turned to the right, slowly turned to the left. His iron ears turned, this way, that way. He was hearing the sea. His eyes, like headlamps, glowed white, then red, then infrared, searching the sea. Never before had the Iron Man seen the sea.

What does Brink mean?

Vocabulary

Try and guess the following words.

Read the sentence with the word in it and see if you can guess what the word means?

BRINK
Taller than a house, the Iron Man stood at the top of the cliff, on the very brink, in the darkness.

SCATTERED
The Iron Man lay scattered far and wide, silent and
unmoving.

PEERED
The eye peered out, between the
forefinger and thumb. Now the hand could see.

Personification 

is when you give an animal or object qualities or abilities that only a human can have. 

Personification is what writers use to bring non-human things to life. It helps us better understand the writer's message.

Where is the personification?
page 3

He swayed in the strong wind that pressed against his back. He swayed forward, on the brink of the high cliff.

And his right foot, his enormous iron right foot, lifted - up, out into space, and the Iron Man stepped forward, off the cliff, into nothingness.

CRRRAAAASSSSSSH!

Down the cliff the Iron Man came toppling, head over heels.

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!

From rock to rock, snag to snag, tumbling slowly. And as he crashed and crashed and crashed.

His iron legs fell off.

His iron arms broke off, and the hands broke off the arms.

His great iron ears fell off and his eyes fell out.

His great iron head fell off.

Which onomatopoeia is used?

What does the verb sway mean?

Alliteration 

happens when words that start with the same sound (not just the same letter) are used repeatedly in a phrase or sentence. 

The sound is usually a consonant and the words don't have to be right next to one another.

Come and clean the chaos in your closet.

All the separate pieces tumbled, scattered, crashing, bumping, clanging, down on to the rocky beach far below.

A few rocks tumbled with him. Then

Silence.

Only the sound of the sea, chewing away at the edge of the rocky beach, where the bits and pieces of the Iron Man lay scattered far and wide, silent and unmoving.

Only one of the iron hands, lying beside an old, sand-logged washed-up seaman’s boot, waved its fingers for a minute, like a crab on its back. Then it lay still.

While the stars went on wheeling through the sky and the wind went on tugging at the grass on the cliff top and the sea went on boiling and booming.

Find a personification and

an alliterationan                                                                                    and onomatoepieas

 

Then the other gull flew up, wheeled around and landed and picked something up. Some awkward, heavy thing. The gull flew low and slowly, dragging the heavy thing. Finally, the gull dropped it beside the eye. This new thing had five legs. It moved. The gull thought it was a strange kind of crab. 

page 5
Find a personification and
an alliteration

They thought they had found a strange crab and a strange clam. They did not know they had found the Iron Man’s eye and the Iron Man’s right hand.

But as soon as the eye and the hand got together, the eye looked at the hand. Its light glowed blue. The hand stood up on three fingers and its thumb, and craned its forefinger like a long nose. It felt around. It touched the eye. Gleefully it picked up the eye, and tucked it under its middle finger. The eye peered out, between the forefinger and thumb. Now the hand could see.

It looked around. Then it darted and jabbed one of the gulls with its stiffly held finger, then darted at the other and jabbed him. The two gulls flew up into the wind with a frightened cry.

Slowly then the hand crept over the stones, searching. It ran forward suddenly, grabbed something and tugged. But the thing was stuck between two rocks. The thing was one of the Iron Man’s arms. 

What does gleefully mean?
What kind of word is it?

1. triumphantly happy Adverb
2. Carefully Adverb
3. triumphantly happy Adjective
4. cautious verb

what does darted and jabbed mean?

1. small arrow / poke
2. Move or run somewhere suddenly or rapidly / stab
3. Move or run somewhere suddenly or rapidly/ poke

TO AND FRO - IMMENSE
They watched the immense man striding to and fro over the rocks below

Similes

A simile makes a comparison showing similarities between two things using the word like and as:

He was as white as a ghost

Our soldiers were as brave as……………………

Her cheeks were as red as ……………………...

He is as funny as a ……………………………

The water well was as dry as…………………………….

They fought like……………………………………..

lions

monkey

cats and dogs

a bone

a rose

At last the hand left the arm and went scuttling hither and thither among the rocks, till it stopped, and touched something gently. This thing was the other hand. This new hand stood up and hooked its finger round the little finger of the hand with the eye, and let itself be led. Now the two hands, the seeing one leading the blind one, walking on their fingertips, went back together to the arm, and together they tugged it free. The hand with the eye fastened itself on to the wrist of the arm. The arm stood up and walked on its hand. The other hand clung on behind as before, and this strange trio went on searching.

An eye! There it was, blinking at them speechlessly beside a black and white pebble. The seeing hand fitted the eye to the blind hand and now both hands could see. They went running among the rocks. Soon they found a leg. They jumped on top of the leg and the leg went hopping over the rocks with the arm swinging from the hand that clung to the top of the leg. The other hand clung on top of that hand. 

hither and thither

what does it mean?

Open your readers

Find words you don't understand

and mark them in the reader

Together we'll translate them!

To your books!

Make exercise 1 & 3