Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Poetry - Television by Roald Dahl

Sit back and enjoy this Roald Dahl poem called "Television".  

The first version has been made by a student and the filming follows the words and images in the poem.  The second version shows the pages of a picture book, which will probably be useful for answering the final question below.








What are your first impressions of the poem? What do you like or dislike? How do your impressions change on your second viewing?


Do you agree with Dahl? Why? Why not?


I love the words that  Roald Dahl use in his writing, this is one of my favorite parts of the poem 


"In that "ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean,
Repulsive television screen!" . 


I really like the way he chooses such strong words, and lists adjectives to emphasise his point.  
Which part of the poem do you like best and why?

22 comments:

  1. Hey Everyone,
    When I first saw the title of this poem I thought it was going to be promoting Television, but I guess Roald Dahl doesn't like Television. I think he's written a great poem with very fair (and true) claims about how mesmerizing a Screen can be. It's true you don't notice much else when stuck in a show, but Television can also be educating. With things like The Weather, road closures, store sales, events, and other things. I don't think we can learn EVERYTHING from books, but they do teach us a lot. I enjoyed the First Viewing the most because you could actually see how weird you look staring at a T.V. I also liked it because it wasn't just the words and such.

    That's it from me,

    Jacob

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello everybody!

    I personally LOVE this poem. I think it is very realistic and practical, though the way words are strung together aren't. And I mean this is a good way, as it kept me interested. I loved the way they rhymed, but still made sense.

    I agree with Roald Dahl mostly. I still think the television helps us learn about current events round the world, but it also gives us comedy. Real comedy. I believe books don't give us that real feeling, like in your heart you know it isn't true. But with T.V you see it is possible, with people doing it.

    But I also think books are important. They share eents of history, one of the most common forms of telling us what happened back then. Writng on walls. In caves. In scripts. I also think books are good for fun and adventure, as you can make the characters do whatever you want. Books are helpful for people who haven't really unlocked their creativity yet (Because every body has at least one creative bone in their body, maybe a rainbow coloured bone) as it gives them a sense of how you can make characters.

    Did you like it?

    Bye!
    Paris ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey.

    I mostly agree with Roald Dahls point of view. I think that watching T.V all the time is bad for you, although this may not be the case depending on the show you are watching. I also don't think that parents would benifit from taking the telivision set away, because parents also like to watch T.V, and the children would NOT start to thank them, like it says in the poem. The children might eventually start to accept life without a T.V, but they would not ever say "thankyou" to their parents for throwing it out, especially not if they cared as much about the T.V as the children in the video did.

    I really liked how Roald Dahl made the poem rhyme and it was very entertaining to listen to. I liked how he was arguing a point while still making it funny.

    My favourite phrase from the poem is
    "NEVER NEVER let
    them near you telivision set,
    or better yet just don't install
    the idiotic thing at all"
    I like this the best because he makes it sound so obvious and funny.

    Anika.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi,
    My first impressions are that Roald Dahl and other people like him dont like our generation sitting on the couch with every spare moment we get. I like how it uses lots of words that we wouldn't normally use. My impressions didn't really change with the second viewing because it gives you the same message. My favourite bit was when it said " They ... Used ... To ... Read! They'd read and read and read and read, and then proceed to read some more. Great Scot! Gadzooks! One half of their lives was reading books!
    I like this bit because it is very repetitive.

    Henry

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi,
    I thought the poem was going to be about television, not a persuasive poem about why not to watch it. I like the rhymes in the poem, I think it makes it more effective. I liked the first video better then the second because you could hear it and see it happening so you didn't get confused. Television isnt good if you watch to much but i think you can watch some because you could watch a documentary or a how to video. I like the parts that rhyme like, They lol and slop and lounge about, and stare until their eyes pop out. It was an effective poem.

    Nina

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi guys
    I liked the poem because when i saw the name the first thing that popped in my head is about television also i like it because it has rhyming i just think think that rahal doal doesn't like television much i don't agree with him what he is trying to say is to read more books than television

    Kris

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi everyone
    When I watched this video I thought it wouldn't amuse me but it did and it reminded me of a video I watched a couple weeks ago.Its about looking up from your phone and doing things that are probably happening and might miss out on things that could change your life and that what that video reminded me of.

    Thanks for reading.

    levi.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds like an interesting video Levi, TV definitely stops you from looking up at what is going on.

      Delete
  8. Aloha Omegos
    These videos kind of knocked me off my feet, I did not really like them it was not my type but it was pretty persuasive I can see how older people think this. both of these videos were kind if weird. Most of the time I like Raold Dahl but this one as much.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fair enough. Which Roald Dahl book is your favourite? Which parts of the poem did you like?

      Delete
  9. Hello,
    My first thought when i saw the picture was this is going to be different than his other poems/books. But when i watched it i loved it the cartoon one i thought was better. My impressions did not change at my second viewing i still thought it was awesome. I kind of agree because i think T.V. can be good for little kids to learn but it isn't as good for you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you enjoyed it Quinn, which part of the poem did you like best and why?

      Delete
  10. Hi everyone
    I watched the first poem and I like how he used rhyming and how he focus on one topic the whole time but i kind of hope my mum doesn't see it because she might chuck our T.V out. But it is good because its right we are always watching T.V and we need to cut back on it

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hey Rm4
    My first impressions i thought it was a bit weird and crazy but the when i heard it the second time i loved it like you get used to the weird parts.My impressions did change i agree with Quinn t.v ins't that good for children but you can still learn something with it. My fave part was that ridiculous machine That nauseating foul unclean Repulsive television screen

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi guys,
    I watched both of the videos and thought they were great. I totally agree with Roald Dahl in all of these ideas. In my house a lot of books are read and there is heaps of technology including 3 T.V.s. I like how Roald Dahl uses lots of rhyming. He is very smart in his ideas and very persuasive. I think that this is debatable that T.V.s are good for you. But I shall stand on Roald Dahl's side and ideas personally I don't want dad to see this he will get rid of all our T.V.s

    What do you think??
    Whos side would you stand on???

    Polly!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Daniel Here,

    When i first saw this video i thought to myself, argh, another boring poem but this one wasn't it was most of it was very true and i had to agree with him with a lot of the statements he made.
    I agree with what Dahl had stated in his poem and it was very true, some people just are obsessed with the T.V and hey just keep watching and watching and watching and eventually they find out what the time it and they remember they had homework that needs to be done and they end up staying very late doing homework.
    I love the words that Roald Dahl use in his writing, this is one of my favorite parts of the poem:
    "Never never let
    them near you television set,
    or better yet just don't install
    the idiotic thing at all".
    I just thought that part of that poem were very funny and all so true.

    I really like the whole poem and how he rhymed a lot of the words in his poem.

    Daniel H.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi,
    I enjoyed the listening to the poem and how it rhymes a lot but I don't agree that most children watch TV instead of reading. Also some kids don't even have TV's ,computer's or phone's but even if they do they might not be aloud to use them or might have time limits on them. I do agree that watching screen's all the time it is bad for you. Instead of watching TV you should read.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hi,
    I think he did well rhyming about everything but I don't agree with everything
    because some kids are not allowed to very much watch t.v. and I don't think that kids watch t.v. instead of reading I think that kids do a majority of both but I do agree that t.v. is bad for you if you watch a lot of it

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hi,
    I disagree with this poem because not all kids are allowed to watch t.v in the afternoons, and some kids don't like watching t.v and would prefer to read a book. But I did like how he rhymed in most of his sentences and made the poem a bit funny to listen to. I don't think after watching it again changed my mind about my first impression but it was still a good poem for some children that do watch a lot of t.v so that they can realize that watching to much is bad for you.

    Rebecca

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hi guys,
    I don't know about you but my first impression was FINALLY a writing piece fully dedicated to kids who spend to much time on there electronics (i'm guilty) One thing that did get on my nerves was that he was under the impression that all kids spend to much time watching tv because I know that right know I watch hardly any tv.My favourite part was when he was directing most of it to the parents because they have control over how much their kids go on there electronics and they have control of throwing their tvs away,and how he really brought up the topics of books.

    Kate.

    ReplyDelete
  18. I really disliked the video because its was too intense for me. No-one even watchs TV these days. The rhyming was great but the story wasn't

    ReplyDelete

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