1. The Field Mouse Summer, and the long grass is a snare drum. The airs hums with jets. Down at the end of the meadow, Far from the radio’s terrible news, We cut the hay. All afternoon Its wave breaks before the tractor blade. Over the hedge our neighbour travels his field In a cloud of lime, drifiting our land With a chance gift of sweetness.

2. How does Clarke appeal to our senses?

3. What’s happening in the field? Mouse is dead - “it curls in agony big as itself and the star goes out in its eyes.” The field is “bleeding” The children “staring at what we have crushed” Animal refugees arrive - “the dusk garden inhabited by the saved” How does this mirror what is going on in the outer world?

4. What technique does Clarke use here? Have we seen something similar in her other work?

5. Apply FLIRTS to the poem F L I R T S