The document discusses a poem by Alfred Edward Housman titled "Twice a Week the Winter Thorough". It contains the following key points:
1) The poem describes an unhappy young man who uses football in the winter and cricket in the spring/summer to temporarily alleviate his sorrow.
2) In May, the young man marches out to the cricket wicket with his bat and pads, trying to be glad through playing the sport.
3) The document discusses the game of cricket and identifies rhyming words in the second stanza of the poem as being "wicket-cricket" and "pad-glad".
2. TWICE A WEEK THE WINTER
THOROUGH
ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN
3.
4.
5. TWICE A WEEK TH WINTER
THOROUGH
• Twice a week the winter thorough
• Here stood I too keep the goal:
• Football then was fighting sorrow
• For the young man’s soul.
• Now in Maytime to the wicket
• Out I march with bat and pad:
• See the son of grief at cricket
• Trying to be glad.
• Try I will; no harm in trying:
• Wonder ‘tis how little mirth
• Keeps the bones of man from lying
• On the bed of earth.
6. DISCUSSION OF THE POEM [2nd stanza]
• The season moves on the spring and it is the
month of may. The seasonal sport now being
played is the game of cricket. The unhappy
young man marches out to the playing area.
Sporting his cricket bat and wearing the
customary knee pads. He stands at the wicket.
7. • In cricket, there are two wickets, one each at
each end of the pitch, consisting of three short
upright sticks in the ground topped with those
two loose crosspieces called ‘bails’. So he
marches out with bat and pads to the wicket. He
invites the reader to see him as he was then, a
son of grief, that is, a very sad young man, trying
to keep his sorrow temporarily at bay, and trying
to be glad. The poem tells us how the young man
uses the football season and the cricket season to
show us how he attempted to deal with his
unhappiness throughout the year.
8. QUESTIONS
• What does he do in Maytime ?
• What makes the son of grief glad ?
• Locate from the second stanza the words or
phrases that are related to the game.
9. ANSWERS
• In May time, he goes out with his bat and pad
and plays cricket.
• Playing cricket makes the son of grief glad.
• Wicket, bat and pad.
10. • Find out the rhyming words in the second
stanza.
