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Reading a Poem Aloud is a free printable Grade 4 English worksheet on reading poetry well enough to record it, aligned to Common Core standard SL.4.5. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two pupils in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 24 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Reading a Poem Aloud

SL.4.5

NameDate

Read the text, then answer the questions.

1.Read the text, then answer the questions.

Low Water

Stanza one: Twice a day the sea walks out and leaves the harbour standing, the boats set down on their own keels like birds that have stopped landing. Stanza two: The mud shines. Old anchors show, a bicycle, a broken chain, the whole forgotten underneath made briefly plain. Stanza three: Then, without a sound at all, it turns and starts to come. The bicycle goes under first. The harbour lifts. The boats go dumb.

  1. 1. Why is each stanza labelled in this poem?
  2. 2. Which line tells you the tide turns silently?
  3. 3. How does the third stanza reverse the first?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.

The Quarry, Filled

Stanza one: They took the hill away in carts for ninety years, and then they stopped. The hole they left filled up with rain until the rain had reached the top. Stanza two: Now people swim where men once cut. The water hides the ledge, the crane, the drill-marks in the standing rock, the tracks, the shed, the loading lane. Stanza three: The children diving off the edge have never heard the word for it. They call it "the lake". They are not wrong. A thing becomes what people make of it.

  1. 1. How does the rhyme work across each stanza of this poem?
  2. 2. Why does the poem save its last line for the conclusion?
  3. 3. Which line states the poem's conclusion?

LessonPrint · SL.4.5 · Set 24 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Reading a Poem Aloud

Set 24. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The labels mark the three stages: the sea walking out, the mud showing, and the harbour lifting. 2. "Then, without a sound at all". 3. The first has the sea walking out and boats settling; the third has it returning and the harbour lifting.
  2. 2.1. The second and fourth lines rhyme — "stopped" with "top", "crane" with "lane". 2. The three stanzas give the history first, so "A thing becomes what people make of it" lands as the point. 3. "A thing becomes what people make of it."

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to SL.4.5 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.