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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.

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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. How does the third stanza reverse the first?
  2. 2. Put these in order: the harbour lifts, the mud shines, the sea walks out.
  3. 3. How many stanzas are there, and what does each one cover?
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. Put these in order: children swim there, the quarry stops, the hole fills with rain.
  3. 3. Why does the poem save its last line for the conclusion?

LessonPrint · SL.4.5 · Set 4 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Reading a Poem Aloud

Set 4. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.1. The first has the sea walking out and boats settling; the third has it returning and the harbour lifting. 2. The sea walks out, the mud shines, the harbour lifts. 3. Three — the tide going out, what is revealed, and the tide coming back.
  2. 2.1. The second and fourth lines rhyme — "stopped" with "top", "crane" with "lane". 2. The quarry stops, the hole fills with rain, children swim there. 3. The three stanzas give the history first, so "A thing becomes what people make of it" lands as the point.

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