Dr. Seuss rövid, játékos angol versei elsősorban ritmusuk, ismétléseik és könnyen követhető képeik miatt alkalmasak a nyelvtanulás támogatására. A rövid, sorokra tagolt szövegekben gyakran visszatérnek a természet, az állatok, az évszakok és a mozgás motívumai.
Az alábbi válogatás tizenkét rövid angol mondókát és verset tartalmaz teljes szöveggel. A szövegekhez nem tartozik magyar fordítás, ezért közös felolvasáshoz, ritmusgyakorláshoz és alapvető angol szókincs ismétléséhez használhatók.
1. The Leaves
The leaves on the trees turn orange and brown,
Orange and brown, orange and brown.
The leaves on the trees turn orange and brown
All through the town.
The leaves on the trees come swirling down…
The leaves on the ground go swish, swish, swish…
2. Scarecrow
Scarecrow, scarecow, turn around.
Scarecrow, scarecrow, touch the ground.
Stand up tall and blink your eyes.
Raise your hands up to the sky.
Clap your hands, then tap your knees.
Turn around and tap your feet.
Scarecrow, scarecrow, touch your toes.
Scarecrow, scarecrow, tap your nose
Swing your arms so very slow
Now real fast to scare the crows!
Touch your head, jump up and down
Now sit down without a sound.
3. The Autumn
Harvest festival comes around,
Bushes of blackberries can be found.
For some the school days have begun.
The summer holiday has been and gone.
September, October bring darker nights.
A warmer coat to wrap up tight.
The insects now seem far and few,
the trees grow bare, a sky less blue.
First came spring, then summer sun.
Now the autumn has begun.
4. Falling Leaves
Falling leaves az Appu Series-től:
Egy másik dal a hulló falevelekről, amelyben a többi évszakról is hallhattok:
A fantasztikus Learning Station őszi dala a levelekről:
A Learning Station madárijesztős dala a mozgások gyakorlására is szuper:
5. How long the Lord
How long the Lord, how short the lard.
How sick the poor, how rich men are.
He bends and turns where dairy barns open their doors to milking girls.
How long, how hard the bishops’ God,
and still the poor would trust his care.
A sausage ring, a wifely dress,
and they would learn to bear the Lord.
With summer eyes he sees, surveys -
the poor are where the dangers are.
If to this day he’s not our Host,
the wasted poor cannot rest there.
6. The Song of the Cosmos
I make myself a world that’s singular private
a sea’s just drops of water tiny atoms
forever wracked by desire & by dreams
each human is a strange & lonely planet
no one can live a life carefree & quiet
even the strong like steamrollers turning with calm
flattening roads rumbling on never seem to cry out
my back hurts what shame is that
this bronze plaque signals our eternal order
so draws you to countless zones to strange borders
a few of those who live there cry at death
& some who’ve thought it through are wandering mad
how blooms my soul that the winds of space erode
planet in orbit rich in fecund earth
7. Master Sonnet
I here create this world for me alone
planet in orbit rich in fecund earth
wafting from trees of beauty sweet scents breathe my brain
a roaring city of machines prowling streets
drunk & merry in their bones sweet garden tryst
& all in kisses bathed chafers hum for love
in space’s labyrinth my dark credo
the holy river runs tired mind at end of day
planet revolving cascades into the dark
as it is cooling like lines of poetry
that you’ll forget if planets all grow desolate & cold
shine faith’s beacon for Cosmos truth be told
my glum planet shines gorgeous in the night
8. Bear Dance
the curls & chains gladraggedy bop
those paddy paws so plump they pop
where they grooving to my old pal
shift your bearings to the beautiful girl
grizzly growler & a grinch-grouch grunt
admire my gorgeous rich fur coat
with my twenty claws yeah me create
made it from marten & rabbit & mole
from dog & wolf & squirrel & vole
grizzly growler & a grinch-grouch grunt
all fall long been collecting beads
way I found to fashion these teeth
my bad beer belly fat as a tub
good when they’re ravenous my nine wee cubs
grizzly growler & a grinch-grouch grunt
I walk so slow I’ll tell you why
so the painter can paint me afore I die
that old gal with her head of hair
can be the paintbrush for this teddy bear
grizzly growler & a grinch-grouch grunt
you whose pot’s full of silver & gold
count out your fistfuls before you grow old
count on your fingers if not with your claws
listen you thieves to the bears’ applause
grizzly growler & a grinch-grouch grunt
the spheres of the flowers in the copper delight
when they shine like money in the morning light
been five weeks now bailiff’s sticky fingers
been stuck in his pockets like greasy dollars
grizzly growler & a grinch-grouch grunt
brutes & beasts eat for free
bears don’t pay no sirree
if you feel your feet are getting kinda cold
time to hide under the old floorboard
grizzly growler & a grinch-grouch grunt
9. The Loggers
The railway station bridge is shaking still,
though autumn’s quiet breath begins to stir.
Dry timber logs are rumbling as they fall,
men throwing them from the dark railroad cars.
And if one settles, still the fallen stack is silent.
In trouble? I look scared stiff,
always on the run, the log on my back.
The little child I was is still alive.
The little kid I was is still alive,
while the adult wells up with tears -
and yet he chokes them back, and hums a song.
Wind strives to blow away his hat - he just won’t let it.
Was it you, hard men, terrified me so,
tough loggers, lumberjacks I so admired?
Like stolen wood I’m carrying you as I go
through this homeless world of border guards and fear.
10. Our Poet and his Time Past
Here, here is my poem at long last,
second line is this one, yes this.
Title, Our Poet and his Time Past,
puffs with plosive Ps and hisses.
Nothing floats inside,
as if it were made of air’s dust,
simply a sheer nothingness.
Nothing floats inside, as if it were something fabricated: this world.
It takes off towards its fate,
soaring, floating through all spacetime,
wild as the crashing sea and roar,
leaves in stormwind, dogs that whimper, in wee hours curled.
I in my chair, top of this world,
of this Earth right under hot Sun,
solar system, prison, both whirl steady through the constellations,
allness in the nothingnesses,
(inverse true in me I guess),
the idea shines.
Soul is space, if only I could join up with big Mother Cosmos;
Basket to hot air balloon tied, bind my soul’s form to this body’s.
This is not real, nor is it dream,
rather as they call it sublim-
ation of Das Es.
Come, do take a look around, guest,
You are working in this cosmos same way as,
and let’s be honest, solidarity in you does.
Leave it all behind.
Now watch how evening light brings the night low down to its end.
See the stubble fields drenched in blood
stretched out to the far horizon.
Blood thickens to blue.
Grass fades, thins, browns, dies back, weeps and weakens.
On the sweet heaps livor mortis softly sits
and quietly spreads as skies darken.
11. There, I’ve found my home at last
There, I’ve found my home at last,
this patch of land where you will see my name carved out,
and no mistake.
(if someone kind will bury me).
Land like a poor box: clink I’m in,
a rusty tuppence, crude, worn-down,
one no-one wants, a gloomy, war-blasted
and useless, clapped-out coin;
and not the ring so fine inscribed
with words that sing of brave new world,
law and land: obey wartime rules,
gold rings gleam brighter, worth accrued.
I lived on my own such a long time -
though lots of people came to hang out,
saying, shame you live apart,
happy if I’d been one of their gang.
That’s how I lived, lived pointlessly -
I assume and suspect they made me play the fool
all that long time,
and my death, too, useless and crude.
All my life lived in a whirlwind,
standing upright in stormblast I tried.
Don’t understand how I didn’t cause more harm
than the harm I endured.
Spring is lovely, summer's fine,
autumn’s finer, winter's best.
Brothers and a warm fire:
dying hope, not for himself, but for all others.
12. Autumn Song
Harvest festival comes around,
Bushes of blackberries can be found.
For some the school days have begun.
The summer holiday has been and gone.
September, October bring darker nights.
A warmer coat to wrap up tight.
The insects now seem far and few,
the trees grow bare, a sky less blue.
First came spring, then summer sun.
Now the autumn has begun.
Hogyan használhatók a rövid angol versek?
A versek ritmusának megtanulását segíti, ha először a felnőtt olvassa fel a szöveget, majd a gyermek vagy a nyelvtanuló a visszatérő sorokat ismétli. A mozgással kísért mondókák különösen alkalmasak arra, hogy az angol szavak jelentése mozdulatokkal is rögzüljön.
A Scarecrow című szövegben például a fordulás, a talaj megérintése, a kézfelemelés, a taps, a térd- és lábérintés, valamint az ugrás szókincse gyakorolható. A The Leaves és az The Autumn az évszakokhoz, a levelekhez, az időjáráshoz és a természet változásaihoz kapcsolódó kifejezéseket ismétli.
A szövegek feldolgozásakor érdemes külön figyelni az ismétlődő szerkezetekre, a rímekre és a hangutánzó szavakra. A swish, swish, swish például a lehulló levelek hangulatát érzékelteti, míg a grizzly growler & a grinch-grouch grunt hangzásában is játékos, erősen ritmikus sor.
- Évszakok és természet: leaves, trees, autumn, spring, summer, sky, ground.
- Mozgások: turn around, touch, stand up, raise, clap, tap, swing, jump, sit down.
- Állatok: bear, crow, rabbit, mole, dog, wolf, squirrel, vole.
- Színek és anyagok: orange, brown, silver, gold, copper, blue.
- Hangutánzó és játékos kifejezések: swish, growler, grunt, roar, rumble.
A rövid szövegek felolvasása során nem szükséges minden ismeretlen szót azonnal lefordítani. A ritmus, a visszatérő sorok, a képek és a mozgásos feladatok először a szöveg globális megértését segítik, később pedig a részletes szókincsfejlesztés alapjául szolgálhatnak.
