Name: 詩で英語を学ぼう! (Learn English with a poem!)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T06:57:53.000Z
Duration: 20 min 36 s
Description: VoiceTubeの動画で発音を聞きながら英語表現を覚えよう！学べる英語：

Hello. I'm Gill at www.engvid.com, and today we're going to do something a little bit different.

様態の副詞

We're going to look at an English poem. And I know you're probably thinking: "Poetry,

程度の副詞

that's too difficult. English prose is hard enough, but poetry, ah no." But I'm hoping

to make you realize that it is possible to read an English poem and to understand it.

I've chosen quite an easy, straightforward one. It's called "The Owl and the Pussy-cat",

which is in the first line, here. And it was written by a poet called Edward Lear.

Okay. And Edward Lear was well-known for his humorous writing, so a lot of his

writing is funny, it makes you smile, it makes you laugh. So, hopefully this poem will do

that for you. And so, it tells a story. It's in three sections. This is the first of three

sections, and I'm just going to go through it with you and I will explain any words that

I think maybe need explaining, and I hope you enjoy it. Okay? So, I'll read it.

"The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea". Okay? Now, the Owl, do you know what an "owl" is?

You probably know what a bird is. A bird that flies? Well, an owl is the kind of bird that

is awake at night. It has big, round eyes. If you look it up on Google images, you'll

see lots of pictures of owls. Okay? So we have a bird, here, an owl. And a pussy-cat.

I'm sure you know what a cat is. We use the word "pussy-cat", it's a sort of a comic name

or a... An affectionate name for a cat. People say: "Oh, puss, puss, puss. Here, pussy, pussy, pussy."

So, it's a name for a cat. And children also say: "Oh, pussy-cat, pussy-cat". So,

"pussy" is a cat, but here, it's being called "Pussy-cat" with a hyphen.

So: "The Owl and the Pussy-cat", so we have a bird and a cat. Okay? Which usually, birds

and cats don't usually make friends. Usually, the cat is going to attack the bird and kill

it, probably. But in this poem, because it's Edward Lear and because he's being funny,

he's put a bird and a cat together, and they're not just friends, but they're going on a journey

together. They're on a trip together, so we'll see what happens, shall we?

So: "The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea", on the sea. So even more dangerous.

"Went to sea In a beautiful pea green boat". So, they're in a boat. You know the word "boat"

on the sea. "Boat". It's "pea green". It's not just a green boat, it's the colour of

a green pea, the vegetable that you eat. Little green peas. So it's pea green. We have all

sorts of shades of green. Olive green, sage green, light green, dark green, pea green.

So the boat is the colour of a green pea. No particular reason. It just... It just sort

of fits for the rhythm, because rhythm is important. "In a beautiful pea green boat",

Okay, so what did they take with them? "They took some honey". You know honey? The sweet

stuff that the bees go to flowers and then they make honey? Honey, it's like jam, only

it's honey in a pot. Very sweet, you put it on the bread and eat it, or you put it in

the pudding or something. "They took some honey, and plenty of money", well that was

sensible. They're not very sensible, I don't think, going on to the sea in a boat, but

at least they've been sensible enough to take some money with them.

Okay, "plenty of money, Wrapped up in a five pound note." Okay. Well, here, this is a modern

five pound note. It has the Queen on it. Okay? And some of the pictures on the back. Five

pound note. But that's quite small compared with in 1871, a five pound note I think was

a lot bigger than this, and it was a big white sheet of paper. So much easier to wrap other

things in. You wouldn't be able to wrap much in this little thing.

You can't buy much with this either these days.

Anyway, ah: "They took some honey, and plenty of money, Wrapped up". Wrapped. So if you

wrap something up, you put it inside, and you fold the pieces over and that's wrapped

up. Okay? "Wrapped up in a five pound note." I just hope that the honey and the money didn't

get all, eww, that would be horrible. I hope they managed to keep it separate. Anyway:

"Wrapped up in a five pound note." Right.

"The Owl looked up to the stars above", so it's nighttime and the stars are in the sky,

little stars in the sky. Looking up at the sky is very romantic at night.

"The Owl looked up to the stars above, And sang",

a singing owl. You see? I told you it was funny. This...

He's not just singing; He's playing a musical instrument. "And sang to a small guitar."

I told you it was a bit funny. Well, it's called nonsense poetry, that's the technical

name for this. Nonsense. So "non" is the negative prefix. "Sense" and "sensible". Sense, we

try to be sensible. But "nonsense" is the opposite. This is a nonsense poem. Okay.

"He sang to a small guitar." I wonder what an owl sounds like when it's singing. Usually,

they just make a hooting sound, like: "Hoot, hoot, hoot", like that. So hate to think what

they sound like when they're singing. Anyway, this is what he sang, which you can tell from

the quotation mark. He's singing: "'O lovely Pussy!'" So he likes the cat, which is just

as well because they're off in a boat on the sea all on their own.

"'O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love'". So he loves the cat.

These two animals that usually hate each other.

"'O Pussy my love, What a beautiful Pussy you are, You are, You are!'" In music, things

get repeated, and in poetry, so that's why we've got: "'You are, You are, You are!

I think it has been set to music, that's the only bit of

the music I can remember. So, there we are, that's the scenario. That's the story so far,

the Owl singing to the Pussy, who he obviously loves. What is going to happen next? Well,

Okay, so moving on to the second verse. Let's see what happens next.

"Pussy", that's the cat "said to the Owl", the bird,

quotation mark: "'You elegant fowl!'" Now, "fowl", can

you guess? Is another word for a bird. Okay. But, of course, it has to rhyme with "owl"

because this is a poem and a lot of poems have rhyming in them. "Owl", "fowl". Okay?

There's quite a lot more in this verse. "Pussy said to the Owl, 'You elegant fowl!'" "Elegant"

is, oh, very smart, looking really good. Okay? "Elegant fowl".

So she loves his singing, she thinks it's sweet and charming. Okay?

Ah, what happens next? She's proposing to him. "'O let us be married!'" Now, this is

1871, and in 1871, it was very unusual for the lady to propose to the man. But this is

a nonsense poem, so that's probably why. And she's a cat, he's an owl. Anything goes, really.

So: "'Let us be married! too long we have'", what's that? "Tarried". What's "tarried"?

What do you think? It means waited. We've delayed, held back. So, waited. And again,

"tarried", "married", he had to use, "tarried", really, didn't he to rhyme with "married"?

Otherwise, it wouldn't sound as good. So, they've been thinking of marriage for quite

some time, apparently, but they've held back for some reason. Perhaps because they're different

Anyway, let's carry on. "'But what shall we do for a ring?'" A ring. Okay, first thing

you think of when you're getting married: "Ah, must have a ring." Yeah? Well, some people

might think of that first; not everybody. Better not go into more detail on that. Okay.

"They sailed away, for a year and a day", "away", "a day", had to happen, didn't it?

A year and a day often happens in stories, fairy tales.

I don't know if there is such a thing as Bong-tree, it just sounds exotic and funny.

So: "And there in a wood", where the trees are growing, in a wood, "a Piggy-wig stood".

A "Piggy-wig" is just a pig, but again, it's a name that children give to pigs. "Piggy-wig",

because Edward Lear, a lot of his poems, children enjoyed them. But adults enjoyed them as well.