This handbook is designed to be used alongside Philip Gross's book Manifold Manor, Faber, 1989. Its first section presents ideas for using the poems as stimuli within individual lessons;secondly it also treats the whole anthology as a core text for a longer scheme of work. Alongside these lists of suggested approaches is a compendium of related resources which will help pupils develop the themes and ideas.

I have always suspected that a course Philip Gross ran at Prema in, I think, 1988 or 1989, brought him to visit the mansion at Woodchester, which at the time was very secret and difficult - if not impossible - to visit. Things have changed.

Trespassers Will ...

1. It is often a good idea to read a poem to a class and ask them to jot down quickly and immediately their reactions to it; some practice is required to develop this to a fully useful skill,but Trespassers Will... is a particularly good poem for such expressive writing.

2. In order that pupils should get some understanding of the structure of the poem, they can be asked to present readings of the poem,perhaps in small groups, with the aim of distinguishing in performance the 'descriptive' and the 'magical' sections of the poem.

3. To prepare for any creative writing exercises, pupils can be asked to note their initial responses to the poem: What is the house's secret? what is the house like? who lived there? why it is deserted? and so on.

4. Pupils can be invited to compare their imagined houses with the houses described in a short selection of extracts from other works of literature where individual houses are particularly important,eg Wuthering Heights, Jamaica Inn.

This idea can be complemented with a series of illustrations of old, grand houses, etc, which can be used to stimulate the imaginations of the pupils.

The Twenty-Sixers

1. Obviously the poem cries out for work on alliteration. The teacher may wish to introduce pupils to some short extracts of Anglo Saxon verse where the form was dictated by the use of alliteration.(It might be worth mentioning that, strictly speaking, alliteration only occurs when words begin with consonants; in Anglo Saxon poems,when in the occasional line the stressed words began with vowels,they begin, in fact, with any vowel.)

2. Of course, the alliteration within lines is complemented by rhyme between lines.

3. Many advertising jingles and slogans use alliteration (and occasionally rhyme) for the same reason that the Anglo Saxon bards employed it: it makes lines easier to remember. Pupils could collect and display slogans, drawing attention to the techniques of language they employ to achieve memorability.

4. As Philip Gross himself suggests at the back of the book,the possibilities of this form are endless, and pupils can achieve amusing and interesting imitation poems of their own. The quality of such pieces can be improved by spending some time on rhythm and stress. It should be the stressed words which alliterate for the best effect, as in Anglo Saxon verse.

5. Grammar: the form of this poem lends itself to an introduction to a grasp of the basic parts of speech. Line one is a good model to follow for this as the stressed words (Angel, Arguing, Ancient,Ape) follow the sequence: noun, verb (the gerund), adjective,noun. This sequence can be copied in an imitation poem to reinforce familiarity with the terms for these parts of speech.

Jack, Jack's Nature Study and Jack's Elementary Riddles

1. It seems appropriate here to work on jokes and riddles.This might be related to Anglo Saxon poetry mentioned above, where the riddle was an important form.

Jack's Nature Study is a particularly good link with older,Anglo Saxon riddles, combining as it does an exact description with misleading ones. It might be nice too to compare Sylvia Plath's poem, Mushrooms, (although giving it its title answers the riddle!).

2. The format of the piece Jack invites some revision of the punctuation of direct speech. When relevant, pupils might be asked to convert the direct speech of the piece to indirect, or reported,speech, and to compare the different effects. (This would involve some grammar work on the sequence of tenses.)

3. The nature of Jack's Elementary Riddles suggests the relevance of some work on crosswords,which in itself is essentially a cross-curricular activity, crosswords working usually on a mathematical, logical level, which treats words as combinations of letters as well as vehicles of meaning.

The Wind Fugue

1. The presentation of the poem in fragments, and in two halves lends itself to some sort of dramatic presentation; small groups could present readings of the piece to begin study of it.

2. The pupils might be introduced to the notion of found poems and the use of collage in creating poetry. Perhaps newspapers could be cut up and the fragments of text used to create meaning;perhaps pupils could 'cut up' some of their own prose to achieve a similar effect to the one created by Philip Gross himself here.

3. Finally, small groups could present readings of pupils' original work.

In the Formal Garden

1. In many ways this seems a very suitable poem for drama work.The characters are suggested very clearly, the story is slight;therefore it seems feasible to invent other scenes involving the characters and even work up to a scripted play in which this scene is just a part.

Certainly, an approach to some practical, dramatic exploration of the characters in this poem could lead on to rewriting the piece as a playscript.

Peter Poulter

1. Firstly, this is a marvellous poem for choral speaking and oral performance, which can be prepared in small groups and presented to the class. It may be unfashionable to ask pupils to learn poems by heart, but this skill has a place in the English lesson and here might be a good opportunity to practise it.

2. Secondly, this is not the only poem in the collection which owes something in its conceits and title to puns. Some work might be done, using dictionaries perhaps, to elucidate these puns and perhaps to invent some more.

3. Pupils can be asked to imitate the poem by thinking (politely!)of someone they know; they write down descriptive words and phrases about the person and develop the description gradually into amore outlandish and monstrous figure! They might too, for example,be asked to introduce onomatopoeia in a chorus. What happens when your monster becomes active?

Jack's Black Day and Doors

1. Firstly, Philip Gross makes the implicit suggestion that the poem says something about racial prejudice, in the equation of the colour black with the unpleasant and the evil sides of life. This theme could be developed.

2. Secondly, pupils can be asked to produce poems of their own which develop ideas linked thematically to one chosen colour. A good place to start might be for pupils to collect well known phrases and proverbs which refer to colour. These might then be adapted and assembled to produce a poem.

3. Colours are used also in Doors to represent mood and atmosphere,imagery. White, for example, suggests purity, green envy, and so on. Pupils can pick a colour and write their own poem describing what is behind the door.

4. A drama lesson can ask groups to present images of what they find behind doors of a chosen colour in the form of tableaux.

Mrs Stoker

1. Again, a good poem for drama. Pupils can be asked to develop the character of Mrs Stoker, beginning with a mime of the actions in the first, third and fifth sections of the poem, as the teacher reads. They might then go on to invent and develop other characters within the household, perhaps culminating in the presentation of a series of tableaux (in costume?). Photographs of such tableaux could happily complement display work on the book.

The Oubliette

1. Philip Gross explains much of the theme to this poem in his own note; some development of the theme of political imprisonment might be very valuable. Peter Gabriel's song Wallflower, develops this theme admirably, while the symbol of Amnesty International,the candle encircled in barbed wire, is a provocative introduction to the power of symbols.

It might be interesting and relevant to ask pupils to compose"Amnesty International" letters, to empathize with the lot of political prisoners, or to discuss the issue. This is clearly cross curricular theme in its own right, and transcends much of the other work on Manifold Manor.

Madame Mirador

1. Some extraordinary images lead to a very dreamlike poem.This might be an approach which can be extended and developed.Some of the words, eg triptych, need to be explained or looked up in dictionaries.

2. The images in the poem echo in some ways Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott where similar dreamlike imagery is effectively used. It might be useful to look at the pre-Raphaelite paintings which illustrate the poem.

The Poet's Prayer

1. A number of forms are mentioned here, but the final haiku,despite its uncharacteristic irony, is a welcome point of departure.

A haiku is, of course, a Japanese form where a pithy and often meditative observation is executed in 17 syllables. For classes where the notion of syllabic count is an unnecessary diversion,teachers might follow W H Auden's notion that, since many Japanese words are in fact monosyllabic, a haiku can be made with 17 words. Classically, haiku should suggest a season of the year through subtle nature imagery, and should be structured around a significant pause, often signalled by a semi-colon or a dash.

It's difficult to find perfect translations of Japanese poems,but the works of Bashó is regarded as the most classically refined work in this field. The spirit of the haiku in Bashó's hands is beautifully evoked in the poem here, The Captain's Pearls.

Using haiku helps concentrate pupils' work on imagery and expression,and can lead to very effective poetry. Certainly, the focus in the book on a run-down manor house offers a wealth of imagery which can be employed in the haiku form.

2. Other forms, of course, are mentioned in the poem and could equally well be examined and developed.

The Ballad of Bill Beale

1. Philip Gross offers a particularly useful device for working up an imitation of this poem.

2. The poem might be used as a jumping off point for study of ballads in their stricter form. Pupils might read some traditional border ballads, listen to ballads being sung or recited, and write their own ballads recounting stories which may have featured in the news, etc. Richard Thompson's use of the ballad form in songs like 1952 Vincent Black Lightning and Beeswing integrates traditional devices with modern concerns, language and imagery.

What to Call a Jackdaw

1. Another poem crying out for imitation. The poem on which Philip Gross has based What to Call a Jackdaw appears in Seamus Heaney's and Ted Hughes' anthology Rattlebag, called The Names of the Hare.

2. The use of kennings like this is a characteristic of Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse verse. Corvus monedula is, of course, the Latin name for the Jackdaw.

Africa and The Sage of Kitchnapur

1. Africa is voiced for a swallow, of course, and in part evokes a land far from us and at the same time articulates some sort of wonder in the annual migration of birds. Pupils could usefully imitate this poem by developing research work into verse. Pupils could first find out something about migratory birds they might see in Britain, and then evoke the lands these birds also visit in similar poems. This would seem to involve some kind of library work and wider reading.

2. The Sage of Kitchnapur offers a similar evocation of India,based on a pun on the novel by J G Farrell.

Similarly, pupils could be asked to work on some research on India, particularly, perhaps, to illuminate the poem.

Spirit of the Place

1. This poem is a key piece in developing images and pupils can be invited to fine other images, from newspapers or magazines,which evoke similar feelings to the images here.

2. The poem can be illustrated in as literal way as possible to emphasise the width and originality of its images.

Many of these images may be familiar to pupils from films,and perhaps the could be asked to devise and present a film script for the poem, listing audio script on one side of the page, and video script on the opposite side, so that the whole film, its sound track and its visual images is planned out. This is quite a lengthy process, so the relative brevity of this poem is useful here.

It would be wonderful if teachers could compile a short collection of clips from films which use images like these.

3. The poem certainly suggests a ghost story which pupils can write, wither on their own or in small groups, each contributing a section of a plan agreed as a committee.

Song of the Empty Dove

1. The Biblical rhythm and imagery of this poem can be explored .Certainly pupils need to be familiar with the story of Noah in Genesis to understand the depth of the imagery, and a familiarity with a section like the Beatitudes might help grasp the effect of the rhythm.

2. Discussions on the key words can be a useful development from the poem: homelessness, war, violence etc.

3. Discuss how the form helps understanding; try this out by asking small groups to present readings of the poem.

1. Pupils could be asked to present a radio programme based on a selection of the poems. The poems could be read out, and pupils take the rôles of author, critic, layman and presenter to devise a discussion of the texts.

Pupils would have been encouraged to develop specific lines of approach through as convincingly realistic a way as possible.

2. Pupils might compose an auctioneer's brochure to advertise the sale of the Manor; they'll do this a lot better if they've seen a real one.

3. Perhaps pupils could devise a dramatic performance which presents readings of the poems alongside dramatic interludes devised as developments of the themes of the poems. A hand-bill and programme might accompany the work.

4. Pupils can compile their own anthology of imitation and original poems. Perhaps the class can produce from these a professional standard class anthology.

5. Teachers can organise the writing of an extended narrative set in a similar manor house, to be developed alongside the work on the poems and finally revised and presented as a final piece.

6. Teachers and pupils can work towards a gallery of display work, combining original writing, illustrations, photographs,prints and so on.

Literary Houses

from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The entrance door was a huge one made of massive, curiously shaped panels of oak studded with big iron nails and bound with great iron bars. It opened into an enormous hall, which was so dimly lighted that the faces in the portraits on the walls and the figures in the suits of armour made Mary feel that she did not want to look at them. As she stood on the stone floor she looked a very small, odd little black figure, and she felt as small and lost and odd as she looked.

A neat, thin old man stood near the manservant who opened the door for them.

'You are to take her to her room,' he said in a husky voice'. He doesn't want to see her. He's going to London in the morning.'

'Very well, Mr Pitcher,' Mrs Medlock answered. 'So long ANSI know what's expected of me, I can manage.'

'What's expected of you, Mrs Medlock,' Mr Pitcher said, 'is that you make sure that he's not disturbed and that he doesn't see what he doesn't want to see.'

And then Mary Lennox was led up a broad staircase and down long corridor and up a short flight of steps and through another corridor and another, until a door opened in a wall and she found herself in a room with a fire in it and a supper on a table.

Mrs Medlock said unceremoniously:

'Well, here you are! This room and the next are where you'll live - and you must keep to them. Don't you forget that!'

Literary Houses

from A Valley in Italy by Lisa St Aubin de Terán

Beyond the window, bats began to swoop, circling through the streams of early evening air. The temperature dropped suddenly and the cool breeze brought in eddies of woodland scents: the last of the blackthorn and the first of the hawthorn and broom,all filtered through cypress resin. The child and I went back out into the scrubland around the villa and gathered bundles of broom twigs as light as straw. Then we rooted around among the poppies and dandelions for larger twigs, making up bundles to add to the long sticks from a mossy woodpile we had found stacked conveniently behind the house. These oak sticks, each as thick as my arm, were carefully sawn into five-foot lengths, which rendered them singularly unwieldy. We made our first blaze from them (without firelighters) in the fireplace in the big kitchen, with its high ceiling, its eight metres square of stone floor, its old stone sink in one corner, its long windows on two sides, and its door.This chestnut door was one of the five doors in the house. This kitchen, together with two adjoining rooms on the first floor,had been used as a caretaker's flat over the last hundred years.The ceiling and walls were steeped in smoke, but the beautiful carved white marble fireplace that we had seen (and bought), wit hits grimy crests and pillars, had been stolen some months earlier. A stone placebo had been erected in its place by the penitent vendors. I subsequently discovered that ripping historical fireplaces out of their masonry as almost as popular a sport here as shooting songbirds.

As the sunny afternoon turned into an increasingly chilly evening,I climbed under the new stone mantel and tried to forget my rancour at this theft. There was so little in the villa that it seemed doubly sad to lose this one treasure, gutted in its turn from a Savoyard palace somewhere, as its crests had testified.

Literary Houses

from Mrs de Winter by Susan Hill

There was a rough, short path leading to a great gateway, with delicate, high, wrought iron gates between two stone pillars.We approached them almost holding our breath. And stopped and stood in silence, looking, looking down.

Below us, at the end of a drive, set in a bowl surrounded by grassy slopes that rose all around it, was the most beautiful house I had ever seen - more beautiful at once, to me, than Manderley,because it was not so imposing, not so frighteningly large and grand, but a house that went straight to my heart. I closed my eyes, opened them again, half expecting it to have vanished, to have been an illusion, born of my own wishes, but it was there,still, resting in the sun, a house of enchantments and of fairy stories; yet not some towered and turreted fantasy castle, but rose red, many chimneyed Elizabethan manor house. It was set among lawns and rose-beds and pergolas and fountains and small ornamental ponds, but they were neglected and overgrown, not runback to nature, not quite unkempt, but as though someone who lived there could no longer cope, and had tried and failed to manage without sufficient help. The tree-dotted basin of green rose gently up around it, the barley sugar chimneys and the bricks of the walls were tinted soft ochre and geranium and shell pink, buff and apricot, and all merging and blending together like the walls and roofs of some sunlit Italian hilltop town.

There was no sign of life at all, no sound of voices or dogs,no smoke from the chimneys. Cobbett's Brake was empty now, but I did not think that it was abandoned, or unloved; it was not a lost house, nor beyond recall.

Anglo Saxon Verse

Modde word fræt. Me pæt puhte
wrætlicu wyrd, pa ic pæt wundor gefrægn,
pæt se wyrm forswealg wera gied sumes,
peof in pystro prymfæstne cwide
and pæs strangan stapol. Stælgiest ne wæs
wihte py gleawra, pe he pam wordum swealg.

A moth ate words; That seemed to me an extraordinary thing when I heard about that wonder: a worm had swallowed someone's poem, with its firm foundation. A thief in darkness had consumed the mighty saying. The thief was not one whit the wiser for having swallowed words.

When it is earth I tread, make tracks upon water
or keep the houses, hushed is my clothing,
clothing that can hoist me above house-ridges
at times toss me into the tall heaven
where the strong cloud-wind carries me on
over cities and countries ; accoutrements that
throb out sound, thrilling strokes
deep-soughing song, as I sail alone
over field and flood, faring on,
resting nowhere. My name is - .

Abandoned unborn by my begetters
I was still dead a few spring days ago:
no beat in the breast, no breath in me.

A kinswoman covered me in the clothes she wore,
no kind but kind indeed. I was coddled & swaddled
as close as I had been a baby of her own,
until, as had been shaped, so shielded, though no king,
the unguessed guest grew great with life.

She fended for me, fostered me, she fed me up,
till I was of a size to set me bounds
further afield. She had fewer dear
sons and daughters because she did so.

Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly

Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.

Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.

Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,

Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,

Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We

Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking

Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!

We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,

Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:

We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot's in the door.

6 x 6 from wall to wall
Shutters on the window, no light at all
Damp on the floor you got damp in your bed
They're trying to get you crazy - get you out of your head
They feed you scraps and they feed you lies
To lower your defences, no compromise
Nothing you can do, the day can be long
Your mind is working overtime, your body's not too strong

Hold on, hold on
They put you in a box so you can't get heard
Let your spirit stay unbroken, may you not be deterred

Hold on; you have gambled with your own life
And you face the night alone
While the builders of the cages
Sleep with bullets, bars and stone
They do not see your road to freedom
That you build with flesh and bone

They take you out - the light burns your eyes
To the talking room - it's no surprise
Loaded questions from clean white coats
Their eyes are all as hidden as their Hippocratic oaths
They tell you - how to behave, behave as their guest
You want to resist them, you do your best
They take you to your limits, they take you beyond
For all that they are doing there's no way to respond

Though you may disappear, you're not forgotten here
And I will say to you
I will do what I can do

You may disappear, you're not forgotten here
And I will say to you, I will do what I can do
And I will do what I can do
And I will do what I can do

A holiday, a holiday, and the first one of the year
Lord Darnell's wife came into the church, the gospel for to hear
And when the meeting it was done, she cast her eyes about
And there she saw little Matty Groves, walking in the crowd
``Come home with me, little Matty Groves, come home with me tonight
Come home with me, little Matty Groves, and sleep with me till light''
``Oh, I can't come home, I won't come home and sleep with you tonight
By the rings on your fingers I can tell you are Lord Darnell'swife''
``What if I am Lord Darnell's wife, Lord Darnell's not at home
For he is out in the far cornfields bringing the yearlings home''
And a servant who was standing by and hearing what was said
He swore Lord Darnell he would know before the sun would set
And in his hurry to carry the news, he bent his breast and ran
And when he came to the broad mill stream, he took off his shoe sand he swam
Little Matty Groves, he lay down and took a little sleep
When he awoke, Lord Darnell was standing at his feet
Saying ``How do you like my feather bed and how do you like my sheets?
How do you like my lady who lies in your arms asleep?''
``Oh, well I like your feather bed and well I like your sheets
But better I like your lady gay who lies in my arms asleep.''
``Well, get up, get up,'' Lord Darnell cried, ``get up as quick as you can!
It'll never be said in fair England that I slew a naked man.''
``Oh, I can't get up, I won't get up, I can't get up for my life
For you have two long beaten swords and I not a pocket knife.''
``Well it's true I have two beaten swords and they cost me dee pin the purse
But you will have the better of them and I will have the worse.''
``And you will strike the very first blow and strike it like Amman
I will strike the very next blow and I'll kill you if I can.''
So Natty struck the very first blow and he hurt Lord Darnell sore.
Lord Darnell struck the very next blow and Natty struck no more.
And then Lord Darnell took his wife and he sat her on his knee
Saying ``Who do you like the best of us, Natty Groves or me?''
And then up spoke his own dear wife, never heard to speak so free,
``I'd rather a kiss from dead Matty's lips than you or your finery.''
Lord Darnell he jumped up and loudly he did bawl,
He struck his wife right through the heart and pinned her against the wall.
``A grave, a grave,'' Lord Darnell cried, ``to put these lover sin
But bury my lady at the top for she was of noble kin.''

Said Red Molly to James, That's a fine motorbike,
a girl could feel special on any such like.
Said James to Red Molly, well my hat's off to you -
it's a Vincent Black Lightning 1952
and I've seen you at the corners and cafes, it seems,
red hair and black leather, my favourite colour scheme,
and he pulled her on behind
and down to Box Hill they did ride.

Said James to Red Molly, Here's a ring for your right hand,
but I'll tell you in earnest I'm a dangerous man;
I've fought with the law since I was seventeen;
I robbed many a man to get my Vincent machine.
Now I'm twenty-one years, I might make twenty-two,
and I don't mind dying but for the love of you
and if fate should break my stride,
I'll give you my Vincent to ride.

Come down, come down, Red Molly, called Sergeant McRae,
for they've taken young James Adie for armed robbery.
Shotgun blast hit his chest, left nothing inside;
come down, Red Molly, to his dying bedside.
When she came to the hospital there wasn't much left;
he was running out of road, he was running out of breath -
but he smiled to see her cry,
said I'll give you my Vincent to ride.

Said young James, In my opinion, there's nothing in this world
like a 52 Vincent and a red-headed girl.
Now Nortons and Indians and Greeves won't do,
they don't have a soul like a Vincent 52.
He reached for her hand and he gave her the keys,
said I don't have any further use for these,
I see angels on Ariels in leather and chrome
swooping down from heaven to carry me home.
He gave her one last kiss and died
and he gave her his Vincent to ride.

The hare, call him scotart,
big-fellow, bouchart,
the O'Hare, the jumper,
the rascal, the racer.

The wimount, the messer,
the skidaddler, the nibbler,
the ill-met, the slabber.

The quick-scut, the dew-flirt,
the grass-biter, the goibert,
the home-late, the do-the-dirt.

The starer, the wood-cat,
the purblind, the furze cat,
the skulker, the bleary-eyed,
the wall-eyed, the glance-aside
and also the hedge-springer.

The stubble-stag, the long lugs,
the stook-deer, the frisky legs,
the wild one, the skipper,
the hug-the-ground, the lurker,
the race-the-wind, the skiver,
the shadow-shifter, the hedge-squatter,
the dew-hammer, the dew-hoppper,
the sit-tight, the grass-bounder,
the jig-foot, the earth-sitter,
the light-foot, the fern-sitter,
the kail-stag, the herb-cropper.

The creep-along, the sitter-still,
the pintail, the ring-the-hill,
the sudden start, the shake-the-heart,
the belly-white, the lambs-in-flight.

The snuff-the-ground, the baldy skull,
(his chief name is scoundrel!)

??

Noah
from the Book of Genesis

At the end of forty days Noah opened the porthole he had made in the ark and he sent out the raven. This went off, and flew back and forth until the waters dried up from the earth. Then he sent out the dove, to see whether the waters were receding from the surface of the earth. The dove, finding nowhere to perch,returned to him in the ark, for there was water over the whole surface of the earth; putting out his hand he took hold of it and brought it back into the ark with him. After waiting seven more days, again he sent out the dove from the ark. In the evening,the dove came back to him and there it was with a new olive-bran chin its beak. So Noah realised that the waters were receding from the earth.

and The Beatitudes
from the Gospel of St Matthew

Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up the hill. There he sat dow nand was joined by his disciples. Then he began to speak. This is what he taught them:

How happy are the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy the gentle; they shall have the earth for their heritage.
Happy those who mourn; they shall be comforted.
Happy those who hunger and thirst for what is right; they shall be satisfied.
Happy the merciful; they shall have mercy shown them.
Happy the pure in heart; they shall see God.
Happy the peacemakers; they shall be called sons of God.
Happy those who are persecuted in the cause of right; theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Happy are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven; this is how they persecuted the prophets before you.