Say whether the following statements are true or false.

1. The speaker in the poem is on a train looking out through the window.
2. The train is faster than fairies and witches but slower than hedges and ditches.
3. The child is frightened by the sight of the train.
4. The sights of the hills and plains go by very slowly.
5. The speaker does not see any animals from the train.

Where do you think the speaker of the poem is? What are they describing?

"All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;"

In these lines from the poem, what looks like it is flying and why?

Is the train going fast or slow? Explain your answer using words from the poem.

Rhyming words are words that sound similar; for example, "witches" and "ditches" are words that rhyme. Can you list other pairs of rhyming words from the poem?