Portuguese Year 4: Poem, narrative and play: outside and inside
Portuguese, Year 4 (Portugal): See how texts are organised outside (verses, stanzas, speeches, paragraphs) and inside (rhyme, narrator, characters, place, time, action).
What you see and what you discover
Each genre has an outside, which you see, and an inside, which you find out. A poem has verses (the lines) in stanzas, and often rhyme: verses end in the same sound. A narrative has paragraphs, sometimes chapters, and inside it has a narrator (who tells), characters, place, time and action. A play has speeches marked by the character's name, and stage directions (didascálias) in brackets, and it is divided into acts and scenes.
Knowing how a text is made
Knowing how a text is made helps you read it and write it. In a poem, the rhyme and the pauses at the ends of verses make music, so you say it slowly and with rhythm. In a narrative, asking «who, where, when, what happens» helps you understand the story. In a play, the stage directions tell the actors how to come in, speak and move, and the speeches tell who says what.
Looking at three small texts
Poem: «O gato saiu de casa / à procura de uma asa. // Não a achou na rua, / só achou a lua.» (The cat left home / looking for a wing. // He did not find it in the street, / he only found the moon.) Step 1: 4 verses in 2 stanzas. Step 2: casa rhymes with asa, and rua with lua. Play: «(Entra a Rita, a correr.) RITA: — Perdi o gato!» Step 3: the words in brackets are the stage direction, said by nobody; «Perdi o gato!» (I lost the cat!) is Rita's speech. Step 4: in a narrative, «Numa manhã de chuva, o Rui foi à quinta» (One rainy morning, Rui went to the farm) tells the time and the place.
Rhyme, verse and stage directions
The commonest mistake is to think that rhyming is repeating the same word. It is not: rhyme is the same sound at the end of words, like «rua» and «lua». Another mistake is to think a verse is a sentence: a verse is one line of the poem and can hold only part of a sentence. And in a play, the stage direction is not read aloud: it is there so the actor knows what to do.
Where you find these forms
You find these forms outside school: in rhymes and nursery songs (verses that rhyme), in storybooks (chapters and paragraphs), and in the theatre or the script of a puppet show. A song's words also have stanzas and rhyme. When you can recognise them, you read, sing and write with more confidence.
Test what you learned
In a poem, what is a stanza?
- a) A single line of the poem
- b) The last word of each line
- c) A group of verses (lines) set together
Correct answer: c) A group of verses (lines) set together — Yes: verses are grouped into stanzas, separated by a blank line.
In a play you read: «(Entra a Rita, a correr.) RITA: — Perdi o gato!» (Rita comes in, running. RITA: I lost the cat!) Which part is the stage direction (didascália)?
- a) «(Entra a Rita, a correr.)»
- b) «RITA»
- c) «Perdi o gato!»
Correct answer: a) «(Entra a Rita, a correr.)» — Yes: it is between brackets and tells how Rita comes in. Nobody says it aloud.
Which pair of words rhymes?
- a) pato – pote
- b) rua – lua
- c) sol – mar
Correct answer: b) rua – lua — Yes: both end in the same sound (-ua). Rhyme is the same sound at the end.
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