The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning.

Here is an excerpt from Robert Browning's 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin.' The link leads to the complete poem.

Rats! 

They fought the dogs and killed the cats, 

And bit the babies in the cradles, 

And ate the cheeses out of the vats, 

And licked the soup from the cooks' own ladles, 

Split open the kegs of salted sprats, 

Made nests inside men's Sunday hats, 

And even spoiled the women's chats, 

By drowning their speaking 

With shrieking and squeaking 

In fifty different sharps and flats.

A Disney rendition of the 'Pied Piper of Hamelin'

And The Wife Of Bath

Hearing the words 'Old English', we may tend to assume that it couldn't be very different from the language we speak today. Well, that can't be far off from the truth. Reading the poem, 'The Wife of Bath' in Old English was more like discovering a new language for most of us. Here's the report of what happened in class as told by Caroline Bosco.

' Manjushree read the Old English version of Geoffrey Chaucer's poem, 'The Wife of Bath' out loud to the class and was congratulated by Mrs. Nayar for the good attempt. Mrs. Nayar then proceeded explain to us that the 'e's at the ends were to be stressed upon and the 'a's were to be pronounced with a gutteral 'ah', informing us that Chaucer's writings belonged to the period of the 'Great Vowel Shift'. The class had a lot of fun trying to read the poetry while Mridula read it out loud. Mrs. Nayar was impressed that the class tried to read together. And as she read effortlessly and flawlessly, loud applause followed.' 

  

- Photos by Sajan Tom