About: Ask yourself: Who? What? Where? When? Why? What is the relevance of the title? Whose point of view do we hear? Historical/Social context

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "About: Ask yourself: Who? What? Where? When? Why? What is the relevance of the title? Whose point of view do we hear? Historical/Social context"

Egbert Daniel
5 years ago
Views:

Ask yourself: Who? What? Where? When? Why? What is the relevance of the title? Whose point of view do we hear? Historical/Social context Does AQA give you any clues in the rubric?

1 Ask yourself: Who? What? Where? When? Why? What is the relevance of the title? Whose point of view do we hear? Historical/Social context Does AQA give you any clues in the rubric? What might have been happening at the time of the poet s writing? Imagery and Techniques What type of words/techniques are used? Are any words/techniques repeated or emphasised? Pick out two or three words/techniques that you think are important and write about them. What mood do they create? How do they help to convey what is happening in the poem? Do the images create an emotional response? Personal response Here you need to discuss your personal feelings and attitudes to the poem. Select words/phrases/lines that you think are effective at evoking emotion. Write about how these words or phrases make you feel. Maybe they amuse you or make you feel anger or sympathy or maybe they remind you of something personal to you. Organisation and form/structure How many stanzas? Is there a purpose? How many lines in each stanza? Are there any stanzas that don t follow the rule? Why? Are the line lengths regular or irregular? Why? What is the rhyme scheme? What is the purpose? Does the poem use enjambment/caesura? Why? Emotions What mood is created? How does the poet do this? Does the mood or atmosphere change? Why? What is the volta (turning point)? Messages/Themes Why has it been written? What is the poet trying to say? What are the issue and themes that the poem explores? Do you think the poet achieved his or her purpose?

2 Glossary of Key Terms 1. Define each key term. 2. Provide an example. 3. Colour code(r/a/g)- how confident do you feel with identifying this technique in a poem? Alliteration Assonance Atmosphere- Caesura- Colloquial language- Connotation Couplet- Direct address- Dramatic Monologue- Emotive Language- Enjambment- First person narrative- Hyperbole - Imagery Inclusive language- Irony- Juxtaposition - Metaphor-

3 Monologue- Onomatopoeia- Oxymoron- Pathos- Personification Power of three- Quatrain- Rhetorical Question- Repetition- Rhyme Semantic field - Sibilance- Simile Second person narrative- Sonnet- Theme Third person narrative- Tone Volta-

4 Approaching Unseen Poetry Andrew Forster is a modern poet known for writing about childhood by drawing on autobiographical material. Question: In Brothers, how does the writer present the speaker s feelings for his brother? Brothers by Andrew Forster Personal response: Saddled with you for the afternoon, me and Paul ambled across the threadbare field to the bus-stop, talking over Sheffield Wednesday's chances in the Cup while you skipped beside us in your ridiculous tank-top, spouting six-year-old views on Rotherham United. Suddenly you froze, said you hadn't any bus fare. I sighed, said you should go and ask Mum and while you windmilled home I looked at Paul. His smile, like mine, said I was nine and he was ten and we must stroll the town, doing what grown-ups do. Message: As a bus crested the hill we chased Olympic Gold. Looking back I saw you spring towards the gate, your hand holding out what must have been a coin. I ran on, unable to close the distance I'd set in motion. Emotion:

5 Imagery and techniques: Organisation: My Parents Kept me from Children who were Rough Stephen Spender My parents kept me from children who were rough and who threw words like stones and who wore torn clothes. Their thighs showed through rags. They ran in the street And climbed cliffs and stripped by the country streams. I feared more than tigers their muscles like iron And their jerking hands and their knees tight on my arms. I feared the salt coarse pointing of those boys Who copied my lisp behind me on the road. Question: How confident do you feel with analysing this poem? Approaching Unseen Poetry In My Parents Kept me from Children, how does the poet present the rough children? They were lithe, they sprang out behind hedges Like dogs to bark at our world. They threw mud And I looked another way, pretending to smile, I longed to forgive them, yet they never smiled.

6 Imagery and techniques: Organisation: Personal response: Message: Emotion: How confident do you feel with analysing this poem?

7 Approaching Unseen Poetry Vernon Scannell was most famous as a war poet, having fought in World War Two. Nettles by Vernon Scannell My son aged three fell in the nettle bed. 'Bed' seemed a curious name for those green spears, That regiment of spite behind the shed: It was no place for rest. With sobs and tears The boy came seeking comfort and I saw White blisters beaded on his tender skin. We soothed him till his pain was not so raw. At last he offered us a watery grin, And then I took my hook and honed the blade And went outside and slashed in fury with it Till not a nettle in that fierce parade Stood upright any more. Next task: I lit A funeral pyre to burn the fallen dead. But in two weeks the busy sun and rain Had called up tall recruits behind the shed: My son would often feel sharp wounds again. Question: In Nettles, how does the poet present the relationship between father and son? Personal response: Message: Emotion:

8 Imagery and techniques: Organisation: How confident do you feel with analysing this poem?

9 Analysing Unseen Poetry Hour By Carol Ann Duffy Love s time s beggar, but even a single hour, bright as a dropped coin, makes love rich. We find an hour together, spend it not on flowers or wine, but the whole of the summer sky and a grass ditch. Question: In Hour, how does the poet present attitudes to love? Personal response: For thousands of seconds we kiss; your hair like treasure on the ground; the Midas light turning your limbs to gold. Time slows, for here we are millonaires, backhanding the night so nothing dark will end our shining hour, no jewel hold a candle to the cuckoo spit hung from the blade of grass at your ear, no chandelier or spotlight see you better lit than here. Now. Time hates love, wants love poor, Message: but love spins gold, gold, gold from straw. Emotion:

10 Imagery and techniques: Organisation: How confident do you feel with analysing this poem?

11 Analysing Unseen Poetry Simon Armitage often writes about everyday events that are thought provoking. The Clown Punk by Simon Armitage Driving home through the shonky side of town, three times out of ten you ll see the town clown, like a basket of washing that got up and walked, towing a dog on a rope. But Question: In The Clown Punk, how does the poet present stereotypes and prejudice? Personal response: don t laugh: every pixel of that man s skin is shot through with indelible ink; as he steps out at the traffic lights, think what he ll look like in thirty years time the deflated face and shrunken scalp still daubed with the sad tattoos of high punk. You kids in the back seat who wince and scream when he slathers his daft mush on the windscreen, remember the clown punk with his dyed brain, then picture windscreen wipers, and let it rain. Message: Emotion:

12 Imagery and techniques: Organisation: How confident do you feel with analysing this poem?

13 Analysing Unseen Poetry Question: Simon Armitage often writes about everyday events that are thought provoking. In Give, how does the poet present the speaker s feelings about homelessness? Give by Simon Armitage Personal response: Of all the public places, dear to make a scene, I ve chosen here. Of all the doorways in the world to choose to sleep, I ve chosen yours. I m on the street, under the stars. For coppers I can dance or sing. For silver-swallow swords, eat fire. For gold-escape from locks and chains. It s not as if I m holding out for frankincense or myrrh, just change. Message: You give me tea. That s big of you. I m on my knees. I beg of you. Emotion:

14 Imagery and techniques: Organisation: Message: How confident do you feel with analysing this poem? Personal response: Analy Emotion:

15 sing Unseen Poetry Imagery and techniques: Flag is fro Agard s 2005 collectio. Agard ofte writes about identity and patriotism due to his ethnic and cultural roots. Flag by John Agard Question: In Flag, how does the poet present the speaker s feelings about conflict? What s that fluttering in a breeze? It s just a piece of cloth that brings a nation to its knees. Organisation: What s that unfurling from a pole? It s just a piece of cloth that makes the guts of men grow bold. What s that rising over a tent? It s just a piece of cloth that dares the coward to relent. What s that flying across a field? It s just a piece of cloth that will outlive the blood you bleed. How can I possess such a cloth? Just ask for a flag my friend. Then blind your conscience to the end. How confident do you feel with analysing this poem? Analysing Unseen Poetry

16 Question: The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; In The Road Not Taken, how does the poet present the speaker s feelings about difficult decisions? Personal response: Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim Because it was grassy and wanted wear, Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way I doubted if I should ever come back. Message: I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Emotion:

17 Imagery and techniques: Organisation: How confident do you feel with analysing this poem?

18 Analysing Unseen Poetry Question: The Loner by Julie Holder In The Loner, how does the poet present the speaker s feelings about school life? Personal response: Message: Emotion:

19 Imagery and techniques: Organisation: How confident do you feel with analysing this poem?

20 Analysing Unseen Poetry This poe was writte duri g Sassoo s military service in WW1. Suicide in the Trenches By Siegfried Sassoon Question: In Suicide in the Trenches, how does the poet present the speaker s feelings about war? Personal response: I knew a simple soldier boy Who grinned at life in empty joy, Slept soundly through the lonesome dark, And whistled early with the lark. In winter trenches, cowed and glum, With crumps and lice and lack of rum, He put a bullet through his brain. No one spoke of him again. You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye Who cheer when soldier lads march by, Sneak home and pray you'll never know The hell where youth and laughter go. Message: Emotion:

21 Imagery and techniques: Organisation: How confident do you feel with analysing this poem?

22 Analysing Unseen Poems Question: Slow Reader by Vicki Feaver In Slow Reader, how does the poet present the experience of reading? Personal response: Message:

23 Imagery and techniques: Organisation: Emotion: How confident do you feel with analysing this poem?

GCSE English Literature. Revision Resources Poetry

GCSE English Literature. Revision Resources Poetry GCSE English Literature Revision Resources 2017 Poetry Talking about Poetry You have to be able to pick out these features and analyse what they make the reader feel/see/hear/imagine/understand. TALKING