Poetry and Protest. Week 10 - War Poems. SST: irony, disjunct, dramatic irony, persona, theme, style, exposition, PEETEEEL

Transcription

1 Poetry and Protest Week 10 - War Poems SST: irony, disjunct, dramatic irony, persona, theme, style, exposition, PEETEEEL Learning intention: My focus this week is to examine how irony is used to represent the complexities of conflict in war poetry. I will explore how poets use language to criticise popular beliefs and established values associated with war. The Macquarie Dictionary defines irony as a figure of speech or literary device in which the literal meaning is the opposite of that intended. Write your own definition for irony in your workbook, you may need to look up more definitions of this word. Look up the definitions for this week s SST and write your own definition for each in your workbook. Irony You will explore and examine how irony is used to represent the complexities of conflict in war poetry. You will explore how poets use language to criticise popular beliefs and interrogate established values associated with war.

2 We Are Making A New World: painting by Paul Nash 1918 The above image is a representation of the desolation of trench warfare in World War I. In your table team, discuss the disjunct between the image and it s title. Jot down these ideas in your workbook. Go to View the paintings and drawings in the Australia s War Art section. With a partner create a vocab list of what the images portray and the feelings they conjure up for you. Can you spot any irony in these images? Irony usually has a target. Irony in war poetry may be directed at the government, the persona in the poem, the military, the enemy or society as a whole. Dramatic irony may also feature in war poems, where the poet is all-knowing, in contrast to the ordinary soldier who is ignorant of the fate awaiting him. Paste the following poem into your workbook. With the help of a partner, annotate the poem highlighting poetic techniques and their effect.

3 Homecoming All day, day after day, they re bringing them home, they re picking them up, those they can find, and bringing them home, they re bringing them in, piled on the hulls of Grants, in trucks, in convoys, they re zipping them up in green plastic bags, they re tagging them now in Saigon, in the mortuary coolness they re giving them names, they re rolling them out of the deep-freeze lockers on the tarmac at Tan Son Nhut the noble jets are whining like hounds, they are bringing them home curly heads, kinky-hairs, crew-cuts, balding non-coms they re high, now, high and higher, over the land, the steaming chow mein, their shadows are tracing the blue curve of the Pacific with sorrowful quick fingers, heading south, heading east, home, home, home and the coasts swing upward, the old ridiculous curvatures of earth, the knuckled hills, the mangrove-swamps, the desert emptiness in their sterile housing they tilt towards these like skiers taxiing in, on the long runways, the howl of their homecoming rises surrounding them like their last moments (the mash, the splendour) then fading at length as they move on to small towns where dogs in the frozen sunset raise muzzles in mute salute, and on to cities in whose wide web of suburbs telegrams tremble like leaves from a wintering tree and the spider grief swings in his bitter geometry they re bringing them home, now, too late, too early. Bruce Dawe

4 For a great selection of war poems visit: War poems are a form of protest. Using one of the poem studied above, or one of your own choosing, compose an essay that supports this statement. This is due Wednesday of Week 1. You can type or handwrite your response. Please submit to your teacher on separate paper not in your workbook. Remember to use the scaffold for analytical paragraphs as well as the plan for an extended response to help you structure your essay. PEETEEEL Point Evaluate Explanation Technique Example Explain Effect Link

5 Plan for extended response Hints Draft Paragraph 1 Introduction Introduce text and composer. Identify audience and purpose of text. Write your thesis for this essay (use the language of the question) Paragraphs 2,3&4 Body Paragraph 2 PEETEEEL table converted into paragraph - Point, Evaluate, Explanation, Techniques, Example, Explain, Effect, Link. Paragraph 3 PEETEEEL table converted into paragraph - Point, Evaluate, Explanation, Techniques, Example, Explain, Effect, Link. Paragraph 4 PEETEEEL table converted into paragraph - Point, Evaluate, Explanation, Techniques, Example, Explain, Effect, Link. Paragraph 5 Conclusion Sum up your argument. Restate your thesis.

6 Success criteria: I understand the subject specific terminology and have written definitions for each in my own words. I have studied the painting We Are Making A New World and have jotted down ideas in my workbook. I have visited the War Art website and have constructed a vocabulary list of words that I believe describe how war is represented in these paintings. I have pasted Homecoming into my workbook and have annotated it. I have constructed an analytical table for the essay. I have constructed a plan for my essay. I have composed a five paragraph essay on separate paper and have it ready to submit on Wednesday of Week 1.