BLM 60 SEVEN DAY CYCLE Monday wakes with a wallop, thrusting into lift off, launching into the orbit of the week. Tuesday shakes and shudders, agitating into action, driving towards the lunar destination. Wednesday lolls waylaid in a lull, coaxing into motion, easing over the week s hump. Thursday rouses with a thrumming, pulling headlong, pulsing into the rushing stream. Friday flutters with fiery frenzy, hurtling down hill, hurrying to the week s resting place. Saturday vibrates with its own beat a syncopated rhythm dancing on the grave of the spent week. Sunday snoozes in somnolent silence a supple anacrusis before Monday s down beat. by Wendy Michaels 84
Teaching notes for Text form: Lyric Medium: Book Field: Cycles Tenor: Writer to unknown reader Mode: Written OTHER RESOURCES Dictionaries and encyclopedias. Percussion instruments. INTRODUCING THE UNIT Ask volunteers to read the lyric poem aloud. LET S TALK ABOUT IT! Poetry is an economical way of creating vivid impressions or images that may startle or surprise readers. Explain to students that the poet was once the voice of a moral philosopher and that lyric poetry was originally sung to the accompaniment of the lyre. A LIFE OF THEIR OWN Explain to students that metaphor involves using verbs in a way that makes inanimate objects seem as if they are carrying out actions.the verbs in the poem are: Stanza 1: wakes, thrusting, launching Stanza 2: shakes, shudders, agitating, driving Stanza 3: lolls, coaxing, easing Stanza 4: rouses, pulling, pulsing Stanza 5: flutters, hurtling, hurrying Stanza 6: vibrates, dancing Stanza 7: snoozes. Encourage students to think about how these actions would normally be carried out. Point out that there is not a single answer here but many possible alternatives. Encourage them to see how these connotations help to create the pattern of meanings in the poem. IMAGES Encourage students to respond to the poem with their own ideas and feelings about the week and its rhythms. You may want to introduce such notions as Mondayitis or Thank God it s Friday. Discuss whether the rhythm patterns of the week differ at different times of the year or during holiday periods. GET THE RHYTHM Explain that an ostinato is a percussive sound that is used to underscore the movement of spoken words or music. The ostinato pattern works rather like a sound track to set the mood and rhythm of the piece. Encourage students to explore patterns that work best with each stanza, pointing out that patterns must amplify the stanza s ideas. Encourage them to use the idea of pace and stressed and unstressed syllables, as well as the nature of the sound in relation to the ideas that the poet is communicating. TERCETS Discuss why the poet chose the tercet stanza form which has a cyclical feel to it.ask students to explore how couplets or quatrains would affect the meaning of the poem. Discuss the reasons why the tercet form has been altered in the last two stanzas and how this affects the meaning. Help students look up words like anacrusis and syncopated. Encourage them to think about the connotations of these musical images in the last two stanzas as opposed to the more mechanical images of the first five stanzas. BE APOET Ask students to find verbs to express their ideas about each season and to think about metaphors that could bring the two aspects together. Allow time for drafting and revising work. FOLLOW-UP/EXTENSION Have students write a poem about the months of the year using the tercet stanza structure. Have groups of students research to create a profile of a particular poet. Describe the issues that the poet usually writes about and the types of poems usually written. Interview a poet about the way that he or she shapes ideas into a poem.try to establish where the inspiration comes from. 85
BLM 61 Let s talk about it! Poetry often challenges us to look at the familiar and to see it in a new way. Talk in a small group about why you think poets write this kind of poetry. Share with your group any poems that have made you see familiar things in a new way. Write your group s ideas on the lines. A life of their own In this poem, each day seems to have a life of its own because it is described as if it is capable of action. Work with a partner. Identify the action verbs in each stanza. Write these words next to the name of the day. Then write the kind of life that the words attribute to the day. You may wish to ask yourself whether the day seems like something mechanical, human or animal. Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Day Action verb Kind of life 86 NA 4.1 NSW 3.1 Communicates and interacts confidently for a range of purposes and a variety of audiences to express well developed, well organised ideas dealing with more challenging topics. NA 4.7 NSW 3.8 Identifies the structures of different texts and with assistance discusses the grammatical structures and features that shape readersí and listenersí understanding of texts. NA 4.11 NSW 3.14 Discusses and evaluates how texts have been constructed to achieve their purpose and shape readers and viewers understandings using grammatical features and structures.
Images BLM 62 The poem consists of a series of seven images in seven stanzas. Each stanza depicts one day of the week. Read the poem and notice the differences between the different days. Talk with a partner about these images. Compare them with your own impression of each day of the week. Create a series of labelled pictures to show the differences between the different days. Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday NA 4.2 NSW 3.3 Considers aspects of context, purpose and audience when speaking and listening and discusses ways in which spoken language differs from written. NA 4.5 NSW 3.5 Reads an extensive range of texts with fairly complex structures and features, justifying own interpretation of ideas, information and events in the response to themes and issues. 87
BLM 63 Get the rhythm The poet identifies a different rhythm for each of the days of the week. Work with a small group. Read the poem aloud. Listen for the rhythm of the words. Develop an ostinato pattern for each of the days of the week. You may want to think about whether this pattern could be made with clicking fingers, tapping on a table, or using percussion instruments. Write the ostinato pattern for each stanza in the space below using a long stroke for a long beat and a short stroke for a short beat. You will need to experiment with how to make the ostinato pattern speed up or slow down according to the rhythm of the day in the stanza. Stanza 1 Stanza 2 Stanza 3 Stanza 4 Stanza 5 Stanza 6 Stanza 7 Tercets The poet has chosen the tercet as the stanza form. The first five stanzas have a similar structure, but the sixth and seventh have a different pattern in the second and third lines. Talk with a small group about the stanza patterns. How does the meaning and mood change with the changed pattern. Talk about the images of syncopated rhythm and supple anacrusis. Look these words up in a dictionary if you are not certain of their meanings. On the lines below, explain why the poet has used a different pattern for the last two stanzas. 88 NA 4.1 NSW 3.1 Communicates and interacts confidently for a range of purposes and a variety of audiences to express well developed, well organised ideas dealing with more challenging topics. NA 4.5 NSW 3.5 Reads an extensive range of texts with fairly complex structures and features, justifying own interpretation of ideas, information and events in the response to themes and issues. NA 4.6 NSW 3.7 Analyses and explains techniques to position the reader and to interpret experiences differently in texts.
Be a poet BLM 64 Use this poem as a model for a poem of your own. Your poem should use tercets and be about the seasons spring, summer, autumn and winter. You can write about them in any order. Use scrap paper to draft your ideas. Begin by deciding on some action verbs that could be applied to each of the seasons. Think about the images that you associate with each of the seasons. Try to develop some metaphors for these images. Work on developing three lines of poetry about each of the seasons. Share your drafts with your friends. Publish your final season cycle poem in the space below. NA 4.9 NSW 3.9 Writes well structured literary and factual texts using challenging topics, ideas and issues for a variety of purposes and audiences. NA 4.12a NSW 3.10 Uses a range of strategies to plan, edit and proofread own writing. 89