Al Retaj International School
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
ANALYZE A MULTIMODAL TEXT.
RESEARCH THE WORLD SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL.
WRITE A POEM THAT EXPRESSES PERSONAL CONNECTIONS TO A SELF SELECTED WORK, ARTIST, OR AUTHOR.
PRODUCE A VIDEO PERFORMANCE OF A POEM.
LANGUAGE ANALYZE A MULTIMODAL TEXT BY LISTENING FOR REPEATED
WORDS AND VARIED INTONATION PATTERNS.
By Kate Tempest
• ESSENTIAL QUESTION
• GENRE ELEMENTS:VIDEO
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•
•
Kate Tempest (b. 1985) is a London-born
poet, playwright, and rapper. She began
performing at age 16 and has performed all
over the world, winning acclaim and awards
at music festivals and poetry slams. Her first
collection of poetry, Everything Speaks in its
Own Way, was published in 2012 and
includes a CD and a DVD along with the
text.The Royal Shakespeare Company
commissioned Kate to write and perform
“My Shakespeare” for the World
Shakespeare Festival in 2012.Thousands of
artists from around the world participated
in this festival. Her latest work, Let Them
Eat Chaos, was nominated for the 2017
Mercury Prize for Album of the Year in the
United Kingdom and Ireland.
My Shakespeare is a poem by Kate
Tempest which discusses the
importance of Shakespeare and
how his words and language are
still used today. Many people think
Shakespeare is boring but they
don't realize the effect he had on
people. Tempest is asking us to pay
more attention so we can find how
Shakespeare and others played a
huge role in how we talk and
express ourselves today. She is not
just asking us to recognize the
language but also the actions in the
stories he created and connect it
to the present.
ANALYSIS
• The first line of the poem “He’s in every lover who ever stood alone beneath
a window” is an allusion, or reference, to the famous balcony scene in Romeo and
Juliet. With every repetition of “every” Kate Tempest shares a new allusion,
• reference, to a famous Shakespeare play: “the ghost that will not rest” is an allusion
to the ghost of Hamlet’s murdered father; “he’s in every father with a favorite” is an
allusion to King Lear, who clearly loves his virtuous daughter Cordelia
• more than his other children; “every girl who used her wits” could refer to any
number of Shakespeare’s heroines who dress as men to chase their dreams or keep
themselves safe in a strange land.
• He’s in every girl who ever used her
wits. Who ever did her best.
• In every vain admirer,
• Every passionate, ambitious social
climber,
• And in every misheard word that
ever led to tempers fraying,
• Every pawn that moves exactly as
the player wants it to,
• And still remains convinced that it’s
not playing.
QUESTIONS
• 1.Tempest uses the pronoun his and the contraction he's throughout the poem. To whom is she
referring?
• Shakespeare
• 2.What emotion is described in lines 5-6, "Every eye that stops to linger / On what someone else has
got, and feels the tightening in their chest"?
• envy
• 3- In line 10, "every mix-up that spirals far out of control" refers to• a plot device that Shakespeare uses in his plays.
• 4. In the second and third stanzas, lines 7-17,Tempest names different people that "He's in," from
"every young man growing boastful" to "every vain admirer" to "Every pawn." She is alluding to
• characters in Shakespeare's plays.
• 5- In lines 18-28, the speaker provides examples of many phrases that Shakespeare coined (invented).
These examples show that the phrases
• are still widely used today.
QUESTIONS
• 6- The central idea of "My Shakespeare" is that Shakespeare's work is
• relevant and inspiring today.
• 7-"He's in every lover . . . beneath a window" is an allusion to Romeo that is recognizable even to
readers who have not read Romeo and Juliet. What does the repetition of the words "in every"
throughout the poem signal to readers? What message does Tempest convey through these words?
• The repetition of the words "in every" signals how Shakespeare's works are commonly used
throughout television, motion pictures, books, and everyday language.
• Adage: memorable statement or idea. Examples: all that glittered was not gold, pen is mightier
than the sword
• Cliché: a commonly or overused phrase that describes an idea or situation. Ex: star-crossed lover,
fought fire with fire, pure as driven snow
• Idiom: a group of words that mean something other than their original wording. Ex: set your teeth
on edge, method in our madness
can leave you up in arms, the pen is mightier than the sword, still
his words seem to sing our names as they strike, and his is the milk
of human kindness, warm enough to break the ice—his, the green
eyed monster, in a pickle, still, discretion is the better part of valor,
his letters with their arms around each others shoulders, swagger
towards the ends of their sentences, pleased with what they’ve done,
his words are the setting for our stories—he has become a poet who
poetics have embedded themselves deep within the fabric of our language,
Which poetic technique does Tempest use in line 39, "He's
in us. Part and parcel of our Royals and our rascals"?) alliteration
• he’s more than a feeling of inadequacy when we
• sit for our exams,
• He’s in every wise woman, every pitiful villain,
• Every great king, every sore loser, every fake tear.
• His legacy exists in the life that lives
• in everything he’s written,
• And me, I see him everywhere, he’s my Shakespeare.
• In the poem, Kate Tempest expresses herself in a way that she truly
understands Shakespeare and his infamous playwrights, plays, poems,
and even more. In the fourth stanza Tempest states, "He's in every star
crossed lover, in every thought that ever set your teeth on edge, in
every breathless hero, stepping closer to the ledge, his is the method in
the madness, as pure as the driven snow- his is the hair standing on end,
he saw that all that glittered was not gold." This indicates that
Shakespeare is the master of emotions leaving us on edge, to figure out
what is going to happen next. Sometimes, Shakespeare can make
something tragic or bad happen, like what took place in "Romeo and
Juliet" or "Hamlet", as either a lesson or something that reflected off of
his life.
. • "Why is Shakespeare still relevant today?" Many people ask. Shakespeare is still
relevant today because he has impacted the English language for the better. He
has contributed into creating over 1700 common words that many people use
today. He has created words such as "Swagger", "Laughable", "Rant", "Submerge",
"Unreal", and etc. Reading his works even provided insight into the culture and
society around those times, and his plays appealed anyone who read them. The
reason why Shakespeare is still relevant today, is because with his plays, he made
it so that it was engaging; relatable. He based some plays and poems about his
own life as well, and that is what made them so interesting.
•
The point that Kate Tempest was trying to get across was that even
though Shakespeare is not alive, he still lives on through the beautiful works he
created; his plays, poems, sonnets, and more. This is why many people love
Shakespeare today; for his relatable work, the words he created, etc. This is why
he is Kate Tempest's Shakespeare. He is mine as well
Both the poem and the video are trying to explain that Shakespeare is
really important in today's modern society. From lines 40-42, Kate explains
how "Shakespeare is more than something taught in a classroom." Kate
later explains how overall, Shakespeare is mostly everywhere. In the poem,
Kate mentions how "he is in every wise woman and every pitiful villain". This
means how Shakespeare impacts people due to his work.
Unlike the poem, the rapping video that Kate Tempest made had
an informal tone.The lines had some differences compared to what the
poem was saying. Kate rapping about "My Shakespeare" made it clear how
Kate had expression compared to the poem.
Both ended the same way. In the video, it states, "In me, I
see him everywhere, he's my Shakespeare. Same as the poem. Kate knows
the accomplishments that Shakespeare had done and the legacy that
Shakespeare had left for which is why "He is my Shakespeare"
A- she understands the language he uses
B- she has read many of his plays and can quote them
C- she is following in his footsteps as a poet
D- she recognizes his influence in the world around her
• Theme : the dominating or central idea of a literary work
• Alliteration: the repetition of the initial sound of two or more
words in a line, as in "same sound"
• Rhyme: repetition of the same or similar sound created by
vowels and consonants at the end of words, as in "found sound".
• Adage :a concise, memorable statement or idea. Examples: all
that glittered was not gold, pen is mightier than the sword
• Cliché :a commonly or overused phrase that describes an idea
or situation. Ex: star-crossed lover, fought fire with fire, pure as
driven snow
• Idiom :a group of words that mean something other than their
original wording. Ex: set your teeth on edge, method in our
madness