Quick challenge
• In front of you are the titles of the poems you will be studying.
• Can you make any connections between them, just by looking
at the titles?
Objectives:
- to consider why poetry is
written and what makes ‘good’
poetry
- to explore Agbabi’s poem ‘Eat
me’
Why do people write poetry?
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in Table Talk, July 12,
1827
"I wish our clever young poets would remember my
homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is,
prose is words in their best order; poetry is the best
words in their best order."
Two minutes to discuss
End
Why do people write poetry?
•
•
•
•
As catharsis – purgation of emotions/release of pressure
To convey themselves more eloquently than with prose
As a remembrance – of a moment/person/event/thought
Due to a love of language and the endless possibilities
involved in its manipulation
• As a challenge – perhaps the most challenging form of
literature in which to express yourself?
What makes ‘good’ poetry?
POPULARITY?
STRUCTURE?
EMOTION?
TOPIC MATTER: CONTOVERSIAL, UNIVERSAL, UNIQUE?
CONTEXT DEPENDENT (PRODUCTION AND RECEPTION)?
TASK : Creative writing
What makes a ‘bad poem’?
In groups of 3-4: Write the WORST poem you can in 5 minutes.
Use cliché, bad rhyme etc.
First poem: Eat Me (Patience Agbabi)
https://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=jfxPWK47eLg
EAT ME
TWO MINUTES TO JOT DOWN ALL THE CONNOTATIONS THIS TITLE MIGHT HOLD…
Aggressive/imperative?
Sexual innuendo?
An insult?
Fairytale
allusion?
About temptation?
4 step storyboard – what happens in the poem?
Sketch each stage on a piece of paper with a
supporting quotation underneath
E.g. 1.
The narrator tells us of her unhealthy relationship –
in more ways than one…
As we read, underline any lines that depict the
female body
What metaphors/similes are used? WHY?
5 minutes to discuss
N.B: A juggernaut refers not only to a large truck but to any
literal/metaphorical force that is regarded as mercilessly destructive
and unstoppable
Etymology: (Hindi) A huge wagon bearing the god Krishna
CHALLENGE: do the kind of comparisons change throughout the
poem? How does this reflect the shifting balance of power in the
piece?
Key terms for today:
Phonology (the sound devices
used in a text)
Heteroglossia (the coexistence of different voices/different
linguistic styles within the same
space) e.g. “she uses the concept of
heteroglossia
in this poem to . . .”
In pairs, try to respond to the following questions:
1. What are some differences between the narrator and her partner’s speech style?
2. Where does the partner’s speech come in the poem and why might that be
significant?
3. Find an example of some harsh plosive sounds here (p,t,d,g) – what is the effect?
4. Find an example of some soft, long vowel sounds here – what is the effect?
5. Look at the anaphora in stanza 7 – why is this refrain used?
6. Find an example of alliteration – what is its purpose in the poem?
Homework:
1. Read the Guardian article on the Forward anthology,
highlighting key sections to help you understand why it was
written
Objective:
- to explore another poem in the
collection in which a woman’s body is
used as a symbol
A mnemonic for poetry analysis –
F.L.I.R.T
To Begin: Decide which features of a
poem from the box on the right fall
under which heading:
Form
Language
Imagery
Rhyme/Rhythm
Tone
Don’t forget to FLIRT
Stanza length
symbolism
half-rhyme
satirical narrator
simile
juxtaposition
volta
assonance
nostalgic speaker
pace
hyperbole
caesura
quatrain
Eat Me – a recap
1. Rank these statements about the poem, from the one you
most agree with to the one you are least convinced by. Be
prepared to explain why!
-
Eat Me is a poem about female empowerment
Eat Me creates a sensuous feel not only from the language used, but the sounds created
As readers, we are meant to judge the narrator
As readers, we are meant to judge her partner
Eat me blurs the lines between humour and horror
2. Write a PEAR paragraph for the point you were most convinced by.
EMBED your evidence and use a key term in your analysis
P47 – The Map-Woman
1. What technique is introduced
A woman's skin was a map of the town
here? What effect does it have?
where she'd grown from a child.
When she went out, she covered it up
2. What comment might Duffy be
making about the way women
with a dress, with a shawl, with a hat,
dress/are expected to dress in public?
with mitts or a muff, with leggings, trousers
or jeans, with a an ankle-length cloak, hooded 3. What is the effect of the listing
and fingertip-sleeved. But - birthmark, tattoo - here?
the A-Z street-map grew, a precise second skin, 4. These two words are very different.
broad if she binged, thin when she slimmed,
How do they link/juxtapose?
a précis of where to end or go back or begin.
5. What significance does the map have for
the women, then?
To conclude…
VS.
In his Elegy XX, the poet John Donne (famously bawdy in his early years) compares his lover's
body to undiscovered territory, using the metaphor of exploration to justify his sexual conquest of
the beloved:
License my roving hands, and let them go
Before, behind, between, above, below,
O, my America, my Newfoundland
So…how could Duffy’s poem be considered a subversion of Donne’s idea?
- Is the woman’s map for others?
- Is there any mystery in Duffy’s poem?
Objectives:
- to expand our knowledge of poetic
terminology
- to begin to make comparisons and
connections between poems
To begin…
You have 5 MINUTES to try to fill in the first section of your
glossaries (allegory – compound adjective)
Easy? Try to add some EXAMPLES to each definition
Really stuck? Ask me for some mixed up definitions that you
can match up…
ALLEGORY – COMPOUND ADJECTIVE
• A pause in a line of verse dictated by sense or natural speech rhythm rather than by
metrics.
• The representation of abstract ideas or principles by characters, figures, or events in
narrative
• An indirect reference
• Employed in conversational or informal language but not in formal speech or formal
writing
• Two hyphenated words that contribute to a description
• The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds, often in the middle of words
• The repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of
words
or in stressed syllables
• Words and language that were once in regular use but are now relatively rare and
suggestive of an earlier style or period.
• An expression which has become overused to the point of losing its original meaning or
effect
• Unrhymed verse having a regular meter, usually of iambic pentameter.
• Uncertainty as regards interpretation
• Narrative poetry, with a rigid, usually rhyming structure
Evidence race!
In pairs, go around the room and find evidence for the following:
Idea
An ominous reference to death on her
living body
A juxtaposition of external force and
personal powerlessness
Imagery of the 1960s British ‘everytown’
Sibliance suggesting a desire for
purgation
An image of permanence and/or pain
Synaesthesia
A metaphor connoting preciousness
An allegory for patriarchal suppression
Dark humour
An oxymoronic description of sounds
An ambiguous list to describe her skin
Evidence
Analysis
Writing a comparative PEAR – true or false?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
You should only ever talk about one poem in each paragraph
You need to include evidence from both poems
You can find a link or establish a difference between the poems
You do not need to do as much close analysis when comparing
Your topic sentence should give away your comparative idea
You can compare audience response/poets’ tone/structure as well
as language/themes
7. Higher grade responses will acknowledge subtle distinctions
between poems
Eat me v The Map Woman
In pairs, find two lines to use (1 from each poem) to illustrate
these connections:
1. Both poems denounce the idea that a woman’s body should
be an object of pleasure for others
2. Both poems use biblical imagery, alluding to the fall and
original sin
3. Both poems use descriptive detail to captivate their readers
Now – choose one to turn into a PEA – you already have your topic sentence!
HOMEWORK:
1. ENSURE that you have thoroughly completed your table on
the ‘Map Woman’
2. COMPLETE a comparative PEA on the two poems studied so
far