YEAR 11 POETRY EXAM
DRAFTING GUIDE
1. OFFER A GENERAL INTRODUCTORY
STATEMENT THAT SETS UP THE CONCEPTS
OF THE TASK.
Poetry is an often misunderstood medium, one that
readers feel is obscured by hidden meanings.
There are no “hidden meanings”, just a process of
denotation and connotation that allows all
readers to apply their own background and
experience to the text.
2. SUGGEST THE CONCEPTS OF
DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION OF
THE SELECTED POEM, ACCORDING TO
THE GIVEN THESIS.
The essential ingredients are : mention of denotation, mention of
connotation, explicit reference to the given thesis (borrow its
wording !) , mention of nationality.
The Australian poem The Fisherman’s Tale by
Randolph Stow denotes a narrative of men who
work at sea and suffer the perils of that
occupation. The oceans are a frequent and
obvious setting for poems from the island
continent of Australia, yet this poem also
connotes the monumental hardships of men
everywhere who must struggle to master the
natural environment.
3. CONTINUE ON TO INTRODUCE THE
SELECTED (SEEN) POEM IN SIMILAR TERMS
This will complete your introduction by offering a full
outline of what your essay will entail. Note that there does
not have to be a similarity of theme or subject matter
between your two selected poems (seen and unseen).
Choose a linkage that suits : in contrast, similarly, another
Australian poem that offers graphic connotation, a second
work that allows us to see the distinction between
denotation and connotation, etc.
The ocean as benefactor and predator is also
a connotation in Elizabeth Riddell’s poem
Lifesaver where the primary denotation is
of a drowned surfer being ceremonially
returned to the shore.
4. BEGIN YOUR
ANALYSIS/DECONSTRUCTION OF THE
UNSEEN POEM. YOU WILL ALREADY HAVE
ANNOTATED AND UNDERLINED THE POEM
APPROPRIATELY.
From this initial analysis, noted on the text itself,
select between 4 – 6 “steps” of discussion which
will enable you to investigate all aspects of the
poem.
FOR EXAMPLE.....
For The Fisherman’s Tale :
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
The overall mood, tone, denotation,
layout/organisation of the poem.
Stanza One creates an initial feeling of bleak
sadness and nostalgia with images of what the
fisherman leaves behind as he sails to sea....
Then there is a “gruff” change to the conditions of
the environment...
There follows a depiction of turmoil and
catastrophe as the sea begins to exert its power...
When “the sea grew still”, we are able to explore the
consequences of the preceding action....
Now the “deep/Eternities of sea” have asserted their
dominance and....
WITHIN EACH “STEP”, ANALYSE HOW THE
POET HAS CONSTRUCTED HIS/HER WORK IN
ORDER TO INVITE A CERTAIN READING.
Follow the dot-points offered on your
Task Sheet :
Subject matter
 Language devices
 Denotation and connotation
 Nationality

YOU ARE WRITING ABOUT THE POEM,
SO YOU MUST USE FREQUENT QUOTATION
FROM THE SOURCE
– THE POEM.
Follow the essay example supplied to you on how to integrate
quotation. “Integrate” is the word. Pause for longer quotations,
indent if they are more than one sentence, but do this
infrequently. Borrow wording and phrases as often as you can
to integrate into your expression, not to draw to a halt and
interrupt the flow of your ideas.
“A prayer was blown from the skipper’s son like spray” and yet
this has no effect against the forces of Nature. When “an equal
wind hurled curse and call away”, we know it is an uneven
battle. The soft sibilance in “skipper’s son...spray” is
contrasted with the guttural assonance of a “hurled curse” to
illustrate this battle. Alliteration on “curse and call” echoes
the abruptness of such an expression. The simile “like spray”
tells us just how ineffective human wishes are under such
circumstances. The sibilance is also present when “the salt
flew in to cleanse his father’s tongue”. The father has not even
managed a prayer. It is the salt itself, the bitter taste imagery
apparent to all, that robs this mere mortal of even his power
of speech.
CONCLUDE THE FIRST SECTION – AFTER A
NUMBER OF WELL-CONSTRUCTED PARAGRAPHS,
NOT A SINGLE “SLAB” – WITH A TERSE
SUMMATION OF WHAT YOU HAVE NOW PROVED,
USING THE WORDING OF THE THESIS TO
ACHIEVE THIS.
While The Fisherman’s Tale can be adequately
appreciated through its denotation of a story of
perils on the high seas, it gains its full strength
in connoting the strength and grandeur of
environment and the monumental struggle to
master it. Though an Australian poem, it speaks
to all societies everywhere.
5. TURN YOUR ATTENTION THEN TO YOUR PREPARED
POEM. DURING PERUSAL TIME, YOU WILL HAVE
TRANSFERRED THE PREPARATION IN YOUR HEAD
ONTO THE COPY OF THE POEM PROVIDED TO YOU.
CHECK THESE ANNOTATIONS AND CREATE A
MATCHING DISCOURSE TO THE UNSEEN
APPRECIATION YOU HAVE JUST COMPLETED.

Create a logical linkage that suits your selected text.
There can be no universal advice on this one.
Nothing is more Australian than a Surf Lifesaver,
so the very title of Elizabeth Riddell’s poem
connotes the idea of heroic figures battling the
ocean, not too unlike the fishermen in Stow’s
poem. However, just like that tale, this one also
involves struggle that ends in tragedy, and
connotes again the age-old quest to master our
physical environment.
6. USE THE SAME PROCESS AS FOR THE
UNSEEN POEM TO SELECT A SERIES OF POINTS
THAT WILL HELP YOU EVOKE THE IDEAS,
DEVELOPMENT, AND INVITED READING OF THIS
SECOND TEXT.
The same process applies :
 discuss the subject matter of the poem
 refer to a selection of language devices that
help relate that subject matter to the reader
 Demonstrate denotation/connotation to
achieve an invited reading.
Lifesaver opens with a graphic image of...
7. THE CONCLUSION NEEDS TO BE SUCCINCT,
BUT DON’T NEGLECT IT. ALWAYS ALLOW
ENOUGH TIME TO MAKE A STRONG, SUMMATIVE
CONCLUSION, BUT DON’T TRY TO REITERATE
CONTENT FROM YOUR PREVIOUS DISCUSSION.
MAIN REFERENCE SHOULD BE TO THE THESIS.
Good poems have no “hidden meanings”. Both
Elizabeth Riddells’s Lifesaver and Randolph
Stow’s The Fisherman’s Tale produce strong
enough denotations to produce serious thought –
connotation – on their wider issue of the struggle
for mastery of the environment. Good poems will
always offer this context. These two good,
Australian poems certainly do.
IN SUMMARY.....









The given thesis is your structure for the essay
Your response to this thesis is the direction you need to
follow throughout
Your discussion of subject matter/as fashioned through the
literary devices/providing a strong invited reading....is your
content.
Selected quotation is the evidence/proof for your case
Select ONE unseen poem and assess it along the exact
same lines as you have been doing in class
.....and here’s ONE that I prepared earlier....
Allow your mastery of the writing devices of poetry to show
Trust your developed intellect to appreciate the material
and its invited reading (direction)
For 2010, you will be required to include reference to the
Australian-ness of the poems (i.e. their Australian
denotations) while portraying (connoting) unviversal ideas

The Fisherman’s Tale
Randolph Stow (1930 -







Lamplight burns away in an ash of cloud;
The smoke-grey houses sift and fade behind
The broken summits of the sea; the loud
Bell’s benedictions dwindle out of mind,
Dissolving in the belfries of the sky
Where horizontal nebulous blue walls and cities lie.







All quiet on the dusklit sea. But gruff
And hindering a squall leaped out; the stars
Grew dark, the sun died out of time, and rough
Black rollers set the timbers screaming. Spars
Cried out like seagulls with the pregnant sails
And all the sky recalled the groan of hemp and scream of nails.






A prayer was blown from the skipper’s son like spray
And salt flew in to cleanse his father’s tongue;
An equal wind hurled curse and call away,
Profane and pious being together flung
Into the boiling climax of the night,
The surge and plunge of sea-green ranges shattered into white.
)

But green, green are the halls beneath the sea,

And green, green the trailing ropes of light,

And there the Rock Man waited. It was he

Who filled their silver nets to leap and fight

With flashing scales, and he who also made

The wrack of froth and gale, for he who gave would be repaid.


The sea grew still; and under that mazed sky

The boat turned round and faded down the deep

Eternities of sea. The shorewinds cry

Warm from the hearts where those most loved, in sleep,

Dream on the coming home. But deaf they rest,

Their shell-white eyes awash with green, crushed to the Rock Man’s breast.