How to study
(and enjoy)
poetry
‘emotions recalled in
tranquillity’
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
feel
mood
Poetry can affect us
… if we let it.
respond
A good poem makes us...
Think
Imagine
Feel
How does the poet achieve
these effects?
Take a step back
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What is she thinking?
Who is she looking at?
How does she feel?
How old is she?
Is she friendly?
Do I like her hair?
Do I want to talk to
her?
• Do I want to look like
her?
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Oils or watercolours?
Brushes and knives?
Textures
Tones
Use of light
Position
Perspective
Foreground /
background
Art of painting
Art of writing
• What is it like to live in
Jordan College?
• Does Lyra feel lonely?
• Does she love her uncle?
• Is Mrs Coulter really evil?
• What is it like to have a
daemon?
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Plot
Pace
Characterisation
Use of imagery
Setting
Themes
Symbolism
Messages and morals
Make-believe
Critical analysis
Craft
Poetry techniques:
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Imagery
Sound
Rhyme
Rhythm
Atmosphere, tone and mood
Poetry techniques:
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Imagery
Sound
Rhyme
Rhythm
Atmosphere, tone and mood
Imagery
• Literal description
• Figurative description:
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Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Allegory
Imagery
Literal description:
‘The trees bent in the wind.’
Figurative description:
‘The great giants arched their backs
as the wind roared.’
Imagery
‘Random’
Imagery
Literally
Imagery
Henry and his stick
stick:
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a thin piece of wood, fallen from a tree;
begins with the letter pattern st–
rhymes with brick
not to be mistaken for a sword
poets like potential meanings
Imagery
Workshop 1
‘In my mind I can see, the object in my
hand could be...’
keep your mind open to
metaphors!
For a Poem
Poetry techniques:
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Imagery
Sound
Rhyme
Rhythm
Atmosphere, tone and mood
Poetry techniques:
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Imagery
Sound
Rhyme
Rhythm
Atmosphere, tone and mood
Sound
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Alliteration
Assonance
Onomatopoeia
Letter sounds (hard/soft consonants)
Sound
Alliteration:
(repetition of letter sounds – usually at
the beginning of words)
‘Strolling over soft, satin sand.’
Sound
Assonance:
(repetition of vowel sounds)
‘The rain in Spain falls mainly on the
plain.’
Sound
Onomatopoeia:
(a word that sounds like the thing it is
describing)
‘Splash, pop, bang, tinkle.’
Sound
Letter sounds:
(the use of hard or soft consonants to
create dramatic effects)
‘Ripples of water wash slowly over
satin sand.’
Sound
Letter sounds:
(the use of hard or soft consonants to
create dramatic effects)
‘The battered, castle keep of granite
rises to the darkening sky. ’
Sound
Workshop 2
Alliteration
Assonance
Onomatopoeia
Time for a poem…
Poetry techniques:
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Imagery
Sound
Rhyme
Rhythm
Atmosphere, tone and mood
Poetry techniques:
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Imagery
Sound
Rhyme
Rhythm
Atmosphere, tone and mood
Rhyme
• Rhyming couplets – a,a,b,b
• Alternate lines – a,b,a,b
• Blank verse – unrhymed iambic
pentameter (see rhythm section)
• Free verse
Rhyme
Workshop 3
Rhyming schemes
Rhyme
From Baby Song by Thom Gunn
From the private ease of Mother’s womb
I fall into the lighted room.
Why don’t they simply put me back
Where it is warm and wet and black?
But one thing follows on another.
Things were different inside Mother.
Rhyme
From Baby Song by Thom Gunn
From the private ease of Mother’s womb
I fall into the lighted room.
Why don’t they simply put me back
Where it is warm and wet and black?
But one thing follows on another.
Things were different inside Mother.
a
a
b
b
c
c
Rhyme
from Magpies by Judith Wright
Along the road the magpies walk
with hands in pockets, left and right.
They tilt their heads, and stroll and talk.
In their well-fitted black and white.
Rhyme
from Magpies by Judith Wright
Along the road the magpies walk
with hands in pockets, left and right.
They tilt their heads, and stroll and talk.
In their well-fitted black and white.
a
b
a
b
Rhyme
from Bags of Meat by Thomas Hardy
‘Here’s a fine bag of meat,’
Says the master-auctioneer,
As the timid, quivering steer,
Starting a couple of feet
At the prod of a drover’s stick,
And trotting lightly and quick,
A ticket stuck on his rump,
Enters with a bewildered jump.
Rhyme
from Bags of Meat by Thomas Hardy
‘Here’s a fine bag of meat,’
Says the master-auctioneer,
As the timid, quivering steer,
Starting a couple of feet
At the prod of a drover’s stick,
And trotting lightly and quick,
A ticket stuck on his rump,
Enters with a bewildered jump.
a
b
b
a
c
c
d
d
Rhyme
Effects of rhyme?
Effects of no rhyme?
Poetry techniques:
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Imagery
Sound
Rhyme
Rhythm
Atmosphere, tone and mood
Poetry techniques:
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Imagery
Sound
Rhyme
Rhythm
Atmosphere, tone and mood
rhythm
rhythm
Rhythm
homework
machine
support
result
reading
achievement
Rhythm
Each English word is given its own weight and
push as we speak it within a sentence.
Stephen Fry
Rhythm
Each English word is given its own weight and
push as we speak it within a sentence.
Stephen Fry
‘The life of a poem is measured in regular
heartbeats. The name for those heartbeats is
metre.’
Stephen Fry
Metre –
a pattern of syllables and stresses set out in
repeated arrangements called feet.
Rhythm
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syllables
metre (or metric structure)
measured in ‘feet’ – 2 or more syllables
blank verse (iambic pentameter (5 feet: 10
syllables, 5 stresses – ‘de-dum, de-dum,
de-dum, de-dum, de-dum)
Rhythm
The number of metrical feet in a line are described
as follows:
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Dimeter — two feet
Trimeter — three feet
Tetrameter — four feet
Pentameter — five feet
Hexameter — six feet
Heptameter — seven feet
Octameter — eight feet
Rhythm
The number of metrical feet in a line are described
as follows:
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Dimeter — two feet
Trimeter — three feet
Tetrameter — four feet
Pentameter — five feet
Hexameter — six feet
Heptameter — seven feet
Octameter — eight feet
Rhythm
from The Night Mail by W. H. Auden
This is the night mail crossing the border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner and the girl next door,
Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb –
The gradient’s against her but she’s on time.
Rhythm
from The Night Mail by W. H. Auden
This is the night mail crossing the border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner and the girl next door,
Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb –
The gradient’s against her but she’s on time.
Rhythm
tetrameter
Four feet (stressed syllables) in
every line
Rhythm
pentameter
Five feet (stressed syllables) in
every line
from William Shakespeare’s - Sonnet 18
Rhythm
...But thy eternal Summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
from William Shakespeare’s - Sonnet 18
Rhythm
...But thy eternal Summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Rhythm
iambic pentameter
Five feet made up of 10 syllables
and 5 stresses in every line
Rhythm
iambic pentameter
ti-tum, ti-tum, ti-tum, ti-tum, ti-tum
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Poetry techniques:
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Imagery
Sound
Rhyme
Rhythm
Atmosphere, tone and mood
Poetry techniques:
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Imagery
Sound
Rhyme
Rhythm
Atmosphere, tone and mood
Atmosphere, tone and mood
• convey emotions
• tone – dark / light / heavy / bouncy
• create a mood – sad / celebratory
- poets will use a combination of imagery,
sound, rhyme and rhythm to create effects
What effects are created by….
Describe the change in tone…
How does the mood of the poem
change…
Look at:
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meaning
imagery
sound
rhyme
rhythm
put it to the test!
Day Trip by Carole Satymurti
Two women, seventies, hold hands
on the edge of Essex,
hair in strong nets,
shrieked laughter echoing gulls
as shingle sucks from under feet
easing in brine.
There must be an unspoken point
when the sea feels like
their future. No longer paddling,
ankles submerge in lace,
in satin ripple.
Dress hems darken.
They do not risk their balance
for the shimmering of ships
at the horizon’s sweep
as, thigh deep, they inch on,
fingers splayed, wrists bent,
learning to walk again.
Day Trip
Imagery
Two women, seventies, hold hands
on the edge of Essex,
hair in strong nets,
shrieked laughter echoing gulls
as shingle sucks from under feet
easing in brine.
Literal, child-like description – as a list
metaphor for ‘coast’
Link to fishing nets – reference to sea
There must be an unspoken point
when the sea feels like
their future. No longer paddling,
ankles submerge in lace,
in satin ripple.
Dress hems darken.
They do not risk their balance
for the shimmering of ships
at the horizon’s sweep
as, thigh deep, they inch on,
fingers splayed, wrists bent,
learning to walk again.
Link to old age, soothing swollen joints
Raises metaphorical links to life / mortality
-no longer young – water is rising, as
old age is engulfing them / the tide of life
is ebbing away
Metaphor – darkness – dying
Now they are uncertain / cautious
Water / old age creeping up on them
Child-like image again
circle of life
Day Trip
Two women, seventies, hold hands
on the edge of Essex,
hair in strong nets,
shrieked laughter echoing gulls
as shingle sucks from under feet
easing in brine.
There must be an unspoken point
when the sea feels like
their future. No longer paddling,
ankles submerge in lace,
in satin ripple.
Dress hems darken.
They do not risk their balance
for the shimmering of ships
at the horizon’s sweep
as, thigh deep, they inch on,
fingers splayed, wrists bent,
learning to walk again.
Sound
Assonance: ‘e’ sound repeated
Onomatopoeic
Alliteration – ‘sh’ sound of the sea
Long, soft sound ‘e-a-s-i-n-g’
Assonance – repetition of ‘s’
Sudden change to hard consonant ‘d’ for
dying – darkness - death
Alliteration – repetition of ‘sh’ sound again
Day Trip
Two women, seventies, hold hands
on the edge of Essex,
hair in strong nets,
shrieked laughter echoing gulls
as shingle sucks from under feet
easing in brine.
There must be an unspoken point
when the sea feels like
their future. No longer paddling,
ankles submerge in lace,
in satin ripple.
Dress hems darken.
They do not risk their balance
for the shimmering of ships
at the horizon’s sweep
as, thigh deep, they inch on,
fingers splayed, wrists bent,
learning to walk again.
Rhyme
Free verse
effects of this?
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unsettling
a break from routine
realism
child-like account – unpolished
factual observations
Day Trip
Rhythm
Two women, seventies, hold hands
on the edge of Essex,
hair in strong nets,
shrieked laughter echoing gulls
as shingle sucks from under feet
easing in brine.
Short, jerky phrases, bouncy effect - fun
There must be an unspoken point
when the sea feels like
their future. No longer paddling,
ankles submerge in lace,
in satin ripple.
Dress hems darken.
They do not risk their balance
for the shimmering of ships
at the horizon’s sweep
as, thigh deep, they inch on,
fingers splayed, wrists bent,
learning to walk again.
Slowing down now – more gentle
Long, soft sound ‘e-a-s-i-n-g’
short, bouncy phrases are gone – long,
uninterrupted sentence, with no commas
to pause
Short, one-syllable words – create a shock
Back to short, bouncy phrases again
Day Trip
Atmosphere, tone and mood
Two women, seventies, hold hands
on the edge of Essex,
hair in strong nets,
shrieked laughter echoing gulls
as shingle sucks from under feet
easing in brine.
Child-like quality in narration of scene –
short, bouncy fragments
There must be an unspoken point
when the sea feels like
their future. No longer paddling,
ankles submerge in lace,
in satin ripple.
Dress hems darken.
They do not risk their balance
for the shimmering of ships
at the horizon’s sweep
as, thigh deep, they inch on,
fingers splayed, wrists bent,
learning to walk again.
Onomatopoeia – playful, carefree
Soothing, peaceful tone from the use of
alliteration – ‘sh’ sound of the sea and
the long, soft sound ‘e-a-s-i-n-g’
Change to philosophical mood – with
reference to ‘their future’.
Soothing tone from soft consonants
Darker tones from the sudden change to
hard consonant ‘d’ for dying – darkness –
death – a sudden reminder of their future.
Alliteration – repetition of ‘sh’ sound again
– warmer mood returning
Child-like feeling once again from the final
narration.
Poetry techniques:
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Imagery
Sound
Rhyme
Rhythm
Atmosphere, tone and mood
What is the poet telling you?
How is the poet telling you this?
What do you...
think
imagine
feel
?