Poetry Revision
Objectives:
To plan and respond to an unseen
focusing on MITSL
To plan for some section B questions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwlhUcSG
qgs
The basics
Unseen: 45 mins
You are given a poem – you respond to it using
MITSL as a guide.
Section B:
You answer TWO questions of a possible three
ALL based on clashes and collisions
Explore how Judith Nicholls presents her feelings and ideas about the coming of
winter? 20 marks
Winter
Winter crept
through the whispering wood,
hushing fir and oak;
crushed each leaf and froze each web –
but never a word he spoke.
Winter prowled
by the shivering sea,
lifting sand and stone;
nipped each limpet silently –
and then moved on.
Winter raced
down the frozen stream,
catching at his breath;
on his lips were icicles,
at his back was death.
Judith Nicholls
1. Spend 10 minutes getting your MITS on the
poem, annotate.
2. Next, spend 5 minutes making an essay plan for
the question:
M:
I:
T:
S:
L:
Personal response:
3. Spend 30 minutes on your own writing a
response. You should aim for three paragraphs of
analysis and a personal response conclusion.
How to begin
We are given the meaning of the poem ‘Winter’ in its title.
Judith Nicholls chooses to keep the title simple as if she is
going to explain to the reader what ‘winter’ is. This is effective
because already the reader has connotations that are
preconceived – winter means cold, bleak and the end of ‘life’.
Nicholls use of imagery in showing her feelings about the coming of winter
are clear in the lines ‘winter crept’. Nicholls uses two devices to do this:
personification and verbs. By describing winter as a person it allows the
reader to visualise him or her ‘creeping’ through the woods which already
gives us a sense of its personality. Furthermore, the use of the verb ‘crept’
makes us think that winter doesn’t want the rest of nature to know that it is
arriving, almost like winter is not wanted and so it has to creep to surprise the
living nature.
Continued
The tone of the poem is one of sadness and death. Winter has a job to do
and it almost sounds, at times, like he doesn’t want to do it. The use of
the words…
The structure of the poem is also useful when
thinking about the coming of winter. Each stanza
begins with a different action…
Nicholls use of language also allows the reader to gain an understanding about her
feelings regarding the coming of winter…
Which poems are perfect for each other?
And which are more awkward to match?
Poems and Topics
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Half-caste 20
Parade’s End 21
Belfast Confetti 22*
Our Sharpeville 23*
Exposure 24
Catrin 26
Your Dad Did What? 27*
The Class Game 28
Cousin Kate 29
Hitcher 30
The Drum 31
O What is that Sound 32*
Conscientious Objector 34*
August 6, 1945 35
Invasion 36*
In the contents page, next to each
poem, write down the question topic
that you think will come up if the
poem is selected for the exam.
Remember it can be one of the
following:
Theme
Idea
Feeling
Key moment
5 Minutes
1. Half - Caste
• What is the poem about?
Tone
What tone and mood goes throughout the poem? Find KEY lines that fit this
scale.
0
1
2
3
4
Very negative - - - Angry?
Confrontational?
Defeated?
Sarcastic?
5
6
Neutral
Detached?
7
8
9
10
-----Very positive
Energetic?
Excited?
WORDS- EXTENDED METAPHOR
Throughout the poem, a picture is built up of
half a person, which the writer clearly thinks is
being implied by calling people ‘half-caste’.
Q1. Why is the poet spending so much of this
poem building an extended metaphor of a
half person?
What does it show about his attitude towards
the term ‘half-caste’?
Rhyme and Rhythm
1. Do the short (half) lines make a difference to the way you read the poem?
2. The sentences that continue on the next line are examples of enjambment.
There are five sentences that are not enjambed- find them.
3. Do you think there is a reason why these sentences are not split by a line
break?
4. There are two half-rhymes and one full rhyme in the poem, find them.
Why might there be so little full rhyme?
Do you think half rhymes could be intentional?
Is there anything special about the full rhyme?
Why do these images fit with the
poem?
2. Parade’s End
The Title
The title of the poem is ‘Parade’s End’
‘Parade’ is defined as:
Noun: a public procession, especially one celebrating a special day or
event.
Verb: walk, march or show off something in an attention seeking way.
Which definition do you think is most suitable? (If the noun, who are
celebrating what? If the verb, what is being shown to get
attention?)
Why add ‘End’?
Message/tone/rhythm/words
• What is the main message of this poem? What quotes prove this?
• What happens to the tone throughout the poem? Why does it
change at the end?
• Is there a rhythm to this poem? What does the sentence length do
during the poem?
• Unusual verbs - what image or idea do you get from the following
verbs?
1/ ‘The men who scraped the pavement frost to the dole’
2/ ‘The few who warmed us a thumbs-up’
3/ ‘Council mums...nestled’
3. Belfast Confetti
What impression do
you get from the
poem from these
words?
What patterns do
you notice?
confetti
Belfast
riot-squad
trying
blocked
broken
hyphenated
rapid
stuttering
I
explosion
my
escape
side streets
punctuated
What
Raglan
Where
Inkerman
There is not rhyme
within these words,
why has this been
done?
Why
labyrinth
dead-end
Odessa
Crimea
questionmarks
complete
all
exclamationmarks
saracen
kremlin-2
mesh
The metaphors
‘Quotation’
Image
Raining exclamation
marks
!!!
!!!
!!
A fount of broken type
Tm
Fghd
Ghjhgu jk kjkg
The explosion. Itself an
asterisk
Side streets blocked
with stops and colons
*
............... . : . : . : .
:::::::::::::::::
Every move is
punctuated
A fusillade* of question ?????
marks
[There is one more- find it!]
Meaning
4. OUR SHARPEVILLE
• What can you tell about this poem from the title and the pictures?
• Does the pronoun ‘our’ make any difference?
• Why do you think seeing the poet might help you understand this poem?
There are 5 stanzas in all, with the middle stanza (3) being notably
shorter than the others.
Summarise what happens in each stanza.
Eg. Stanza 1 introduces a young white girl playing. She witnesses
lorries of chanting black workers passing by.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Suggest why the middle stanza is so different from the others.
Is it a key moment of the poem, in your opinion, or not?
The last stanza talks about what she would have seen if she had
disobeyed her family- why is this important?
How does the language change throughout?
5. Exposure
After reading the poem, identify the ‘army of nature’ by finding a
quotation for each element.
1. Wind
2. Wind (gusts)
3. The Sun
4. Rain
5. Air
6. Snow
7. Frost
What do you notice about the way nature is described?
Quotes –
• Find key points from the poem and sort into
these three categories:
Suffering
Discomfort
Boredom
•Which word best sums up Owen’s impression of war: suffering, discomfort or boredom?
6. Catrin
LOVE
REMEMBER
STRUGGLE
ROPE
What can you say about these four words?
Catrin
The poem expresses the paradox of parenthood: the
difficulty of accepting separateness and the bond of
motherhood. Consequently the tone/mood is often
mixed- as if the writer has ‘mixed feelings’.
Highlight words that suggest:
conflict/struggle/danger/negativity in one colour,
peace/stability/happiness/ positivity in another
colour
Complex emotions and memories are often
described metaphorically in this poem. Discuss
what you think the following examples of
imagery mean or suggest:
A/
As I stood in a hot, White room*
B/ people and cars taking turn at the traffic lights*
C/ Our first fierce confrontation
D/
The tight red rope of love which we both fought over
E/ It was a square environmental blank
F/
G/
H/
coloured the clean walls with the wild, tender circles*
the glass tank clouded with feelings
skate in the dark, for one more hour*
7. Your Dad did what?
Language –
words used?
Techniques?
Message?
Attitude?
What are your thoughts?
Rhyme and
Rhythm?
Structure –
stanzas?
The poem is about a misunderstanding or misapprehension, and the tone throughout is not the tone created by the whole poem, that the
reader feels at the end. The reason for this is that the reader has to work out the problem for themselves.
As expected for a teacher, there are many commands (imperative verbs), questions, negatives and judgements which give the poem a
condescending and superior tone.
For the following lines, decide whether they:
1/ are a command
3/ sound negative
2/ are a question
4/ sound judgemental
They may be a combination of these things...
A/ You make them write
B/ Your Dad did what?
C/ That’s not a sentence
D/ Never mind the bell
E/ We stay behind
F/ (You who can count and spell)
G/ All the assignments are complete bar one
H/ This boy seems bright
I/
No change
J/
The ‘E’ you gave him
8. The Class Game
Look at this ranking of social class used by many
organisations today. Every household is judged by the
main income earner’s occupation. - Which are you?
Why might
people
disagree with
classifying
people?
Why do you
think some
people would
prefer to be
called ‘upper
middle class’
rather than
‘upper’ class?
What would
you call social
class ‘E’?
Grade
Social class
Chief income earner's occupation
% of
population
(2008)
A
B
upper ‘middle’
Higher managerial, administrative or
class
professional (University Educated)
middle class
Intermediate managerial, administrative or
4
Do you think
people can
change their
social class?
23
professional (University Educated)
C1
lower middle
Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial,
class
administrative or professional
29
(University Educated)
C2
skilled working
Skilled manual workers
21
class
D
working class
Semi and unskilled manual workers
15
E
?
Casual or lowest grade workers, pensioners
8
and others who depend on the welfare state
for their income
Are there
other ways
of telling
someone’s
social
class?
Class opposites
Working-Class
Middle-Class
•
•
Find quotations that show the opposites in the poem.
Why is the poet putting these side by side?
9. Cousin Kate
In groups of three, each take a character from the poem and find out what
they did in each stanza - use a quotation to support point.
Character chosen:
S1
S2
S3
S4
S5
S6
Imagery
Draw an image to go with
each line
1
“He wore me like a silken knot”
2
“He changed me like a glove”
3
“Who might have been a dove”
4
“He bound you with his ring”
5
“I sit and howl in dust”
6
“You sit in gold and sing”
7
“You had the stronger wing”
8
“Your love was writ in sand”
Structure, rhythm and tone
What can be said about these three things?
• Is the structure regular or irregular? Why?
• What rhythm does the poem create? Why?
• Does the poem stay with one tone or change?
Why?
10. Hitcher
PEACEFUL
AGGRESSIVE
The poem switches between these two tones – find
quotations that fit within the two columns.
Bob Dylan
Here is the last verse and chorus:
• What phrases or words in the lyrics
above sound like they would appeal to
ethnic minorities or people against war?
How many times must a man look up,
before he sees the sky?
And how many ears must one man have,
before he can hear people cry?
And how many deaths will it take till we
know,
that too many people have
died?
• In what way does the main character
The answer my friend is blowing in the
wind,
the answer is blowing in the wind.
from Hitcher provide an answer ‘blowin’ in
the wind’?
Language – As a class...
What language devices are used in the
poem and what effect do they have?
11. The Drum
WHAT CONNOTATIONS DOES
THIS IMAGE HAVE? Make a
list...
11. The Drum
The writer describes the effect of ‘that drum’s discordant
sound’ on ‘thoughtless youth’ in the first stanza, and on
‘himself’ in the second.
1. Make a list of the effects of the drum on ‘thoughtless
youth’
2. Now make a list of the effects of the drum on him.
3. Do you think the poet is speaking as himself or as a
persona/ character? Give your reasons.
4. Do you get the impression that the speaker of this poem
feels ‘himself’ to be in the minority?
5. How is the structure used in this poem?
Personification
The drum’s discordant sound is personified,
perhaps as a mouth, in the second stanza: ‘to
me it talks...’; there is also personification of
ambition and misery.
• If the drum is a mouth, what is ambition and
misery?
• How are all three connected?
12. ‘O What is that Sound?’
S1
S9
O what is that sound which so
O it’s broken the lock and
thrills the ear/ Down in the valley splintered the door/ O it’s at the
drumming, drumming?/ Only the
gate where they’re turning,
scarlet soldiers, dear,/ The
turning;/ Their boots are heavy
soldiers coming
on the floor/ And their eyes are
burning
How many similarities and differences can you spot?
How many characters does there appear to be?
What do you notice about the end of the poem?
Male Vs Female
The questioning female always repeats herself, eg.
‘drumming, drumming? / brightly, brightly?’.
The answering male, always uses the affectionate noun
‘dear’ in his answers.
•
•
•
•
What other things shows the male vs the female?
What can you tell about the two characters by these repetitions?
Is the ‘dear’ sincere, or not, in your opinion?
What effect do these two voices have on the poem and the reading
of the poem?
PROGRESS
Why are these
two words
important?
SOLDIER
13. Conscientious Objector
Death is personified as a horseman, just like the
biblical Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
• Make a list of all the things Death is described
as doing, or wanting to do.
• When might it be right to object, to say “No”
because you believe it is right to do so?
WORDS
Use of Personal Pronouns
There are more than 10 uses of the personal pronoun ‘I’ in
this poem- what does this tell you?
Why is this important?
Death - What sort of death do the following words suggest:
•
•
•
•
A/ Business in Cuba, business in the Balkans
B/ I will not tell him which way the fox ran
C/ I will not tell him where the black boy hides
D/ I am not on his pay-roll
14. August 6, 1945
Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home,
Your house is on fire,
Your children shall burn!
How can this image and nursery rhyme be connected to
the poem?
HISTORY
More than any other poem, ‘August 6, 1945’ asks
us to consider a certain day and its historic
significance. Even its title points to its historicity.
The only other poem that deals with an
important historical event that can be dated is
‘Our Sharpeville’.
1. Why isn’t ‘Our Sharpeville’ titled ‘21st March
1960’?
2. What difference does it make?
3. What is the historical context of this poem?
"I'm proud that I was able to start with nothing,
plan it, and have it work as perfectly as it did . .
. . I sleep clearly every night." In March 2005,
he stated, "If you give me the same
circumstances, I'd do it again."
•
•
•
What evidence is there of this uncaring, proud tone in the first two
stanzas?
Find evidence of a completely different tone in stanzas 4 and 5.
Although Paul Tibbets says he sleeps well, that is not presented at the end
of the poem; why not?
15. Invasion
Soon they will come. First we will hear
The sound of their boots approaching at dawn
Then they’ll appear through the mist.
They
We
Will
Invasion – language and meaning
FEAR
DEATH
SORT THE LINES INTO THESE
THREE COLUMNS
CERTAIN DEFEAT
WHAT TONE DOES THIS
CREATE FOR THE POEM?
VERBS – Us and Them SORT THE VERBS
OF THE POEM INTO THESE TWO.
15 Poems
Poetry Comparison – You now need to group
your poems.
Which ones would you compare with which?
Why?
Questions for Revision
1. Explore how the poet presents the bond between
mother and daughter in “Catrin”.
2. Explore how the poet shows a misunderstanding in
“Your Dad did What?”
3. Explore how the writer presents racial discrimination
in “Parade’s End”
4. Explore how the writer presents an interesting
character in “Hitcher”
5. Explore how the writer shows the horror of war in
“Exposure”
Comparison Questions for Practice
1. Compare how the writers explore different types of
prejudice in “Half Caste” and “Parade’s End”
2. Compare how the writers explore different feelings about
family in “Catrin” and “Cousin Ruth”
3. Compare how the writers explore different actions against
other in “Hitcher and “Cousin Kate”
4. Compare how the writers explore the different effects of
war in “Exposure” and “August 6, 1945”
5. Compare how the writers explore different types of
betrayal in “Cousin Kate” and “o What is that Sound”
OR – take the first poem in the question and choose the
second poem yourself.
P
E
E
LP
P
E
E
LP
John Agard uses metaphors to express his passion and belief that mixed race
people should be celebrated not discriminated against. An example of this is
the lines, “When yu say half-caste/yu mean Tchaikovsky/sit down at dah
piano/an mix a black key/wid a white key/is a half-caste symphony?” Agard
uses a metaphor to compare the mixture of race to the mixture of keys on a
piano. He is suggesting that Tchaikovsky’s ‘symphony’ is celebrated and
acclaimed and the same should be done with mixed race people. In my
opinion Agard successfully uses this metaphor because not only does it
emphasise that prejudice towards a race shouldn't be tolerated but the
comparison is memorable and makes intelligent links to an expected subject.
In Contrast Daljit Nagra uses metaphors to express his sadness at the racial
treatment of the family. An example of this is the line, “From gold to the
brown of our former colour.” Nagra is comparing the destruction of the car to
the racial torment of the family. The words ‘former colour’ suggest that they
have given up trying to be something they are not. In my opinion the poet is
successful at creating sadness with this metaphor because it emphasises how
the family have surrendered to racism and can’t escape their situation. It
also makes the reader feel angry that they have to put up with this
treatment.
Example
Which poem wins these awards?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
The poem you most want to come up.
The poem you least want to come up.
The poem that had the biggest impact on you.
The poem that has the best language features.
The poem that has the best structural features.
The poem that has the most links to other poems.
The poem that has the least links to other poems.
The poem that taught you the most.
The poem that you best represents you.
Don’t over think, just use your contents page in your anthology