Stage 1 English 1
Text Analysis: Poetry Oral
Southern Vales Christian College
STAGE 1 ENGLISH
Text Analysis
Poetry
Name:
Text Analysis – Poetry Oral
-
Knowledge and Understanding
Analysis
Application
Communication
A
KU3: Comprehensive knowledge and
understanding of the ways in which familiar
and unfamiliar texts are composed for a range
of purposes and audiences.
An1: Analysis of complex
connections between personal
experiences, ideas, values, and
beliefs, and those explored in
familiar and unfamiliar texts.
Ap2: Detailed and appropriate use of
evidence from texts to support
conclusions, with textual references
incorporated fluently in responses.
C1: Fluent and precise
writing and speaking.
B
KU3:Knowledge and understanding of the
ways in which mainly familiar texts are
composed for some purposes and audiences.
An1: Analysis of some complex
connections between personal
experiences, ideas, values, and
beliefs, and those explored in
familiar, and some unfamiliar,
texts.
Ap2: Use of evidence from texts to
support conclusions, with textual
references incorporated in
responses.
C1: Mostly fluent and
precise writing and
speaking.
C
KU3: Knowledge and understanding of the
ways in which familiar texts are composed for
familiar purposes and audiences (e.g.
identifies purpose and audience of texts).
An1: Analysis of simple
connections between personal
experiences, ideas, values, and
beliefs, and those explored in
familiar texts (e.g. explicitly
connects new ideas/information
with own knowledge, using
techniques such as anecdotes
and analogies).
Ap2: Competent use of evidence
from texts to support conclusions
(e.g. reads short, simple narrative of
choice and discusses how text
reflects author’s opinion).
C1: Generally fluent and
functional writing and
speaking.
D
KU3: Knowledge of the ways in which familiar
texts are composed for personally relevant
purposes and familiar audiences.
An1: Reference to simple
connections between
uncomplicated personal
experiences, ideas, values, and
beliefs, and those explored in
familiar texts.
Ap2: Some use of evidence from
familiar texts to support conclusions.
C1: A level of fluency in
writing and speaking in
personally relevant
situations.
E
KU3: Knowledge of the ways in which highly
familiar texts are composed for personally
relevant purposes and highly familiar
audiences.
An1: Recognition of a simple
connection between a
straightforward personal
experience, idea, value, or
belief, and that explored in a
highly familiar text.
Ap2: Some use of evidence from
highly familiar texts to support a
simple conclusion.
C1: Beginning of
development of fluent
writing and speaking in
personally relevant
situations.
Overall Grade:
A
B
C
D
.
E
Grade:
/20
Stage 1 English 3
Text Analysis: Poetry
Purpose:
Analysis of Poems:
Over the course of the next few weeks, we will be spending time deconstructing
and analysing a selection of Bruce Dawe’s poems as a class; looking at themes
and techniques he uses.
Using the knowledge gained from poems studied in class, you will choose one
poet and at least 4 poems from that poet to analyse individually, exploring the
use of poetic techniques and conventions used to make meaning.
You will explore your respective poet’s world and provide a biography of their
work and world as well as commenting on the personal connection between you
and their poems.
Poetry Oral:
After analysing 4 poems written by your chosen poet, you are required to
present a 4-6 minute oral. Make sure you have chosen poems you
UNDERSTAND and can IDENTIFY with.
You will be assessed according to the criteria below:
 Analysis of poems: 10 marks
 Personal connection to poem/s: 5 marks
 Competence in oral mode: 5 marks
(Volume, clarity, variety of tone, pace, eye contact, body language)
Description of Task
Analysis of poems
Choose one poet and analyse at least 4 of their poems (suggestions on page 5)
For the poet and each selected poem, the following is expected:
1. An overview of the poet and their respective world. This is not expected to just be
a download from the Internet; a little research would be great. An appreciation of a
poet’s world will enhance your understanding of ‘where they were coming from’
and what message they were perhaps trying to get across. From reading widely
about the poet and reading some of their poetry, you should be able to
incorporate the titles of some poems and how these poems are reflective of their
world.
2. Deconstruction and analysis of each poem. It is expected that you will annotate
each poem and then produce a detailed minimum one paragraph response to the
content, ideas and poetic techniques utilised by the poet.
The one to two paragraphs should provide the following information:
 What is the poem about? (2-3 sentences)
 What messages/ ideas are reflected in the poem? (You should find at least
2-3)
 What techniques have been effectively utilised in order to explore these
ideas?
Remember our magic 3: Technique, Example, Reflection (TER)
The following poetic techniques should be mentioned in your analysis:
 Onomatopoeia
 Imagery
 Similes
 Symbolism
 Metaphors
 Personification
 Alliteration
 Structure
 Assonance
 Form (ballad/free
 Oxymoron
verse/ blank verse/
 Rhyme
sonnet/ ode/ dramatic
 Rhythm
monologue/ villanelle)
 Repetition
In essence, the more detail you provide, the better the overall quality of
the final product.
3. As a final summary, you are asked to make complex connections between
personal experiences, ideas, values and beliefs, and those explored (A grade
performance standard) in the poetry you have studied. What impact has
the poetry you have studied made on you and your world? What new
understanding do you now have about poetry and the way it is crafted?
Does your poet have any relevance to today’s society?
Stage 1 English 5
Text Analysis: Poetry
POETRY STUDY: POETS AND POEMS
WOMEN (wives/mothers/individuals)
 Gwen Hardwood (Australia): Suburban
Sonnet/ Suburban Sonnet Boxing Day/
Mother Who Gave Me Life/ Dialogue/ In the
Park
 Sylvia Plath (America): Morning Song/
Lady Lazarus/ The Applicant / Tulips/ Pain
for a Daughter
 Judith Wright (Australia)
 Grace Nichols (Guyana/ England)
 Jennifer Strauss
 Jeri Kroll (America/ Australia)
 Anne Sexton (America): Unknown Girl in
a Maternity Ward/ For My Lover, Returning
to His Wife/ The Rival
 Adrienne Rich (America)
DEATH
 W H Auden: Stop all the Clocks
 Emily Dickinson: I Felt a Funeral in my
Brain/ Because I Could Not Stop for Death
 Robert Frost: Stopping by Woods on a
Snowy Evening/ Nothing Gold Can Stay/
Out, Out/ Fire and Ice
 Sylvia Plath: Edge/ Lady Lazarus
 Dylan Thomas: Do Not Go Gentle/ And
Death Shall Have No Dominion
 Seamus Heaney: Limbo/ Casualty
 Bruce Dawe: Katrina
LIFE ISSUES/ LIFE CYCLE
 William Blake
 Bruce Dawe: Life-Cycle
 Robert Frost: The Road Not Taken/
Birches
 Seamus Heaney: Mid-Term Break
 W.B. Yeats
 Jeri Kroll
 John Keats
 Anne Sexton
 T S Elliott
INDIGENOUS VOICE




Hyllus Noel Maris: Spiritual Song of the
Aborigine
Kevin Gilbert: The Tribal Ghost
Kev Carmody: Travellin’ North/ Moonstruck
Coralie Cassady: No Disgrace
WAR
 Bruce Dawe (Vietnam): Homecoming/ Weapons
Training/ Vietnam Postscript 1975
 Seamus Heaney (Ireland: IRA): Casualty
 Wilfred Owen (WW1): Anthem for Doomed Youth/
Futility/ Strange Meeting/ Dulce et Decorum Est
 Kenneth Slessor (WW2): Beach Burial
 Siegfried Sassoon (WW1): Suicide in the Trenches/
Does it Matter/ The Hero/ Memory
 David Campbell (WW2): Men in Green
 Vernon Scannell (WW2): Mental Ward/ Bayonet
Training
 Rupert Brooke (WW1): The Soldier/ Funeral of Youth
LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS
 W H Auden: A Song of Despair / Funeral Blues
 Bobbi Skyes
 John Donne: The Sunne Rising
 Sylvia Plath: Tulips
 Andrew Marvell: To His Coy Mistress
 William Shakespeare: Let Me Not to the Marriage of
True Mindes/ My Mistress’ Eyes are Nothing Like the Sun
 William Blake: The Sick Rose/ The Clod and the Pebble
 Bruce Dawe: By as little as a look/ The Turnstiles/
Definition of Loving/ Then/ Suburban Lovers
 Anne Sexton: Killing the Love/ For my Lover/ Returning
to his Wife
 Gwen Harwood: Suburban Sonnet: Boxing Day
 Pablo Neruda (Chile): Tonight I Can Write the Saddest
Lines/ If You Forget Me/ Tonight I can write/ Absence
 Thomas Hardy: Ten Years Since
 Maya Angelou: Poor Girl/ Prescience
 Oscar Wilde: Her Voice/ Silentium Amoris/ Helas
NATURE
 William Blake
 John Donne
 G M Hopkins: The Kingfisher/ God’s Grandeur
 John Keats: Ode to a Nightingale
 W.B. Yeats
Oral Presentation on a chosen poet
In class we have been looking at different poets, analysing their poetry and
discussing the impact of the devices used on the reader. We annotated poetic
texts as part of this process. This forms the necessary background to assist in
your own analysis of a chosen poet’s texts. You need to select four poems form
this author.
1. You will need to select a poet from the list provided on page 5 and present
an analysis of this poet’s work. In addition, you will need to outline the
context of the poet (what was happening in the world at the time that this
poet wrote their poems).
2. What was the poet’s purpose in writing?
3. Select 4 poems from this poet for analysis
4. You will need to annotate each poem and submit these as evidence for
your speech.
5. Identify the devices used in the poem and comment upon their impact
(TER: What technique has been used, find an example, what is the effect
on the reader?)
6. Finally, what personal connection do you have with this poem? What
ideas, values or beliefs link to your own? This is an important criteria in
this task – do not omit it from your presentation.
7. Consider your audience – make sure you have a copy of the poem on a
slide for them to look at. Be prepared to spread the text across several
slides if needed. Too much written text on a slide is off putting for the
audience.
8. Commit part of a poem to memory. Are you going to recite on full poem or
sections from the 4 poems studied?
9. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse!!!! You need to connect with your audience
and this is difficult to do if you are reading from your notes for the
duration of this presentation. Eye contact is important!!
PowerPoint slides should assist in the delivery of this speech.
Speech length: 4-6 minutes.
Due Date
________________________ Week _______
Stage 1 English 7
Text Analysis: Poetry
Exceptional Oral Presentations
Or, how to “talk good”
 Don’t spend much time talking about your poet and his world –
this is worth the least amount of marks. Only give a brief
overview. Most of the marks will be rewarded to students who
have analysed and understood their poems well and identified
their personal connection clearly.
 Again, make sure you know your poems well.
This means that you have to practice through your entire
presentation a number of times before you actually present it.
 You may use notes when you are presenting, but try to cut
them down to dot-points on cue cards to avoid simply reading
out your speech to the class.
 When you are presenting, you need to speak slowly, clearly and
concisely.
Most of the time, when speaking in front of people, you will
think that you are speaking more slowly than you really are.
This is especially true if you are nervous.
 Remember: even if you’re not confident, pretending that you
are will get you through 6 minutes speaking to your friends
and teacher!
 Pace your presentation well, keeping in mind that you must say
enough of substance to get a good grade, but slowly enough
that your audience can understand you. This IS possible to do
in 6 minutes!