Mock Epic Student Learning Plan
Teacher: Stephanie Long
Class: 12AP
Block: B2 and B4
Teaching Date: 3/20/09
Objectives:
Personal:
- To identify key elements of mock epic poetry, as seen in “The Beetle in the Country
Bathtub” and Thomas Gray’s “Ode: on the Death of a Favorite Cat Drowned in a Tub of
Goldfishes.”
- To understand the satirical elements of The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope.
- For students to personally relate to the satirical elements of these poems and to write a
satirical paragraph based on what they learned about Pope.
SOLs:
12.3 The student will read and analyze the development of British Literature and literature of
other cultures
a) Recognize major literary forms and their elements
12.5 The student will read and critique a variety of poetry
c) Explain how imagery and figures of speech(personification, simile, metaphor) appeal to
the reader’s senses and experience.
d) Compare and contrast traditional and contemporary works of poets from many cultures.
Materials:
- Copies of “The Beetle in the Country Bathtub” and Thomas Gray’s “Ode: on the Death
of a Favorite Cat Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes”
- The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope in Prentice Hall Literature: The British
Tradition.
Content:
 Connections between animal and human life in “The Beetle in the Country Bathtub”
- Narrator goes through thought process of the beetle
- Discouragement
- Determination
- Surmounting an impossible task
- Problem-solving and alternative solutions
 Look at how poet uses language to convey these ideas:
- “Slumping? Oh no, he may be down, but he’s never out/ (Probably wishes he were);
now pondering a fresh attack…”narrator voices beetle’s thought process
- “Lies there, motionless, pretty discouraged perhaps?”discouragement
- “Midnight finds him still confident”determination
- “The enameled surface of his predicament/ Resembles those pockets in time and
space that hold/ Sick minds in torture…”imagery
- “The insoluble problem is solved! But how? Something no one of us, perhaps will
ever know./ Unless he went down the drain?”problem solving

Similarities between Thomas Gray’s “Ode: on the Death of a Favorite Cat Drowned in a
Tub of Goldfishes” and “The Beetle in the Country Bathtub”
- dramatic telling of an event involving an animal
- comparable to Ancient Greek epic poetry
- Irony/humor of using an animal
- Interiorityglimpse into the animal’s mind or psyche
- Human narrator reacting
- Heroesbeetle is successful, the cat meets tragedy
- Imagery in the poems
 Key Features of Mock Epic Poetry(most are mentioned above)
- Heroesheroic qualities are exaggerated so as to be absurd
- Parody/Satire
- Ironic language
- appeal to the reader’s senses and experiences(imagery-descriptive language that
appeals to the reader’s senses)
 External information:
Thomas Gray’s most famous poem is “Elegy written in a Country Churchyard”
Instructional Strategies and timings
1. Read both poems aloud, then assign half the class to focus on “Beetle” and half the class
to focus on “Ode”(10 minutes)
2. Discuss with a partner who has the same text: What connections between animal and
human life are made in the poem?(5 minutes)
3. Two sets of partners(one set with “Beatle,” the other set with “Ode”) discuss similarities
between the poems(15 minutes)
4. Share similarities as a whole class, highlight key features of mock epic poems(15
minutes)
5. Discussion of “The Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope(35 minutes)
6. Individually write a paragraph explaining a modern example of a “tempest in a teacup”:
What does the phrase “that’s a tempest in a teacup” mean? How does it relate to The
Rape of the Lock?(10 minutes, finish for homework if necessary)
Multidisciplinary Connections:
 Putting three different poems in conversation with one another.
 Connecting literary elements across cultures and time periods
Differentiation and Accommodations:
 Pre-reading activity to help the students to better understand the elements of mock epic
poetry.
 Students have the opportunity to personally relate to the material.
Assessment:
Formative: discussions of two mock epic poems
Summative: producing their own mini-mock epic poems