A poem by Lawson:
A backward glance
It is well when you’ve lived in clover,
To mourn for the days gone by—
Would I live the same life over
Could I live again? Not I!
But, knowing the false from the real,
I would strive to ascend:
I would seek out my boyhood’s ideal,
And follow it to the end.
A poem by Paterson:
A triolet
Of all the sickly forms of verse,
Commend me to the triolet.
It makes bad writers somewhat worse:
Of all the sickly forms of verse,
That fall beneath a reader's curse,
It is the feeblest jingle yet.
Of all the sickly forms of verse,
Commend me to the triolet.
Purpose of the poems:
I think the that the purpose of the first poem is to convince you that you have to follow your
dreams. Lawson
What do the poems have in common?
- Both poems consist out of 8 lines.
- They both rhyme.
- Both poems are a monologue, they are told by one person.
- Each poem consists out of one stanza (8 lines per stanza).
Are there any differences?
- The subject is different.
- In Paterson’s poem, descriptive language is used, in the other poem, that’s not the
case.
- Lawson uses the word ‘I’ a lot, which means he tells about himself. Paterson doesn’t
use ‘I’ but uses ‘me’ instead.
- Much repetition is used in the second poem, of Paterson.
- ‘The feeblest jingle’ is a metaphor, while there aren’t any metaphors in Lawson’s
poem.
Rudyard Kipling
If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
‘Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man
What is the poem ‘If…’ about?
I think the poem is about self-confidence. According to Kipling, you’ll be a man when you
don’t care about what everyone says, but you just stay yourself.
Why do you think so?
Because Kipling mentions all kind of examples about being yourself and don’t letting anyone
or anything have influence on you.
“If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you.”
“If you can dream - and not make dreams your master.”
“If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim.”
Which poetic devices are used?
- Much repetition is used, every sentence starts with ‘If’.
- ‘Walk with kings’ is a metaphor, because you’re not literally going to walk with kings.
Do you like the poem? Why? Or why not?
A bit, it’s quit discriminating, because it’s only about men. But in my opinion, this counts for
women too. But that isn’t mentioned in the poem.
Accept for this, I like it. It’s a good poem, not too long, not too short. Also, this poem is wellwritten which makes it nice to read so it isn’t boring.
Edgar Allen Poe
The Bells
Hear the sledges with the bells Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.
How do you think this poem should be told? What expression is required for it to be
effective?
In my opinion this poem has to be told with happiness. It’s a nice, cheerful poem about
music and melody. So the poem has to be told with some kind of melody.
If this poem is told monotonous, it will not be effective and it will seem very boring. I think
that’s the case with every poem, so also with this one.
Would a male or female voice help you to understand the poem better?
I don’t think it matters who tells the poem, as long as it’s told with melody and expression.
How about background music? Would that make a difference to your understanding?
Yes, I belief it matters what the background music is. To help people to understand the
poem, good background music would be the sound of ringing bells. That’s where the poem is
about, so you will understand what’s meant by the poem.
Take a look at the website. What was the best version of the poem?
The female voice with emotion worked best.
Why do you think the way in which the poem is told makes a difference to the listeners
understanding?
When a poem is told without emotion and/or expression, it becomes really boring to listen
to. A boring poem is harder to understand, than an entertaining poem, because you don’t
want to listen or to understand it.
Robert Frost
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
It is the middle of
Winter.
The speaker feels
guilty and uncertain
about stopping.
Directly Supported
by Poem (copy
evidence from poem
in space provided)
“To watch his woods
fill up with snow.”
“Between the woods
and frozen lake.” It’s
very cold and there’s
snow, so it’s very
likely to be in winter.
Inference based on
Evidence (copy
evidence from poem
in space provided)
“The darkest evening
of the year.” The
longest night is on
the 21th of
December, which is
the first day in
Winter. Therefore, it
is not in the middle
of the winter, but at
the beginning.
“My little horse must
think it queer, to
stop without a
farmhouse near.” He
doesn’t say anything
Not supported by
evidence (check box
only)
about quilt, his horse
just might find it
strange to stop
there.
The speaker has lost
his way.
At the end of the
poem, the speaker
and his horse leave
the woods and head
home.
The speaker thinks
uneasily about his
own death.
The owner of the
woods and the
speaker don't get
along.
The speaker admires
the snowy woods
and is attracted to its
stark beauty and
solitude.
X
X
X
X
“The woods are
lovely, dark and
deep.”
Emily Dickinson
‘I’m Nobody! Who are you?’
I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you -- Nobody -- Too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'd advertise -- you know!
How dreary -- to be -- Somebody!
How public -- like a Frog -To tell one's name -- the livelong June -To an admiring Bog!
Which of Dickinson’s characteristics relate to this poem?
She never married or worked outside her home. She wasn’t important; she was just an
ordinary woman caring for her parents. Until she became famous because of the poems she
had written.
‘Pain – has an element of blank’
Pain has an element of blank;
It cannot recollect
When it began, or if there were
A day when it was not.
It has no future but itself,
Its infinite realms contain
Its past, enlightened to perceive
New periods of pain.
What does this poem mean to you?
Pain has no life and it can’t decide when it’s going to come. Everyone feels pain, sometimes,
but there’s no way to avoid it. Though you can avoid some pain, it’s just impossible not to
feel any pain in your life, you have to accept that.
Lewis Carroll
Jabberwocky
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
What do you like about this poem?
The structure is very nice; the first stanza is the same as the last one. Also, I prefer poems
that rhyme and this one does so.
The rhyme makes it quit funny, too.
What do you dislike about the poem?
It’s too short; the actions aren’t described, though many adjectives are used. If the fighting
for example would have been described more and better, I would have had a clearer view of
what happened.
What puzzles you about this poem?
I think it’s strange that a boy can defeat such an extremely dangerous beast, while nobody
else can. He’s warned for the beast, but he goes searching for it. He finds the beats and kills
him easily. I wonder how he managed to do that…
What questions would you ask the author?
- Where did you get your inspiration from?
- Why didn’t the beast defeat the boy?
- Why did you repeat the first stanza?
Do you think the ‘nonsense’ words in this poem are effective? Why? Or why not?
I think they’re effective; they make the poem funny and nice to read. It gives you the ability
to imagine the beast, you can make it look how you want it to look, because it doesn’t exists.