Junior Cert 2012 - Homework

From the poetry you have studied, choose one poem
in which the poet uses interesting language to convey
powerful thoughts and feelings.

(a) What powerful thoughts and feelings are conveyed
by the poet in your chosen poem? Support your
answer with reference to the poem. (15)

(b) Explain what you find interesting about the
language used by the poet in the poem you have
chosen. Support your answer with reference to the
poem. (15)
Today’s Heading
26th November
Mid-Term Break 2
Time to F.L.I.R.T.
Last weeks homework

Research what the flowers ‘snowdrops’ and
‘poppies’ represent. (write a brief explanation)

What is your reaction to the poem? Make
references to particular lines.
Write down what you see? – Describe the images.
The Poet

Seamus Heaney wrote this poem as a reflection
on the death of his little brother, Christopher, who
died in a car accident in 1953 when Heaney was
fourteen.

The incident in the poem really happened.
We are going to analyse poems using
F
- form
L - language
I - imagery
R – rhyme and rhythm
T - theme
F. - Form
 What

type of poem is it and what does it say?
This is a free verse poem that conveys an event.
(Paraphrase the story by explaining each stanza,
by writing a line saying what is going on in each
section.)
I sat all morning in the college sick bay
Counting bells knelling classes to a close,
At two o'clock our neighbours drove me home.
In the porch I met my father crying-He had always taken funerals in his stride-And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.
The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram
When I came in, and I was embarrassed
By old men standing up to shake my hand
And tell me they were "sorry for my trouble,"
Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my hand
In hers and coughed out angry tearless sighs.
At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, stanched and bandaged by the nurses.
Next morning I went up into the room. Snowdrops
And candles soothed the bedside; I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now,
Wearing a poppy bruise on the left temple,
He lay in the four foot box as in a cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.
A four foot box, a foot for every year.
Language

Here are some of the verbs and adjectives in the
poem.


The father crying
The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram
The mother coughed out angry tearless sighs.
Wearing a poppy bruise
the bumper knocked him clear.

The language of this poem is very......



Language

Metaphor – ‘wearing a poppy bruise’
(The child was hit by a car. Is he really wearing a
flower or does it mean something else?)

Simile – ‘He lay in the four foot box as in a cot.’
(What comparison is being made here?)
Imagery

From the tasks earlier and by reading the poem
– consider what objects and people we see.

Consider how each image makes you feel.
Rhyme and Rhythm

Alliteration, assonance and consonance make a
poem sound like music. Here it eemphasizes the
sound of funeral bells and the idea of time
dragging on.
“Counting bells knelling classes to a close”,
Where is the alliteration and assonance here?
Theme

What is the purpose, argument or idea of this
poem?
Experiencing death for the first time.
 Also childhood, lost love, grief and relationships.

Junior Cert 2012 - Homework

From the poetry you have studied, choose one poem
in which the poet uses interesting language to convey
powerful thoughts and feelings.

(a) What powerful thoughts and feelings are conveyed
by the poet in your chosen poem? Support your
answer with reference to the poem. (15)

(b) Explain what you find interesting about the
language used by the poet in the poem you have
chosen. Support your answer with reference to the
poem. (15)