Y11 Poetry

  1. Introduction to Poetry
  2. Reading and Reflecting
  3. Starting the Anthology
  4. Analysing Remember
  5. Comparing and contrasting
  6. Analysing Blessing
  7. Analysing Prayer Before Birth
  8. Reading Half Past Two
  9. Reading Hide and Seek
  10. Comparing and contrasting CHILDHOOD
  11. Preparation for Mocks
  12. Reading 'The Tyger'
  13. Continuing 'The Tyger'
  14. La Belle Dame Sans Merci
  15. 'My Last Duchess'
  16. If--
  17. Do not go gentle into that good night
  18. War Photographer
  19. Search For My Tongue
  20. Half-Caste
  21. Preparing revision resources

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Introduction to Poetry

What do you think this quotations is saying about poetry?
I think Eliot is suggesting that poetry is...

“Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.”

T.S. Eliot

Can you remember ANY poems you've studied before?

So what is poetry?

Poetry is...

Using the A3 sheet, brainstorm some ideas about what poetry means to you

  • Why do people write it?
  • Do you like it, not like it? Why?
  • Can you remember any poems?
  • Should we study it at all?
  • What makes a good poem? What makes a bad one?

Reading and Reflecting

LO: To consider how we can first approach poems

Re-read your notes from last lesson. What was the most interesting idea you wrote down?

Should we study poetry at school?

"[Poetry is] emotion recollected in tranquility"

William Wordsworth

Preparing for reflections

Copy this reflection grid into your book, leaving plenty of space to fill it in.

Reflection Grid
📝 I think the poem describes...
...
💭 I think the poem is about...
...
❓ I would ask the poet...
...
🕰️ This poem reminds me of...
...

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Plenary

Ozymandias is a poem which describes... Shelley wants to show us how....

Starting the Anthology

LO: to understand the requirements of the unit

Write a brief paragraph summarising the poem we looked at yesterday.
Ozymandias is a poem which describes... Shelley wants to show us how....

What do you think Shelley's definition of Poetry would be?

The Poetry Section

  • Two questions:
    • Anthology comparison
    • Unseen poem analysis
  • Assessing skills of:
    • Close language analysis
    • Comparison of techniques
  • The Poetry Anthology is a collection of poems you need to know well
  • We will be covering these 16 poems in lessons, but you'll need to revise them at home!
  • Note this information down

Poetry Anthology

If−
Prayer Before Birth
Blessing
Search For My Tongue
Half-past Two
Piano
Hide and Seek
Sonnet 116
La Belle Dame sans Merci
Poem at Thirty-Nine
War Photographer
The Tyger
My Last Duchess
Half-caste
Do not go gentle into that good night
Remember

📷 by Aaron Burden

What's expected in these lessons

  • Bring your anthology to every lesson
  • If you do not bring it, I will give you a B1
  • Annotate closely
  • Reflect on your point of view
  • Track common themes and ideas (for comparison)

You will only get one Anthology. If you lose it, you'll need to find a new one yourself!

Write your name and teacher on the anthology booklet now

Preparing for our first poem: Piano

Copy down the reflection grid

What are the connotations of the title Piano? What might it be about?

Reflection Grid
📝 I think the poem describes...
...
💭 I think the poem is about...
...
❓ I would ask the poet...
...
🕰️ This poem reminds me of...
...

“Because emotions enhance memory processes and music evokes strong emotions, music could be involved in forming memories, either about pieces of music or about episodes and information associated with particular music. ”

Lutz Jäncke, Journal of Biology, 2008

Piano - D H Lawrence

Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me;
Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see
A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who smiles as she sings.

In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song
Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong
To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside
And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.

So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamour
With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.

Zooming in on word choice

Answer these questions, guessing why the poet used some words rather than alternatives...

  1. Why a mother, not my mother?
  2. Why insidious mastery of song not wonderful mastery?
  3. Why flood of rememberance not wave of rememberance?

Pick three other word choices to consider alternatives of

Analysing Remember

LO: To consider how a different poet presents a similar theme

Summarise the main idea from yesterday's poem.
I think Lawrence wanted to show us that memory is...

Support your answer with textual evidence

Form and Structure: the Sonnet

  • Today's poem is written in the form of a sonnet

  • A sonnet is usually:

    • 14-lines long, split into two halves of 8 and 6 lines: octave and sestet
    • Focussed on themes of love, nature, or time
    • has a consistent rhyme scheme
    • written with a a clear and consistent internal rhythm
    • includes a change in tone/perspective/argument called a volta between the two halves

Note down this information

Reflection preparation

Copy down the reflection grid to prepare

Reflection Grid
📝 I think the poem describes...
...
💭 I think the poem is about...
...
❓ I would ask the poet...
...
🕰️ This poem reminds me of...
...

What are the connotations of the title? Is it a verb or a noun?

Remember - by Christina Rossetti

Remember me when I am gone away, 
Gone far away into the silent land;
       When you can no more hold me by the hand, 
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay. 
Remember me when no more day by day
       You tell me of our future that you planned:
       Only remember me; you understand 
It will be late to counsel then or pray. 
Yet if you should forget me for a while
       And afterwards remember, do not grieve: 
       For if the darkness and corruption leave 
       A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
       Than that you should remember and be sad.

PLENARY: Writing about the poem

How does the poet explore the idea of memory in the poem Piano?

  • Point
  • Evidence
  • Technique
  • Analysis & Effect
  • Link

Comparing and contrasting

LO: to consider how we approach comparing poems

Re-read Remember and Piano.

How would you describe memory? Be as descriptive as possible!
e.g....

  • Memory is like a warm bath...
  • Memory wraps you up in...

What point did Wordsworth make about how one should 'recollect' emotion?

What the questions will look like

Q1 Re-read the poems Remember and Piano.
Compare how the writers present feelings about memory in the two poems

  • You should make reference to language, form and structure.
  • Support your answer with examples from the poems.

(Total for Question 1 = 30 marks)

Poetry questions will always look like this, only changing the poems and the theme being focussed on. 'Memory' could be 'Family' or 'History' or 'Friendship' or...

Copy down the question, then finish this sentence:
A good answer will need to...

1) Start with the big ideas

Before beginning your answer, you need to think about what the 'feelings about memory' actually are.

Work this out first, before looking for language

What feelings about memory do the two poems present?

  • In Remember, Rossetti wants us to see memory as...
  • In Piano, Lawrence shows memory as something that...

2) Find the evidence to back up your big ideas

  • In Remember, Rossetti wants us to see memory as...
  • In Piano, Lawrence shows memory as something that...

Find one quotation from each poem to back up what you've said

3) Think about form and structure

When we say form and structure, we mean:

  • The rhythm
  • The rhyme scheme
  • If it is a sonnet, etc

Think: is the poem's structure fixed and regular structure, or does it change and shift?

  • Remember takes the form of...

  • On the other hand, Piano

4) Bring it all together

Always, always, always mention BOTH poems in EVERY paragraph.

Analysing Blessing

LO: To look closely at the language used and the effect

Summarise what Blessing describes

Is there a link between this poem and another we've looked at already?

The skin cracks like a pod.
There never is enough water.

Imagine the drip of it,
the small splash, echo
in a  tin mug,
the voice of a kindly god.
Sometimes, the sudden rush
of fortune. The municipal pipe bursts,
silver crashes to the ground
and the flow has found
a roar of tongues. From the huts,
a congregation: every man woman
child for streets around
butts in, with pots,
brass, copper, aluminium,
plastic buckets,
frantic hands,

and naked children
screaming in the liquid sun,
their highlights polished to perfection,
flashing light,
as the blessing sings
over their small bones.

Writing about Blessing

How does Dharker capture the feeling of hope in the poem Blessing?

Use as many of these phrases as you can!

  1. However
  2. linking to
  3. the effect is
  4. drawing attention to
  5. suggesting to the reader that
  6. giving the impression that
  7. the poet chooses to

Analysing Prayer Before Birth

LO: To consider how the poet presents ideas around hope and the future

Finish off your Blessing paragraphs from last lesson

Would you argue that Blessing is a positive or negative poem? Why?

Meet Louis Macneice

  • Irish poet of the mid-20th Century
  • Wrote Prayer Before Birth during the Second World War
  • Opposed to Totalitarianism
  • Angry that the Irish government chose not to fight in the Second World War

How might the war shape his poetry?

Prayer Before Birth

📷 by Ales Krivec

Reading Half Past Two

What do you remember about school from before Year 5? Was it a happy time? Bullet-point your memories

Should adults treat children like they would other adults?

Pre-reading

Copy down the reflection grid

What are the connotations of the title Half-Past Two? What might it be about?

Reflection Grid
📝 I think the poem describes...
...
💭 I think the poem is about...
...
❓ I would ask the poet...
...
🕰️ This poem reminds me of...
...

Half Past Two

Once upon a schooltime  
He did Something Very Wrong  
(I forget what it was).  
And She said he’d done  
Something Very Wrong, and must  
Stay in the school-room till half-past two.  
(Being cross, she’d forgotten  
She hadn’t taught him Time.  
He was too scared at being wicked to remind her.)  
He knew a lot of time: he knew  
Gettinguptime, timeyouwereofftime,  
Timetogohomenowtime, TVtime,  
Timeformykisstime (that was Grantime).  
All the important times he knew,  
But not half-past two.  
He knew the clockface, the little eyes  
And two long legs for walking,  
But he couldn’t click its language,  
So he waited, beyond onceupona,  
Out of reach of all the timefors,  
And knew he’d escaped for ever  
Into the smell of old chrysanthemums on Her desk,  
Into the silent noise his hangnail made,  
Into the air outside the window, into ever.  
And then, My goodness, she said,  
Scuttling in, I forgot all about you.  
Run along or you’ll be late.  
So she slotted him back into schooltime,  
And he got home in time for teatime,  
Nexttime, notimeforthatnowtime,  
But he never forgot how once by not knowing time,  
He escaped into the clockless land for ever,  
Where time hides tick-less waiting to be born.  

Reading Hide and Seek

LO: to consider how Vernon Scannell presents an alternative view on childhood

What did we learn about the childish perspective on the world, from yesterday's poem?

Is it harder for an adult to imagine being a child, or a child to imagine being an adult?

Pre-reading

Copy down the reflection grid

What are the connotations of the title Hide and Seek? What might it be about?

Reflection Grid
📝 I think the poem describes...
...
💭 I think the poem is about...
...
❓ I would ask the poet...
...
🕰️ This poem reminds me of...
...
Call out. Call loud: ‘I’m ready! Come and find me!’
The sacks in the toolshed smell like the seaside.
They’ll never find you in this salty dark,
But be careful that your feet aren’t sticking out.
Wiser not to risk another shout.
The floor is cold. They’ll probably be searching
The bushes near the swing. Whatever happens
You mustn’t sneeze when they come prowling in.
And here they are, whispering at the door;
You’ve never heard them sound so hushed before.
Don’t breathe. Don’t move. Stay dumb. Hide in your blindness.
They’re moving closer, someone stumbles, mutters;
Their words and laughter scuffle, and they’re gone.
But don’t come out just yet; they’ll try the lane
And then the greenhouse and back here again.
They must be thinking that you’re very clever,
Getting more puzzled as they search all over.
It seems a long time since they went away.
Your legs are stiff, the cold bites through your coat;
The dark damp smell of sand moves in your throat.
It’s time to let them know that you’re the winner.
Push off the sacks. Uncurl and stretch. That’s better!
Out of the shed and call to them: ‘I’ve won!
Here I am! Come and own up I’ve caught you!’
The darkening garden watches. Nothing stirs.
The bushes hold their breath; the sun is gone.
Yes, here you are. But where are they who sought you?

Comparing and contrasting CHILDHOOD

LO: to consider how we approach comparing poems

Re-read Half-Past Two and Hide and Seek.

What big idea do the two poems have in common?

What point did Wordsworth make about how one should 'recollect' emotion?

What the questions will look like

Q1 Re-read the poems Half-Past Two and Hide and Seek.
Compare how the writers present ideas about childhood in the two poems

  • You should make reference to language, form and structure.
  • Support your answer with examples from the poems.

(Total for Question 1 = 30 marks)

Copy down the question

Poetry questions will always look like this, only changing the poems and the theme being focussed on. 'Memory' could be 'Family' or 'History' or 'Friendship' or...

1) Start with the big ideas

Before beginning your answer, you need to think about what the 'ideas about childhood' actually are.

Work this out first, before looking for language

What ideas about childhood do the two poems present?

  • In Half-Past Two, childhood is presented as...
  • However, in Hide & Seek, the poem shows childhood as being...

2) Find the evidence to back up your big ideas

  • In Half-Past Two, childhood is presented as...
  • However, in Hide & Seek, the poem shows childhood as being...

Find one quotation from each poem to back up what you've said

3) Think about form and structure

When we say form and structure, we mean:

  • The rhythm
  • The rhyme scheme
  • If it is a sonnet, etc

Think: is the poem's structure fixed and regular structure, or does it change and shift?

Writing your answer

Write your answer to the question - at least 3 paragraphs

  • Point
  • Evidence
  • Technique
  • Analysis & Effect
  • Link

Always, always, always mention BOTH poems in EVERY paragraph, connecting to the language.

Use as many of these phrases as you can!
However .... linking to .... the effect is .... drawing attention to .... suggesting to the reader that .... giving the impression that .... the poet chooses to

Preparation for Mocks

Click here for slides 📽️

Reading 'The Tyger'

LO: To consider how the poet presents ideas about nature

Do you agree with the statement below? Why or why not? Write two sentences.

“It is humanity's duty to control nature.”

Pre-reading

Copy down the reflection grid

What are the connotations of the title The Tyger? What might it be about?

Reflection Grid
📝 I think the poem describes...
...
💭 I think the poem is about...
...
❓ I would ask the poet...
...
🕰️ This poem reminds me of...
...

The Tyger by William Blake

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, 
In the forests of the night; 
What immortal hand or eye, 
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies. 
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat.
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp.
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears 
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Continuing 'The Tyger'

🐅

__

Re-read The Tyger. Which line stands out to you most, and why?

Why do you think Blake chose a tiger as his focus?

We will be doing Literature Feedback in tomorrow's double lesson

The Tyger by William Blake

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, 
In the forests of the night; 
What immortal hand or eye, 
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies. 
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat.
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp.
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears 
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

LO: To read and analyse Keats's poem

Translate the title. What themes do you think the poem might include?

Do you agree with this statement?

“A poet is always speaking as themselves, even when they pretend to be a character.”

The Poem

Who was John Keats?

  • Prominent English Romantic poet known for his vivid imagery and sensuous language.
  • He is best known for works such as "Ode to a Nightingale" and "Ode to a Grecian Urn."
  • Keats's poetry often explored themes of love, nature, and the transient beauty of life.
  • His influence on modern literature was significant; particularly on the Romantics Byron, Shelley and Tennyson
  • Keats died at 25 from tuberculosis, leaving a poetic legacy that emphasises personal expression and art for its own sake.

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

Ode to a Grecian Urn

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
       Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
       And no birds sing.

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
       So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel’s granary is full,
       And the harvest’s done.

I see a lily on thy brow,
       With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
       Fast withereth too.
I met a lady in the meads,
       Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
       And her eyes were wild.

I made a garland for her head,
       And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
       And made sweet moan

I set her on my pacing steed,
       And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
       A faery’s song.
She found me roots of relish sweet,
       And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said—
       ‘I love thee true’.

She took me to her Elfin grot,
       And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
       With kisses four.

And there she lullèd me asleep,
       And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—
The latest dream I ever dreamt
       On the cold hill side.
I saw pale kings and princes too,
       Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—‘La Belle Dame sans Merci
       Thee hath in thrall!’

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
       With horrid warning gapèd wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
       On the cold hill’s side.

And this is why I sojourn here,
       Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
       And no birds sing.

Writing a paragraph

How does Keats present ideas of love in this poem?

  • Point
  • Evidence
  • Technique
  • Analysis & Effect
  • Link

Use as many of these phrases as you can!

However .... linking to .... the effect is .... drawing attention to .... suggesting to the reader that

'My Last Duchess'

LO: To consider how Browning explores the themes of his poem through his created character

Write a definition of dramatic monologue

Why might a poet choose to write their poem as a dramatic monologue? Give three reasons

The Poem 🔖

Analysing the Title

What are the connotations of the title? Brainstorm keywords and ideas with your partner, then finish this sentence:
I would argue that the title makes the reader expect...

My Last Duchess

The Ferrara bit is the character's name: the 'Duke of Ferrara'

The inspiration

Portrait of Lucrezia de’ Medici, by Bronzino.
Generally believed to be the subject of the poem

That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said
“Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not
Her husband’s presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek; perhaps
Fra Pandolf chanced to say, “Her mantle laps
Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat.” Such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace—all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
Or blush, at least. She thanked men—good! but thanked
Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
In speech—which I have not—to make your will
Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse—
E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master’s known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretense
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed
At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

If--

LO: To consider the ideas presented by Rudyard Kipling

You're coming to the end of your GCSE journey. What advice would you give to students just starting it? Note them down.

What makes something good advice?

Meet Rudyard Kipling

  • Victorian poet
  • Imperial administrator
  • And a father
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, my son!  

Do not go gentle into that good night

LO: To consider how Dylan Thomas presents an alternative, 'motivational' perspective in his poem

Sum up Rudyard Kipling's life philosophy from yesterday's poem.
In life, you should...

How much do you agree with his perspective?

Villanelle (noun) Poetic form with five stanzas and repeated refrains

Meet Dylan Thomas

  • Poet
  • Alcoholic
  • Welshman

As he wrote this poem, Thomas's father was slowly dying.

Form and Structure

The poem follows the traditional villanelle structure:

  • Five stanzas
  • Two 'refrains' - repeated lines

Villanelles are normally used to explore obsession, sadness and fatalism in a lyrical, song-like way.

“to use the very strict form of the Villanelle is a help, because you concentrate on the technical difficulties of mastering the form, and allow the content of the poem a more unconscious and freer release”

T. S. Eliot

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Close reading

  1. Highlight all the words related to the natural world. Then answer:
  • Do they have anything in common?
  • What do they suggest about the attitude to death?
  1. Highlight the refrains. Why does Thomas repeat these phrases?
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Points of View

“This is obviously a threshold poem about death... advocating active resistance to death.”

Seamus Heaney

“a metaphorical plateau of aloneness and loneliness before death”

Jonathan Westphal

Which one do you agree with the most, and why? Pick evidence

War Photographer

LO: to consider how Duffy presents ideas around media and desensitisation

Does the news - TV, online, newspapers - exist to inform people or to entertain people? Write one sentence explaining your point of view.

Think back to the last major international news story you read. How did you learn about it? Did you trust what you read?

Desensitisation ~ (noun) the process of reducing someone's emotional response to a negative thing through repeated exposure

Countdown to first English exam...

2025/05/20 08:00

Meet Carol Ann Duffy

  • Scottish, contemporary poet
  • Poet Laureate of UK (chief national poet)
  • Poems often concerned with modern life and society
In his dark room he is finally alone
with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.
The only light is red and softly glows,
as though this were a church and he
a priest preparing to intone a Mass.
Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.

He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays
beneath his hands, which did not tremble then
though seem to now. Rural England. Home again
to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel,
to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet
of running children in a nightmare heat.
Something is happening. A stranger’s features
faintly start to twist before his eyes,
a half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries
of this man’s wife, how he sought approval
without words to do what someone must
and how the blood stained into foreign dust.

A hundred agonies in black and white
from which his editor will pick out five or six
for Sunday’s supplement. The reader’s eyeballs prick
with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers.
From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where
he earns his living and they do not care.

Search For My Tongue

Which languages do you speak? Which do you feel most comfortable in? Do you use different ones for different circumstances?

Take notes for this lesson in a different language!

Reading the poem

The Poem

Half-Caste

Why write a poem in dialect, or partially in multiple languages? How does it change the way a reader feels or engages?

Find a line from War Photographer, and translate it into a different language or dialect

Meet John Agard

  • Born 1949 in the West Indian colony of British Guiana, part of the British Empire
  • Prolific poet, often focussing on his mixed race identity: father Afro-Caribbean and his mother Portuguese

Reading the poem

Half Caste

Preparing revision resources

LO: To work together to create high quality revision resources for next year.

Which poem in the collection are you most familiar with, and why? Discuss with the person next to you

You'll need a device for this lesson 💻 Get it ready now!

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Collaborative Revision Pack

Create a valuable revision page for all of us to use

  1. Select a poem from the anthology
  2. Improve your annotations and then photograph it
  3. Note down:
  • What the poet is talking about
  • What the main themes are
  • Which poems to compare it to
  • Main structural features
  • Three important words or phrases

Submit work here 🗳️