Y11 Unit 2: The Poetry Anthology

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

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.

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

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

“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

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

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?

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

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?

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?

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

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 📽️