AQA POETRY ANTHOLOGY LITERATURE PAPER 2, Schemes and Mind Maps of Poetry

Download AQA POETRY ANTHOLOGY LITERATURE PAPER 2 and more Schemes and Mind Maps Poetry in PDF only on Docsity! alatiagshits AQA POETRY ANTHOLOGY LITERATURE PAPER 2 y11 GUIDE BOOK How to use this guide: This guide to the 15 poems in the AQA Anthology is not intended to be the be-all and end-all of your knowledge. It is not a replacement for your annotated anthologies, it is not a replacement for your class book or the extended writing you have done on both individual poems and comparisons. What it is, is an attempt to provide an analysis of each poem and help you organise some of those ideas into groups, see how they can be discussed in writing, identify key devices and their effects, and give you a vocabulary bank of ambitious language for each poem, which you can see in context. Poems for comparison Red box to summarise STRUCTURE Yellow boxes to summarise LANGUAGE & IMAGERY Key ambitious vocabulary to write about the poem Possible topic sentences underlined Main points organized into paragraphsContext of poem Running notes of poem in each stanza Key terminology highlighted in bold Green Box for Topic, Viewpoint, Tone K McCabe 2016 2 The title refers to the painful moment the relationship ended and speaks directly to the woman, to confess the poet’s reactions and response to that day. Stanza 1: The ‘silence’ suggests many feelings unspoken, either because this is not a mutual parting, or because there is a forbidden, secret aspect to the relationship. This is further indicated by the poet being ‘half-broken hearted’ and that he will be scarred by the experience for years - ‘sever’. Stanza 1: The woman is described as becoming ‘cold’ and emotionless, all warmth they may have shared is now dying. Stanza 2: Pathetic fallacy used to further the cold atmosphere ‘dew of the morning’. Stanza 2: The woman’s reputation is now ‘light’, possibly as the result of another or even this scandal, and the poet, due to his secret involvement with the woman ‘shares in the shame’. The unnamed people of the society of the time are gossiping and criticising the woman. Stanza 3: The pressure of public opinion and reputation continues into stanza 3. The rhetorical question suggests that the poet is emotionally traumatized by the affair even though he has escaped with his anonymity intact. Stanza 4: The tone begins to turn to anger and bitterness as the poet acknowledges he is left with deep emotional wounds ‘long shall I rue thee’ Stanza 5: The poet confesses the secret nature of the relationship and the tone change continues as the poet feels he has been deceived and forgotten by the lady. Stanza 5: The poem returns to the beginning, in silence and in tears. The poet has been unable to move forward since the parting and does not see himself being able to move on in the future. C o n te xt By Lord Byron (1788 – 1824) When We Two Parted is thought to be based upon one of the many scandalous relationships Byron was involved in during his lifetime. He was notorious and labelled ‘mad, bad and dangerous to know.’ It is claimed that Byron falsely stated the poem was written in 1808 in order to protect the reputation of the lady it was written about, Lady Frances Webster, and was actually written in 1816. Lady Webster was also said to be involved in an affair with the Duke of Wellington. Byron was a leading Romantic poet.  Secret, forbidden Love  Regret  Pain, Loss, Death  Anger  Neutral Tones  Winter Swans  Farmer’s Bride  Porphyria’s Lover THEMES: COMPARE WITH: WHEN WE TWO PARTED The poem is about the painful end of a relationship, with suggestions that it was a secret and forbidden love. It is told from the viewpoint of the poet who is struck by grief. It has bitter and melancholic tone. The structure of the poem is regular in rhythm and rhyme and highly controlled. It signifies a sense of deep reflection about the day and the relationship, as though the poet has considered it very carefully. Although the poem moves between time frames (past, present and future) the repetition of ‘silence and tears’ at both the beginning and end creates a circular structure. This shows that poet is unable to move forward and is stuck with his despair. The poem uses a semantic field of death. The poem is riddled with references to death and loss. Pale, sever, knell, grieve etc. The death of the relationship is also a ‘death’ of his happiness, emotion and future. He is mourning the loss of his love. The poem uses language to foreshadow the inevitable end of the relationship. Part of the poet’s bitterness comes from the signs that surrounded him that the relationship was doomed. Foretold, warning, knell, deceive etc. There is anger that he gave so much love and yet he was ultimately rejected. The poem juxtaposes knowledge and silence/secrecy. There is a clear contrast between the knowledge the poet has and the knowledge of others. ‘They know not I knew thee’ In the same way there is a sharp contrast between the silence of the couple and the gossiping voices of others ‘They name thee before me’. Grief Lament Confessional Melancholic Notorious Anonymity Mourning Forbidden Regret Bitter Scandal/ Scandalous Inevitable Foreshadow Pathetic Fallacy Doomed Rejected Juxtaposition Wounds AO1: Read, understand and respond to texts. Students should be able to: maintain a critical style (Ambitious Vocabulary, Organisation) and develop an informed personal response (Point Opinion statements), refer to the text, including quotations, (embed them) to support and illustrate interpretations AO2: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects (Zoom in, Analysis), using relevant subject terminology (Techniques) where appropriate. AO3: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written. Organised Notes Additional Notes When we two parted In silence and tears, Half broken-hearted To sever for years, Pale grew thy cheek and cold, Colder thy kiss; Truly that hour foretold Sorrow to this. The dew of the morning Sunk chill on my brow-- It felt like the warning Of what I feel now. Thy vows are all broken, And light is thy fame; I hear thy name spoken, And share in its shame. They name thee before me, A knell to mine ear; A shudder comes o’er me-- Why wert thou so dear? They know not I knew thee, Who knew thee too well-- Long, long shall I rue thee, Too deeply to tell. In secret we met-- In silence I grieve, That thy heart could forget, Thy spirit deceive. If I should meet thee After long years, How should I greet thee?-- With silence and tears. CLEAN COPY ANNOTATION: Annotate the poem from memory QUESTIONS: 1. How does the poet convey feelings of love and loss in this and one other poem of your choice? 2. How does the poet present conflict in a relationship in this and one other poem of your choice? 3. To what extent does this poem suggest a forbidden love? Compare with one other poem of your choice. HAVE YOU NOTICED: Enjambment Semantic field Repetition Caesura Pathetic Fallacy Regular rhyme WHEN WE TWO PARTED By Lord Byron K McCabe 2016 7 CLEAN COPY ANNOTATION: Annotate the poem from memory QUESTIONS: 1. Compare the feelings of anger and bitterness conveyed in this poem and one other of your choice. 2. How is conflict in a relationship presented in this poem and one other of your choice? 3. How are painful memories presented in this poem and one other poem of your choice? HAVE YOU NOTICED: Enjambment Semantic field Oxymoron Caesura Juxtaposition Alliteration NEUTRAL TONES by Thomas Hardy We stood by a pond that winter day, And the sun was white, as though chidden of God, And a few leaves lay on the starving sod, - They had fallen from an ash, and were gray. Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove Over tedious riddles solved years ago; And some words played between us to and fro - On which lost the more by our love. The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing Alive enough to have strength to die; And a grin of bitterness swept thereby Like an ominous bird a-wing…. Since then, keen lessons that love deceives, And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me Your face, and the God-curst sun, and a tree, And a pond edged with grayish leaves. K McCabe 2016 10 The title shows that the Swans are the central characters in this poem, rather than the couple. Stanza 1: The poem begins with the personification of the clouds The clouds had given their all. This is pathetic fallacy, setting the stormy, turbulent scene, and metaphorically represents the couple who have also ’given their all’. The break in the rain gives the couple the opportunity to walk, exhausted from the energy used over the previous 2 days arguing. Stanza 1: It is useful to note here that the poet refers to himself and his partner as ‘we’. We, us and our are used throughout the poem which indicates that despite their difficulties, they are still very much together and a couple. Stanza 2: Continues with more personification – the earth ‘gulping for breath’. Gulping has connotations of something struggling to survive. In addition, the ‘waterlogged’ earth is unstable and not solid, just like the couple’s relationship at this time. Stanza 2: the couple ’skirt’ the lake. The verb ‘to skirt’ is often used with ‘around’ (to skirt around something, usually a problem or an issue) . The couple are forced to skirt around the lake as they cannot physically cross it, but they are also skirting around their problems in silence. Stanza 3: This marks a change in tone after the arrival of the swans. They distract the couple with a ‘show’, and are perfectly united. Stanza 4: There are several images in this stanza which seem to refer to solid, strong foundations. The ‘iceberg of white feather’ suggests that there is more to the couple than surface problems, likewise, the boats ‘righting in rough weather’ have stable bottoms and will find their way upright. Stanza 1-5: Many of the sounds are consonant sounds, showing the tension in their relationship through harsh sounds. Stanza 5: The silence is broken by direct speech and marks the beginning of the couple communicating and resolving their issues. Stanza 5: A metaphor is used to liken the swans to ‘porcelain’ a fine china. This symbolises the couple – delicate and in need of protection, but strong. Stanza 5: Light begins to enter the scene – ‘The afternoon light’ Stanza 6: Sibilance is used to show a change in their emotions as their hands move towards each other. The sibilant sounds are soft. Stanza 7: A simile compares their hands to wings settling after flight. The couple are reunited and reconciled. C o n te xt By Owen Sheers (1974 - ) Owen Sheers is a Welsh poet born in 1974, so Winter Swans is a contemporary poem. Much of Sheers’ poetry draws upon natural landscapes. This poem was taken from a collection called Skirrid Hill. This can be literally translated as ‘shattered mountain’. The word Skirrid in Welsh can also be interpreted as ‘divorce’ or separate’.  Distance  Nature  Anger, Bitterness  Reconciliation  Neutral Tones  Letters From Yorkshire  Singh Song  Sonnet 29 THEMES: COMPARE WITH: WINTER SWANS The poem focuses on a couple experiencing conflict and difficulty in their relationship. It is told from the viewpoint of one of the couple, most likely the man. It begins with a tense mood. This changes to a reflective and tranquil atmosphere, after the couple observe the actions of a pair of swans. The swans metaphorically mirror the couple. The poem is structured in 6 irregular tercets and a final couplet. The line lengths are uneven and there is no rhyme. This emphasises the disjointedness and disharmony of the couple. However, after the moment of reconciliation in the poem, the final stanza is a couplet. This could be symbolic of the couple beginning to come back together again. The poem uses nature to explore feelings. The poem begins in a cold and turbulent setting. This represents the couple and their conflict. The swans teach the couple to reflect on their own behaviour towards each other, and as a result their behaviour changes – the light comes, the earth begins to firm (from waterlogged to shingle and sand) and they reunite. The couple are only temporarily troubled. Unlike some of the other relationships in the anthology, the couple in Winter Swans still love each other. They are frustrated and experiencing disharmony, but still consider themselves unified (we, us, our). Essentially, like the swans they have strong foundations and the storm will pass (boats, iceberg, porcelain.) Tercet Disharmony Disjointedness Pathetic Fallacy Simile United / Unified Couplet Tranquil Reconciliation Sibilance Reunited Tension Personification Turbulent Distract Porcelain Consonance Foundations AO1: Read, understand and respond to texts. Students should be able to: maintain a critical style (Ambitious Vocabulary, Organisation) and develop an informed personal response (Point Opinion statements), refer to the text, including quotations, (embed them) to support and illustrate interpretations AO2: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects (Zoom in, Analysis), using relevant subject terminology (Techniques) where appropriate. AO3: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written. Organised Notes Additional Notes Singh Song is the story of a recently married Indian shopkeeper, who would rather spend all of his time with his new wife, than honouring his father, running the family business. It is written in the persona of the Mr Singh, the shopkeeper and has a joyous, uplifting and romantic tone, despite the conflict that being newly married has created. The poem is irregular in terms of stanzas and uses a number of different stanza forms. These play with various conventions of poetry such as nursery rhymes, rhyming couplets and song lyrics. The poem uses both rhyme and half-rhyme and has a lyrical, melodious quality. The repetition of the chorus creates both the song like quality, but also emphasises the repetitiveness of the work that he does, the conflict he feels between work, family and love. Despite the conflict in the relationship, the speaker loves his wife. He is indifferent to the complaints of the customers and focused only on being with his wife. The description he gives of her is of a domineering woman eyes ov a gun, who dresses in a masculine, aggressive way. She is also a cunning and shrewd businesswoman. He loves her and is blind to how she may appear to others. Finally, he refers, in an almost joking way, to her interactions with his mother and father, giving no comment or criticism. Singh is dealing with conflict on a number of levels - family, work and culture. The poem is full of positive, bright and childlike language. The poem is full of bright colours (lemon, lime, red, silver) Mr Singh, although an adult, has the status of a child in the family and so responds like one, with a lack of responsibility, rebellious nature and simplistic childlike, romantic responses (teddy, pinching my sweeties). Pun Rapt Punk Assonant Devotion Lyrical Disobeys Rebellious Conventional indifferent Romantic Melodious Dominates Irreverent Domineering Reiterating Culture Clash Conflict AO1: Read, understand and respond to texts. Students should be able to: maintain a critical style (Ambitious Vocabulary, Organisation) and develop an informed personal response (Point Opinion statements), refer to the text, including quotations, (embed them) to support and illustrate interpretations AO2: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects (Zoom in, Analysis), using relevant subject terminology (Techniques) where appropriate. AO3: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written. Organised Notes Additional Notes CLEAN COPY ANNOTATION: Annotate the poem from memory SINGH SONG By Daljit Nagra I run just one ov my daddy's shops from 9 o'clock to 9 o'clock and he vunt me not to hav a break but ven nobody in, I do di lock – cos up di stairs is my newly bride vee share in chapatti vee share in di chutney after vee hav made luv like vee rowing through Putney – Ven I return vid my pinnie untied di shoppers always point and cry: Hey Singh, ver yoo bin? Yor lemons are limes yor bananas are plantain, dis dirty little floor need a little bit of mop in di worst Indian shop on di whole Indian road - Above my head high heel tap di ground as my vife on di web is playing wid di mouse ven she netting two cat on her Sikh lover site she book dem for di meat at di cheese ov her price – my bride she effing at my mum in all di colours of Punjabi den stumble like a drunk making fun at my daddy my bride tiny eyes ov a gun and di tummy ov a teddy my bride she hav a red crew cut and she wear a Tartan sari a donkey jacket and some pumps on di squeak ov di girls dat are pinching my sweeties – Ven I return from di tickle ov my bride di shoppers always point and cry: Hey Singh, ver yoo bin? Di milk is out ov date and di bread is alvays stale, di tings yoo hav on offer yoo hav never got in stock in di worst Indian shop on di whole Indian road – Continued K McCabe 2016 16 HAVE YOU NOTICED: Enjambment Semantic field Juxtaposition Caesura Repetition Metaphor SINGH SONG By Daljit Nagra QUESTIONS: 1. Compare how the poet presents feelings of love this and one other poem of your choice. 2. How does the poet convey family bonds in this and one other poem of your choice. 3. Compare how poets present attitudes towards conflict in relationships in this and one other poem of your choice. Late in di midnight hour ven yoo shoppers are wrap up quiet ven di precinct is concrete-cool vee cum down whispering stairs and sit on my silver stool, from behind di chocolate bars vee stare past di half-price window signs at di beaches ov di UK in di brightey moon – from di stool each night she say, How much do yoo charge for dat moon baby? from di stool each night I say, Is half di cost ov yoo baby, from di stool each night she say, How much does dat come to baby? from di stool each night I say, Is priceless baby - CLEAN COPY ANNOTATION: Annotate the poem from memory K McCabe 2016 17 CLEAN COPY ANNOTATION: Annotate the poem from memory QUESTIONS: 1. How does the poet convey feelings of love and longing in this and one other poem of your choice? 2. To what extent does this poem deal with unwanted love? Compare with one other poem of your choice. 3. How does the setting of nature allow the poet to explore feelings of love in this and one other poem of your choice? HAVE YOU NOTICED: Metaphor Semantic field Repetition Personification Imperative Rhetorical Question LOVE’S PHILOSOPHY by Percy Bysshe Shelley The fountains mingle with the river And the rivers with the ocean, The winds of heaven mix for ever With a sweet emotion; Nothing in the world is single; All things by a law divine In one spirit meet and mingle. Why not I with thine?— See the mountains kiss high heaven And the waves clasp one another; No sister-flower would be forgiven If it disdained its brother; And the sunlight clasps the earth And the moonbeams kiss the sea: What is all this sweet work worth If thou kiss not me? K McCabe 2016 20 In this poem, the Farmer is the speaker and the focus of the poem is his bride, referred to in the title. Stanza 1: The poem begins with a time reference that is immediately unnerving when considering the nameless girl. It has been ’three years’ since she married and yet she is still referred to as the bride. This suggests that in all that time there has been no acceptance of her role, moving towards becoming a wife, rather she remains a bride. Stanza 1: The Farmer’s attitude is clear as he acknowledge that she was ‘too young’ but he has more important things to do than ‘bide and woo’. He is a practical and hard-working man, unable and reluctant to deal with the complexities of human emotion. Stanza 1: The impact of the wedding on the young girl is apparent from the wedding day – ‘she turned afraid’ and became ‘like the shut of a winter's day’ ‘Her smile went out’. The winter image emphasises the cold, numb emotional state of the girl. The reader is only given clues about the girl as she is voiceless throughout. That she smiled, implies that before she was chosen as a bride (again ‘chosen’ highlights the lack of her choice – something being done to her) she was a happy, young lady. Stanza 1: The girl is likened to a ‘frightened fay’ (fairy). This dehumanises her, making her human emotions alien, inexplicable and unaccounted for – the Farmer makes no effort to understand the girl. Stanza 1: The last line of Stanza 1 is shocking ‘One night, in the Fall, she runned away’, and gives a further clue about her deep unhappiness. The simplistic grammatical structure of ‘runned’ conveys the simplicity of the Farmer, and how poorly equipped he is to deal with how withdrawn and traumatized the girl is from the marriage. Stanza 2: The reference to ’They’, the villagers, and their support for the Farmer by revealing her location, highlights her isolation and low status, low power. In addition, the farmer remembers how ‘we’ chased her, again emphasising the girl as different and separate to the villagers. Stanza 2: The girl is described, using a simile, as ‘like a hare’. She is reduced to an animal, prey being hunted by the man and his helpers, until she is eventually ‘caught’ ‘fetched home’ and locked in a room. Stanza 3: Provides some light relief in the life of the girl. The stanza shows her carrying out menial household tasks ‘like a mouse’, comfortable in the presence of animals – birds and rabbits, but still terrified of the farmer. Again the use of a plural pronoun ‘Us’ sounds threatening, as if the girl feels frequently vulnerable in her interactions with others. C o n te xt By Charlotte Mew (1869 – 1928) Mew was a Victorian poet, who had a hard upbringing in poverty. Many of her family suffered mental health problems and she was terrified of experiencing the same difficulties. Her poems were often told using a male persona, who were social outcasts. She was recognised as a great talent by many poets in her day, including Thomas Hardy (Neutral Tones). The Farmer’s Bride symbolises several different elements such as women in society in the Victorian age, the natural world vs industrialization and desire over fear. THEMES: COMPARE WITH: THE FARMER’S BRIDE  Pain, Loss, Death  Desire, Longing  Nature  Unrequited Love  Porphyria’s Lover  When We Two Parted  Neutral Tones K McCabe 2016 22 Stanza 3: The reference to the ‘women’ further disconnects the girl from others, she has no links to other people, but is frequently linked to the natural and animal world. The women ‘say’ and discuss the girl implying that she is an oddity, someone whose behaviour is gossiped about by others. Stanza 4: A short 4 line stanza in which the Farmer begins to express his feelings of rejection. Four similes are used comparing the girl to natural elements - a young hare, a young tree and wild violets – each vulnerable, not fully matured, and without adult strength. The use of sibilance in this stanza suggests an almost whispered description of the girl, as he attempts to control his feelings. Stanza 5: Shows the inevitable changes that occur in the natural world. The season begins to turn towards winter. This pathetic fallacy suggests something dying, perhaps the Farmer’s patience and gentleness, and are a foreboding glimpse of the future. The Farmer feels the need for children and his frustration with the situation is clear. The colours of this stanza become darker ‘brown, blue, grey, black, red’, symbolising a dark time approaching. Stanza 6: Continues with the sense of foreboding. She is in the attic, as physically far from the Farmer as she could be. The repetition used in the final stanza to describe her physical features ‘down, brown, hair’ expose his inability to control his desires and emotions for much longer. The caesura in these lines suggest he is being flooded with images of her. The exclamation marks show he is becoming increasingly emotional and is losing control. CLEAN COPY ANNOTATION: Annotate the poem from memory QUESTIONS: 1. How is nature used to explore human relationships in this and one other poem of your choice? 2. Compare the unhappiness that loss and longing brings in this poem and one other of your choice. 3. Compare what the speaker reveals about his loved one in this poem and one other poem of your choice. HAVE YOU NOTICED: Enjambment Semantic field Repetition Caesura Simile Colour THE FARMER’S BRIDE By Charlotte Mew Shy as a leveret, swift as he, Straight and slight as a young larch tree, Sweet as the first wild violets, she, To her wild self. But what to me? The short days shorten and the oaks are brown, The blue smoke rises to the low grey sky, One leaf in the still air falls slowly down, A magpie’s spotted feathers lie On the black earth spread white with rime, The berries redden up to Christmas-time. What’s Christmas-time without there be Some other in the house than we! She sleeps up in the attic there Alone, poor maid. ’Tis but a stair Betwixt us. Oh! my God! the down, The soft young down of her, the brown, The brown of her—her eyes, her hair, her hair! K McCabe 2016 25 The title is often overlooked and was adapted by Browning 30 years after being written, changing it from Porphyria to Porphyria’s Lover. Whilst Porphyria is named in the title, the poem is about her lover, the man, and is told from his point of view. However, Browning, in the persona of the man, is cleverly and frustratingly ambiguous. Additionally, the use of the word ‘lover’ suggests a sexual and possibly illicit love affair, one that is not approved by others for whatever reason. There is an implicit sense of Porphyria’s guilt in the title. The poem begins with pathetic fallacy of a stormy setting, to foreshadow later events. The ‘sullen’ wind is personified and appears spiteful and mischievous, doing ‘its worst to vex the lake’. Despite the violence of the storm, the rural setting is also a Victorian romantic ideal, beautiful and simple, which lulls the reader into a false sense of security. The man sits ‘with heart fit to break’ though there is not indication why. This is the beginning of the ambiguity. It could be from excitement as he waits for Porphyria, it could be with grief or anger. Whatever, Browning intended this as dramatic irony so that the reader knows, in the stormy setting, the man is waiting, full of emotion, building tension. This irony is increased with the entrance of Porphyria, ‘gliding’, oblivious to the man’s emotional state. Porphyria’s impact on the scene is immediate, shutting out the ‘cold’ and the ‘storm’ and making the ’cheerless grate blaze up’. She epitomises warmth and comfort. She is noticeably active and dominant in the opening of the poem, she tends to the cottage, tends to herself and then to the man, whilst he sits passively observing. The man comments on her ‘soiled gloves’. This conveys an image of something dirty, damaged and unclean, a possible indication of how he views Porphyria. The man continues to be silent, simply observing Porphyria. ’When no voice replied’ she begins to appeal for attention ‘making her white shoulder bare’, and ‘murmuring how she loved’ him. His passive, emotionless study of her builds tension, knowing how his ‘heart was fit to break’. He then describes her as ‘too weak’, the first clear subjective comment. His view is that she does not have strength, despite ‘her heart’s endeavor, To set its struggling passion free from pride.’ Porphyria is content to be a ‘lover’, hence the implicit guilt, but not ’dissever’ herself from her ‘vainer ties’ and ‘give herself’ to the man forever. C o n te xt By Robert Browning (1812 – 1889) Browning was an important Victorian poet, who married Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Sonnet 29). The Victorian Era was known for its sense of morality, the line between public respectability and private behaviour, religious beliefs and attitudes to women. Browning admired the Romantic poets, but was most successful when he found his own unique style. He became known for dramatic monologues, often voiced by dark personas. Porphyria’s Lover was part of a 2 poem collection called ‘Madhouse Cells’, with the second poem also about a disturbed man. Porphyria translates as purple (colour), which is often associated with royalty and could be a clue to the difficulties faced by the lovers. THEMES: COMPARE WITH: PORPHYRIA’S LOVER  Secret Love  Pain, Death  Desire , Longing, Obsession  Unrequited Love  Farmer’s Bride  When We Two Parted  Sonnet 29 I Think of Thee  Neutral Tones K McCabe 2016 27 ‘But passion would sometimes prevail’ Passion is both love and longing as well as anger and suffering. This is further ambiguity, and a possible, deliberate pun given the repetition from the ‘passion’ Porphyria feels 3 lines earlier. It is possible that his anger would sometimes ‘prevail’ or overcome him. The idea of anger overwhelming him extends to the following line ‘ Nor could to-night’s gay feast restrain a sudden thought of one so pale’ . Even his happiness and joy of being with her and in her company cannot stop his inner rage and need to possess her fully , a sudden image of the violence he might inflict would leave her ‘so pale’ because he is consumed by love for her, which he acknowledges in ‘all in vain’ He engages with her by ‘looking up at her eyes’, the first moment of interaction between them, but still silent. He then feels filled with love from Porphyria, that he is ‘worshipped’. Again, a passive , dysfunctional love between them. The repetition of ‘mine, mine’ signals the man’s desire to fix the moment forever and make it last. Juxtaposition is used to show Porphyria’s change from ’soiled’ to ‘perfectly pure and good’. Browning uses anastrophe to reveal the details of her murder – ‘three times her little throat…’. This is largely used to maintain the rhyme scheme. However, it also delays the horrific details of the event, finishing in a similar way to a periodic sentence with the final clause ‘And strangled her.’ This delay makes the moment more shocking. Repetition of ‘pain’ is used as the speaker attempts to convince himself that his deed was merciful. The fear the man feels about his act is likened to the fear of opening a flower which holds a bee. The bee, like Porphyria, may be angry and seeking revenge. This is what he imagines he may see in her eyes. By contrast, he sees ‘laughing.. blue eyes’ and a ‘blushing cheek’. Porphyria, so active at the beginning, now needs her head ’propped’ up as it ‘droops’. The end of the poem vividly conveys the sense of the speaker as an unreliable and delusional narrator. He talks of her ‘darling one wish’ being heard allowing them to sit together all night. His final statement to convince himself of the morality of his actions is his observation that ‘God has not said a word’. CLEAN COPY ANNOTATION: Annotate the poem from memory QUESTIONS: 1. How is love presented as a destructive force in this and one other poem of your choice? 2. How does the speaker reveal the object of the poem in this and one other poem of your choice? 3. How does the poet suggest different feelings towards the relationship in this and one other poem of your choice? HAVE YOU NOTICED: Nature Pathetic fallacy Repetition Juxtaposition Personification Anastrophe PORPHYRIA’S LOVER by Robert Browning That moment she was mine, mine, fair, Perfectly pure and good: I found A thing to do, and all her hair In one long yellow string I wound Three times her little throat around, And strangled her. No pain felt she; I am quite sure she felt no pain. As a shut bud that holds a bee, I warily oped her lids: again Laughed the blue eyes without a stain. And I untightened next the tress About her neck; her cheek once more Blushed bright beneath my burning kiss: I propped her head up as before, Only, this time my shoulder bore Her head, which droops upon it still: The smiling rosy little head, So glad it has its utmost will, That all it scorned at once is fled, And I, its love, am gained instead! Porphyria's love: she guessed not how Her darling one wish would be heard. And thus we sit together now, And all night long we have not stirred, And yet God has not said a word! K McCabe 2016 30 The poem contains a central extended metaphor of the poet’s feelings for her lover. She compares herself to vines encircling a tree. This illuminates the way that Barrett Browning sees her relationship – he is a solid, stable and strong ‘tree’, she is the ‘vine’ that surrounds it. Her love and passion could be seen as all-encompassing, possibly possessive and obsessive. She recognises how overwhelming her thoughts are, as her vine ‘put(s) out broad leaves, and soon there’s nought to see’. Her thoughts are suffocating and smothering, so that she loses sight of her ‘image’ of him. The poet describes her lover metaphorically as a ‘palm tree’. Victorians loved palm trees, which reminded them of far off lands and adventure. It also has exotic connotations. She could believe that her lover can transport her from her unhappy, solitary life with her family, to a fulfilled future. The poet is determined not to be content with her thoughts alone. ‘I will not have my thoughts instead of thee’. If she becomes happy with just thinking of her love, there is a chance she may not see him for some time. There is a sense of urgency that means she wants him close, not in her thoughts. The poet uses a series of imperatives which show her need for satisfaction and fulfillment - Renew, Rustle, drop etc, ‘Rather’ in line 7 signifies the volta or turn in the poem. It changes the focus from how overpowering her thoughts are of him, to a demand that he make himself physically present ‘..Instantly renew thy presence’ The poet uses euphemism to discuss things that would not be appropriate for a Victorian lady to discuss and that have sexual undertones ’set thy trunk all bare’. Verbs ‘burst, shattered everywhere’ suggests an inability to contain herself. The intensity of her feelings are overwhelming her. Repetition of Thee shows the infatuation and inability to think of anything else. C o n te xt by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 – 1861) Barrett Browning was in ill health for much of her life. She had an overbearing father who refused permission for any of his daughters to marry. She was a very successful and famous poet in her lifetime. Elizabeth and another poet, Robert Browning (Porphyria’s Lover) began writing letters to each other in secret and eventually married. She was disinherited by her father.  Secret Love  Desire , Longing  Nature  Joy, Passion  Letters from Yorkshire  Love’s Philosophy  Porphyria’s Lover  Singh Song THEMES: COMPARE WITH: SONNET 29 ‘I THINK OF THEE’ The poem is from a woman to her lover telling him how much she loves him and longs for him to be by her side. It is told from the viewpoint of the woman and has an impatient, excitable tone. The poem is structured in the form of a Petrarchan sonnet, often used as a poetic form for love poetry. However, this highly controlled form is manipulated to demonstrate the poet’s excitement and impatience. Whereas the Volta usually appears between the octave and the sestet, Barrett Browning introduces the turn earlier in line 7. This emphasises her inability to control her thoughts and desire to be with her love. The poem uses a central extended metaphor of nature. Nature is a common symbol in love poetry, often used to explore feelings. In Victorian times, it was used to allow the poet to express feelings that she would not have been able to if she had been more literal and less metaphorical. The image also exposes and interesting power imbalance between the poet and her love. The vines are smothering him. The poem demonstrates an inability to control emotion. The form highlights the overwhelming feelings the poet has. In addition, the language is bursting with excitement & intensity, the plosive sounds show there is nothing calm about her love. There is also an urgency which is created by the enjambment as thoughts flood her mind. Petrarchan Sestet Obsessive Euphemism Plosive sounds Flood Sonnet Volta Imperatives Intensity Smother Suffocating Octave Extended Metaphor Urgency Infatuation Exotic Solitary The poet displays an obsession over the relationship. The use of imperatives throughout command him to her Instantly, renew, rustle etc. Her image of the vines and the tree that will ‘put out broad leaves’ so that there’s ‘nought to see’ and eventually ‘hide the wood’ – he would disappear from reality completely and be a mere ‘desire’ . However, she is fully aware of this and would rather have him next to her, than be left with her obsessive thoughts. AO1: Read, understand and respond to texts. Students should be able to: maintain a critical style (Ambitious Vocabulary, Organisation) and develop an informed personal response (Point Opinion statements), refer to the text, including quotations, (embed them) to support and illustrate interpretations AO2: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects (Zoom in, Analysis), using relevant subject terminology (Techniques) where appropriate. AO3: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written. Organised Notes Additional Notes The poem is a memory a father has of watching his son walk away to play his first game of football. He uses this simple, literal event to reflect on the task parents have of letting go of their children. It is written from the viewpoint of the poet as the parent, directly addressing his son. It has a poignant and reflective tone. Walking Away is a lyric poem in four fairly regular stanzas in terms of rhyme and metre. This control suggests a deeply reflective poem, confirmed by the opening line that the focus is an 18 yr old memory. The caesura in the poem adds to the slow reflective pace. Whereas the enjambment mimics the movement of the son away from his father. Although the poem is about the son walking away, it s firmly focused on the feelings of the poet. The poem addresses the son directly, but there is repetition of ‘I’ throughout, illustrating the central feeling of anxiety in the poem. This is clearly shown in Stanza 2 with the line ‘I can see you walking away from me’ – it is as if this is more about what is being done to the poet, than about the feelings of the son. Much of the imagery suggests innocence and vulnerability, juxtaposed with pain. The son is oblivious to the pain caused by the ‘walking away’. Words such as ‘wrenched’, ‘wilderness’, ‘scorching ordeals’, ‘gnaws’ emphasise pain and suffering. Part of this is caused by the vulnerability the poet recognizes in him, as ‘behind a scatter of boys’ ‘half-fledged thing’, the unsteady ‘gait’, the ‘hesitant figure’. The poet uses a semantic field of flight and freedom. The satellite drifting, the half-fledged thing, the winged seed, all suggest movement and distance. Apprehension over this freedom is shown through accompanying words such as ‘wilderness’ and ‘wrenched’. Oblivious Irresolute Literal Anxiety Meandering Persistent Juxtaposed Poignant Metaphorical Permanent Scarring Contemplative Pathetic Fallacy Reflective Fricative Consonants Vulnerable Lyric Apprehension Organised Notes Additional Notes AO1: Read, understand and respond to texts. Students should be able to: maintain a critical style (Ambitious Vocabulary, Organisation) and develop an informed personal response (Point Opinion statements), refer to the text, including quotations, (embed them) to support and illustrate interpretations AO2: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects (Zoom in, Analysis), using relevant subject terminology (Techniques) where appropriate. AO3: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written. CLEAN COPY ANNOTATION: Annotate the poem from memory QUESTIONS: 1. Compare how strong bonds are explored this and one other poem of your choice. 2. How is growing up explored in this poem and one other poem of your choice? 3. Compare how feelings of loss are communicated in this poem and one other of your choice. HAVE YOU NOTICED: Enjambment Semantic field Metaphor Caesura Simile Pathetic Fallacy WALKING AWAY By Cecil Day Lewis It is eighteen years ago, almost to the day – A sunny day with leaves just turning, The touch-lines new-ruled – since I watched you play Your first game of football, then, like a satellite Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away Behind a scatter of boys. I can see You walking away from me towards the school With the pathos of a half-fledged thing set free Into a wilderness, the gait of one Who finds no path where the path should be. That hesitant figure, eddying away Like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem, Has something I never quite grasp to convey About nature’s give-and-take – the small, the scorching Ordeals which fire one’s irresolute clay. I have had worse partings, but none that so Gnaws at my mind still. Perhaps it is roughly Saying what God alone could perfectly show – How selfhood begins with a walking away, And love is proved in the letting go. K McCabe 2016 36 The title is ambiguous as it doesn’t clarify who is following who, this is also relevant to the central theme of the poem. Stanza 1: Heaney is remembering his father who, as part of his work on the farm, ploughed the fields. A simile is used in the first stanza that likens his father’s ‘globed’ shoulders with a ‘full sail’ . This conveys the image of a strong and powerful man, with broad shoulders. He has control over the horse who is responding to the father’s clicks and commands. There is a clear admiration that comes through from a young Heaney observing his father in his work. Stanza 2: This admiration is confirmed with the statement opening stanza 2 ‘An expert’. This, followed by caesura, demands that the reader pause on this thought and consider his mastery, explained in the following lines using precise verbs ‘fit, set, without breaking, single pluck’. This is significant as rural farm work is often considered menial, unimportant. Heaney elevates it to something almost talented and artistic. Enjambment is used at the end to illustrate the plough turning, to come back down the line. Stanza 3: The father and horse are described as a team – man and nature working in unison. More details of the precision and skill of his father ‘His eye narrow and angled at the ground, mapping the furrow exactly’. There is a sense that Heaney is attentively observing his father with great pride, almost with such detail so that he may mimic his father in later life. Stanza 4: Begins to focus on the son. Heaney’s stumbling is juxtaposed with the accuracy of his father. He stumbles, falls and rides on his father’s back. The use of the passive verb form ‘He rode me on his back’ shows that it is father who is in control, very different to ‘I rode on his back’. This is could be interpreted as a sentimental portrait of a father who was also affectionate and loving, who enjoys the company of his son, not detached and unapproachable because of his focus on work. It could also show Heaney’s frustration, that he felt he could never measure up to his father. Stanza 5: The impact and influence the father has on Heaney is made clear at the beginning of this stanza ‘I wanted to grow up and plough’. There is a melancholic tone, when Heaney acknowledges that ‘All I ever did was follow’, again revealing a sense of his own failure and inadequacy. Stanza 6: As an adult, Heaney recognises his impact on his father and the nuisance he may have caused ‘tripping, falling, yapping’. However, he also recognises the changes to their relationship as it is now the father ‘who keeps stumbling’ and ‘will not go away’. This can be interpreted in two ways. Either, in the same way that the young Heaney would not leave his father’s side because of his devotion to him, now the father is mimicking his son in his old age, Heaney tenderly recognising the roles switching. Alternatively, the adult Heaney is frustrated by his father’s dependence on him, having seen him as a leader and role-model all his life. C o n te xt By Seamus Heaney (1939 – 2013) Heaney was brought up in a simple, rural family and was the eldest of 8 children. He became an English teacher and began to write poetry. He became the Professor of Poetry at Oxford and in 1995 won the Nobel prize for literature. He was also offered the role of Poet Laureate, an honour given by the King/Queen to be the national Poet. Heaney turned this down because of his strong Irish roots and identity. THEMES: FOLLOWER  Family Bonds  Letting Go  Childhood  Parental Love  Before You Were Mine  Walking Away  Climbing my Grandfather  Mother, Any Distance COMPARE WITH: The poem was originally untitled, along with all poems in the ‘Book of Matches’. The given title comes from the first few lines. This adds to the ambiguity, that it is the reader’s task to decide on the overall message or theme. Stanza 1: Addressed directly to his mother, using a formal term of address. This could be the first indication that he is ready, trying to move into adulthood. However, it is immediately contrasted with an acknowledgement that he still needs her ‘second pair of hands’. Stanza 1: Hyperbole used to describe the new house ‘acres’, ‘prairies’. This has connotations of both childish adventure & exploration, heading off into the Wild West, unchartered territory. It also suggests some amount of fear and trepidation about the unknown future. Stanza 2: Mother is described as being at the zero-end . She is the fixed point, whereas he is the one moving away. This is the beginning of the imagery suggesting he is attached or tethered to her. He has to report ‘back to base’ with the ‘line still feeding out’. Their attachment is reminiscent of an umbilical cord, suggesting a deep connection between mother and son. However, as he moves away, he is aware that he is becoming more distant – ‘unreeling years between us’ and this leaves him feeling both anxious and excited. Stanza 2: The enjambment of stanza 1 & 2 is contrasted with the caesura of two juxtaposed images ‘Anchor. Kite.’ She is the anchor, he is the kite. Anchor can be both stable & reassuring, as well as restricting, hindering, pulling him back. However, Kite suggests joyous feelings of freedom & excitement, only enjoyed if attached to string. Stanza 3: The image of the poet space-walking continues the theme of exploration. He is now at the limits of the tape measure and metaphorically, of his freedom whilst being so tethered to his mother, ‘something has to give’. Tenderly, he notices she is still holding on and will not let go of him. Stanza 3: He reaches for the ‘endless sky’ and the poem ends ambiguously, leaving the question of whether he will ‘fall or fly’ hanging. The end seems implicitly positive. Hatch has a double meaning. Like a bird, independence is natural and he will fly. C o n te xt By Simon Armitage (1963 - ) Born in Yorkshire. This poem comes from a collection of poems called the ’Book of Matches’, named because Armitage intended each poem to be read in the time it takes for a match to burn. He often writes about complex emotions using everyday events. He was recently made the Oxford Professor of Poetry. THEMES: COMPARE WITH: MOTHER, ANY DISTANCE  Family Bonds  Letting Go  Childhood  Parental Love  Walking Away  Follower  Climbing My grandfather  Before You Were Mine The poem is about a son measuring up his first house, with the help of his mother. He acknowledges that he is beginning to physically and emotionally move further away from her, into adulthood. It is told in first person from the viewpoint of the poet. It has a gentle and positive tone. The poem is based on a sonnet form, traditionally used for love poetry. Mother, Any Distance has 15 lines, ends with a rhyming couplet. It roughly has an octave and sestet. The turn (volta) comes in line 9 when the son begins to experience less fear and more excitement and need for his independence. The poem moves between harmony and rhyme/half- rhyme into disjointed, irregular rhyme and irregular line length. The instability, irregularity of the rhyme and metre symbolises the evolving nature of the relationship, that they are changing and renegotiating their roles The poem uses a number of metaphors relating to flight to explore the changing relationship between the mother and the son. Space-walking and back to base convey the excitement and adventure of the son leaving. Kite also has associations with fun and play. Finally the son reaching for the hatch (also a pun on birds hatching) preparing to fly suggests a bird leaving the nest (home) to become truly independent. The poet though attached to his mother, wants and needs to let go. The use of the words associated with adventure and exploration suggest both excitement and trepidation. The poet knows he is moving into unchartered territory. Hyperbole symbolises his childlike response to his freedom (acres, prairie, space-walk) but this changes to something more dynamic and decisive (climb, reach). The poem shows the relationship is evolving and being renegotiated by son and mother. Despite the seemingly reserved nature of the poem, the poet clearly has deep feelings of love for his Mother. Choosing the sonnet form, used typically for love poetry, makes a clear statement. Although he doesn’t use the word love, or any terms of affection for his mother, the poem shows his literal & emotional attachment through the imagery and metaphors – You come to help me, You at the zero end, still pinch.. Sonnet Renegotiating Trepidation Rhyming Couplet Pun Restricting Metaphor Ambiguously Half-rhyme Disjointed Tethered Hindering Umbilical Cord Hyperbole Independence Direct Address Evolving Unchartered Territory Organised Notes Additional Notes CLEAN COPY ANNOTATION: Annotate the poem from memory QUESTIONS: 1. How does the poet present their feelings towards a parent in this and one other poem of your choice? 2. How does the poem convey complicated relationships between children and their parents in this and one other poem of your choice? 3. Compare the way growing up is portrayed in this and one other poem of your choice. Mother, any distance greater than a single span requires a second pair of hands. You come to help me measure windows, pelmets, doors, the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors. You at the zero-end, me with the spool of tape, recording length, reporting metres, centimetres back to base, then leaving up the stairs, the line still feeding out, unreeling years between us. Anchor. Kite. I space-walk through the empty bedrooms, climb the ladder to the loft, to breaking point, where something has to give; two floors below your fingertips still pinch the last one-hundredth of an inch...I reach towards a hatch that opens on an endless sky to fall or fly. MOTHER, ANY DISTANCE By Simon Armitage K McCabe 2016 42 HAVE YOU NOTICED: Enjambment Hyperbole Irregular Rhyme Caesura Extended Metaphor Imagery CLEAN COPY ANNOTATION: Annotate the poem from memory QUESTIONS: 1. How does the poem reveal strong family bonds in this and one other poem of your choice? 2. Compare the portrayal of adults and children in family relationships in this and one other poem of your choice. 3. How does the poet use imagery to portray a relationship in this and one other poem of your choice? HAVE YOU NOTICED: Enjambment Semantic field Oxymoron Caesura Extended metaphor Simile CLIMBING MY GRANDFATHER by Andrew Waterhouse I decide to do it free, without a rope or net. First, the old brogues, dusty and cracked; an easy scramble onto his trousers, pushing into the weave, trying to get a grip. By the overhanging shirt I change direction, traverse along his belt to an earth stained hand. The nails are splintered and give good purchase, the skin of his finger is smooth and thick like warm ice. On his arm I discover the glassy ridge of a scar, place my feet gently in the old stitches and move on. At his still firm shoulder, I rest for a while in the shade, not looking down, for climbing has its dangers, then pull myself up the loose skin of his neck to a smiling mouth to drink among teeth. Refreshed, I cross the screed cheek, to stare into his brown eyes, watch a pupil slowly open and close. Then up over the forehead, the wrinkles well-spaced and easy, to his thick hair (soft and white at this altitude), reaching for the summit, where gasping for breath I can only lie watching clouds and birds circle, feeling his heat, knowing the slow pulse of his good heart. K McCabe 2016 45 Title ‘Eden Rock’ refers to an invented location, created by Causley. The word Eden could be suggestive of the Garden of Eden, an idyllic paradise. Stanza 1: Starts in the present tense with vague location ‘somewhere’. Contrasted with precise, detailed image of father. ‘Same’ suit suggests habit and a modest, unpretentious person, who values quality that lasts shown in the detail of the ‘Genuine Irish Tweed.’ Stanza 1: The present tense and use of ‘still’ describing the dog gives the impression of a moment from many years ago, which is now replaying and has a timeless quality. Stanza 2: Precise, detailed description of mother sprigged dress, ribbon, straw hat etc. suggests a photographic memory of the event, as if the poet has studied a family snapshot many times. Stanza 2: white, light, wheat symbolise a peaceful, positive, natural scene. Stanza 3: Details again point towards modest, resourceful and simple people, reusing what they have ‘old HP sauce bottle’, also reinforced by ‘Same’ repeated from Stanza 2. ’Painted blue’ tin cups adds to this sense of resourcefulness but also evokes images of the sky, echoed in stanza 4. Stanza 3: The action happening ‘slowly’ seems almost dreamlike. Stanza 4: Some critics have suggested that the three suns represent the Holy Trinity and that Causley is clearly referring to heaven at this point. The bright white light is symbolic of a shift & change in the mood as the mother ‘shades her eyes’ and looks at her son. It is the first interaction between them. Stanza 5: The poet is no longer part of the dream like image. He can now ‘hear’ his parents call, but is no longer able to see them. Stanza 5/6: The physical distancing of the final line from the stanza captures the distance between the poet and his parents, who are on the other side. Stanza 5/6: The euphemistic ‘crossing’ which is ‘not as hard as’ he ‘might think’ and that he ‘had not thought it would be like this’ could suggest that Causley is filled with joy and peace that his parents are waiting for him - death should not be feared. However, there is a sense of fear – accepting death means giving up on life. C o n te xt By Charles Causley (1917 – 2003) Causley was brought up in Cornwall. The poem can be considered partly autobiographical as his father died when he was around 7 years old, after returning from WWI and never recovered from injuries. Causley was private & believed everything people needed to know about him was in his poems. The poem was published after his mother had died, when he was well into old age.  Past  Memory  Loss/Longing  Family  Before You Were Mine  Walking Away  Mother Any Distance  Follower THEMES: COMPARE WITH: EDEN ROCK Eden Rock is a description of a picnic the poet has with parents. On a literal level, it could be simply nostalgic. But it has a more symbolic meaning - the poet imagining his parents in a timeless afterlife calling to him to join them. It is told from the viewpoint of the poet in first person and has a reflective and peaceful tone. Structured in 4 regular quatrains with a 5th split, final stanza. It has a regular metre and uses half - rhyme. This creates an underlying sense of discord, an eerie sense of disharmony, that the idyllic scene is not quite right. It should be melodic and harmonious, but the half-rhyme prevents this. The split 5th stanza creates a physical gap for the reader to cross in order to reach the final line. Poem uses a series of precise details to describe his parents and the scene. Irish Tweed, sprigged dress, stiff white cloth, thermos etc. These vivid descriptions create a distinct portrait or tableau of the family. This precision juxtaposes the ambiguity created elsewhere in the poem ‘somewhere beyond Eden Rock’ and the past that is set in the present. Poem uses a number of religious motifs or symbols to suggest the peace and tranquility of the afterlife: three suns, Eden, crossing the river. There is a sense of reconciliation with death and becoming at peace with the idea of it. Notice death isn’t mentioned at all in the poem, so the euphemism of ’crossing’ and the whole poem could be considered as an extended metaphor for death. Poem is flooded with light and bright colours: whitens, white cloth, wheat, light, milk, blue etc. These all create a beautiful scene. Tableau Nostalgia Fragments Disharmony Euphemism/ Euphemistic Idyllic Discord Poignant Modest Reflective Ambiguous/ Ambiguity Afterlife Half-rhyme Unpretentious Tranquil Religious Motifs Caesura & Enjambment Precise Organised Notes Additional Notes AO1: Read, understand and respond to texts. Students should be able to: maintain a critical style (Ambitious Vocabulary, Organisation) and develop an informed personal response (Point Opinion statements), refer to the text, including quotations, (embed them) to support and illustrate interpretations AO2: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects (Zoom in, Analysis), using relevant subject terminology (Techniques) where appropriate. AO3: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written. The poem is about the poet’s idealised memories of her mother. It is told from the viewpoint of the poet, who is omniscient. She is directly addressing her mother. It has a poignant tone. Structured in blank verse which creates an underlying sense of disharmony – mother’s life wasn’t as she had hoped. Fragments of memories and imagined memories pieced together like tableaus or vignettes, so contains mixture of enjambment and caesura. Has regularity in the stanzas to represent the regularity of the circle of life – daughter, mother, grandmother. It also often uses the present tense to talk about the past – again suggesting that things repeat themselves. Circular structure also shown in the first pavement and the poem ending with a pavement, but the ‘wrong’ one. Poem uses a semantic field of glamorous icons: throughout Marilyn, ballroom, movie, cha cha cha, sparkle, waltz etc. Evocative and sensory images. These images idealise her mother and suggest an almost fairy- tale youth. There is a deep love and admiration shown for her mother. Poem juxtaposes the experiences of youth with growing old and having responsibilities throughout loud, possessive yell, with a hiding for the late one, my hands in the shoes etc. Although she recognises that this is life, there is still a sense of sadness and lack of fulfillment, as though life didn’t meet the expectations of youth. The poem, moving in between time frames, also shows how life merges from one part to another. Poem uses a direct and conversational tone throughout to create a sense of intimacy and equality that leaves Duffy seeming quite angry. The direct tone (use of I, me, my) suggests that Duffy, as an omniscient narrator, is fully controlling her mother’s images, by inventing them and over glamourizing them. The conversational tone suggests a confident and more knowing tone – it is full of dramatic irony. Tableau Idealised Memory Fragments Synaesthesia Disenchantment Non-linear Vignette Poignant Possession Inversion Relics or Icons Omniscient Exuberance Blank verse Direct address Pathos Caesura & Enjambment Disharmony Organised Notes Additional Notes AO1: Read, understand and respond to texts. Students should be able to: maintain a critical style (Ambitious Vocabulary, Organisation) and develop an informed personal response (Point Opinion statements), refer to the text, including quotations, (embed them) to support and illustrate interpretations AO2: Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects (Zoom in, Analysis), using relevant subject terminology (Techniques) where appropriate. AO3: Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were written. Before You Were Mine I’m ten years away from the corner you laugh on with your pals, Maggie McGeeney and Jean Duff. The three of you bend from the waist, holding each other, or your knees, and shriek at the pavement. Your polka-dot dress blows round your legs. Marilyn. I’m not here yet. The thought of me doesn’t occur in the ballroom with the thousand eyes, the fizzy, movie tomorrows the right walk home could bring. I knew you would dance like that. Before you were mine, your Ma stands at the close with a hiding for the late one. You reckon it’s worth it. The decade ahead of my loud, possessive yell was the best one, eh? I remember my hands in those high-heeled red shoes, relics, and now your ghost clatters toward me over George Square till I see you, clear as scent, under the tree, with its lights, and whose small bites on your neck, sweetheart? Cha cha cha! You’d teach me the steps on the way home from Mass, stamping stars from the wrong pavement. Even then I wanted the bold girl winking in Portobello, somewhere in Scotland, before I was born. That glamorous love lasts where you sparkle and waltz and laugh before you were mine. CLEAN COPY ANNOTATION: Annotate the poem from memory QUESTIONS: 1. How does the poet present family memories in this and one other poem of your choice? 2. Compare how poets present relationships with their mothers in this and one other poem of your choice. 3. To what extent does the poet present loss of a loved one as something mournful and sad? Compare this poem with one other poem of your choice. HAVE YOU NOTICED: Enjambment Semantic field Synaesthesia Caesura Rhetorical questions Personal pronouns BEFORE YOU WERE MINE By Carol Ann Duffy K McCabe 2016 51 The reference to ‘letters’ in the title, using the plural gives the impression that the poet receives letters fairly frequently and that these are much anticipated and welcomed. The poem is written in first person, but moves between addressing the man as ‘he’ to the direct form of address ‘you’. Stanza 1: Vividly portrays the man in his garden. Detailed description indicates he is deeply connected with nature. Active verbs describe his work. He is also deeply connected with the poet as ’his knuckles singing’ communicates the joy he feels in sharing the return of the ‘lapwings’ with his friend. Stanza 2: The caesura and enjambment suggest the poet is recalling moments as she imagines them. This is also indicated by the use of the continuous tense in Stanza 1, that the two lives and worlds are occurring simultaneously. Stanza 2: The sudden change in tone ‘It’s not romance, simply how things are’ contains ambiguous reference to ‘It’. This could be interpreted as the poet refusing to see the beauty of nature in a romanticised way. She may want to portray the typically romanticised ideal of nature as normal and ‘real’ as this is what she wants for her own life – daily engagement with nature, in the way she has described the man in stanza 1. However, it could also be interpreted as a defensive refusal to acknowledge she is romantically linked to the man. There is a change from ‘He’ to a much more direct and intimate ‘You’ immediately after this point, which could suggest a change in her ability to measure and control her feelings. Stanza 2/3: The poem contains clever enjambment across these two stanzas with the ‘seasons turning’. Stanza 3: The poet’s description of her life seems mundane and unfulfilling. The imagery of her ‘feeding’ words into the screen indicates that this work is consuming her, the screen will never be satisfied and always demands more. Her futile work is juxtaposed with his purposeful work. Stanza 3: The reference to ‘headlines’ works well next to her challenge of the reality of her life compared to his, through the use of a rhetorical question. It deliberately makes the reader question what is real and important. Stanza 5: Although she yearns and longs for his world and the ‘air and light’ which floods his letters, they have a profound connection even with the distance as their ’souls’ tap out messages across miles. C o n te xt By Maura Dooley (1957 - ) Dooley was born in Cornwall and went to University in York. Now living in London, Dooley lived in Yorkshire for some years before moving to London. Letters from Yorkshire was published in 2002  Love  Longing  Distance  Nature  I Think of Thee  Winter Swans  Love’s Philosophy  Farmer’s Bride THEMES: COMPARE WITH: LETTERS FROM YORKSHIRE K McCabe 2016 55 1800 2016 1816 1820 1836 1845 1867 1916 1956 1963 1988 1993 2000 2006 2007 2013 2002 When We Two Parted by BYRON Love’s Philosophy by SHELLEY Porphyria’s Lover By BROWNING Sonnet 29: I Think of Thee By BARRETT BROWNING Neutral Tones By HARDY The Farmer's Bride By MEW Eden Rock By CAUSLEY Walking Away By DAY LEWIS Follower By HEANEY Mother, Any Distance By ARMITAGE Letters from Yorkshire By DOOLEY Climbing My Grandfather By WATERHOUSE Winter Swans by SHEERSSingh Song By NAGRA Before You Were Mine By DUFFY 1837-1901 VICTORIAN ERA 1790 - 1850 ROMANTIC ERA 1950 - present MODERN DAY POETS How to write a comparative essay: You are advised not to follow a formula for any of your literature essays. High grades will be awarded to those who can construct detailed analysis, zooming in on words and phrases, whilst being focused on the question. It is important that, whilst not following a formula, you work to a checklist in your head of what an excellent poetry essay includes: The introduction could include: T – What is the topic of the printed poem? Literally? Metaphorically? V – From whose viewpoint is the poem told? Who is it addressed to? T – What is the overall tone of the poem? C – What poem does the printed poem compare with in relation to the question? This also might be an opportunity to make relevant context points where appropriate. The remaining paragraphs, the main body, could start with a paragraph on structure as you look at the overall, ‘whole’ of each poem. Look at the type of poem, rhyme scheme and metre, patterns of caesura and enjambment etc. After this, paragraphs should pull out comparative points of language and imagery. It is easiest to start at the beginning of the printed poem and work through, or with the most obvious and noticeable points. Make sure each paragraph has a clear topic or point sentence (as shown in the coloured boxes in this guide). The rest of the paragraph should include a mixture of: T – Techniques using subject specific vocabulary. Sound like an expert analyst. E – Evidence, carefully chosen words and phrases, embedded within sentences. A – Analysis zooming in on the connotation, symbolic meaning, suggestion and emphasis of the words and phrases. K McCabe 2016 56 Resources to help: Mr Bruff’s guides online and in print – video analysis of each poem on www.youtube.com/mrbruff www.getrevising.co.uk for cards on each poem www.madameanglaise.wordpress.com for very detailed analysis of each of the poems in the Love & Relationships cluster www.stgregseng.com for a language and poetry techniques glossary www.aqa.org.uk for specimen Literature Paper 2 exam paper to look at questions and exam mark scheme An analysis of poems by the poets themselves: Singh Song: http://www.sheerpoetry.co.uk/gcse/daljit-nagra/singh-song Before You Were Mine: http://www.sheerpoetry.co.uk/gcse/carol-ann-duffy/gcse-anthology- poems/before-you-were-mine K McCabe 2016 57