The Sea



Poetry H omework Tasks2618740198120-5429252266954333875168275-800100110490Read the following poems and try the activities attached to each. They are divided (roughly) into 3 sections:NaturePoliticalLovePoets write about all aspects of life so these categories are not definitive. As readers and audience your response to the poem is entirely personal and may depend on many things, most importantly your own experiences in life. Some poems do have specific meanings where the poet is writing about a particular situation (political/social/historical). But all poems can be read with an open mind and as long as you use the words on the page your opinions are as valid as anybody else’s and exactly what your teachers and the examiners want to hear. Just have fun with them. Enjoy!4524375438154610015-457201Tips for analysing poetryRead through the poem (aloud if possible) at least 2 times.What are your initial impressions? Do you like/dislike it? Why?What are the difficulties with the poem?Is there anything obvious that you can see about the poem?What poetic devices are being used?What are the effects of the poetic devices?Are there any images that you can visualise through the words?What is the tone/emotion of the poem?Can you put a meaning to the poem?Use and learn the following acronym to help write poetry essays.StructureMeaningImageryLanguageEmotion2400300349253695700-647700The SeaThe sea is a hungry dog, Giant and grey.He rolls on the beach all day.With his clashing teeth and shaggy jawsHour upon hour he gnawsThe rumbling, tumbling stones, And 'Bones, bones, bones, bones! 'The giant sea-dog moans, Licking his greasy paws.And when the night wind roarsAnd the moon rocks in the stormy cloud, He bounds to his feet and snuffs and sniffs, Shaking his wet sides over the cliffs, And howls and hollos long and loud.But on quiet days in May or June, When even the grasses on the dunePlay no more their reedy tune, With his head between his pawsHe lies on the sandy shores, So quiet, so quiet, he scarcely snores. 150495076200James ReevesThe SeaThe first line is a metaphor, comparing the sea to a hungry dog. What qualities does a hungry dog have that are like the sea?Personification is the technique of giving objects human qualities. Find out the word that means giving objects animal qualities.Find 2 other poetic techniques James Reeves has used and explain the effect of each.Which seasons do you think the poet is writing about?Write the poem out exactly as it is, punctuation included, as a paragraph. What do you notice? Is there any difference in meaning? Which is better and why? 4648200-742950The Stag While the rain fell on the November woodland shoulder of ExmoorWhile the traffic-jam along the road honked and shoutedBecause the farmers were parking wherever they couldAnd scrambling to the bank-top to stare through the tree-fringeWhich was leafless,The stag ran through the private forest.While the rain drummed on the roofs of the parked carsAnd the kids inside cried and daubed their chocolate and foughtAnd mothers and aunts and grandmothersWere a tangle of undoing sandwiches and screwed-round gossiping headsSteaming up the windows,The stag loped through his favourite valley.While the blue horseman down in the boggy meadowSodden nearly black, on sodden horses,Spaced as at a military parade,Moved a few paces to the right and a few to the left and felt rather foolishLooking at the brown impassable river,The stag came over the last hill of Exmoor.While everybody high-kneed it to the bank top all along the roadWhere steady men in oilskins were stationed with binocular,And the horsemen by the river galloping anxiously this way and thatAnd the cry of hounds came tumbling invisibly with their echoes down through the draggle of trees,Swinging across the wall of dark woodland,The stag dropped in to strange country.And turned at the riverHearing the hound-pack smash the undergrowth, hearing the bell-noteOf the voice carried all others,Then while the limbs all cried different directions to his lungs, which only wanted to rest,The blue horsemen on the bank oppositePulled aside the camouflage of their terrible planet.And the stag doubled back weeping and looking for home up a valley and down a valleyWhile the strange trees struck him and the brambles lashed him,And the strange earth came galloping after him carrying the loll-tongued hounds to fling all over himAnd his heart became just a club beating his ribs and his own hooves shouted with hounds’ voices,And the crowd on the road got back into their carsWet-through and disappeared.Ted Hughes 4533900-800100The StagLooking at the opening word of each stanza what do you notice about the structure of the poem? What does this signify?Write down 3 quotes which hint that the hunt is more like a war.What emotions are expressed is stanza 2, a) from the children and b) from the women?Find an image from the internet to illustrate each stanza and make a document where you can see them in order.What, do you think, is the meaning of this poem?4257675-762000I Know Why the Caged Bird SingsThe free bird leapson the back of the windand floats downstreamtill the current endsand dips his wingsin the orange sun raysand dares to claim the sky.But a bird that stalksdown his narrow cagecan seldom see throughhis bars of ragehis wings are clipped andhis feet are tiedso he opens his throat to sing.The caged bird singswith fearful trillof the things unknownbut longed for stilland his tune is heardon the distant hill for the caged birdsings of freedomThe free bird thinks of another breezeand the trade winds soft through the sighing treesand the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawnand he names the sky his own.But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreamshis shadow shouts on a nightmare screamhis wings are clipped and his feet are tiedso he opens his throat to singThe caged bird singswith a fearful trillof things unknownbut longed for stilland his tune is heardon the distant hillfor the caged birdsings of freedom. Maya Angelou4257675-847725I Know Why the Caged Bird SingsIn your own words describe, a) the ‘free bird’ and b) the ‘caged bird’.For each one-the ‘free bird’ and the ‘caged bird’, choose 3 powerful words, from the poem that describes them.Research Maya Angelou and make a fact file.What period in history could Maya Angelou be writing about in this poem? Choose 3 or 4 quotes from the poem to support your ideas.5. Try to find another poem by a different poet on the same subject.3562350-476250Not my BusinessThey picked Akanni up one morningBeat him soft like clayAnd stuffed him down the bellyOf a waiting jeep.What business of mine is itSo long they don’t take the yamFrom my savouring mouth?They came one nightBooted the whole house awakeAnd dragged Danladi out,Then off to a lengthy absence.What business of mine is itSo long they don’t take the yamFrom my savouring mouth?369569941275Chinwe went to work one dayOnly to find her job was gone:No query, no warning, no probe -Just one neat sack for a stainless record.What business of mine is itSo long they don’t take the yamFrom my savouring mouth?And then one eveningAs I sat down to eat my yamA knock on the door froze my hungry hand.The jeep was waiting on my bewildered lawnWaiting, waiting in its usual silence.3209925-1904Niyi Osundare-20002410161Not My BusinessWhat do you immediately notice about the structure of this poem? What has changed in the final stanza?What poetic technique is being used in lines 3 and 4 of the opening stanza? What effect does this create?Find one simile used in the poem. Write a short paragraph about why you think the poet uses this comparison.Research Niyi Osundare and the political situation in his country at the time of writing this poem.How effective is political poetry? Give your views, and reasons for your views, in answer to the above question. 4095750-542925Funeral BluesStop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone.Silence the pianos and with muffled drumBring out the coffin, let the mourners come.Let aeroplanes circle moaning overheadScribbling on the sky the message He is Dead,Put crépe bows round the white necks of the public doves,Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.3609975631190He was my North, my South, my East and West,My working week and my Sunday rest,My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song,I thought that love would last forever: I was wrongThe stars are not wanted now, put out every one;Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood. For nothing now can ever come to any good.W H AudenFuneral BluesFind a dictionary definition of the word ‘imperative’. How does it relate to this poem?Annotate the poem’s rhyme scheme using a, b, c, d, e, etc. If you don’t know how to do this try and find out and have a go.Rewrite stanza 3 in your own words. You don’t need to make it rhyme.Research which film famously features a reading of this poem.5. This poem has been set to music. How does the meaning of the poem change if you interpret the title as ‘the blues’ i.e. the musical genre?4705350-647700Sonnet 116Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,Or bends with the remover to remove:O no! it is an ever-fixed mark That looks on tempests and is never shaken;It is the star to every wandering bark,Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.If this be error and upon me proved,I never writ, nor no man ever loved. William ShakespeareSonnet 116Research ‘Shakespearean Sonnets’ and find out about their structure and rhyme scheme.What is the effect of a rhyming couplet?Choose your favourite line and explain why you like it.What, do you think, is the real meaning of the poem? It is often used in wedding ceremonies, do you think it is suitable. Why?4688840186690Find 5 famous quotes that are taken from other Shakespeare sonnets. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download