I saw this story on the BBC News and thought you should see it:
Lee to publish Mockingbird 'sequel'
An unpublished novel by Harper Lee is to finally see the light of day, 60 years after the US author put it aside to write To Kill a Mockingbird.
Read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31118355
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Monday, January 26, 2015
Themes : Comparative Poetry
Poetry Themes
Childhood
Piano
Half past two
Hide and Seek
Parent - Child Relationships
Poem at 39
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
A Mother in a Refugee Camp
If -
Once Upon a Time
Love and Death
Sonnet 116
Remember
My Last Duchess
La Belle Dame Sans Merci
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Death and War
War Photographer
A Mother In A Refugee Camp
Prayer Before Birth
Memory/ Remembrance
Piano
War Photographer
Remember
Half-Past Two
Hide and Seek
Attitudes to Life
If-
Prayer Before Birth
The Tyger
Telephone Conversation
Once Upon a Time
Time
Half past Two
Sonnet 116
Remember
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Piano
Nb: In Italian, 'piano' means 'lentement/doucement' / softly, quietly - echoes first word of teh poem, 'Softly' (the internal music of the poem)
Piano
D.H.
Lawrence
(1885-1930).
Know for his 'erotic' (for the time) literary novels: sons and
lovers, and Lady Chatterly's lover.
Piano
is
a lyric poem,
12
lines, aabbc
poem
The
persona remembers his childhood while listening to a woman singing to
him.
The
poem is divided into 3 stanzas/quatrains (present, past, present),
between stanza 2 and 3, the juxtaposition between the 'old Sunday
evening' and the present moment creates enough pain that the persona
begins to 'weep.'
Lyric
poetry
A
short poem with a song-like quality
The
persona addresses the listener to explain/explore certain emotions.
They are not narrating a story, but presenting his or her own
feelings, state of mind, or perceptions.
Key
Theme:
Remembrance
Nostalgia
- and that power of memories to reduce a grown man to tears.
Language
choices/Diction
the
vista of years (vista: a view; an awarenes of a passage of time)
the
boom of the tingling strings
the
insiduous mastery of song - hint of betrayal
Semantic
field of music:
piano,
singing, sings, song, hymns, tinkling piano, appassionato
Sibilance
compare:
softly,
in the dusk (the 's' sounds like a whisper, enticing)
to!
in
spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song (the 's' sounds
sinister, mocking)
they're
being heard down the 'vista of years'
Enjambment
My
manhood is cast
down
in the flood of remembrance
(the
reader has to move down the page to reach 'down' and so the movement
downwards is stressed)
Enjambment
My
manhood is cast
down
in the flood of remembrance
(the
reader has to move down the page to reach 'down' and so the movement
downwards is stressed)
Imagery
'the
flood of remembrance' - overwhelming rush of waters, like tears which
will cause him to weep.
The
mother - a woman with 'small, poised feet' and who 'smiles as she
sings'
note:
hymns are upholding 'God' but here it is the piano who is 'our guide'
when the snow is falling outside - subtley raises the importance of
the piano.
Repetition
weeps
(line 8) - the 'heart' of the persona weeps (silently but profoundly
weep
(line 14) - 'down in the flood of remembrance' he weeps (for real)
for the past
Contrast
(contasts
weave through this poem, binding images and moments together)
'softly'
the woman sings in the dusk (line 1) and 'the singer to burst into
clamor with the great black piano appassionato (lines 11-12)
(appassionato - with be played with great passion)
'dusk'
between the opening of the poem and the 'old Sunday evenings at home'
the
realisation that there is no difference between the persona as a man
and as a child. At the end he weeps 'like a child for the past'.
Early
and revised version of poem:
D.H.
Lawrence webpage by University of Nottingham
Good
(quick/efficient) Biographies
If
you have time, do 'google', Lawrence quotes - there are some good
ones!
Prayer Before Birth
Prayer
Before Birth
"The
writer today should be not so much the mouthpiece of a community as
its conscience, its critical faculty, its generous instinct"
Louis MacNiece.
Louis
MacNiece (1907-1963)
Male
Irish poet
Friend
of W.H. Auden
Worked
for BBC for 20 years, published Dark
Tower,
The
speaker/persona is an unborn baby, calling out from its mother's
womb. Don't forget, this monologue
is a prayer,
a plea (let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me,
otherwise kill me) and so addressed to God (or, to the mother). As
with "Tyger" we have to question what kind of divine figure
would create such a world!
8
stanzas of unequal length (echoes chaotic state of the world?)
Anapaest
metre (two short syllables and then one long one) creates a rolling
effect, useful in poems with long line.
Starting
with reference to child-like fears (bloodsucking bats, club-footed
ghouls) then poem moves through scenes of torture, enticing scenes of
pastoral beauty, the way his soul will be manipulated and betrayed by
his own words and thoughts and so the world itself, the way he will
be an actor on a stage with both real humans and personified nature,
and ultimately his fear of industrialisation (cog in a machine) and
becoming cannon fodder in another war (dragoon me into a lethal
automaton).
The
poem then builds to a crescendo, as the last two lines are offset -
and terrible in their message: (let them not make me a stone and let
them not spill me, otherwise kill me)
religion
fear
of industrialisation (cog in a machine) and becoming cannon fodder in
another war (dragoon me into a lethal automaton). This poem was
written during WW2, however, the message transcends the war to become
timeless, universal.
"I
am not born yet" is repeated at the start of every stanza -
giving a hopeless, tortured feel to the voice. As with the meter, it
creates a rolling, wave-like effect. Incessant.
Pronouns.
Just count all the "me," "my" and "I's"!
Also, "Oh hear me / O fill me" as well as "console
me/provide me / forgive me/ rehearse me".
bloodsucking
bat, sky to sing, murder by means... all keys to a strong internal
logic.
Assonance
tall
walls, bat or the rat, wise lies - not only gives force to words and
to word groupings, but also creates internal rhyme. This speaker,
though an unborn child, can tightly control his voice and his ideas.
The compact logic of the word choice chillingly suggests that the
speaker's logical approach to the outside world is equally well
measured.
walls
wall / racks rack/ words will speak the child / thoughts will think
him
Verbs
that echo their nouns suggest that things will do what they are
programmed to be... following this logic, the child will have to
become what the world programmes him to be (a stone, a cog, a
dragoon). Note the use of imperative: in the parts I must play, the
cues I must take. Equally, then, once born he will have no choice but
to become what was fore planned.
Trees
talk to me / Skies sing to me / Birds and a white light... to guide
me.
The
natural world entices him but, be aware, the "white waves call
me to folly and the desert calls me to doom" and "mountains
frown at me" and so, even the natural world, has become corrupt
and deadly.
Metaphors.
These
emphasize the lack of control the persona will have in his future
life: cog in a machine / to "blow me like thistledown hither and
thither"/ like "water held in hands" that "would
spill me". He so fears being a "stone," a "lethal
automat" that he would rather be killed before birth.
Websites
http://litxpert.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/analysis-prayer-before-birth-louis-mcneice-2/
a great essay
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/louis-macneice
great biography
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Planner
|
Wednesday
21 January
|
Introduce
To Kill a Mockingbird + Presentation Themes
“Piano”
by D.H. Lawrence, poetry anthology
Finish
“Hide and Seek”by Vernon Scannell, poetry anthology
|
|
Thursday 22 January
|
« Prayer
Before Birth » by Louis MacNeice
To Kill a Mockingbird
|
|
Wednesday
28 January
|
“The Last Night”
by Sebastian
Faulks
If
by Rudyard Kipling
To Kill a Mockingbird
|
|
Thursday
29 January
|
Themes
in TKAM
|
|
Wednesday 6 February
(Mrs Woods)
|
“Telephone
Call” by Wole Soyinka
Writing
an Argumentative Paper
|
|
Thursday 7 February
(Mrs Woods)
|
Comparative
Poetry
Revising
For IGCSE
|
|
Lundi 09/02 - room 210
10-12:15 English Language A Paper 1: Written
paper 2h 15m
2-3:30 English Language A Paper 2: Written paper
1h 30m
|
Mardi 10/02 - room 210
8 - 9:45 English Literature Paper 1:
Drama and Prose 1h 45m
10h-12h Maths sans Frontières
2-3:30 English Literature
Paper 2: Unseen Texts and Poetry Anthology 1h
30m
|
Monday, January 19, 2015
Hide and Seek
Hide and Seek
by Vernon Scannell
This poem is, on the surface, about a man remembering how he played hide and seek as a boy. Underneath that initial memory, though, the speaker is exploring his ideas about loneliness and how it feels to be abandoned, and even to die.
Literary Techniques
Single stanza poem
First and second person narrative
Some rhyming couplets: out/shout (lines 4/5) and coat/throat (lines 19/20)
Alliteration helps the tone of the reader's voice to fluctuate between excitement ('c'), oppressive ('d'), and to capture the sounds of the sea.
The single (unbroken stanza) and the sound of the sea could lead one to talk about the relentless flow of the sea.. and the relentless movement of childhood experience towards adult understanding)
Alliteration of 'd' : 'dark dank' creates a heavy, oppressive tones
Alliteration of 'c' : 'call out, call out' creates a sense urgency, almost like a bird cry.
Alliteration of the 's': 'smells like seaside' and 'smells of sand'(the sound of the waves and wind?)
Sibilance (repeated 's' sound) of 's' throughout poem (sound of the sea..)
Personification; "The darkening garden watches...." and "the bushes hold their breathe" - creates the ominous feeling that the nature world is waiting quietly and so participating in the experience. There is no joy in this wait... for the garden is 'darkening.'
Concept and Themes
Who didn't/doesn’t enjoy playing hide and seek? Do you remember the feeling of hiding in the cupboard, holding your breath, stopping the giggles, in a darkness that seemed at once soft and a bit scary?
Scannell encourages us to remember such memories and to layer them into his poem.
Be careful, though, the poem is asking you to do more than just experience the game with the boy. Scannell requires of us that we seek the message hidden within the three stages of the boy's experience: 1) the tension of hiding from children who 'prowl' 2) the joy of declaring oneself a winner 3) the hollow emptiness of realising one has been abandoned.
Themes: childhood, excitement, loneliness, nostalgia for childhood friends, death (?).
Voice:
First person narrator: The first person narrator is writing from the perspective of 'I'
Second person narrator: the second person narrator speaks to the main character as 'you.' This allows the reader to 'become/imagine they are' the main character.
In this poem we have to find out who is hiding in the poem. Is it an older person speaking to a younger version of himself? Is it an invisible, even internal, presence advising the child? Either way, we have to question why this second person narrator is interested in telling the experience and talking to the boy.
First Person (I)
Call out, call out loud -
"I"m ready. Come and find me"
The juxtaposition of the desire to call out loud when you're meant to be quiet captures the double-bind of the game: the need to hide and the desire to be found, to be noticed, to exist.
There is the possibility that he shouts these words, as later on the speaker advises "better not risk another shouting." If the boy did shout these words ('"I'm ready. Come and find me.") then he was taking "a risk." This possibility increases the sense of fear and anticipation.
Second Person
Now look again at 'call out'.' This is written by someone speaking to the boy.... but then, no, also to us:
You mustn't sneeze...
Be careful that you're feet aren't sticking out...
Don't breathe, don't move, stay dumb
This advice is both logical and yet also a little creepy: stay dumb.
A person who is dumb is someone who is unable to speak, who is mute. In this way, the speaker no longer has control over his own voice.
At the same time, 'don't breathe...dumb' is an example of parataxis - when clauses, sentences are aligned without conjunctions like and or but. Here it creates an impression of urgency and the idea that the speaker is controlling the boy.
At the same time, the voice tells 'us':
And here they are, whispering at the door,
You've never heard them so hushed before.
Think: why would the children hunting have to be so quiet? What are they afraid of? If someone is 'hushed' it implies they have been told to be quiet or that something is making them be quiet. Are they frightened to enter the shed?
Is the boy hiding in a place which frightens children?
Physical discomfort
Your legs are stiff, cold bites through your coat,
dank dark smell of sand moves in your throat.
Look at the writer's choice of words. The cold is personified and is biting through 'your' coat... and the image of the stiff legs and sand in 'your' throat is deadly in its implications. Is the speaker suggesting that the boy (you) is metaphorically buried in the dark silence of his wooden box/shed/coffin? Remember, he is told to "Hide in (his) blindness." Coupled with the idea he is "mute"... and we have a very dark image of the boy.
Uncurling
The ending is anticlimactic.... because he has been abandoned.
Yet, the realisation is dark and the second person speaker steps back with the full force of adult maturity. Read the last 7 lines:
"It's time to let them know you are 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"
Note the excitement of the inversion. He is the 'winner' and he has caught those who were 'prowling' after him.
Very paternal feeling from the second person narrator. He feels the same relief as the boy: that's better. The line between memory and external description is very thin here... but this moment is made to be broken with the last lines:
The darkening garden watches, nothing stirs,
The bushes hold their breathe, the sun is gone
Yes, here you are - But where are those who sought you?
Note, the last question might be to the boy, but equally (in a moment of internal monologue) it might also be the speaker asking himself
The answer lies in your interpretation of who is hiding in the poem.
A boy simply playing hide and seek... 'they' have gone back home
A memory of the second person narrator as a boy ... they are his lost childhood friends, ones who abandoned him too soon (and so left him a very lonely little boy)
Either way, the emptiness at the end of the poem echoes. The boy experiences a moment of profound loneliness ... and one that could be considered a fundamental element of any one person's life.
Imagery.
Can you find words/description in the text which capture these contrasting images?
Dark and light
Noise and silence
Childhood pleasures and fears
Isolation as something that is both positive and negative
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Half Past Two
U.A.Fanthorpe
“Half Past Two” Overview
In this poem, a young boy is held in detention by his teacher – who then forgets about him. As he waits for her to return, he effectively day-dreams. His thoughts are out-of-time, both the time of his teacher and the compound, non-numerical time of other adults in his world. He goes into ‘clockless land of ever’ through the silent act of playing with his hang-nail and the smell of the flowers on his teachers desk.
U.A. Fanthorpe (1929 - 2009)
English teacher and later administrative clerk in a mental health centre. In 2001 she was made CBE for services to poetry. She was also awarded the 2003 Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.
Comparisons
Other poems in the anthology on the themes of childhood:
If
Prayer Before Birth
Piano
Hide and Seek
Key Points
Narrative poem
Free verse
11 stanzas of three lines
Progressive sense of understanding for reader (though you do have to move backwards and forwards through time of poem).
First person narrator: “I”
Personal thoughts presented in (parenthesis) as asides: (I forget what it was). This creates impression speaker is addressing us and emphasises that time has passed since situation took place.
Capital letters
Teacher is presented with capital S, while boy has lower case ‘h’... until line 25, when the speaker (and so the boy) reduce her to a ‘scuttling creature’ that apologises for making the boy late.
Something Very Wrong – note how the capitals suggest we can hear the teacher’s voice, strong and stern – and so the speaker is caught up in playing the parts both of the boy and his teacher. The juxtaposition of ‘Something Very Wrong’ with the speaker’s aside ((I forget what was) reduces the importance of these words, and thus the strength of the teacher.
Non-Numerical Time
The boy knows a lot of times, and they are presented in ‘compound form’ and ‘non numerical time’ to emphasize the way he has learned them: gettinguptime, timeforbed. These times contrast with ‘half-past two’ and emphasize the difference between child and adult experiences of life. The narrator understands the boy’s perspective of the world, and expects that we will too.
Personification (also very poetic language)
Clock face, two little eyes, long legs for walking (what a horrible, mean image!)
Onomatopoeia
To click a language – logically illogical the boy’s world does make sense, just not in ‘adult terms’
Oxymoron
Silent Noise – he goes into ‘silent noise’ and into the ‘smell of chrysanthemums’. Following adult reason, such things are impossible but, are they really?
Enjambment (run-on lines)
Often used to create a sense of breathless-ness, he has escaped!
Clockless Land of Ever
How many of us would like to live in a clockless land, where ‘time hides tick-less waiting to be born’?
Fairytale language
Once upon a time, wicked, for ever (repeated), the idea that the teacher is reduced to ‘scuttling,’ the idea of escaping to a magical, safe land.
Tone
Nostalgic – can you feel the nostalgia for the childish, timeless world
Dreamy
Mocking of the teacher
Resources
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoet.do?poetId=157
HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U._A._Fanthorpe?oldid=0" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U._A._Fanthorpe?oldid=0
http://www.poetrycan.co.uk/
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