Sunday, 14 October 2012

Characters and Voices

















I feel the more I return to this cluster of poems, the more I feel at home with their ideas and enjoy their craft.  After engaging with poetry in such a vacuum for a breadth of time with my Year 11 class I appreciate all over again what magical poetry is, from one of my favourite poets, Simon Armitage and his 'Give', to a poem I've more recently been introduced to, the witty 'Singh Song'.  

 http://www.sheerpoetry.co.uk/gcse/daljit-nagra/singh-song comments on his poem

We have worked on shape and form of poems, starting here because this is an area some find challenging, considering the  five stanzas of  'Give', representing a hand being held out by the homeless person of the poem, begging for change, or the 'River God' with its irregular rhythm, symbolising the reeds in the bed of the river or more precisely, as one of my class stated: the smooth surface of the river being the justified edge of the poem and the line endings of a variety of lengths representing the unknown depth and power of the river (Wow!  What a comment and exploration!)

More importantly the exploration of shape and form is about your confidence to explore the patterns and consider the meanings you can associate with the ideas and themes in the poems.


I have also returned to BBC Bitesize which has in the English Literature section a whole section of notes about the whole cluster, (Scroll down to beyond the old stuff.)  No need to buy revision guides with this available.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/poetrycharactervoice/

Also see the flowing video in ‘The Ruined Maid’ by Thomas Hardy in the cluster.

Bring on the Unit 2 mock exam in October and January for the external exam!

Mrs Leary

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