What do you think is being described by the following sets of words?

wild  strange  magic  

 ecstatic  monsters 

rapture  mysterious fire  apocalyptic

lumbering  steady  great hulks    broad-breasted  gigantic  warm

smouldering  manes    

Horses - Edwin Muir (no. 113)

1 Use the class dictionaries to look up any words that you are not sure about and to annotate the poems carefully.

Also remember that the poems have a glossary underneath.

2 Do you think the word "lumbering" fit with "terrible", "wild" and "strange"? Explain why?

3 Are there any time shifts in the poem?

4 Identify where the poet seems to refer to a pre industrial age.

5 What is the tone of stanzas 4 and 5?

6 Find an example of personification in the poem

7 How effective is the final verse of the poem.

8 Fill in extra observations on the sheet that you have been given.

One person in each pair swap and share ideas with your new partner making sure that you both have a complete set of notes.

Homework

Research the term Romantic poetry. Make sure that you use more than one source (book or website) and make notes. *Deadline next Monday.

Select a book (of suitable challenge) that you would like to present to the group as part of extended reading programme. You need to start reading this in your own time. *Bring it in on Friday

Romantic poetry

Pike - Ted Hughes

http://poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=7079

Listen to the poet talking about the poem and then his reading of the poem itself.

When it is finished write down your first impressions of the reading. What moods does it bring to mind?

Do these images match the picture that you had in your mind?

Pike - Ted Hughes

Focus on the descriptive language at the start of the poem.

In what ways does the poem discard Romantic notions about the natural world?

What is its 'instrument' thatisi referred to in stanza 4?

In what ways are stanzas 5-7 different from the rest of the poem?

Is the economy of the last two words of stanza 5 effective?

What is the atmosphere of the last verse? In the final line who is watching whom?

Hunting snake

There are 3 areas of content to focus on with the poem. They are ...1 The description of ...2 The effect the snake has on the ...3 The brief mention of the creature being ...

2 Do you note anything about the number of syllables being used per line?

3 The effect of alliteration in the poem (verse 3)

4 How might the word 'reeling' have a double meaning in this context?

5 What are the snakes majestic qualities?

6 Does the use of monosyllabic words work with the meaning of the poem?

Choose 2 poems from Horses, Pike and Hunting Snake to answer the following exam style question.

Explore the ways in which these two poets use an animal to show the power of nature.

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Suburban War - song with lyrics - better visual neededhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjeVHbM3QOw

Wasted hours http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE0GSMvwBwA

The Suburbs

What impression of the suburbs do the two different songs give?

Are there any images which especially stick in the mind? Why?

Poems: 'The City Planners' and 'The Planners'

On first read do you notice any connections with the songs that we have been listening to?

Working with your partner fill in the table that you have. Try and identify the themes and work them into the comments that you make in other sections.

The City Planners

Cruising these residential Sundaystreets in dry August sunlight:what offends us isthe sanities:the houses in pedantic rows, the plantedsanitary trees, assertlevelness of surface like a rebuketo the dent in our car door.No shouting here, orshatter of glass; nothing more abruptthan the rational whine of a power mowercutting a straight swath in the discouraged grass.

But though the driveways neatlysidestep hysteriaby being even, the roofs all displaythe same slant of avoidance to the hot sky,certain things:the smell of spilled oil a faintsickness lingering in the garages,a splash of paint on brick surprising as a bruise,a plastic hose poised in a viciouscoil; even the too-fixed stare of the wide windows

give momentary access tothe landscape behind or underthe future cracks in the plaster

when the houses, capsized, will slideobliquely into the clay seas, gradual as glaciersthat right now nobody notices.

That is where the City Plannerswith the insane faces of political conspiratorsare scattered over unsurveyedterritories, concealed from each other,each in his own private blizzard;

guessing directions, they sketchtransitory lines rigid as wooden borderson a wall in the white vanishing air

tracing the panic of suburborder in a bland madness of snows

Now look at The Planners and highlight words / images that link it to Atwood's poem.

If there are words that are in contrast, use a different colour to highlight them.

The Planners - Boey Kim Cheng

They plan. They build. All spaces are gridded,filled with permutations of possbilities.The buildings are in alignment with the roadswhich meet at desired pointslinked by bridges all hangin the grace of mathematics.They build and will not stop.Even the sea draws backand the skies surrender.

They erase the flaws,the blemishes of the past,knock off useless blocks with dental dexterity.All gaps are plugged with gleaming gold.The country wears perfect rows of shining teeth.Anaesthesia,amnesia, hypnosis.They have the means.They have it all so it will not hurt,so history is new again. The piling will not stop.The drilling goes right through the fossils of last century.

But my heart would not bleedpoetry. Not a single dropto stain the blueprintof our past’s tomorrow.

Essay - detailed planHow do the poets convey their feelings about the environment in the poems The City Planners by Margaret Atwood and The Planners by Boey Kim Cheng? Support your views with close reference to the poems.

You will recieve a mark for the detailed plan that you hand in You will need to give an idea of the points you will make and examples you will use to back it up How you structure the piece is your decision, but remember to cover similarities and differences in approachAim for 1 page of neat notes