in support of aqa anthology 2006 /...

AAAAAQQQQQA A A A A ANTHOLANTHOLANTHOLANTHOLANTHOLOGY 2006 / 2007OGY 2006 / 2007OGY 2006 / 2007OGY 2006 / 2007OGY 2006 / 2007GCSE ENGLISH & ENGLISH LITERATURE

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PHOTOCOPIABLE RESOURCESby B & D Publishing

in support of

Support material is available in five packs

ENGLISH 2006 / 2007 Poetry from Different Cultures[ISBN 978 1 900085 86 1] Cluster 1 and Cluster 2

ENGLISH LITERATURE ONE Seamus Heaney and Gillian Clarke[ISBN 978 1 900085 87 8]

ENGLISH LITERATURE TWO Carol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage[ISBN 978 1 900085 88 5]

ENGLISH LITERATURE THREE Pre-1914 Poetry Bank[ISBN 978 1 900085 89 2]

ENGLISH LITERATURE FOUR Prose - Short Stories[ISBN 978 1 900085 90 8]

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ENGLISH LITERATURE ONE £21

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ENGLISH 2006 / 2007Poetry from Different CulturesCluster 1 and Cluster 2

ContentsWorksheets in support of the following poems:

Edward Kamau Brathwaite Limbo 1-4

Tatamkhulu Afrika Nothing’s Changed 5-9

Grace Nichols Island Man 10-12

Imtiaz Dharker Blessing 13-17

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Two Scavengers in a Truck 18-20

Nissim Ezekiel Night of the Scorpion 21-23

Chinua Achebe Vultures 24-26

Denise Levertov What Were They Like? 27-29

Sujata Bhatt from Search For My Tongue 30-32

Tom Leonard from Unrelated Incidents 33-34

John Agard Half-Caste 35-37

Derek Walcott Love After Love 38-41

Imtiaz Dharker This Room 42-44

Niyi Osundare Not My Business 45-46

Moniza Alvi Presents from my Aunts in Pakistan 47-49

Grace Nichols Hurricane Hits England 50-52

Poetry From Other CulturesGeneral Questions 53

Written Assignments 54

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EDWARD KAMAU BRATHWAITE - LIMBOEdward Brathwaite was born in Bridgetown, Barbados in 1930. He read History at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He wasborn into a family with middle-class aspirations for him. He has a varied academic career including Education officer for theGhanaian Government, tutor at the University of the West Indies and, in 1983 was appointed Professor of Social andCultural History at the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. He has won many awards for his poetry.

Barbados is a small island in the Caribbean.Bridgetown is its capital.

BARBADOS

Bridgetown

Brathwaite 1 1

Vocabulary - Limbo

(a) A West Indian dance. To the beat of a drum the dancer bends backwards and passes under a barwhich is gradually lowered forcing the dancer to get closer to the ground in order to pass underneath.

(b) in medieval Christian theology a region on the borders of Hell where unbaptised infants went.

(c) an imaginary place for unwanted people - in some senses, a prison

Comments on Limbo

1. The poem is in free verse form, with effective use of rhyme and a very strong rhythm.

2. The rhythm of the poem and the strong rhymes suggest the musical beat of the West Indian limbodance.

3. The poem chronicles the exportation of slaves from West Africa to the West Indies where they wereforced to slave on the plantations. The poem proceeds through a series of developing images:

(a) In line 1 the word “stick” and the word “silence” open up a range of meanings. The stick is thesymbol of oppression, the slave-driver’s weapon to intimidate the people taken into slavery. Theword “silence” suggests the clash of two cultures, each with a different language. The slavetraders landing on the coast of West Africa, speaking their European languages, would notcommunicate in words with the people they took into captivity. There is a cultural “silence”between them.

(b) Lines 2 to 6 establish the rhythm of the dance. By repetition of the word “limbo” they alsoreinforce the layers of meaning in the word “limbo” given under the note on vocabulary above.We are forced into consideration of the word.

(c) In line 7 the phrase “long dark night” suggests the loneliness of captivity, the darkness of despair.The night is when our fears are at their most acute. Night is the time of nightmare and anxiety.Night is the absence of light. This prospect of silent misery gives terror to the line.

(d) Notice that the movement of the limbo dance involves, symbolically, a form of abasement as thedancer is forced to get closer and closer to the earth as the stick is lowered.

(e) By line ten the limbo stick of the first line comes into sharp focus as the stick, the goad, in thehand of the slave trader. The sharp monosyllables in line 10 (“stick hit sound”) suggest theimpatient cracking of the stick, perhaps against the gangplank onto the slave ship as the captivesare driven on board.The “limbo” in line 14 now carries the meaning of imprisonment. The limbo is the prison ship ontowhich the Africans are herded.

(f) Lines 16 and 17 suggest the horror of the journey from their homes and their families, across theocean to captivity. The dominant image is again the image of darkness. The fear of thedeck and the vastness of the terrifying ocean is sharply suggested.

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(g) By line 20 the poem becomes more explicit. The limbo stick of line 1 is now the whip. The deckof the ship is clearly identified as slavery.

(h) The refrain, “limbo / like me” now takes on a mocking quality. There is nothing to put the joy ofdance into the hearts of the captives.

(i) In lines 26 and 27 images of violence appear. Again the beating monosyllables give force to“stick” and “knock”. The darkness is now “over me”, the victim is now forced to the ground andthe threat is pressing downwards.

(j) The images in lines 26 and 27 now develop into the rape images of lines 28 and 29 which arefurther developed in lines 32 and 33. “The darkness is over me”, “knees spread wide” ,“the darkground is under me” suggest the physical rape of the individual and the organised rape of a wholenation. They are images of subjugation. The physical forcing to the ground symbolises domination.

(k) Throughout the sequence from lines 26 to 37 the insistent, powerful rhythms of “limbo / limbo likeme” and “down / down / down” form a frightening background to the images of violence that theyaccompany.

(l) The poem begins to change at line 37. The silence of line 1 now has an answer. The drummer,symbolising the whole black Diaspora, is calling. The victim is no longer alone. There is hope inthe line.

(m) In lines 40 and 41 the negative images are replaced by positive images. The “long dark night”has been replaced by the “sun coming up” - a symbol of life, of hope. In the place of brutality andsilence we have the praise of the drummers. The singular drummer of line 37 has become in line41 the plural drummers, suggesting the working together, the shared hopes and rebirth of blackpeople everywhere.

(n) In line 42 the darkness is banished, we are “out of the dark”. In line 43 after being subjugated,downtrodden, abused (in the symbols of the dance forced to the ground by the limbo stick) thevictim is raised, lifted up. The “dumb gods” (and the lower case “g” on gods is placed withbitterness) suggest the silence of the churches who turned their eyes away from the activities ofthe slave traders. It is with a shared bitterness that we remember that the Christian church of theEuropeans condoned the slave trade.

(o) Lines 44-46 contrast with the “down / down / down” of lines 34 to 36. The resurrection is underway.

(p) The image of burning in the final line of the poem suggests the cleansing process in the fire ofrevival and rebirth.

Questions on Limbo

1. Use your library to find out as much as you can about the slave trade. Assemble your facts and thenwrite as much as you can about the subject.

2. Write as fully as you can about the ideas suggested by the title of the poem, Limbo.

3. Write about the way the ideas in this poem develop from the “limbo stick” in line 1 to the “burningground” in line 51.

4. Write as fully as you can about the effect this poem has on you. How effectively does the poem allowyou to share the fears and suffering of the people forced into slavery?

5. Write as fully as you can about the importance of rhythm and rhyme in this poem.

Brathwaite 2 2© B & D Publishing

LIMBOEdward Kamau Brathwaite

Brathwaite 3 3

Questions

1. Read a few lines of the poem, tapping the desk as you read. How does the rhythm of the poemsuit the content of the poem? Does the rhythm of the poem remind you of any other dance?

2. Write about the three meanings of the word “limbo”. Explain how these three interpretations of theword help us to understand the ideas in Edward Kamau Brathwaite’s poem.

3. Use the resources in your library and try to find some information about the transportation of peoplefrom Africa into slavery in the Americas.

There are at least three possible ways of thinking about the word limbo - three layers of meaning. All threemeanings add something to the poem by Edward Kamau Brathwaite.

1. The first, and most obvious meaning of the word, is dance. The limbois a West Indian dance. The dancer bends backwards andto the strong beat of the music, dances with legs wideapart, underneath a stick which is held horizontally. Thestick is gradually lowered which makes the dancer getcloser and closer to the ground in order to get under it.

This is a very useful image and idea in Brathwaite’s poem.The poem is really about the bringing of slaves from Africato America. It is about the hardships and humiliations theyhad to suffer. It is about the harsh way they were capturedand treated.

The stick used in the limbo dance serves to remind us of the sticks and whips used to beat the captured men, womenand children. The limbo dance forces the dancer to get closer and closer to the ground. This is apowerful image which suggests the way the captured people were subjugated - broken down,humiliated, metaphorically forced to the ground.

2. The word limbo also has a religious meaning. In medieval times limbo meant an area on the bordersof Hell where unbaptised infants went after they died. The people in the poem who were forced intoslavery in a foreign land were indeed in a kind of limbo - they were transported into a kind of Hell.

3. We also use the word limbo in a much looser, more casual way, to mean any sort of unpleasantand uncertain state or situation - a sort of metaphorical prison. We can say, “Robert was in a stateof limbo - he felt trapped by circumstances and unable to see a way out of his problems”.

This use of the word, too, is useful when thinking about Brathwaite’s poem. The people taken intocaptivity were certainly plunged into a state of uncertainty and insecurity.

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ENGLISH LITERATURE ONESeamus Heaney and Gillian Clarke


Seamus Heaney

Storm on the Island pages 1-3

Perch pages 4-6

Blackberry-Picking pages 7-9

Death of a Naturalist pages 10-12

Digging pages 13-15

Mid-Term Break pages 16-18

Follower pages 19-21

At a Potato Digging pages 22-26

Gillian Clarke

Catrin pages 27-29

Baby-sitting pages 30-32

Mali pages 33-35

A Difficult Birth, Easter 1998 pages 36-38

The Field-Mouse pages 39-41

October pages 42-44

On the Train pages 45-47

Cold Knap Lake pages 48-50

General Questions

Questions on the poetry ofSeamus Heaney and Gillian Clarke pages 51-52

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SEAMUSSEAMUSSEAMUSSEAMUSSEAMUSHEANEYHEANEYHEANEYHEANEYHEANEYStorm on the Island

Brief Summary

The poem is written from the point ofview of the inhabitants of a remote,exposed island.

The islanders are prepared. Theirhouses are strongly built, low, huggingthe ground.

The earth on the island is barren. They do not grow corn so there are no haystacks to be damaged by windand rain. There are no trees on the island. When the storm blows there is no noise from the movement ofleaves and branches. But that also means that there is no natural shelter on the island.

When a storm blows the waves pound the cliffs, sending up spray which even reaches the windows oftheir houses. Afraid of the storm the islanders sit tight and wait for the storm to pass.

Vocabulary

squat low, close to the groundwizened dry, shrivelledstooks groups of sheaves of corn set up in a fieldstrafes bombardssalvo several guns fired at the same time

Technical Points

1. The poem is written in iambic pentameters - the most common and basic line of English verse. Theunrhymed iambic pentameter (blank verse - the medium in which most of Shakespeare’s plays waswritten) is a line with ten syllables and five main stresses - the light stress followed by a heavy stress.It is well suited to its task in this poem. The metre lends itself to reflective, discursive thought.The poem concludes with a couplet with the half-rhymes “air” and “fear”. The couplet helps to roundthe poem off, to give it an air of finality.

2. Good examples of alliteration can be found throughout the poem. Heaney loves to pattern the soundsin his poetry. Notice how carefully the alliteration is controlled in line 2:

Sink walls in rock and roof them with good slate.

3. There is one simile in the poem. It is very vivid and makes a sudden impact, a mixture of sound andsight. The spray “spits like a tame cat / Turned savage”.

Points for discussion

1. The mood of the poem is reflective, thoughtful. The poet thinks about the natural world, aboutisolation, about the power of natural forces. This quietly reflective, conversational tone reminds us ofthe poetry of Robert Frost. If you can, read a poem like Mending Wall, or After Apple-Picking - bothby Robert Frost and notice the similarity of style.The rhythms are the natural rhythms of speech.

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SEAMUS HEANEYSEAMUS HEANEYSEAMUS HEANEYSEAMUS HEANEYSEAMUS HEANEYStorm on the Island

Points for discussion (continued)

2. The conversational, confiding style of the poem is partly achieved by the natural use of enjambement- the natural running over of the sense from one line into the next:

Nor are there treesWhich might prove company when it blows fullBlast:

This conversational style is also evident in the direct approach to the listener - “you know what Imean” (line 7) and “But no . . .” (line 14)

3. Elements in the poem suggest warfare - war, perhaps against the elements, against nature. Theopening words suggest readiness for conflict - “We are prepared”. When nature attacks it “strafes”.A “salvo” is loosed, the island is “bombarded”. The sea is “exploding” on the cliffs. The gale “pummels”your house.

4. Security contrasts with insecurity. The islanders do all they can to guard against nature. Theybelieve they are safe in their solid stone houses but the wind “pummels” their houses and brings themfear. They may seem to be part of a comfortable, perhaps beautiful, seascape but when a stormblows up this security is undermined and the storm brings back their fears.

Things can change. Life can change. Our feelings of safety can suddenly be challenged. The “tamecat” can suddenly turn “savage”.

5. The final line of the poem is ambiguous and perhaps a little difficult. Heaney says that it is strange butthe thing we fear is “a huge nothing”. Is the air and the wind “nothing” because we cannot see it? Arethe dangers in life, the things we fear, a “nothing”? Are we wrong to be afraid of things - because thethings we fear are “nothing”?What do you think Heaney means in the final line of the poem?

6. Just as the islanders need to build their houses on solid foundations to weather out the storms whichattack them, so we all need to have solid foundations to our lives in order to face up to problems anddangers when we meet them. The island is a metaphor for life and the storm is a metaphor for thetroubles that may assail us.

Questions

1. Taking into account all the hints and pieces of information in the poem write a vivid description givingyour impression of the island described by Seamus Heaney.

2. Make full and detailed analysis of Heaney’s use of alliteration in the poem. Try to describe the effectalliteration has in the poem. Which examples of alliteration seem to you to be the most effective?

3. Why do you think Heaney chose to write about an island to express his ideas about the things we fearand the power of nature? What is there about a remote island that makes it a good image for theseideas?

4. Write as fully as you can about the style of the language in this poem. Write about the way Heaneyachieves this style.

5. Write about the images Heaney uses in this poem. How do they help him to get over the idea of managainst nature?

6. Are you afraid of storms? Have you ever experienced the power of nature in a frightening situation?

Write as fully and as imaginatively as you can about any real or imagined experience.Write in any form - in prose or in verse.

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SEAMUS HEANEYSEAMUS HEANEYSEAMUS HEANEYSEAMUS HEANEYSEAMUS HEANEYStorm on the Island

The poem describes a remote island. The people on the island know how destructive stormscan be. They make sure that they are protected against the power of nature.

They build strong, low stone houses. They make sure their houses have strong slate roofs.

The island in the poem is barren. The earth is dried up. There are no trees and no farming.

The sea may seem to be attractive but when a storm blows up it can be frightening. The windand the sea seem to attack the island.

Questions

1. Make a list of all the things in the poem the poet tells us about the island. You could beginlike this:

(a) houses built low(b) foundations of the houses in rock

2. Using the information you have collected in answer to question one write a descriptionof the island. Make your description as lively and vivid as possible.

3. Seamus Heaney describes the storm as if it is an attack on the island.Copy out carefully all the words and phrases in the poem which describe this attack.

4. The words Seamus Heaney uses to describe the storm are words used in describingwarfare - words like “bombarded”. These are called metaphors.

Make a list of any other war words and phrases that you can think of which you thinkcould also be used to describe a storm on an island.

5. Storms can be terrifying and very destructive.

Write a description, in either verse or prose, of any fierce storm you have ever experiencedor imagined.

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ENGLISH LITERATURE TWOCarol Ann Duffy and Simon Armitage


Carol Ann DuffyHavisham pages 2/3

Extract from Great Expectations page 4

Havisham page 5

Elvis’s Twin Sister pages 6-8

Anne Hathaway pages 9-11

Salome pages 12-14

Before You Were Mine pages 15-17

We Remember Your Childhood Well pages 18-20

Education For Leisure pages 21-23

Stealing pages 24-26

Simon ArmitageMother, any distance greater than a single span pages 28-29

My father thought it bloody queer pages 30-32

Homecoming pages 33-36

November pages 37-39

Kid pages 40-41

Those bastards in their mansions pages 42-44

I’ve made out a will pages 45-46

Hitcher pages 47-49

General QuestionsQuestions on the poetry of

Simon Armitage and Carol Ann Duffy pages 50-51

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CarCarCarCarCarol ol ol ol ol Ann DufAnn DufAnn DufAnn DufAnn DuffyfyfyfyfyHavisham

Brief SummaryThe poem is about rejection, desolation, isolation and thesometimes uneasy balance between love and hate.

The persona of Miss Havisham, the rejected woman fromDickens’ novel Great Expectations, is used to carry the weightof these ideas. At one level Carol Ann Duffy explores some ofthe feelings which the fictional character might haveexperienced but which Dickens does not pursue.

There is considerable anger and violence in the poem.

Vocabularyspinster an unmarried womancawing the sound made by a crowslewed twisted round - presumably to face the

person looking into itpuce brownish-purple

Technical Points1. The poem is in four four-line stanzas.

The lines are unrhymed.2. There is considerable variety in the movement of the

verse, achieved by the frequent use of enjambement(the running on of the sense from the end of one lineinto the next), by the variation in the position of the caesura (pauses) in the lines, and by the veryvaried sentence lengths - from a single word sentence to sentences extending over two or more lines.The effect of this variety in pace and movement is to underline the changing emotions in the poem - togive rhythmic definition to the conflict of feelings and ideas. Disturbance in the verse movementsuggests the emotional disturbance which informs the poem.

3. Oxymoron is a figure of speech in which contradictory ideas are joined together. It is a frequentlyused device. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet Romeo jokes about love - he calls it “brawlinglove”, “loving hate”, and “heavy lightness”. Writing about a smuggler Charles Lamb famously said“He is the only honest thief”.

“Beloved sweetheart bastard” and “Love’s / hate” are good examples of oxymoron in Havisham.

Points for discussion1. The immediate stimulus for the poem is the character of Miss Havisham in Great Expectations who

hates men because she was left at the altar. But the poem does rather more than speculate about thedevelopment of Miss Havisham’s character after she was jilted. To what extent the poem also reflectsa feminist agenda or even the poet’s own feelings at the time of writing is a matter for consideration.Certainly there is a vibrant blending of the late twentieth century point of view and the nineteenthcentury fictional character which gives the poem a powerful creative energy.

2. Colour seems to play an important part in the imagery of the poem - green, yellowing, white, red- even the curses are puce.

Miss Havisham is a rich lady in the novel GreatExpectations by Charles Dickens. She wasjilted by her fiancé. She spent the rest of herlife trying to get her revenge on men. She kepther wedding dress on. She left the weddingfeast on the table where it slowly rotted away.She adopted a baby girl - Estella - and broughther up to hate men and to make them suffer.

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CarCarCarCarCarol ol ol ol ol Ann DufAnn DufAnn DufAnn DufAnn DuffyfyfyfyfyHavishamPoints for discussion (continued)3. The images in the first stanza are richly suggestive. Presumably many years have passed and the

“subject” of the poem has aged. Age has produced the characteristic swollen veins on the back of thehands - veins compared to ropes. Further, the verb “prayed” in line two suggests further possibilities.The continued act of praying, with the eyes tightly shut and the hands constantly clenched togetherhas produced the “dark green pebbles for eyes” and the swollen “ropes” - ropes she could use forstrangling.

4. The isolation of the single word - Spinster - at the beginning of line 5 emphasises the isolation andrejection the jilted woman feels. She hates her legal status as an unfulfilled, unmarried woman. Theplacing of the word in the poem underlines the word’s significance.

5. She stinks: Miss Havisham in Great Expectations remained in her bridal gown until her death. Shewas surrounded by the debris of her wedding feast. The word “stink” also expresses self-loathing.

6. The long drawn-out “Nooooo” in line 6 suggests the woman’s despairing agony as she cries out ingrief. The verb “cawing” invests her voice with animal passion - crows, the black and evil-omenedbirds - caw.

7. The erotic dreams suggested in the third stanza could well have aroused Miss Havisham in the novel- but it is an aspect of the character which Dickens does not investigate. The eroticism is evoked byCarol Ann Duffy with great economy of language.

8. The enjambement from line 12 into line 13, separating “Love’s” and “hate” emphasises the oxymoronand throws tremendous pressure onto the word “hate”.

9. The “red balloon” in line 13 suggests passion. As a symbol of celebration the bursting balloonsuggests the celebration that didn’t happen - her anticipation of the joy of marriage burst in her face.

10. There are images of violence throughout the poem - “bastard” “dead” “strangle” “bite” “bursting”“Bang” “stabbed” “corpse” “breaks”.

11. Identity in the poem is difficult to establish but the ambiguity enriches the ideas. The Havishamcharacter is there - we remember her from the novel still wearing her tattered wedding dress. But alsoin the poem is the woman whose dress is yellowing in the wardrobe. This fusion of identities is alsopresented in the pronouns - “her, myself, who did this / to me?” Is the “her” the same character but inthe past - now “myself” and still grieving?

12. In Dickens’ novel the jilted woman is always referred to as Miss Havisham. The omission of the“Miss” serves to distance the character in the poem from the character in the novel. This is no longeronly a particular character. Perhaps this is any “Havisham” or all “Havishams” - or all women whohave ever felt betrayed by a man.

Questions1. Like all good poems this poem appeals at different levels and leaves room for speculation. What

does the poem mean to you? What ideas do you think Carol Ann Duffy is trying to convey?Write as fully as you can about the impression this poem made on you.

2. Write about the techniques and use of language in the poem. How do they contribute to theeffectiveness of the poem? How do they help to get over the ideas in the poem?

3. Why do you think the poem is called Havisham and not Miss Havisham?

4. What does the stammering “b-b-b-breaks” in line 16 suggest to you?

5. What do you think the poem gains from the images of violence in it?

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CarCarCarCarCarol ol ol ol ol Ann DufAnn DufAnn DufAnn DufAnn Duffyfyfyfyfy

HavishamMiss Havisham was a character in a novel calledGreat Expectations by Charles Dickens.

Miss Havisham was jilted by her lover who hadpromised to marry her.

She spent the rest of her life hating men. Shestayed in her room, still dressed in her weddingdress.

In this poem, Havisham, Carol Ann Duffy makesus think about this character, this bitter womanwho hated men violently.

Questions

1. The woman in the poem violently hates the man who has left her.

Copy out carefully the words in the poem which suggest just how violently she hateshim. You could start your list with “bastard”. You should find at least six more words.

2. Which phrase in the poem (look for three words) suggests jealousy?

3. The feelings of the woman in the poem are mixed. She remembers how she loved theman but she also hates him.

There are two phrases in the poem which show these opposite feelings - of love andloathing. Copy out the two phrases.

4. Sometimes at night the woman in the poem imagines the passionate times she couldhave had with her lover. Which part of the poem describes this?

5. There is one word in the poem - a word which the poet puts into a sentence on its own- which the woman in the poem hates. Which word do you think this is? Why would shehate this word?

6. Why does the woman in the poem “stink” (line 5)?

7. Write as much as you can about this poem.

What impression did it make on you?

What impression have you got of the woman in the poem?

Can you understand her feelings?

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ENGLISH LITERATURE THREEPre-1914 Poetry Bank


Ben Jonson: On my first Sonne pages 1-3

William Butler Yeats: The Song of the Old Mother pages 4-5

William Wordsworth: The Affliction of Margaret pages 6-8

William Blake: The Little Boy Lostand The Little Boy Found pages 9-12

Chidiock Tichborne: Tichborne’s Elegy pages 13-16

Thomas Hardy: The Man He Killed pages 17-18

Walt Whitman: Patrolling Barnegat pages 19-21

William Shakespeare: Sonnet 130 pages 22-24

Robert Browning: My Last Duchess pages 25-28

Robert Browning: The Laboratory pages 29-32

Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Ulysses pages 33-39

Oliver Goldsmith: The Village Schoolmaster pages 40-42

Alfred, Lord Tennyson: The Eagle page 43

Gerard Manley Hopkins: Inversnaid pages 44-46

John Clare: Sonnet page 47

Some themes and connections pages 48-50

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Ben JBen JBen JBen JBen JonsononsononsononsononsonOn my first Sonne

Brief SummaryThis is the elegy or lament which BenJonson wrote after the death of his son,Benjamin.Jonson was away from his home in London when he received letters from his wife telling him that his sonhad died from the plague. His son was seven years old. Jonson says goodbye to his son in this movingpoem.

Vocabulary and languageline 3 tho’ wert thou wert - you wereline 4 Exacted to exact payment is to demand or compel paymentline 6 lament mourn, deplore, be sorry forline 11 hence-forth from this time onward

The language of the poem is restrained and the diction generally simple. However, as the poem waswritten almost four hundred years ago, present-day readers may find some of Jonson’s language difficultto follow.

Seven yeeres tho’ wert lent to me, and I thee pay

Jonson says that his son was only lent to him. This is an image of borrowing and eventually paying back.He had his son for seven years but then had to repay the loan. The repayment of the loan was taken(exacted - line 4) on the day it was due.

O, could I loose all father, now.

Jonson’s grief is so great that he wishes he could lose all the feelings of a father.

For why / Will man lament the state he should envie?

Jonson tries to console himself with the argument that his son, in dying so young, has escaped the miseriesthat life can bring.

To have so soone scap’d worlds, and fleshes rageAnd, if no other miserie, yet age?

To have escaped, at such an early age, the torments and passions (“rage”) inflicted by the world and bydiseases of the body (“fleshes rage”), and if we manage to avoid these, to have escaped the miseriesassociated with growing old.

Rest in soft peace, and, ask’d, say here doth lieBen. Jonson his best piece of poetrie.

Jonson tells his son to rest in peace. He says that if in future you are asked who you are you can answerthat you are Ben Jonson’s best piece of poetry - the best thing Ben Jonson ever made.

The line becomes clear if you expand “ask’d” to “if you are asked”.

Jonson was immensely proud of his poetry. Here he shows his humility in recognising that his son was farmore important to him than anything he ever wrote.

Technical Points1. The poem is in rhyming couplets. The lines are iambic pentameters.

2. The spelling of many of the words in the poem is archaic - words like sinne, loose, yeeres etc.© B & D Publishing

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Ben Jonson 1572/3-1637

Ben Jonson was probably born in London. Hewas certainly educated in London, atWestminster School under William Camden.His origins were humble. He worked at firstfor his father as a bricklayer. He escapedthis trade, which he did not enjoy, by enlistingin the army. He served in Flanders. Duringthis campaign he killed one of the enemy insingle combat.After returning to England he became involvedin the life of the theatre. In 1597 he began towork for Philip Henslowe as a writer of plays.Jonson was a friend of William Shakespeare(1564-1616). In lines in praise of Shakespeareprinted in the First Folio of Shakespeare’sworks (1623), Ben Jonson wrote, “He was notof an age, but for all time!”Jonson had a fairly turbulent life. He wasimprisoned on a charge of sedition for his partin the writing of the play The Isle of Dogs. In1598 he killed an actor in a duel. He waslucky to escape hanging.He wrote several important plays, includingEvery man in his Humour, Volpone, and TheAlchemist.Jonson had five children. They all died young.His son Benjamin, the subject of this poem,was born in 1596 and died in 1603.Ben Jonson is buried in Westminster Abbey.His tombstone bears the inscription “O rareBen Jonson”.

Points for discussion1. The poem’s simple, direct language conveys the poet’s

sincerity and grief. Here Jonson is not trying to impresswith fanciful language. This is a simple funeral poem.Notice the absence of obviously “poetic” language inthe poem. There are few of the effects we often findin poetry - simile, personification, onomatopoeia andother devices are absent from the poem.

2. Benjamin is a Hebrew name. In Hebrew it means “childof the right hand” - the way Jonson refers to his son inthe first line of the poem. The eldest son was alwaysthe most important child. He would sit at his father’sright hand at table and would expect to inherit most ofhis father’s property.

3. Consider in the final line of the poem the distinctionbetween “loves” and “like”. The word “like” impliespleasure, being pleased by something to the point ofself-satisfaction. Jonson is saying that in the future hewill try to avoid being too self-congratulatory about thethings he loves. To like too much the things we love isto risk losing them.

4. The idea in the second line of the poem (that his sin asa father was in loving his son too much), is picked upat the end of the poem, when Jonson says that in thefuture he will try to avoid this excess.

Questions

1. Write as much as you can about the poem, simply andin your own words.

2. The poem gives us a strong feeling of Ben Jonson’sfeelings after the death of his son. How does thelanguage of the poem help us to share Ben Jonson’sgrief?

3. What does the poet mean by “My sinne was too muchhope of thee, lov’d boy”?

4. Many readers have wondered about the meaning ofthe last two lines of the poem. They have beenparticularly interested in the sense of the words “loves”and “like”. How do you interpret these two lines?

5. In this poem Jonson laments the death of his youngson. Compare this poem with Mid Term Break bySeamus Heaney in which he writes about the death ofhis younger brother, with October by Gillian Clarke inwhich she laments the death of her friend, and withThe Affliction of Margaret in which Wordsworth writesabout a woman’s grief for her missing son.

© B & D Publishing

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Ben Jonson was a poet and playwright. He was born in 1572 and lived until he was sixty-five - agood age for that time. He was a great friend and admirer of William Shakespeare.Ben Jonson had several children but they all died young. In 1603, when Ben Jonson was away fromhome, he received letters from his wife telling him that his son, who was called Benjamin like hisfather, had died of the plague.Jonson felt the loss of his son very deeply and wrote the moving poem, On my first Sonne.In the poem Jonson speaks to his dead son. He begins by saying goodbye. He says his son washis “right hand, and joy”.In the second line of the poem Jonson says that his sin was to have loved his son too much. PerhapsJonson is saying that we sometimes lose the things we love too much.Jonson goes on to say that he had his son for seven years. But, he says, our children are only lent tous. Everything we borrow we have to pay back.Then Jonson says a strange thing. In line 6 he says why should we be sorry because someone hasdied young? He says that by dying young we escape hurt and trouble and the misery of growing old.Jonson tells his son to rest in peace. He says to his dead son, if anyone questions you, say that youare Ben Jonson’s best piece of poetry - the best thing Ben Jonson ever made.Jonson finishes the poem by saying that in future he will try to avoid being too pleased with the thingshe loves.

Questions1. Write as much as you can about Ben Jonson’s feelings after the early death of his son,

Benjamin.

2. Why do you think Ben Jonson refers to his son as the child of his right hand?

3. Ben Jonson was very, very proud of his poetry. But what does he say in this poem was hisbest piece of poetry?

4. Why does Ben Jonson say that we shouldn’t really be sorry for people who die young?

5. There are other poems in your anthology about loss. Mid Term Break by Seamus Heaney isabout the death of Heaney’s younger brother. In October Gillian Clarke writes about thedeath of her friend. In The Affliction of Margaret, William Wordsworth writes about a womanwhose son is missing.

Write about the different ways these four poems express the feelings of loss.© B & D Publishing

ENGLISH LITERATURE FOURProse - Short Stories

ContentsWorksheets to support the following short stories:

Flight by Doris LessingComments and questions pages 1-2Cloze passage page 3Characters page 4

Superman and Paula Brown’s New Snowsuit by Sylvia PlathComments and questions pages 5-7Simple comprehension page 8Cloze passage page 9Children page 10

Your Shoes by Michele RobertsComments and questions pages 11-13Simple comprehension page 14Mother and daughter page 15

Growing Up by Joyce CaryComments and questions pages 16-18Simple comprehension page 19Sequencing page 20Characters page 21

The End of Something by Ernest HemingwayComments and questions pages 22-24Simple comprehension page 25Characters page 26

Chemistry by Graham SwiftComments and questions pages 27-31The Grandfather page 32The Mother page 33The Boy page 34Ralph page 35

Snowdrops by Leslie NorrisComments and questions pages 36-38Structure and style page 39Simplified story pages 40-41Miss Webster page 42

ThemesChildhood page 43Growing Up page 44Relationships page 45Structure and Style page 46

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Lessing 1

Flightby Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing was born to British parents in Persia in 1919. She grew up in Southern Rhodesia and worked at severaljobs before leaving Africa for England in 1949. Her first novel, The Grass is Singing was published in 1950. Her firstvolume of short stories, This Was The Old Chief’s Country was published in 1951. Since then her literary output hasbeen prolific including numerous novels, short stories, poetry, essays and autobiography.

This short story is about an old man trying to come to terms with his granddaughter growing up. It is froma collection of short stories, The Habit of Loving, published in 1957.

Vocabulary and Notes

Frangipani the red jasmine, a tropical tree with scented flowersteach your grandmother......... tell somebody something they already knowcleaving of wings the beat of wings cutting through the air

Comments

1. The scene is set and the mood established right at the beginning of the story. It is late on a warmsunny afternoon towards the end of summer. The old man is content, his ears lulled by the softcrooning of his pigeons. His eyes move outward from the garden of the cottage to take in the widesweep of the countryside beyond, then back to his granddaughter swinging on the gate. We get theimpression that the old man has had a peaceful, happy life.

2. The old man’s mood changes suddenly as he sees the boy coming down the road, the boy hisgranddaughter is waiting for. The old man was just about to release his favourite pigeon. Shespreads her wings to fly, but suddenly the old man spitefully restrains her and puts her back in thecage.

3. The old man is angry. He thinks his granddaughter is too young to be courting. The languagechanges. The old man moves “warily” towards his granddaughter, “stalking” her. His fingers curl“like claws” into his palm. He confronts her “his eyes narrowed, shoulders hunched, tight in a hardknot of pain”.

4. The old man quarrels like a child with his granddaughter. She is the last one at home. He misses thegirls. He feels that he will be “uncherished and alone” when he is left with only his daughter and herhusband. He is spiteful with jealousy when he sees his favourite granddaughter, “his darling”, in thearms of the young man.

5. The old man is made miserable by seeing the youngsters running, laughing and kissing. But hismisery is not caused simply by jealousy because they are young and he is old. It is also the miseryof knowing that they are running into a trap - a lifetime of commitment and responsibility. When hisdaughter says that she never regretted marrying young he calls her a liar.

6. The young couple bring the old man a peace offering, a young pigeon. The girl obviously loves hergrandad and wants him to like her young man. The young man,too, wants to be accepted and liked.The old man accepts the gift grudgingly but he realises that all this is inevitable. It is natural that theyoung should want to be together, to go off together and leave their parents.

7. The old man loves his pigeons for much the same reasons as he loves his granddaughters - theyare warm, soft and vibrant with life. When he releases his favourite into the air a cloud of birdsfollows. The shining birds flash up into the sunlight of the upper sky , but then return to the shadowedearth. Rather like the young lovers who fly from the parental nest. They enjoy a brief ‘honeymoon’ inthe sunshine but then have to return to the reality of going to work, housekeeping and raising afamily.

1© B & D Publishing

Lessing 2

Section A

Answer each of the following questions with a complete sentence.

1. Where is the old man at the beginning of the story?2. What mood is the old man in?3. What is his granddaughter doing at the beginning of the story?4. Why does the old man suddenly become angry?5. How does the girl react to her grandfather’s anger?6. Why does the grandfather miss his granddaughters?7. Why does the old man quarrel with his daughter?8. Why does the old man call his daughter a liar?9. What do the young couple bring to the old man?10. What happens when the old man releases his favourite bird?

Section B

Make your answers as full as possible to help you with you revision.

1. At the beginning of the story the old man is happy with his pigeons. Why does he become angrywhen he sees the young man on the road? Why doesn’t he want his granddaughter to get married?

2. The grandfather accuses his daughter of making her girls get married. Could this be true? Whymight the mother want the girls to be married and away? The mother accuses her father of notwanting anybody to marry, of making her and her girls feel miserable when they decide to marry.Why might this be?

3. At the end of the story the old man is resigned and calmly happy. His granddaughter is wide-eyedand in tears. Why do you think this is? What do you suppose the girl is thinking about?

4. Write as much as you can about the character of the old man in the story. What do you know abouthim - his ideas, opinions, hobbies, feelings, past life, present, future, hopes and fears? Do you getthe impression that his granddaughter loves him and is sorry that he is unhappy?

5. What impression do you get of the old man’s daughter, Lucy? Does she seem like a warm, caringperson? Do you think she loves her dad? Does her dad love her?

6. What impression do you get of the young couple, Alice and Steven? Do they seem to love eachother? Does it seem like the sort of love that might last?

7. What is the significance of the pigeons in this story? Why do you think that the author gave thestory the title Flight?

Section C

1. The old man obviously liked living with his daughter and her family when the granddaughters were athome. He feels miserable when he thinks of the future without them. The girls obviously loved theirgrandad. But the old man and his daughter don’t seem to get on so well.

Write as much as you can about the advantages and disadvantages of having an elderly relativeliving with you.

2. The old man in the story says that eighteen is too young to get married, to be tied down. His daughterdisagrees. Discuss the arguments for and against getting married so young.


Lessing 4

Flightby Doris Lessing

The main characters in this story are the grandfather, his daughter Lucy, and her daughter Alice. The oldman lives with his daughter and her family out in the country.

Lucy

The old man doesn’t seem to be very fond of his daughter, Lucy. She is in the house, sewing, when the oldman goes in to speak to her. She hears the old man muttering to himself. She realises why he is upset.She humours him. She tries to calm him down.

What does Lucy do to try and cheer her father up? How does the old man respond?

What do you suppose Lucy thinks about her father? What are her feelings towards him?

What is Lucy’s attitude to her daughter Alice and her young man?

Alice

Alice is the youngest of Lucy’s four daughters. She is the last one at home. She is eighteen years old.She loves a young man called Steven and they want to get married. Alice is her grandfather’s favourite.He doesn’t want her to get married and leave home.

How does Alice react to her grandfather when he shouts at her and tells her off for courting Steven?

Why do you think Alice and Steven bought the young pigeon as a gift for the grandfather?

Do you think that Alice is fond of her grandfather? What makes you think so?

The Grandfather

Our first impression of the grandfather is of a quiet, gentle old man among his pigeons. The old mangently holds a soft, warm pigeon as he looks out at the late summer landscape.

The old man sees his granddaughter swinging on the garden gate, looking downthe road towards the village, and his mood changes.

Why does the old man become angry when he sees his granddaughter?

Why does the old man go into the house to see his daughter, Lucy?

Why does he fall out with his daughter? Why does he call her a liar?

Why is the old man so upset when he goes out on to theverandah?

What does his granddaughter, Alice, bring her grandfather tocheer him up?

What is the old man’s mood at the end of the story?


in support of aqa anthology 2006 /...

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