liz hillier: 2011 poetry across time: conflict: week four offering different perspectives and...

Liz Hillier: 2011 Poetry Across Time: Conflict: Week Four

Offering different perspectivesand different points of view

Character and Voice

Length of the poem: • Any special layout• The type of poem • Tone/mood/atmosphere

Form

Stanzas, Rhyme Blank Verse, Free VerseVerse form, Metre

Structure Imagery

OnomatopoeiaMetaphorSimilePersonificationAlliteration


Offering different perspectivesand different points of viewCharacter and Voice

Length of the poem: • Any special layout• The type of poem • Tone/mood/atmosphere

Form

Stanzas, Rhyme Blank Verse, Free VerseVerse form, Metre

Structure

ImageryOnomatopoeiaMetaphorSimilePersonificationAlliteration

ImageryFormStructureCharacter and Voice


Are you…

in your understandingof the following terms?

Read through the poem The Autumn Gilt by Valerie Bloom on your own and then in your groups of four.

In your groups, refer to the 3 – 5 bullet points that you made for revision on character, voice, themes and issues, sensory language and imagery and shape and structure.

Discuss: what and who you think this poem is about and why.


The Autumn Gilt by Valerie Bloom

The late September sunshineLime green on the linden leavesBurns bronze on the slated roof-tops,Yellow on the farmer's last sheaves.

It flares flame-like on the fire hydrant,Is ebony on the blackbird's wing,Blue beryl on the face of the ocean,Glints gold on the bride's wedding ring.

A sparkling rainbow on the stained-glass window,It's a silver sheen on the kitchen sink,The late September sunshineIs a chameleon I think.

Whole Class Feedback

What can we say about the character and voice in this poem?

What themes and ideas can you find in this poem?







What are the effects of the imagery and sensory language in this poem?







What can you say about the form of the poem?







What can you say about the structure of the poem?


Should women be allowed to fight in wars?



Throughout history, the business of war has generally been the preserve of men. In the 20th century, however, the role of women in the armed forces began a process of transformation that is still happening to this day. Women now serve in an increasingly wide range of jobs, including positions as jet fighter pilots in the Royal Navy, RAF and US Air Force.

First, society argued that women were physically weaker than men. They were said, for example, to lack the upper body strength so important to enable one to haul ropes, wield a sword, shoulder a musket, or load a shell for a sustained period in combat.


Secondly, there is the psychological argument that women are different from men. They are said to possess characteristics of caring and nurturing, and to be less aggressive than men.


Thirdly, it is argued that women lack one of the unique qualities of young men in uniform, prized by the armies of all nations - their willingness to take risks, to kill and, in extreme situations, to sacrifice themselves.


Finally, is the belief that the killing or wounding of women is somehow worse than the concept of male battle casualties. It is thought that media coverage will focus on female casualties (the ‘body-bag’ factor) to the discomfort of politicians, who will therefore be wary of sending women in to combat.



ForAgainst


Arguments Counter-Arguments

No! They shouldn’t! Yes! They Should!

First, society argued that women were physically weaker than men. They were said, for example, to lack the upper body strength so important to enable one to haul ropes, wield a sword, shoulder a musket, or load a shell for a sustained period in combat.

What could be the counter-argument

here?



Secondly, there is the psychological argument that women are different from men. They are said to possess characteristics of caring and nurturing, and to be less aggressive than men.


here?



Thirdly, it is argued that women lack one of the unique qualities of young men in uniform, prized by the armies of all nations - their willingness to take risks, to kill and, in extreme situations, to sacrifice themselves.


here?



Finally, is the belief that the killing or wounding of women is somehow worse than the concept of male battle casualties. It is thought that media coverage will focus on female casualties (the ‘body-bag’ factor) to the discomfort of politicians, who will therefore be wary of sending women in to combat.


here?


Over to you


The Battle of Austerlitz (1805) The town of Memel (now Klaipėda), a

coastal town in Lithuania. The Extermination Camps of the Nazi

Germans.

You can present your findings as you see fit (e.g. paper collage, photostory 3 or movie

maker)


Austerlitz, now a part of the Czech Republic, was officially under Austrian control in 1805 when Napoleon’s troops, in what became one of his greatest victories, defeated the Russian and Austrian armies at the Battle of Austerlitz.


The town of Memel (now Klaipėda) came under German rule after the Napoleonic war, although it is a coastal town in Lithuania.


The Nazi Extermination Camps were places where Jewish people, Travellers as well as disabled people were taken to be killed either by forced labour or by being gassed in huge ovens. The victims included old people and children.


You will need the following sheet:


Lef t by the ebbing tide of battle On the fi eld of Austerlitz The girl soldier Vaudevue sits Her fi ngers tap the ground, she is alone At midnight in the moonlight she is sitting alone on a round flat stone.

Graded by the Memel Conf erence fi rst Of all human exterminators M.L.5. Has lef t her just alive Only her memory is dead f or evermore. She f ears and cries, Ah me why am I here? Sitting alone on a round flat stone on a hummock there.

Rising, staggering, over the ground she goes Over the seeming miles of rutted meadow To the margin of a lake The sand beneath her f eet I s cold and damp and fi rm to the waves’ beat.

Group One: Look at the following stanza; discuss the tone of voice in the stanza. What can you say about the character in this stanza? What are the tone and the mood of the stanza? What are the eff ects of the language used in this stanza? Highlight any words that you are unsure of.

Group Two: Look at the following stanza; discuss the tone of voice in the stanza. What can you say about the character in this stanza? What are the tone and mood of the stanza? What are the eff ects of the use of punctuation in this stanza? Highlight any words that you are unsure of.

Group Three: Look at the following stanza; discuss the tone of voice in the stanza. What can you say about the character in this stanza? What are the tone and mood of the stanza? What are the eff ects of structure and rhyme pattern used? What are the eff ects of the repetition? Highlight any words that you are unsure of.

In your groups, work through each of the stanzas and the questions that you have been assigned.

You will then be given a copy of the whole poem and move from group to group to label/annotate your findings from each group .

Finally, we will come together with our findings, and work through the poem as a whole class.



Born in 1902 in Kingston upon Hull.

Died in 1971.

When she was three, her father

left home and she moved with her

mother, two aunts and sister to

Palmer’s Green in London.

She drew quirky pictures to

accompany her poetry, but

struggled to find a publisher willing to

include them. In this, she was like William Blake, a poet whose work

she admired.

By the 1960s Smith had built a reputation

as a popular but eccentric performer,

by reading her poems and often

chanting them off-key while dressed in school-girlish outfits.

She was born Florence Margaret Smith but became known by others as Stevie after riding in the park with a friend

who said that she reminded him of

Steve Donaghue, a jockey who was

famous at the time.

.

She began writing poetry while working as a private secretary in

London where she worked for 30 years until she suffered a

breakdown, which led to her retirement in her

early 1950s.

Although this dramatic poem is set in a future war, some of the references in the poem seem to point to previous wars, including the Napoleonic Wars and World Wars One and Two.


Death as central theme. Poem suggests death as release – Vaudevue sleeps on in ‘close embrace’. Death as friend, lover…inviting? Metaphor? Simile?

Chemical warfare? Zyklon B = gas used by Nazis to

exterminate Jews in death camps. Is Smith referring to something similar with M.L.5? Is it a memory-wiping drug?


The symbolic nature of a future battle on old battleground.

War – past and future – all equally pointless (futile). Even though the methods of killing change, the suffering stays the same.

Other issues include: the use of child soldiers in War; a sense of danger; isolation, fear and loneliness; the power of water.


1. In pairs discuss why the shape of this poem is interesting.

2. How does it compare to the shapes of the other conflict poems

that we have studied?



Suddenly as the riot squad moved in it was raining exclamation

marks,

N uts, bolts, nails, car-keys. A fount of broken type. And

the explosion

Itself – an asterisk on the map. This hyphenated line, a burst

of rapid fire …

I was trying to complete a sentence in my head, but it kept

stutte ring,

A ll the alleyways and side stree ts blocked w ith stops and

colons.

I know this labyrinth so well – Balaklava, Raglan, Inkerman,

Odessa S treet –

W hy can’t I escape? Every move is punctuated. Crimea S treet.

Dead end again.

A Saracen, Kremlin-2 mesh. Makrolon face-shields. W alkie-

ta lk ies. W hat is

My name? Where am I coming from? Where am I going?

A fusillade of question-marks.


Belfast Confetti

Suddenly as the rio t squad moved in it was raining exclamation

marks,


the explosion

Itse lf – an asterisk on the map. This hyphenated line, a burst

of rapid fire …


stutte ring,


colons.

I know th is labyrinth so well – Balaklava, Raglan, Inkerman,

Odessa S treet –

W hy can’t I escape? Every move is punctuated . Crimea S tree t.

Dead end again.


ta lk ies. W hat is



Do you knowwhere Belfast is?

What is Confetti? What feelingsdo you associate with Confetti?


Belfast Confetti


marks,


the explosion


of rapid fire …


stutte ring,


colons.


Odessa S treet –


Dead end again.


ta lk ies. W hat is



Considering thetitle of the poem,do the opening lines surprise you?

Extension: Discuss ambiguity.

What kind of confetti is beingused in Belfast?


Belfast Confetti


marks,


the explosion


of rapid fire …


stutte ring,


colons.


Odessa S treet –


Dead end again.


ta lk ies. W hat is



How might theshape of this poemreflect that of a weapon?


Belfast Confetti

Suddenly as the rio t squad moved in it was raining exclamation

marks,


the explosion

Itse lf – an asterisk on the map. This hyphenated line, a burst

of rapid fire …


stutte ring,


colons.

I know th is labyrinth so well – Balaklava, Raglan, Inkerman,

Odessa S treet –

W hy can’t I escape? Every move is punctuated . Crimea S tree t.

Dead end again.


ta lk ies. W hat is



On your miniwhiteboards,draw the punctuation that is used in the poem so far.

How is this punctuation used to reflect the violence in the poem?

For hundreds of years, Ireland was ruled by its next door neighbour - Great Britain. Many people objected to being ruled by Britain. A campaign to make Ireland independent started.

In 1922, most of the island became independent from Britain. This became the Republic of Ireland.

But in the north, six counties remained under British rule and became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Some people were unhappy about this and it led to lots of problems in Northern Ireland.


The community in Northern Ireland can be roughly divided into two groups:

Unionists : Are mainly Protestants and have traditionally wanted Northern Ireland to stay part of the UK. They are also known as Loyalists (because they are loyal to the British crown).

Nationalists : Are mainly Catholics and have wanted the area to join the Republic of Ireland (the rest of Ireland) and form a united Ireland. They are also known as Republicans (because they want to be part of the Republic Of Ireland).

The differing views of the two groups led to a lot of unrest and

conflict.


The British and Irish governments made several attempts to get power-sharing back on track after the 2002 breakdown.

Finally, in October 2006, something called the St Andrews Agreement was made - setting up a timetable for getting a power-sharing government going again.

Political parties agreed to back down on certain issues and elections to choose the Assembly's representatives were held.

Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams - the leaders of the two biggest parties who have very different political views - agreed to a power-sharing deal, naming 8 May 2007 as the date when devolution would return to Northern Ireland.



Violence and its effects often lie at the centre of

Carson’s poetry, unsurprising perhaps given that he grew up

and lived in Belfast during the ‘Troubles’.

Influenced by writers such as Paul

Muldoon, C.K. Williams and Louis

MacNeice in particular, Carson

extends traditionally based Irish vernacular

storytelling in verse that uses a ‘long

line’ style – a feature of ‘Belfast

Confetti’

Much of his writing is influenced by music, particularly jigs and

other traditional forms. In an interview

in the New Yorker magazine, he says,

‘The more I write, the more I think that

music and song are fundamental to what

I write.

He was born in 1948 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is very much a son of that

city, graduating from Queen's

University, Belfast, and living there still

now.

His first language is Irish and he says that ‘I write in English, but

the ghost of Irish hovers behind it; and English itself is full of ghostly presences’.

His name is in many ways symbolic of his

Irish identity – Ciaran is a Catholic

name, whereas Carson is Protestant

.

‘Belfast Confetti’ (1990) won the Irish Times Irish Literature Prize for Poetry. The title of the poem initially suggests a celebration, but the phrase ‘Belfast Confetti’ pre-dates the poem and refers to the screws, bolts and nails that were placed in IRA bombs as shrapnel.

The poem is about the aftermath of an IRA bomb attack. Even the language itself becomes a weapon: the bomb in 'Belfast Confetti' is loaded ironmongery as well as a ‘fount of broken type’.


Belfast Confetti’ reveals a fascination with language itself. The poem explores how written language echoes the sounds of a city (Belfast) in turmoil, disorder and confusion.

Carson has said, ‘I'm not that interested in ideologies (political ideas). I'm interested in the words, and how they sound to me, how words connect with experience.’ This can certainly be seen in the poem, where he does not seem to take sides, and does not say whether he condemns the bombing or not.

It is about the effect on people and the power of words.


1. In pairs, discuss how your knowledge of: 2. a) Ciaran Carson’s life/biography and b) the

background to Belfast Confetti has changed the way you hear and the way you see the poem.

3. Join another pair. Listen carefully to what your new pair say and jot down their ideas on your mini-whiteboards.

4. Once you have these notes, you need to move onto another pair and carefully recite them. This will help everybody get to hear different points of view about the same poem!


You will need a copy of the following

worksheet:

Comparing Character, Voice, Imagery and Sensory Language, Structure and

Form in the poems:Come On, Come Back by Stevie Smith

and Belfast Confetti by Ciaran Carson


End of 4 Week Unit Assessment: (30 Minutes)

AQA Specimen Paper: Response to the unseen poem Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins and the following question:

What do you think the poet is saying about the ways that some students approach poetry and how it should be approached? How does he present his ideas? (18 marks)


liz hillier: 2011 poetry across time: conflict: week four offering different perspectives and...

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