Last Minute Tips

Just in case you've forgotten, here's the timings for tomorrow's paper:
Unseen - 45 mins
Anthology part A - 30 mins
Anthology comparison question - 30 mins. 
STICK TO THESE TIMES - Do not run over!


In the unseen question, spend around 15 minutes analysing. Ensure that you focus on the STRUCTURE as well as language. Try to also pick out examples of rhyme and rhythm.
You should then write your answer up in 3 main paragraphs (not including intro and conclusion). Try to pick a different feature for each paragraph - e.g. structure, language, rhyme/rhythm, tone, techniques.


Anthology part A requires you to write on ONE POEM, focusing on how the writer presents their ideas and attitudes. Ensure you mention the WRITER in your answer, use quotes and EXPLAIN which techniques have been used and WHY.
Again, use the 3 paragraph structure, focusing on a different feature/technique in each paragraph.


Anthology part B (comparative - pick one of 2) requires you to write on TWO POEMS, one of them being the poem from part A. Do not only pick out the similarities and differences - you need to EXPLAIN how the EFFECTS of these are similar or different. E.g. Two poems may both use metaphors, but how are these effective in different ways?
Once again, use the 3 paragraph structure, focusing on comparing a different feature/technique in each paragraph.


TIPS! 
Use connectives in Part B; show the examiner you are comparing!
Look through your poems one last time and think about the three paragraphs you would write if it comes up in Anthology Part A - what features stand out?
Get an early night!


Best of luck, everyone -See you tomorrow for celebratory cake!

Miss D :)

August 6, 1945

It's been a while since we went through this one, but your notes should be complete. Here's a reminder of the ideas YOU came up with!

The effect of nature imagery:

“Dry tune” reflects the hot, musty weather. Perhaps it makes the pilot dehydrated which is why his mouth is dry.

The colour of “apricot ice” evokes a sense of fire. Apricots also introduce the theme of opposites; take for instance the soft, sweet flesh and hard stone in the centre.

“Drizzle” is dreary but not powerful – This shows the insignificance of nature.

Connotations of “scarlet” are roses/romance, danger and blood.

“Mermaid’s tail”, “salamanders” and “lizards” prompt images of scaliness from both mythological and natural sources. The latter suggests that the victims’ skin has gone scaly or shiny from their stripped skin.

The use of “mother” suggests that Mother Nature is ‘late’ and powerless to stop the effects of the bomb.

The people of Hiroshima are seen as “ladybirds”, which reduces them to a small, helpless level. “Ladybirds” also describes how the victims are red with blood and raw skin, but dotted with black from the ash and dirt. It is a metaphor for their skin, which is an important theme in this poem. “Ladybirds” is indented as there is a sense of emptiness, loss and loneliness at the poem’s conclusion. The links to the nursery rhyme suggest that one one level, the pilot sees the bombing as a meaningless, trivial act, but reflects the ending, where his deed hits him – there are dark undertones to the rhyme (“your house is on fire and your children have gone”).

The character of the pilot:

“Whistling” suggests that the pilot is calm and laid back. However, the “dry tune” suggests that he is a serious person – perhaps he is whistling to calm himself?

“Laugh and tremble” creates a sense of mockery, suggesting that the pilot does not take the act seriously. 

“The whole blooming sky” is written in a colloquial style and refers to western imagery. This highlights how different and brash he is in comparison to the Japanese. “Blooming” links into the image of flowers – to him, this could be an attractive sight.

The releasing of the bomb is linked to the slightly suggestive (well, for the 1950s!) image of Marilyn Monroe flashing her knickers - Perhaps the pilot experiences some form of fulfilment and release that can be likened to sexual actions.

The final stanza suggests that the pilot cannot help but be haunted by his actions, thus showing that he is not entirely heartless and two-dimensional.

The writer’s view/attitude:

Western images such as “apricot ice” and “Marilyn” show that the pilot think that it is a good, or ‘sweet’ ending to the war – the Americans are imposing their culture upon Japan, almost as if they are ‘branding’ the bomb site with pride.

The term “forever” shows that the Americans’ actions are irreversible and has a serious tone; the pilot clearly is not taking this word seriously by matching it with trivial images of celebrity.

The writer builds a vivid picture of how horrific the effects of the bomb were and the idea of ‘living in fire’.

The word ‘mother’ could refer to the plane’s name or the mothers of the victim. The writer highlights the protective role of mothers, therefore showing the irony that the destructive plane was named ‘Enola Gay’.

Structure

The writer uses enjambement throughout, and does not use rhyme. This gives a slow, 'serious' feel to the poem, as heavy rhythms and rhyme are traditionally associated with 'jolly' and upbeat poetry. The poem is broken into stanzas of irregular lengths - each dealing with slightly different aspect of the event: The flight, Western imagery, nature, physical damage, the emotional burden, the legacy of the event ("dreams"). This irregularity could represent the rubble of Hiroshima, lacking in order and neatness. 

See above for notes on the indentation of 'ladybirds'.

I hope this makes sense - leave me a comment if anything confuses you!

Miss D :)

Exposure - Wilfred Owen

Hi guys,


Thanks for a fab lesson today - I loved hearing your ideas and it's lovely to see how far you've all come :)


I thought I'd throw together a few notes on Exposure as I know it's one you all struggle on quite a bit. Hopefully, after reading this, all will become clear!


Owen's ideas and attitudes (italics added to pick out specific words to analyse)
In war, the real enemy is nature or the elements ("pale flakes with fingering stealth come feeling for our faces").
War can kill a man in a spiritual, if not a physical way ("Slowly our ghosts drag home")
War can lead to a loss of faith in God/God is responsible for the suffering caused by nature ("Tonight, His frost will fasten on this mud and us").


Personification
This poem is loaded with personification, and personifies the weather and nature as an army of assassins. The first image that we are given is of the "merciless iced winds that knive us". 'Merciless' suggests that the wind is vindictive and without compassion, whilst 'knive' is a violent action, implying that it is an attacker inflicting pain. From the outset, the 'personality' of the weather is established as an enemy.
In stanza three, Owen writes of "Dawn massing in the east her melancholy army". By personifying 'dawn' or nature as a woman, Owen is pointing out that 'Mother Nature' has turned against them, and that the maternal, compassionate image of a woman has been subverted. In this poem, Owen is definitely using subversion to show how war defies expectations and unexpected enemies attack. 


Alliteration
Despite portraying the conditions of war as vicious, Owen's language is quite soft on the ear, being abundant with sibilance and repeated 'f' sounds (e.g. "flowing flakes that flock"). The use of delicate sounding words could be to show how the weather can be a silent or covert assassin, which seems innocent compared to artillery. Indeed, think about a snow scene - it is attractive and often peaceful. Owen is highlighting that this weather has two very different sides depending on the context, and highlights both by contrasting soft sounds with violent images ("ranks on shivering ranks of grey").


Structure
The five line stanzas are constant throughout, using half rhyme to form a ABBAC rhyme scheme. What is interesting in this poem is the fifth line - it defies our expectations when reading it. A reader would either expect the stanza to finish at the end of the fourth line, or to continue after the end of the shortened fifth line. By extending beyond the fourth, Owen could be showing that war is dragged out longer than is expected. Indeed, the ellipses (...) indicate long missing periods of nothingness, where the events are too empty to be written into the poem. This enhances the impression of time being drawn out. However, the fifth line being shortened creates an alternative effect of the stanza being cut off too early. Is this representative of life being cut short? Alternatively, you could argue that Owen wishes these lines to stand out, as they contain the poem's key ideas ("But nothing happens"). Indeed, this particular phrase is of paramount importance in developing the key themes of the poem, which is why Owen repeats this sentiment several times. Furthermore, the poem ends with this statement, thus showing how the poem has come full circle, and although the soldiers in the poem are implied to be dead ("The burying party... pause over half known faces. All their eyes are ice.") the same vicious cycle will entrap fresh recruits.

• Can you pick out any effective language choices?
• Why does Owen use the phrase "black with snow"?

TTFN! Miss D :)

Belfast Confetti - Ciaran Carson

This poem is about an individual's experience of conflict within Belfast - between the people in the ship yard and the police. Carson's speaker is caught in the middle of this.


Carson uses an extended metaphor of punctuation throughout the poem, replacing the physical elements of violence with a variety of punctuation marks. Punctuation marks have a variety of connotations. For example...

• Exclamations - surprise, shouting, panic.
• Asterisk - something that is ungrammatical, breaks in narrative, an omission.
• Hypen - linking words, adding in extra information (changing direction perhaps?)
• Full stops/colons - separating information, pauses. 
• Question marks - uncertainty, confusion, demanding answers.

Interestingly, the poem ends on the phrase 'a fusillade of question-marks', meaning that the final image in the reader's head is that of uncertainty and confusion. Perhaps this suggests that the fate of Belfast is open and as yet undecided.

No matter what the language (with a few exceptions), punctuation is the constant factor. Think about learning French with the lovely Miss Elphick - although the words are different, the punctuation follows the same rules, doesn't it? Therefore, punctuation can be seen as the one thing which will remain when a language is lost or changes. Carson himself admits that this poem has the theme of language loss at the core of it. The conflict stems from the issue of national identity, which is closely linked to language. After all, language is one of the few things that makes us English. This theme is enforced by the 'fount of broken type' - imagine a fountain that spews out letters instead of water droplets. This breaking down of words into their composite parts reflects the breaking down of language and scattering it in all directions, arguably never to be put back together.

The structure of the poem is that of two stanzas. However, look at how the poem is laid out on the page. Although the lines are of equal length, the final part of each line runs onto the line below. Think about the way your eye travels - it zips back and forth across the page. This could reflect the speaker's own experience of running through the city, looking left to right constantly, searching for a way out.

The confusion portrayed by the punctuation in the first stanza is continued by the image of the 'labyrinth' in stanza two.  It seems as if the city has been purposefully shaped to mislead or test the people within it. The most famous labyrinth is of course that of 'Theseus and the Minotaur' - is Carson purposefully leading us to this image to imagine the sacrifice of young men and women, led to their doom? Is he saying that like the myth, Ireland needs a hero to end the suffering?

The imagery created through the road names is also significant: "Balaclava, Raglan, Inkerman, Odessa Street... Crimea Street". By naming the streets after famous military conflict, it is suggested that the notion of conflict is embedded into the city and into Belfast culture itself. Carson is clearly treating this conflict as historically significant as the named events. Furthermore, "Dead end again" implies repetition through 'again' - just as the speaker is stuck in Belfast, is Ireland stuck in a cycle of conflict?

Questions to consider:

• What is the effect of the (non-existent) rhyme scheme?
• Why are there a series of questions in the second stanza?

Revision notes from 10xEn2 (and Jake)

These revision notes were written by the students who came to last week's revision sessions, so thank them for their hard work!

The form in 'Your Dad Did What?' is that there is a series of 4-line stanzas with the rhyme scheme ABAB. The rigid structure shows that the teacher is strict and likes things to be in order (such as accurate spelling). However, in 'The Class Game' there is less rhyme, instead using half rhyme and assonance, such as "from" and "some". This could show that the speaker has got a temper, and her anger means that she can't fully control her speech. However, as there is some control maybe this suggest that she has planned out her argument in advance.
The language is very different in these two poems as 'The Class Game' uses colloquial language to show the speaker's pride in her culture and class. It may also be that the speaker is trying to confuse and unsettle her listener with these unusual terms in order to gain power over them. On the other hand, 'Your Dad Did What?' uses Standard English to show how the teacher is quite bland and formal. She/he is not attempting to engage the listener on a personal level as he/she does not show any aspect of their culture, as Casey's speaker does.


'The Class Game' has one stanza, which gives the reader no breaks. This means the speaker doesn't want to give the reader or listener a break to think about what she is saying. This could be because her argument is flawed/hypocritical, because she is using her class against the reader and mocking the 'upper' class (e.g. "Bye bye mummy dear" and "pretty little semi" sound overly delicate and precocious. Note the assonance in the latter.). On the other hand, 'Parade's End' has five stanzas, with the final stanza having 2 fewer lines than the others. This shows that something has been cut short - perhaps it represents how the family were back on their feet and into a routine again, only to have their lives disrupted by the 'bonnet leaves'.
In 'Parade's End', there is some colloquial language, used to portray the people of Yorkshire. Their language is hard and unwelcoming in contrast to the Standard English of the speaker which has been established in the first stanza. On the other hand, The Class Game has colloquial language throughout, except when contrasting with the 'posh' language of "Bye bye mummy dear". This stark difference shows instead that it is the 'upper class' with their pretentious nature who are the enemy.


With thanks to Matt, Jake, Junior and Will for these PQEs!


The next set were written by Nicole, Emily and Charlotte.


'Half-Caste' is laid out in two long stanzas as if it is a speech/narrative. The form supports the view that the speaker is passionate about what he is saying, and heartfelt as it has a lot of enjambment to build up momentum, rather than it being calm, with regular pauses. The form in 'Our Sharpeville', however, is 5 stanzas, which move through the various areas of her experience. This is more organised, rather than being an outpouring of emotion, as in 'Half-Caste'.
Both poems are about culture and difference within cultures, leading to a clash. 'Half-Caste' uses colloquial language to show pride for the speaker's origins, whereas 'Our Sharpeville' does not, thus achieving different effects.
Miss D adds: 'Our Sharpeville's language choices makes the topic of racism and cultural clashes seem more universal - rather than just writing a poem which has the personal touch of colloquial language, it makes it feel like this could be any person in any town under apartheid or touched by racism. Indeed, De Kok uses imagery which has universal appeal, such as the biblical image of the 'jade pool'. Furthermore, the 'olive tree' is linked to the universal symbol of peace - an olive branch.


Thanks all; remember I'm here til Friday for last minute revision queries!
Miss D :)

Catrin

Hi chaps,

I've been reading through some of your essays and think we need a bit of a reminder about Catrin!

Structure: The poem is split into two stanzas; the first is the build-up to Catrin's birth, and the second is Catrin's childhood. The break in the stanzas represents the cutting of the umbilical cord. By beginning the poem with 'I', it establishes the speaker as an individual, and the poem tracks how she changes with Catrin's presence, and the struggle to let her be independent. The enjambment in stanza one reflects the lack of control that the speaker has  over the contractions and birth. It creates a sense of confusion and disrupts the rhythm of the poem. In particular, the lines "We want, we shouted, / To be two, to be ourselves." are structured to echo the shallow breathing and shortness of speech experienced during the contractions.

Techniques: 

Metaphors - "the red rope of love", "a square environmental blank", "the glass tank clouded with feelings", "the heart's pool".

Alliteration - "window watching", "taking turn", "first fierce", "red rope", "coloured the clean" etc. (There's loads!) Think about the effects of these sounds.

Questions for you to consider:

• What is the tone of the poem?
• What is the effect of the imagery?
• Are there any interesting language choices?