GCSE ELIT Support 6621

Delivering
Poetry Anthology 1
GCSE (CCEA) ENGLISH LITERATURE
Additional Teacher Resources
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Delivering Poetry Anthology 1: Additional
Teacher Resources:
These materials were created by a Working Group set up

in the SELB. The members of the group were:
Maura Johnston – Literacy Team (SELB)

Aidan Lennon – Literacy Team (SELB)
Jennifer Magowan – Literacy Team (SELB)
Kate O’Hanlon – Literacy Team (SELB)
Ruth Taylor – Kilkeel High School.
Mel McMahon – Abbey Grammar School, Newry
A Student’s Booklet to support study of the poetry in

the anthology is also available.
SELB
October 2004
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Contents
pg
Foreword 1
Contents page 2
Introduction 3
Focus for Study and Required Skills 5
Scheme of work 7
Unit 1: Introduction to Poetry 8

Unit 2: A Bird Came Down the Walk by Emily Dickinson 22
The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy
Ode to Autumn by John Keats
Unit 3: The Daffodils by William Wordsworth 45

Binsey Poplars by G. Manley Hopkins
Break, Break, Break by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Unit 4: Shall I Compare Thee… by William Shakespeare 70

My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
A Parental Ode to My Son by Thomas Hood
Unit 5 Upon My Son… by Ann Bradstreet 88

Remembrance by Emily Bronte
Remember by Christina Rossetti
Unit 6 Death the Leveller by James Shirley

107
On the Tombs of Westminster Abbey by Francis Beaumont
The Burial of Sir John Moore by Charles Wolfe
Unit 7 The Exam 127
General Poetry Resources 138
Appendices 153
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INTRODUCTION
This resource is intended to provide teachers with ideas and support

in relation to Poetry Anthology 1, linked to GCSE (CCEA) English
Literature, for first examination in June 2005. It will complement
materials already provided by CCEA:
• ‘The Anthologies – An Introduction.’ (Sept. 2003)

• ‘Approaches to the Poetry Paper’ (Sept. 2003)
The pack is offered as a set of suggestions only – teachers can select

from the approaches as appropriate to their particular situation and
group of students. Our intention is to provide opportunities which
should enable students to complete coursework, as well as offering
support for the examination paper.
A scheme of work is included for the teacher, as well as background

notes on the poets, activities which help students explore the poems,
essay titles and further information on the texts themselves. Where
possible, website details are provided.
The Teacher Resource will be accompanied by a Student’s Booklet

which will provide the full text of each poem, reminders about
assessment criteria and mark bands, guidelines for analysing and
annotating the poetry and a glossary for useful reference. Teachers
may also select from suggestions provided for English Language
coursework and for oral assessments.
Poetry Anthology 1 provides an interesting challenge for teachers and

students. The writing spans five centuries: poetry from the sixteenth
to the twentieth century. It moves from Renaissance traditions,
through the Romantics, Victorians and ending with early Modernist
writing, as represented by Thomas Hardy.
Four of the fifteen poets are women: Ann Bradstreet is separated by

two centuries from the other three nineteenth century women. Their
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treatment of themes of love, loss and response to Nature give
interesting contrasts.
The Anthology offers many opportunities for linking, comparing and

contrasting, for researching social background and poet biography.
Students will be asked to explore relationships and comparisons
within and between poems, and to select and evaluate relevant
aspects of language and treatment of themes.
The themes are quite various: humanity’s relationship to nature,

obsessions with love and death, experiences of war and feelings
about family. There are varieties of form, style, structures and
language techniques.
Poetry should be enriching and inspiring and these poems need to be

read and enjoyed in a lively atmosphere, appreciative of their time
and contexts. Readers will realise how attitudes have changed but will
also become aware of their relevance for readers today. That will be
the real challenge for the teacher!
Enjoy them!
M. Johnston
A. Lennon
J. Magowan
M. McMahon
K. O’Hanlon
R. Taylor.
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FOCUS FOR STUDY
The poetry section of the examination tests A01, A02 and A03.
A01
Respond to texts critically, sensitively and in detail, selecting appropriate ways
to convey their response, using textual evidence as appropriate.
A02
Explore how language, structure and forms contribute to the meaning of texts,
considering different approaches to texts and alternative interpretations.
A03
Explore relationships and comparisons between texts, selecting and evaluating
material.
Any study of the anthologies should therefore focus on:
• Detailed analysis of the poems

• Use of quotation and textual reference to illustrate points and support
opinions
• How poets have used language
• The form and structure of the poems
• The poet's attitude and the meaning he/she conveys
• Different views and interpretations, including personal response, teacher’s
views, views of peers (not critics)
• Comparing and contrasting poems according to theme, approach, language,
etc
Areas of Study
Poems may be grouped together according to theme, for example, war, nature,
love, death etc.
They may also be grouped according to the stance, feelings or attitude of the
poet, or the tone of the poem, for example, remembrance, happiness or social
comment.
Another area of comparison is the style and form of the poetry, for example,
sonnet, ballad or dramatic monologue.
*Students must make their own connections between poems.
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REQUIRED SKILLS
In terms of required skills, candidates need to be competent in the following

areas:
• expressing ideas in a detailed and coherent fashion, using an appropriate

critical vocabulary;
• identifying and analysing poetic methods;
• comparing and contrasting poems;
• integrating quotations neatly and adeptly to support ideas and arguments;
• showing personal response to what has been read.
There will be a bulleted format to the questions in the Foundation tier.
What does the examining team expect candidates to know when responding
to poetry questions?
content form
voice
tone
rhyme Poetry
imagery
rhythm mood
Any individual poem can be read as the product of choices which the poet makes
about specific elements.
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SCHEME OF WORK
UNIT TOPIC FOCUS PAGE

1 Introduction to Poetry Suggested Activities 8
2 A Bird Came Down The Imagery, rhythm and rhyme 22

Walk - Dickinson
Darkling Thrush - Hardy
Ode to Autumn - Keats
3 The Daffodils - Figurative language 45

Wordsworth
Binsey Poplars - Hopkins
Break, Break, Break -
Tennyson
4 Shall I Compare Thee … - Narrative voice, monologue and 70

Shakespeare audience
My Last Duchess -
Browning
A Parental Ode - Hood
5 Upon My Son… - Tone and mood 88

Bradstreet
Remembrance – Bronte
Remember - Rossetti
6 Death the Leveller – Encouraging independent cross- 107

Shirley analysis of the Anthology
On the Tombs of
Westminster Abbey – Modelled, shared and guided
Beaumont witing to support essay writing
The Burial of Sir John
Moore - Wolfe
7 The Exam Examination and essay writing 127

tips
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UNIT 1
INTRODUCTION
TO
POETRY
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INTRODUCTION TO POETRY
Learning Outcomes:
• To understand what poetry is and can be

• To appreciate the language of poetry
• To be aware of the different forms of poetry.
Teachers are advised to select, as appropriate, some of the following activities

to introduce poetry.
Activity 1
Either
(i) Brainstorm – whole class
What is poetry?
Why is it written?
Who is it written for?
How is it written?
When was it written?
or
(ii) Divide pupils into groups of 4 or 5 and give each group a question
word on a card to discuss, ie What? Who? Why?
• The teacher should develop ideas gleaned from pupils on to a MIND MAP
on a flipchart or OHP (see Worksheet 1, p13).
• Pupils should begin to realise that poetry is part of daily life.
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Activity 2
• Teachers should use a range of stimuli illustrating different poetic forms.
Texts might include
- Television advertisements/jingles
- Humorous poems
- Headlines in newspapers
- Skipping songs
- Psalms or Prayers
- Verses inside cards
- Menus
- Verses from 17th Century hymns
or
• Give out a number of song lyrics - without hinting that they are songs eg
A = Are You Ready for Love- Elton John, B = Final Hour -Lauryn
Hill. C = Happy Ending- Avril Lavigne, D = Belfast - Katie Melua, E
= Imagine -John lennon
- Pupils should read them aloud noting rhythm, rhyme, imagery, etc.
- Discuss together and see if pupils recognise the verse in song. Perhaps
play on tape recorder and discuss significance of words and music, how it
affects rhythm, beat, metre, etc.
or
- Give out samples of imagery, alliteration, assonance, etc, from favourite

songs. Use these as a stimulus into the language of poetry.
Activity 3
• Return to brainstorm – What is Poetry?

• Develop a definition of poetry from previous discussions and display as
wall chart.
• Do a ‘mix and match’ exercise ensuring that pupils have a clear knowledge
of the main poetic terms. (see Worksheet 4, p16)
• Teachers produce a completed Glossary of Terms for future reference
(See General Poetry Resources for completed glossary, p139)
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Activity 4
1 Starter Activity: (5 mins. recap at start of lesson) Teacher reads aloud a

definition – pupils respond with the key term either orally or on a white
board.
or
Poetic Techniques Game:
• Divide pupils into groups of 4

• Give out cards with 4 or 5 key poetic terms, e.g. alliteration,
personification, etc.
• Teacher calls out a definition - first group to hold up correct card
wins a point.
Activity:
Teacher should then model or share the reading of a number of different

forms of poetry with pupils
For example: a ballad and a haiku or a simple sonnet and a haiku

• These can be on the theme of ‘love’ or ‘nature’ and pupils should
compare and contrast these for different features.
• use comparison grid to complete this exercise (see Worksheet 5,
p21)
Suggested Web Addresses:
www.poetryteachers.com
www.poetryzone.ndirect.co.uk
www.hphoward.demon.co.uk
www.teachit.co.uk
www.englishbiz.co.uk
www.dcate.net/japanesepoetry
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Homework
Create your own poem using ICT
(i) Either write a series of haiku on a theme of nature or love using clip
art to illustrate
or
(ii) Write and illustrate a sonnet.
*See p145 for notes on poetic forms
*************
The focus for the next few weeks will be comparing and contrasting poems.
The focus will be on skills.
Teacher should Model the annotation of 2 poems.

For example: The Daffodils and Ode to Autumn using the Comparison Grid.
(See Appendix 4, p161)
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Worksheet 1 Mind Map
thoughts in verse
pre-1914
WHAT?
enjoyment
WHY? WHEN?
POETRY
extends experience of
life post 1914
WHO? HOW?
adults
rhyme
children
rhythm
NOTE Worksheets 2 and 3 have been removed from this web-based version of
the booklet for reasons to do with copyright.
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Worksheet 4 ‘Mix and Match’ Exercise (see Activity 3 on p10)
A poetic form, which is organised by the initial letters

of a key word either at the beginning of lines or with
lines arranged around them.
The repetition of a speech sound in a sequence of

words. The term is usually applied only to consonants
and when the recurrent sound occurs in a conspicuous
position at the beginning of a word or as a stressed
syllable within a word.
The possibility of more than one meaning.
The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds,

especially in stressed syllables – in a sequence of
nearby words.
A narrative poem, which was originally meant to be

sung. Characterised by short, regular verses with a
rhyme scheme.
Poetry written with rhythm and metre, but without

rhyme. Especially linked with iambic pentameter
(10 syllable line with unstressed/stressed syllable
pattern) as in the words of Shakespeare.
Two consecutive lines of poetry which are paired in

length or rhyme.
A poem in which a story is related by a single person,

(not the poet), speaking to others. The speaker utters
the entire poem in a specific situation or a critical
moment.
A poem or song, which is a lament, perhaps for

someone or something which has died.
Use a metaphor or simile to create a particular
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impression or mood.
Poetry which is not constrained by patterns of rhyme
or rhythm.
Words, which almost rhyme, e.g. polish/relish.
Use of language to create a vivid sensory image, often

visual.
Placement of rhyming words within a line of poetry,

“Though the threat of snow was growing slowly …..
Words implying meaning opposite to their normal

meaning.
A fairly short poem in which a speaker expresses

intense personal emotion, a state of mind or feeling,
originally meant to be sung.
The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a

poem.
Implication of a resemblance between two different

things.
Atmosphere, for example, “sombre”, “tragic”, “comic”,

“romantic”. This is different from the tone of a poem
which refers to the poet’s attitude e.g. “bitter”,
“angry”, “resentful”, “ironic”, “mocking”.
A text spoken by a lone speaker.
A poem which tells a story, often a ballad.
Lyric poem usually addressed to the subject,

therefore written in the second person. There is no
fixed rhyme or rhythm pattern.
Words which echo sounds associated with their

meaning e.g. clang, hiss.
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A form of metaphor in which language relating to
human action, motivation and emotion is used to refer
to non-human agents, objects or abstract concepts.
A comic effect suggesting two meanings from one word

or phrase.
Words containing the same sound in their final syllable

are said to rhyme, e.g. down, clown.
The pace at which it seems appropriate to read a

poem.
Many poets vary the rhythm of a poem to start certain

words and thereby make the meaning clear.
The use of wit or humour to attack something.
The poet creates an image in readers’ minds by

comparing a subject to something else.
A poem of 14 lines which may follow any rhyme

scheme.
Two examples of rhyme schemes:
a) Petrarchan: abbaabba followed by 2 or 3 other
rhymes in remaining 6 lines.
b) Elizabethan: ababcdcdefefgg.
A verse or set of lines of poetry, the pattern of which

is repeated throughout the poem.
The division of a poem into particular lengths of lines

and stanzas.
Each beat in a word is a syllable. Words with only one

beat are called monosyllabic. Words with more than
one beat are called polysyllabic.
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Refers to the expression of a literary speaker’s
“attitude to his listener!” The tone of a work can be
happy, sad, reflective, humourous etc.
A stanza of 3 lines, usually with a single rhyme.
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Key words to use with Worksheet 4
internal rhyme
stanza
sonnet
irony
ballad
alliteration
narrative poem
dramatic monologue
elegy
personification
ode
half-rhyme
pun
metaphor
assonance
satire
rhyme
acrostic
monologue
triplet
couplet
free verse
onomatopoeia
figurative language
syllable
blank verse
rhythm
lyric
simile
ambiguity
metre
structure
imagery
tone
mood
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Worksheet 5: WRITING FRAME FOR THE COMPARISON OF
TWO POEMS ON A SIMILAR THEME
Poetic Feature Poem One Poem Two

Title: Title:
Poet: Poet:
Theme(s): Theme(s):
Voice
Context
Form
Tone
Mood
Imagery
Content
Rhythm
Rhyme
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*Use the grid above only after you have looked at the table dealing with
poetic features in more detail (see p142).
UNIT 2
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• A Bird Came Down the Walk by Emily
Dickinson
• The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy
• Ode to Autumn by John Keats
A Bird Came Down the Walk

by Emily Dickinson
A bird came down the walk:

He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.
And then he drank a dew

From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
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To let a beetle pass.
He glanced with rapid eyes

That hurried all abroad, -
They looked like frightened beads, I thought
He stirred his velvet head
Like one in danger; cautious,

I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home
Than oars divide the ocean,

Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, plashless, as they swim.
EMILY DICKINSON
Biography
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, the daughter of a
lawyer. She was educated at Amherst Academy (1834-47) and Mount Holyoake
(1847-8). In her early years she appears to have been a bright and sociable young
scholar, but in her twenties she began to withdraw from the outside world. By her
forties she had become a complete recluse, refusing to leave her house and
shunning all contact with strangers. A mystic by inclination, she wrote much in
secret, producing over two thousand poems, only seven of which are known to have
been published in her lifetime. With the exception of a trip to Washington, D.C., in
the late 1850s and a few trips to Boston for eye treatments in the early 1860s,
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Dickinson remained in Amherst, living in the same house on Main Street from 1855
until her death.
Her personal life remains something of a mystery although there is the possibility
that her seclusion might have been prompted by a failed love affair. Her work
certainly reflects a deep inner struggle spanning many years and her verse is full
of powerful allusions to storms, volcanic eruptions and imprisonment.
Dickinson, Emily Elizabeth (1830-1886), is America’s best-known female poet and

one of the foremost authors in American literature. Dickinson’s simply constructed
yet intensely felt, acutely intellectual writings take as their subject issues vital to
humanity: the agonies and ecstasies of love, sexuality, the unfathomable nature of
death, the horrors of war, God and religious belief, the importance of humour, and
musings on the significance of literature, music, and art.
Dickinson’s Poetry
Dickinson enjoyed the King James Version of the Bible, as well as authors such as
English writers William Shakespeare, John Milton, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth
Barrett Browning, George Eliot, and Thomas Carlyle. Dickinson’s early style shows
the strong influence of Barrett Browning, Scottish poet Robert Browning, and
English poets John Keats and George Herbert.
Dickinson often used variations of metres common in hymn writing, especially

iambic tetrameter (eight syllables per line, with every second syllable being
stressed). She frequently employed off-rhymes. Examples of off-rhymes include
ocean with noon and seam with swim in the lines “Than Oars divide the Ocean, / Too
silver for a seam — / Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon / Leap, plashless as they
swim” from the poem “A Bird Came Down the Walk.” Dickinson used common
language in startling ways, a strategy called defamiliarization. This technique
would, as she put it, “distill amazing sense / From ordinary Meanings” and from
“familiar species.” Her poem “A Bird Came Down the Walk” also illustrates her use
of defamiliarization: “A Bird Came Down the Walk— /...drank a Dew / ...stirred his
Velvet Head” and then “unrolled his feathers / And rowed him softer home” while
“Butterflies” leap “off Banks of Noon.” Dickinson’s short poetic lines, condensed by
using intense metaphors and by extensive use of ellipsis (the omission of words
understood to be there), contrasted sharply with the style of her contemporary
Walt Whitman, who used long lines, little rhyme, and irregular rhythm in his
poetry.
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In the early stages of her career, Dickinson’s handwritten lyrics imitated the
formalities of print, and her poetic techniques were conventional, but she later
began to attend to the visual aspects of her work. For example, she arranged and
broke lines of verse in highly unusual ways to underscore meaning and she created
extravagantly shaped letters of the alphabet to emphasize or play with a poem’s
sense. She also incorporated cutouts from novels, magazines, and even the Bible to
augment her own use of language.
Although few of Dickinson’s poems were formally published during her lifetime, she
herself “published” by sending out at least one-third of her poems in the more than
1,000 letters she wrote to at least 100 different correspondents. The recipients
included writer Helen Hunt Jackson, who later published Dickinson’s “Success is
counted sweetest” in the volume A Masque of Poets (1878), and Elizabeth Holland,
whose husband was an editor at Charles Scribner and Sons, a prominent publishing
company. Dickinson’s method of binding about 800 of her poems into 40 manuscript
books and distributing several hundred of them in letters is now widely recognized
as her particular form of self-publication. She also read her poems aloud to several
people, including her cousins Louise and Frances Norcross, over a period of three
decades.
Editions of Dickinson’s writings include The Poems of Emily Dickinson (3 volumes,

1955), The Letters of Emily Dickinson (3 volumes, 1958), and The Manuscript Books
of Emily Dickinson (2 volumes, 1981).
‘A Bird Came Down the Walk’
Emily Dickinson's poem "A Bird Came Down the Walk" is an excellent example of
how poets use varying styles of rhyme and metre to bring a poem to life. Dickinson
expertly uses metre to show how the bird acts on the ground and in the air. The
rhyme scheme she uses changes in the poem to show the bird’s change in attitude.
The poem is five quatrains long. Each stanza, except for the fourth, uses iambic
trimeter in every line but the fourth line uses iambic tetrameter. The fourth
stanza uses iambic trimeter in all four lines. Iambic tells the reader that the
second syllable on each foot is stressed. Trimeter means that the line contains
three stressed syllables and tetrameter means there are four stresses.
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Commentary
The speaker observes the bird and tries to establish contact with the bird by
offering it food. The bird flies off. A few of the speaker's details describe the
bird as a wild creature in nature, and more details present his behaviour and his
appearance in terms of human behaviour.
Stanza one
Because the bird does not know the speaker is present, he behaves naturally, that
is, his behaviour is not affected by her presence. We see the bird's "wildness" or
non-humanness in his biting the worm in half and eating it. "Raw" continues to
emphasize his wildness. Ironically the word "raw" carries an implication of civilized
values and practices ("raw" implicitly contrasts with cooking food). Why mention
that the bird ate the worm raw? Would you expect the bird to cook the worm?
Also, does the fact that the bird "came" down the walk sound civilised, socialized?
Does the description sound like someone walking on a sidewalk?
Stanza two
The bird’s drinking dew (note the alliteration) suggests a certain refinement, and
"from a grass" makes the action resemble the human action of drinking from a
glass. And the bird politely allows a beetle to pass.
Stanza three
In lines one and two, the description of the bird's looking around is factual
description and suggests the bird's caution and fear, as well as a possible threat in
nature. With lines three and four, the speaker describes the bird in terms of
civilization, with "beads" and "velvet."
Stanza four
The idea of danger in nature is made explicit but remains a minor note in this
stanza and in the poem. It occupies only half a line, "Like one in danger." "Cautious,"
the speaker offers the crumb. How is "cautious” meant? Does she feel the need to
be cautious? Or does she offer the crumb cautiously? (One of the characteristics
of Dickinson's poetry is a tendency to drop endings as well as connecting words and
phrases; you have to decide whether she has dropped the -ly ending from
"cautious.")
Her action causes the bird to fly off. Her description of his flight details his
beauty and the grace of his flight, a description which takes six lines. Does the
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idea of danger or of the bird's beauty receive more emphasis, or are the danger
and the beauty emphasized equally? Does it matter in this poem whether one
receives more emphasis than the other, that is, would the different emphases
affect the meaning of the poem?
I am suggesting that this poem reveals both the danger and the beauty of nature.
Does the poem support this reading? What might Dickinson's purpose be in having
the narrator see the bird in "civilized" terms? Is it a way of pushing away or of
controlling the threat and terrors that are always present and may suddenly
appear in nature?
Exercises and Activities
Group work/ Pair Work:
Compile a list of images from the poem which you think suggests danger and
another list which you think suggests beauty.
Stanza Images that Suggest Images that Suggest

Beauty Danger
One
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Two
Three
Four
Independent Work
Complete the Table Below:
‘A Bird Came Down the Walk’ by Emily Dickinson
Poetic Stanza Stanza Stanza Stanza Stanza

Technique One Two Three Four Five
Voice
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Context
Form
Tone
Mood
Imagery
Content
Rhyme
Rhythm
Focus on Language
How do you think that the rhythm and punctuation in stanzas three to five help to
create a sense of danger and awe in the poem?
Did you find some of the imagery unusual in the poem? Which images? Why?
English Language Coursework
Assignment C
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To what extent do you believe that nature is as dangerous as it is beautiful?
Assignment D
Write an account of a time when you felt close to an aspect of nature, e.g an
animal, a bird, a landscape, an area.
Oral Work
A time when I felt in danger. (A formal presentation/paired work).
The Darkling Thrush

by Thomas Hardy
I leant upon a coppice gate

When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangle bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.
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The land's sharp features seemed to be
The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.
At once a voice arose among

The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
In blast beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
Upon the growing gloom.
So little cause for carollings

Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.
THOMAS HARDY
Biobgraphy
Born on 2 June, 1840, in the small Dorset village of Higher Bockhampton, baby
Thomas appeared to be dead at birth, and was almost ignored in the surgeon’s
concern for his mother. Fortunately, both mother and child survived. Hardy’s
father was a stone-mason by trade and a talented musician.
In 1856, when Hardy was 16, he was articled to John Hicks, a Dorchester
architect. It was here that Hardy met his close friend and mentor, the scholar and
reviewer Horace Moule. It was Moule who first encouraged Hardy to write poetry.
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In 1862 Hardy moved to London to pursue his career where he found work
specialising in church architecture.
Hardy’s first literary success came with the serialization of the novel Far From
The Madding Crowd in 1874 in the Cornhill Magazine. Now established as a man of
means he married Emma Gifford on a lovely autumn day in 1874. Their life became
divided between Dorset and London, with occasional visits to the Continent. Other
novels followed, such as Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure.
On 17th October, 1896, Hardy wrote that he had reached ‘the end of prose’. This
decision was partly the result of the critical outcry at his last novel. Though he
had written poetry in almost every phase of his life, Hardy was at first uncertain
whether his public would accept him as a poet. He need not have been worried – his
first published volume in 1898 was an immediate success. Indeed, it was as a poet
that he was finally accepted as a scholar and a man of letters.
His wife Emma died in 1912. In the following year, he wrote no fewer than 100 love
poems to her. In 1914, Hardy married Florence Dugdale who had worked for him as
a secretary. Hardy died on 11 January, 1928. His ashes were placed in Poets’ Corner
in Westminster Abbey, while his heart was buried in Stinsford Church in Dorset,
with his first wife and his parents.
Group work/Pair work:
Explore how Hardy uses negative and positive imagery in different stanzas of the
poem to show us his uncertainty over the source of the bird’s joy.
Stanza Negative Images or Positive Images or

Phrases Phrases
One
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Two
Three
Four
Independent Work:
‘The Darkling Thrush’ by Thomas Hardy

Poetic Stanza One Stanza Two Stanza Three Stanza
Technique Four
Voice
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Context
Form
Tone
Mood
Imagery
Content
Rhyme
Rhythm
Focus on Language
Look at the poet’s choice of similes and metaphors. Do you find them effective?
Why/Why not?
Language Coursework
Assignment C
“The turn of the last century brought more problems than benefits.” Discuss.
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Assignment D
Write the diary entry Thomas Hardy may have written after the events described
in the poem. Keep in mind his age and the significance of when the poem was
written.
Write a poem or a sequence of poems to describe a local landscape. In these poems

try to use similes/metaphors/rhythm and rhyme where you think they would be
appropriate.
Oral Work
Debate: This House believes that, too often, people manipulate events and
circumstances to try to prove the existence of a God who is no more than a
figment of our imagination.
NOTES ON ‘THE DARKLING THRUSH’ by THOMAS HARDY

Poetic Technique Stanza One Stanza Two Stanza Three Stanza Four
Voice First person

narrative. Voice of ““ ““ ““
the poet- not a
persona
Context Written at end of ““ ““ ““
the Nineteenth
Century. Hardy is
sixty at time of
writing. He is an
agnostic, unsure of
the existence of
God.
36
Form Well-formed octets ““ ““ ““
with strong rhythm
and rhyme.
Tone Sombre, desolate, Continued A complete The tone seems to be
negative. negativity transformation. The bewildered, unsure,
thrush’s song unsettled. Is it more
disturbs the hopeful? He is still
negativity and a ‘unaware.’
sense of hope
begins to smoulder
in the poem.
Mood Sombre, defeatist. The alliteration of Happy confusion? Less pessimism seems to
‘crypt, the cloudy be present at the end of
canopy…’ creates a the poem but the poet
mood of hostility- is still unaware of the
harsh cs rather source of the bird’s joy.
than soft cs.
Imagery Negative: ‘Frost was Negative: ‘ land’s More of a balance is Positive language
spectre-gray…’ sharp features… struck here becomes more
‘Winter’s dregs the century’s between negative pervasive: ‘carolings;’
made desolate…’ corpse…’ ‘His crypt and positive images. ‘ecstatic sound;’ ‘happy
‘The tangled bine the cloudy The ‘full-hearted good-night air;’ ‘blessed
stems scored the canopy/The wind evensong/Of joy Hope…’
sky/Like strings of his death lament.’ illimited ‘ is
broken lyres…’ ‘…all ‘The ancient pulse balanced along side
mankind…/Had of germ and ‘the growing gloom.’
sought their birth/Was
household fires.’ shrunken hard and
dry…’- the images
are bleak and
present the land
as lifeless
Content Central themes ‘…every spirit upon The thrush seems Hardy sees the bird
seem to be isolation, earth/Seemed to parallel the poet song as being spiritual.
pessimism and fervourless as I.’ in its old age. The The thrush is a
aloneness Inflation of the poet seems to be songbird, however, and
collective sense of envious of the bird’s is expected to sing. Why
despondence song of joy. does Hardy equate the
creates a sense of bird with ‘…blessed
drama within the Hope?’
poem.
Rhyme Use of full rhyme in
alternate lines. ““ ““ ““
Possibly suggests
the poet’s control
over his subject
matter. An acoustic
piece with lots of
references to music
throughout the
poem.
Rhythm Strong rhythm with ““ ““ ““
usually seven or
eight syllables
present in each line.
37
Ode To Autumn
by John Keats
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
38
For Summer has o'erbrimmed their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind,
Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twinèd flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
JOHN KEATS
Biography
John Keats was born on October 31, 1795 in London. His parents were Frances
Jennings and Thomas Keats. His father ran a prosperous livery stables. John Keats
was educated at Enfield School, which was known for its liberal education. While at
Enfield, Keats was encouraged by Charles Cowden Clarke in his reading and writing.
After the death of his parents when he was fourteen, Keats became apprenticed
to a surgeon. In 1815 he became a student at Guy's Hospital. However, after
qualifying to become an apothecary-surgeon, Keats gave up the practice of
medicine to become a poet. For the rest of his life he lived precariously as a
professional writer, sometimes desperately short of money and working with great
intensity while his health lasted. Keats had begun writing as early as 1814 and his
39
first volume of poetry was published in 1817.
In 1818 Keats took a long walking tour in the British Isles that led to a prolonged
sore throat, which was to become a first symptom of the disease that killed his
mother and brother, tuberculosis. After he concluded his walking tour, Keats
settled in Hampstead. Here he and Fanny Brawne met and fell in love. However,
they were never able to marry because of his health and financial situation.
Between the autumn of 1818 and 1820 Keats produced some of his best known
works, such as La Belle Dame sans Merci and Lamia. After 1820 Keats' illness
became so severe that he had to leave England for the warmer climate of Italy. In
1821 he died of tuberculosis in Rome. He is buried there in the Protestant
cemetery.
Keats was the youngest of the Romantic poets and the first to die.
‘Ode To Autumn’
Keats's speaker opens his first stanza by addressing Autumn, describing its
abundance and its intimacy with the sun, with whom Autumn ripens fruits and
causes the late flowers to bloom. In the second stanza, the speaker describes the
figure of Autumn as a female goddess, often seen sitting on the granary floor, her
hair "soft-lifted" by the wind, and often seen sleeping in the fields or watching a
cider-press squeezing the juice from apples. In the third stanza, the speaker tells
Autumn not to wonder where the songs of spring have gone, but instead to listen to
her own music. At twilight, the "small gnats" hum above the shallows of the river,
lifted and dropped by the wind, and "full-grown lambs" bleat from the hills,
crickets sing, robins whistle from the garden, and swallows, gathering for their
coming migration, sing from the skies.
Form
"Ode To Autumn" is written in a three-stanza structure with a variable rhyme

scheme. Each stanza is eleven lines long and each is metered in a relatively precise
iambic pentameter. In terms of both thematic organization and rhyme scheme,
each stanza is divided roughly into two parts. In each stanza, the first part is four
lines long and the second part is seven lines. The first part of each stanza follows
an ABAB rhyme scheme, the first line rhyming with the third, and the second line
rhyming with the fourth. The second part of each stanza is longer and varies in
rhyme scheme: the first stanza is arranged CDEDCCE, and the second and third
stanzas are arranged CDECDDE. (Thematically, the first part of each stanza
serves to define the subject of the stanza, and the second part offers room for
40
musing, development, and speculation on that subject; however, this thematic
division is only very general.)
Themes
In both its form and descriptive surface, "To Autumn" is one of the simplest of
Keats's odes. There is nothing confusing or complex in Keats's paean to the season
of autumn, with its fruitfulness, its flowers, and the song of its swallows gathering
for migration. The extraordinary achievement of this poem lies in its ability to
suggest, explore, and develop a rich abundance of themes without ever ruffling its
calm, gentle, and lovely description of autumn. "Ode To Autumn" is concerned with
the much quieter activity of daily observation and appreciation.
"To Autumn" shows Keats's speaker paying homage to a particular goddess - in this
case, the deified season of Autumn. The selection of this season implicitly takes up
the other odes' themes of temporality, mortality, and change. Autumn in Keats's
ode is a time of warmth and plenty, but it is perched on the brink of winter's
desolation, as the bees enjoy "later flowers," the harvest is gathered from the
fields, the lambs of spring are now "full grown," and, in the final line of the poem,
the swallows gather for their winter migration. The understated sense of
inevitable loss in that final line makes it one of the most moving moments in all of
poetry; it can be read as a simple, uncomplaining summation of the entire human
condition.
Despite the coming chill of winter, the late warmth of autumn provides Keats's
speaker with ample beauty to celebrate: the cottage and its surroundings in the
first stanza, the agrarian haunts of the goddess in the second, and the locales of
natural creatures in the third. Keats's speaker is able to experience these
beauties in a sincere and meaningful way.
In "To Autumn", the sense of coming loss that permeates the poem confronts the
sorrow underlying the season's creativity. When Autumn's harvest is over, the
fields will be bare, the swaths with their "twined flowers" cut down, the cider-
press dry, the skies empty. But the connection of this harvesting to the seasonal
cycle softens the edge of the tragedy. In time, spring will come again, the fields
will grow again, and the birdsong will return. What makes "To Autumn" beautiful is
that it brings an engagement with that connection out of the realm of mythology
and fantasy and into the everyday world. The speaker has learned that an
acceptance of mortality is not destructive to an appreciation of beauty and has
gleaned wisdom by accepting the passage of time.
41
Group Work/Paired Work:
Research the origins and features of the ode on the Internet (paired work).
Does the poem have strong rhyme and rhythm? Why do you think that this may be
so?
Compile a list of images from each stanza that you feel creates a sense of Autumn
in the poem.
Stanza Images that Suggest Autumn

One
Two
Three
Independent Work
‘Ode To Autumn’ by John Keats

Poetic Technique Stanza One Stanza Two Stanza Three
Voice
Context
42
Form
Tone
Mood
Imagery
Content
Rhyme
Rhythm
Sample English Literature Essay
John Keats’ "Ode to Autumn" is a typical example of romantic poetry in which a

"oneness with nature" is revealed through sensuous images. Do you agree?
Sample Literature Question on: Ode to Autumn/The Darkling Thrush/A Bird

Came Down the Walk
Look again at Ode to Autumn by John Keats, which is about Nature, and at either
The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy or A Bird Came Down the Walk by Emily
Dickinson.
43
With close reference to the way the two poems are written, compare and contrast
the way each poet has been affected by nature, and explain which poem appeals to
you the more.
Focus on Language
Look again at stanza one of the poem. Write down a list of verbs that you think
give a sense of richness to this season of the harvest.
Keats personifies Autumn in the second stanza. How is she described? What does
she do?
What sort of images does Keats use in the third section to show the passing of
Autumn?
An ode is meant to be a poem of praise. How does the imagery that Keats uses
show us that Keats wants to celebrate the season of Autumn?
Assignment C
“Man no longer has respect for nature or the environment.” Discuss.
Assignment D
Write the diary entry John Keats may have written after the events described in
the poem.
Write a poem or a sequence of poems in which you personify the season and allow it
to speak to the reader about its main events and character. In these poems try to
use similes/metaphors/rhythm and rhyme where you think they would be
appropriate.
Write a short story using the title of one of the seasons as your starting point.
44
Oral Work
A piece of autobiography associated with the seasons. (Paired work/Formal

presentation).
UNIT 3
45
• The Daffodils by William Wordsworth
• Binsey Poplars by G. Manley Hopkins
• Break, Break, Break by Alfred Lord

Tennyson
The Daffodils
by William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle of the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
46
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced, but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
Biography
William Wordsworth was born on April 7th, 1770, in Cockermouth, Cumberland,
England. Young William’s parents, John and Ann, died during his boyhood. Raised
amid the mountains of Cumberland alongside the River Derwent, Wordworth grew
up in a rustic society, and spent a great deal of his time playing outdoors, in what
he would later remember as a pure communion with nature. In the early 1790s
William lived for a time in France, then in the grip of the violent Revolution;
Wordsworth’s philosophical sympathies lay with the revolutionaries, but his
loyalties lay with England, whose monarchy he was not prepared to see overthrown.
While in France, Wordsworth had a long affair with Annette Vallon, with whom he
had a daughter, Caroline.
47
Freed from financial worries by a legacy left to him in 1795, Wordsworth moved
with his sister Dorothy to Racedown, and then to Alfoxden in Grasmere, where
Wordsworth could be closer to his friend and fellow poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Together, Wordsworth and Coleridge began work on a book called Lyrical Ballads,
first published in 1798 and reissued with Wordsworth’s preface in 1802.
The publication of Lyrical Ballads represents a landmark moment for English

poetry; it was unlike anything that had come before, and paved the way for
everything that has come after. According to the theory that poetry resulted
from the "spontaneous overflow" of emotions, as Wordsworth wrote in the preface,
Wordsworth and Coleridge made it their task to write in the simple language of
common people, telling concrete stories of their lives. According to this theory,
poetry originated in "emotion recollected in a state of tranquility"; the poet then
surrendered to the emotion, so that the tranquility dissolved, and the emotion
remained in the poem. This explicit emphasis on feeling, simplicity, and the pleasure
of beauty over rhetoric, ornament, and formality changed the course of English
poetry, replacing the elaborate classical forms of Pope and Dryden with a new
Romantic sensibility. Wordsworth’s most important legacy, besides his lovely,
timeless poems, is his launching of the Romantic era, opening the gates for later
writers such as John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron in England, and
Emerson and Thoreau in America.
Following the success of Lyrical Ballads and his subsequent poem The Prelude, a
massive autobiography in verse form, Wordsworth moved to the stately house at
Rydal Mount where he lived with Dorothy, his wife Mary, and his children, until his
death in 1850. Wordsworth became the dominant force in English poetry while still
quite a young man, and he lived to be quite old. The last decades of Wordsworth’s
life were spent as Poet Laureate of England, and until his death he was widely
considered the most important author in England.
‘The Daffodils’
Summary
The speaker says that, wandering like a cloud floating above hills and valleys, he
encountered a field of daffodils beside a lake. The dancing, fluttering flowers
stretched endlessly along the shore, and though the waves of the lake danced
beside the flowers, the daffodils outdid the water in glee. The speaker says that a
poet could not help but be happy in such a joyful company of flowers. He says that
he stared and stared, but did not realize what wealth the scene would bring him.
For now, whenever he feels "vacant" or "pensive," the memory flashes upon "that
48
inward eye / That is the bliss of solitude," and his heart fills with pleasure, "and
dances with the daffodils."
Form
The four six-line stanzas of this poem follow a quatrain-couplet rhyme scheme:
ABABCC. Each line is metered in iambic tetrameter.
Commentary
This simple poem, one of the loveliest and most famous in the Wordsworth canon,
revisits the familiar subjects of nature and memory, this time with a particularly
(simple) spare, musical eloquence. The plot is extremely simple, depicting the poet’s
wandering and his discovery of a field of daffodils by a lake, the memory of which
pleases him and comforts him when he is lonely, bored, or restless. The
characterization of the sudden occurrence of a memory - the daffodils "flash upon
the inward eye / Which is the bliss of solitude" - is psychologically acute, but the
poem’s main brilliance lies in the reverse personification of its early stanzas. The
speaker is metaphorically compared to a natural object, a cloud - "I wandered
lonely as a cloud / That floats on high...", and the daffodils are continually
personified as human beings, dancing and "tossing their heads" in "a crowd, a host."
This technique implies an inherent unity between man and nature, making it one of
Wordsworth’s most basic and effective methods for instilling in the reader the
feeling the poet so often describes himself as experiencing.
Independent Work
‘The Daffodils’ by William Wordsworth

Poetic Stanza One Stanza Two Stanza Three Stanza Four
Technique
Voice
Context
Form
49
Tone
Mood
Imagery
Content
Rhyme
Rhythm
Activities
A second reading of the poem: Vocabulary Development

By using a dictionary define what each one of the italicized words mean in the
poem.
a) That floats on high o'er vales and hills_____________________________

b) Along the margin of the bay____________________________________
c) Tossing their heads in sprightly dance_____________________________
d) In such a jocund company______________________________________
e) What wealth the show to me had brought__________________________
f) For oft___________________________________________________
g) In vacant or in pensive mood____________________________________
i) Which is the bliss of solitude ___________________________________
50
A third reading of the poem: Comprehension
In the space provided below, translate The Daffodils. As you rewrite the poem, you
do not have to translate each word, but concentrate on creating a well-thought out
four (4) paragraphs that expresses, in prose form, what the poet tried to tell his
readers. Use all of the information that you have learned so far.
Paragraph 1:
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Paragraph 3:
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Paragraph 4:
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
Analyzing the organization of the poem - Awareness of Structure
a) Stanzas 1 and 2 - discuss the scene or setting of the poem. This is background
information that helps the reader make connections with the poet’s mind. List the
specific details about the setting mentioned in stanzas 1 and 2.
Example: clouds floating over vales and hills
51
b) Stanza 3 - explain how the poet felt, what he did, and how the scene affected
him.
How did the poet feel____________?

What did the poet do____________?
How did the scene affect him______?
c) Stanza 4 delves into the reason the poet is writing about daffodils and lakes,
vales and hills. Analyze the connection the author is trying to make with you, the
reader. Especially look at the verbs he uses to create this feeling.
Where does he lie?

_______________________________________________________
What flashes upon his eye?

_______________________________________________________
What does he do, then, in his inward eye?

_______________________________________________________
d) Study the organizational structure of Wordsworth’s poem.
First - Wordsworth informs the reader what he was doing

_______________________________________________________
Second - He mentions what he saw and where the daffodils were

_________________________________________________
Third - He compares them to something else, a simile

__________________________________________________________
Fourth
_____________________________________________________________
Fifth
52
_____________________________________________________________
Sixth
_____________________________________________________________
Seventh
_____________________________________________________________
Eighth
_____________________________________________________________
Ninth
_____________________________________________________________
Tenth
_____________________________________________________________
Create a poem that uses figurative language
1. Decide on an idea for a poem; break down your idea into several parts. Some
possible topics could be ones that deal with activities or hobbies that you do:
skate-boarding, or dancing, or swimming, or surfing, or playing the piano, or playing
video games, etc. The activity should have some meaning to you, as Wordsworth's
seeing the daffodils had for him.
Topic -
List activities you were doing.
Imagine and list your feelings.
What larger meaning does this activity have to you?
53
2. Come up with comparisons for the activity for your poem that will help your
reader visualize and feel what it means to you.
Activities, feelings, ideas

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
3. Create metaphors, similes, and personifications for your poem, using information
in the chart above.
4. Write your poem on a separate piece of paper in stanza form. Each line in a
stanza usually is a complete thought, almost like a sentence. Sometimes you can
think of a poem like a short story. The poem has stanzas that are like paragraphs,
each stanza can have its own topic sentences and supporting sentences. When you
write your poem, try to get across to the reader the feelings and attitude that you
have about your topic.
Focus on Language
Identify an example of figurative language in the poem: metaphor, simile or

personification. Comment briefly on its significance to the poem as a whole.
Consider the poem’s final stanza. How does the speaker’s understanding of the
scene change when he reflects on it later? What distinction does he make between
his experience of the scene at the time and his experience when he reflects on it?
Language Coursework
Assignment C
“Progress has gone too far. We have lost touch with nature.” Discuss.
54
Assignment D
Write the diary entry William Wordsworth may have written after the events
described in the poem. Keep in mind his age and the significance of when the poem
was written.
Write a poem or a sequence of poems to describe the beauty of nature. In these

poems try to use similes/metaphors/rhythm and rhyme where you think they would
be appropriate.
Have you ever been some place that you really liked? Describe the place.
Oral Work:
Formal Debate: “This house believes the future is out of our control.”
Binsey Poplars (felled 1879)

by Gerard Manley Hopkins
My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled,

Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun,
All felled, felled, are all felled;
Of a fresh and following folded rank
Not spared, not one
That dandled a sandalled
Shadow that swam or sank
On meadow and river and wind-wandering weed-winding bank.
O if we but knew what we do

When we delve or hew -
Hack and rack the growing green!
55
Since country is so tender
To touch, her being so slender,
That, like this sleek and seeing ball
But a prick will make no eye at all,
Where we, even when we mean
To mend her we end her,
When we hew or delve:
After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.
Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve
Strokes of havoc unselve
The sweet especial scene,
Rural scene, a rural scene,
Sweet especial rural scene.
GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS
Biography
Gerard Manley Hopkins was born in 1844 to devout Anglican parents who fostered
from an early age their eldest son’s commitment to religion and to the creative
arts. His mother, quite well educated for a woman of her day, was an avid reader.
His father wrote and reviewed poetry and even authored a novel, though it was
never published. Hopkins and his siblings showed similarly creative dispositions
from an early age, and Hopkins enjoyed a great deal of support and encouragement
for his creative endeavours. He studied drawing and music and at one point hoped
to become a painter - as, indeed, two of his brothers did. Even his earliest verses
displayed a vast talent.
Hopkins was born in Essex, England, in an area that was then being transformed by
industrial development. His family moved to the relatively undefiled neighbourhood
56
of Hampstead, north of the city, in 1852, out of a conviction that proximity to
nature was important to a healthy, wholesome, and religious upbringing. From 1854
to 1863 Hopkins attended Highgate Grammar School, where he studied under
Canon Dixon, who became a lifelong friend and who encouraged his interest in
Keats. At Oxford, Hopkins pursued Latin and Greek. In the 1860s Hopkins was
profoundly influenced by Christina Rossetti and was interested in medievalism, the
Pre-Raphaelites, and developments in Victorian religious poetry. He also became
preoccupied with the major religious controversies that were fermenting within
the Anglican Church. Hopkins entered into a process of soul-searching, and after
much deliberation abandoned the religion of his family and converted to
Catholicism. He threw his whole heart and life behind his conversion, deciding to
become a Jesuit priest.
Hopkins undertook a lengthy course of training for the priesthood; for seven years
he wrote almost no verse, having decided that one who had pledged his life to God
should not pursue poetry. Only at the urging of church officials did Hopkins resume
his poetry, while studying theology in North Wales, in 1875. He wrote The Wreck
of the Deutschland in 1876 and, during the course of the next year, composed
many of his most famous sonnets. Hopkins’s subject matter in these mature poems
is wholly religious - he believed that by making his work religious-themed he might
make poetry a part of his religious vocation. These post-1875 poems follow a style
quite different from that of Hopkins’s earlier verse. After his ordination in 1877,
Hopkins did parish work in a number of locales. He spent the last years of his short
life quite unhappily in Dublin. The great poet died of typhoid fever in Dublin in
1877.
‘BINSEY POPLARS’
Summary
The poet mourns the cutting of his "aspens dear," trees whose delicate beauty
resided not only in their appearance, but in the way they created "airy cages" to
tame the sunlight. These lovely trees, Hopkins laments, have all been "felled." He
compares them to an army of soldiers obliterated. He remembers mournfully the
way their "sandalled" shadows played along the winding bank where river and
meadow met.
Hopkins grieves over the wholesale destruction of the natural world, which takes
place because people fail to realize the implications of their actions. To "delve or
hew" (dig, as in mining, or chop down trees) is to treat the earth too harshly, for
"country" is something "so tender" that the least damage can change it irrevocably.
The poet offers as an analogy the pricking of an eyeball, an organ whose
57
mechanisms are subtle and powerful, though the tissues are infinitely delicate: to
prick it even slightly changes it completely from what it was to something
unrecognizable (and useless). Indeed, even an action that is meant to be beneficial
can affect the landscape in this way, Hopkins says. The earth held beauties before
our time that "after-comers" will have no idea of, since they are now lost forever.
It takes so little (only "ten or twelve strokes") to "unselve" the landscape, or alter
it so completely that it is no longer itself.
Form
This poem is written in "sprung rhythm," the innovative metric form developed by
Hopkins. In sprung rhythm the number of accents in a line are counted, but the
number of syllables are not. The result, in this poem, is that Hopkins is able to
group accented syllables together, creating striking onomatopoeic effects. In the
third line, for example, the heavy recurrence of the accented words "all" and
"felled" strike the ear like the blows of an axe on the tree trunks. However, in the
final three lines the repetition of phrases works differently. Here the technique
achieves a more wistful and song-like quality; the chanted phrase "sweet especial
rural scene" evokes the numb incomprehension of grief and the unwillingness of a
bereaved heart to let go. This poem offers a good example of the way Hopkins
chooses, alters, and invents words with a view to the sonorousness of his poems.
Here, he uses "dandled" (instead of a more familiar word such as "dangled") to
create a rhyme with "sandalled" and to echo the consonants in the final three lines
of the stanza.
Commentary
This poem is a dirge for a landscape that Hopkins had known intimately while
studying at Oxford. Hopkins here recapitulates the ideas expressed in some of his
earlier poems about the individuality of the natural object and the idea that its
very being is a kind of expression. Hopkins refers to this expression as "selving,"
and maintains that this "selving" is ultimately always an expression of God, his
creative power. Here, Hopkins emphasizes the fragility of the self: even a slight
alteration can cause a thing to cease to be what it most essentially is. In
describing the beauty of the aspens, Hopkins focuses on the way they interact
with and affect the space and atmosphere around them, changing the quality of
the light and contributing to the elaborate natural patterning along the bank of
the river. Because of these interrelations, felling a grove not only eradicates the
trees, but also "unselves" the whole countryside.
The poem likens the line of trees to a rank of soldiers. The military image implies
that the industrial development of the countryside equals a kind of (too often
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unrecognized) warfare. The natural curves and winding of the river bank contrast
with the rigid linearity of man-made arrangements of objects, a rigidity implied by
the soldiers marching in formation. Hopkins points out how the narrow-minded
priorities of an age bent on standardization and regularity contributes to an
obliteration of beauty. Nature allows both lines and curves, and lets them interplay
in infinitely complex and subtle ways; the line of trees, while also straight and
orderly like soldiers, nevertheless follows the curve of the river, so that their
"rank" is "following" and "folded," caught up in intricate interrelations rather than
being merely rigid, efficient, and abstract. Its shadows, which are cross-hatched
like sandal straps and constantly changing, offer another example of the
patterning of nature. This passage expresses something of what Hopkins means by
the word "inscape": the notion of "inscape" refers both to an object’s perfect
individualism and to the object’s possession of an internal order governing its
"selving" and connecting it to other objects in the world.
The pricked eyeball makes a startling and painful image; in case the readers have
not yet shared Hopkins’s acute pain over the felled poplars, the poet makes sure we
cringe now. The image suggests that when the trees disappear from sight, the
ramifications are as tragic as the loss of our very organ of vision. The implication is
that we are harmed as much as the landscape; Hopkins wants us to feel this as a
real loss to ourselves. Not only will the landscape not be there, but we will no
longer be able to see it in this way, it really is as if our eyes were punctured. For
Hopkins, the patterning of the natural world is always a reflection of God and a
mode of access to God; thus this devastation has implications for our ability to be
religious people and to be in touch with the divine presence. The narrowness of the
industrial mindset loses sight of these wider implications. Hopkins puts this
blindness in a biblical context with his echoes of Jesus’s phrase at his own
crucifixion: "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."
Independent Work
‘Binsey Poplars’ by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Poetic Stanza One Stanza Two
Technique
Voice
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Context
Form
Tone
Mood
Imagery
Content
Rhyme
Rhythm
Activties
Discussion
In what ways does Hopkins show the beauty of the Binsey Poplars?
How effective do you find the poet’s lament at the chopping down of trees?
Think about and discuss the relevance of the poem today (environmental).
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Look again at ‘Binsey Poplars’ by Hopkins and ‘The Daffodils’ by Wordsworth.
With close reference to the way the two poems are written compare and contrast
the way each poet has been affected by nature and explain which poem appeals to
you more.
Language Coursework
Assignment C
“Change is the only constant.” Discuss.

“Technology has outstripped morality.” Discuss.
Assignment D
Write in prose or verse about a scene/building, etc that you know that has been
harmed or ruined?
Oral Work
Debate: “This house believes the environment should be our first priority.”
Debate: “This house believes we should turn back.”
Debate: “This house believes we know not what we do.”
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Break, Break, Break
by Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)
Break, break, break,

On thy cold gray stones, 0 Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.
O well for the fisherman's boy,

That he shouts with his sister at play!
O well for the sailor lad,
That he sings in his boat on the bay!
And the stately ships go on

To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!
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At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the ender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.
TENNYSON
Biography
The English poet Alfred Tennyson was born in Sommersby, England on August 6,
1809, twenty years after the start of the French Revolution and toward the end of
the Napoleonic Wars. He was the fourth of twelve children born to George and
Elizabeth Tennyson. His father, a church reverend, supervised his sons’ private
education, though his heavy drinking impeded his ability to fulfil his duties. His
mother was an avid supporter of the Evangelical movement, which aimed to replace
nominal Christianity with a genuine, personal religion. The young Alfred
demonstrated an early flair for poetry, composing a full-length verse drama at the
age of fourteen.
In 1827, Tennyson left home to study at Trinity College, Cambridge, under the
supervision of William Whewell, the great nineteenth-century scientist,
philosopher, and theologian. Tennyson soon became friendly with a group of
undergraduates calling themselves the "Apostles," which met to discuss literary
issues. The group was led by Arthur Henry Hallam, who soon became Tennyson’s
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closest friend. Tennyson and Hallam toured Europe together while still
undergraduates, and Hallam later became engaged to the poet’s sister Emily. In
1830, Tennyson published Poems, Chiefly Lyrical, to Hallam’s great praise. However,
within the larger critical world, this work, along with Tennyson’s 1832 volume
including "The Lady of Shalott" and "The Lotus-Eaters," met with hostile
disparagement; the young poet read his reviews with dismay.
In 1833, no longer able to afford college tuition, Tennyson was living back at home
with his family when he received the most devastating blow of his entire life: he
learned that his dear friend Hallam had died suddenly of fever while travelling
abroad. His tremendous grief at the news permeated much of Tennyson’s later
poetry, including the great elegy "In Memoriam." This poem represents the poet’s
struggles not only with the news of his best friend’s death, but also with the new
developments in astronomy, biology, and geology.
Tennyson first began to achieve critical success with the publication of his Poems
in 1842, a work that include "Ulysses," "Tithonus," and other famous short lyrics
about mythical and philosophical subjects. At the time of publication, England had
seen the death of Coleridge, Shelley, Byron, Keats, and indeed all of the great
Romantic poets except Wordsworth; Tennyson thus filled a void in the English
literary scene. In 1845, he began receiving a small government pension for his
poetry. In 1850, Wordsworth, who had been Britain’s Poet Laureate, died at the
age of 80. Upon the publication of "In Memoriam," Tennyson was named to succeed
him in this honour. With this title he became the most popular poet in Victorian
England and could finally afford to marry Emily Sellwood, whom he had loved since
1836. The marriage began sadly - the couple’s first son was stillborn in 1851 - but
the couple soon found happiness. In 1853 they were able to move to a secluded
country house on the Isle of Wight, where they raised two sons named Hallam and
Lionel.
As Poet Laureate, Tennyson represented the literary voice of the nation and, as
such, he made occasional pronouncements on political affairs. For example, "The
Charge of the Light Brigade" (1854) described a disastrous battle in the Crimean
War and praised the heroism of the British soldiers there.
In 1884, the Royals granted Tennyson a baronetcy; he was now known as Alfred,
Lord Tennyson. He dedicated most of the last fifteen years of his life to writing a
series of full-length dramas in blank verse, which, however, failed to excite any
particular interest. In 1892, at the age of 83, he died of heart failure and was
buried among his illustrious literary predecessors at Westminster Abbey. Although
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Tennyson was the most popular poet in England in his own day, he was often the
target of mockery by his immediate successors, the Edwardians and Georgians of
the early twentieth century. Today, however, many critics consider Tennyson to be
the greatest poet of the Victorian Age; and he stands as one of the major
innovators of lyric and metrical form in all of English poetry.
‘BREAK, BREAK BREAK’
This short lyric was probably written in 1834. It was inspired by the death of
Hallam. No summary is necessary, or indeed possible, although it should be noted
that the eye moves from the breaking waves to the children on the shore, then
from the young sailor in his boat on the bay to the ships farther out, then back to
the sea breaking on the stones. The movement is circular, and the poem ends with
the despair and inability to understand with which it began. Apart from the
remorseless and hopeless breaking of the sea on the rocks, the poem seems
content with observation in place of imagery. This is probably its essential meaning:
the world is meaningless.
NOTES
O well for: in a double sense: that is, it is well for him, but not for me; and also it
is well for him, since he does not know what the future will bring. The phrase is
ironic.
stately: the power of this adjective in its context is that the ships, though
stately and dignified, are vulnerable. Wordsworth has a comparable effect in his
sonnet ‘Composed upon Westminster Bridge', where he speaks of the great sleeping
city as a sight ‘touching in its majesty’.
haven: harbour
"Break, break, break" is a bitter poem on unrecompensed, pointless loss, but it

achieves its power and makes its point very indirectly, largely through structural
implications. The direct statements are deliberately localized and simple, making
concrete the emotion of the poem without stating its implications. Because the
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poem is so indirect, a good many competing interpretations have been advanced,
but all are based on perceptions of the poem’s structure. The middle part of the
poem - the image of the children’s happiness and of the stately ships - is framed
by an address to the sea. The explicit terms of the address change a great deal, of
course, between the first and the last stanza:

On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.
............

At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!
But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me.
The original desire for poetic utterance ("I would that my tongue could utter") is
fulfilled, it seems, and the unnamed, unformulated "thoughts" crystallize into one
final summarizing thought. Though it has been argued that the last lines represent
for the speaker a kind of acceptance, even a positive resolution, they seem to me
not to release tension or to solve a real dilemma but to state an agonized
perception. That is, the original problem of achieving speech yields to a greater,
genuinely impossible problem.
The ‘and’ which begins the third line of the first stanza implies an imagined bond
with the sea; the speaker searches for union with the blank, monotonous continuity
of the indifferent, smashing waves. The middle two stanzas of the poem, however,
present a vision of joy and assured life so alien to and distant from the speaker
that, by the time he returns to the immediate focus of the rocks and the breaking
sea in the last stanza, he senses, not fundamental unity - not even a unity with the
sea’s unconcern - but fundamental disjunction. The ‘and’ is replaced by ‘but’:
instead of nature’s participation in his grief, he sees nature’s absolute
impersonality. He is mocked not only by the joy of the laughing children at play but
by the bleak harshness of the sea as well; for he is denied even the continuity of
memory. "The tender grace of a day that is dead" is as finally absent as the
"vanished hand". The speaker’s self-indulgent, romantic communion with the rocks
and the indifferent sea whips back on him, and he is left only with the certainty
that there is no continuity and no meaning in time, memory, or death. He is left in
pointless, unheroic isolation.
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Independent Work
‘Break, Break, Break’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Poetic Stanza One Stanza Two Stanza Three Stanza Four
Technique
Voice
Context
Form
Tone
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Mood
Imagery
Content
Rhyme
Rhythm
Activities
Verse 1:
What is the writer thinking as he watches the waves breaking on the shore?
Why can’t he ‘utter’ those thoughts?
Are they depressing, sad, etc?
Verse 2:
What does the phrase ‘O well’ mean?
Can you think of any modern day equivalents?
Verse 3:
What is the ‘haven under the hill’?
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What voice is ‘still’, etc?
Verse 4:
Why is the first line of the poem repeated?
What picture is conjured up in your mind by the image of the sea endlessly
breaking on shore?
With close reference to Tennyson’s ‘Break, Break, Break’ and one other
appropriately chosen poem, compare and contrast the treatment of the theme of
sadness by each poet.
Assignment C
“Life is one long journey of disappointment.” Discuss.
Assignment D
Write about a time, in prose or poetry form, when you felt unhappy and no-one
seemed to care.
Oral Work
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Debate: “This house believes that the glass is half empty and not half full.”
UNIT 4
• Shall I Compare thee … by William

Shakespeare
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• My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
• A Parental Ode by Thomas Hood
Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?

by William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest,
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest;
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
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Summary
The speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to the beloved: "Shall I
compare thee to a summer's day?" The next eleven lines are devoted to such a
comparison. In line 2, the speaker stipulates what mainly differentiates the young
man from the summer’s day: he is "more lovely and more temperate." Summer’s
days tend toward extremes: they are shaken by "rough winds"; in them, the sun
("the eye of heaven") often shines "too hot," or too dim. And summer is fleeting: its
date is too short, and it leads to the withering of autumn, as "every fair from fair
sometime declines." The final quatrain of the sonnet tells how the beloved differs
from the summer in that respect: his beauty will last forever ("Thy eternal summer
shall not fade...") and never die. In the couplet, the speaker explains how the
beloved’s beauty will accomplish this feat, and not perish because it is preserved in
the poem, which will last forever; it will live "as long as men can breathe or eyes
can see."
Commentary
This sonnet is certainly the most famous in the sequence of Shakespeare’s sonnets;
it may be the most famous lyric poem in English. Among Shakespeare’s works, only
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lines such as "To be or not to be" and "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"
are better-known. This is not to say that it is at all the best or most interesting or
most beautiful of the sonnets; but the simplicity and loveliness of its praise of the
beloved has guaranteed its place.
On the surface, the poem is simply a statement of praise about the beauty of the
beloved; summer tends to unpleasant extremes of windiness and heat, but the
beloved is always mild and temperate. Summer is incidentally personified as the
"eye of heaven" with its "gold complexion"; the imagery throughout is simple and
unaffected, with the "darling buds of May" giving way to the "eternal summer",
which the speaker promises the beloved. The language, too, is comparatively
unadorned for the sonnets; it is not heavy with alliteration or assonance, and nearly
every line is its own self-contained clause - almost every line ends with some
punctuation, which affects a pause.
Sonnet 18 is the first poem in the sonnets not to explicitly encourage the young
man to have children. The "procreation" sequence of the first 17 sonnets ended
with the speaker’s realization that the young man might not need children to
preserve his beauty; he could also live, the speaker writes at the end of Sonnet 17,
"in my rhyme." Sonnet 18, then, is the first "rhyme" - the speaker’s first attempt
to preserve the young man’s beauty for all time. An important theme of the sonnet
(as it is an important theme throughout much of the sequence) is the power of the
speaker’s poem to defy time and last forever, carrying the beauty of the beloved
down to future generations. The beloved’s "eternal summer" shall not fade
precisely because it is embodied in the sonnet: "So long as men can breathe or eyes
can see," the speaker writes in the couplet, "So long lives this, and this gives life to
thee."
Activity 1
• Students break into small groups to read Sonnet 18.

• Discuss the poem’s tone and mood; focus on Shakespeare’s eternal love.
• Identify unfamiliar words found in the poem and discuss what they might
mean.
• Students, equipped with dictionaries/thesauruses, ‘translate’ the poem into
‘plain’ English.
Activity 2
• As a class, discuss what the sonnet form is, as well as the differences
between various poets and the kinds of sonnets they wrote.
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• Discuss the Shakespearean sonnet:
a. Contains 14 lines, each written in iambic pentameter.
b. Contains three stanzas of ABAB rhyme scheme and a couplet at the end.
c. The first stanza introduces the problem, main character, setting, etc.
d. The second and third stanzas develop this idea.
e. The couplet concludes the idea.
• Identify Shakespeare’s use of iambic pentameter; focus on the location of
stressed and unstressed syllables.
• On board, teacher writes various lines: Are they written in iambic
pentameter?
Activity 3
• Watch selected scenes from Shakespeare in Love (when Shakespeare meets

Lady Viola at her home and demonstrates his infatuation, and returns to his
home to write a sonnet. In following scenes, Viola reads aloud portions of the
sonnet he has written her. Teacher discretion is strongly advised - some
scenes should not be shown in the interim between the writing and reading
of the poem).
• Discuss how this relates to Sonnet 18.
Resources for Activity 4 and 5:
Recordings of songs sharing the meaning/mood of Sonnet 18 and CD player

(Suggestions include:‘Everything I Do, I Do it For You’ by Bryan Adams, ‘Every
Little Thing He Does is Magic’ by Shawn Colvin, ‘Just the Way You Are’ by Billy
Joel, ‘Barbara Ann’ by The Beach Boys, ‘Barcarolle’ by Offenbach from Tales of
Hoffmann)
Poems sharing the meaning/mood of Sonnet 18 (Suggestions include: ‘Lizzie

Pitofsky’ by Judith Viorst, ‘Deaf Donald’ by Shel Silverstein, ‘Jenny Kissed Me’, by
Leigh Hunt, ‘My Life is a Bowl’, by May Riley Smith, and ‘She Walks in Beauty’, by
Lord Byron)
Activity 4
• Review the tone, mood, and meaning of Sonnet 18.

• Solicit student responses as to whether these ideas are still found today
(they will almost certainly respond yes!) Where are such ideas found? (You
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may receive a wide variety of responses; if music is not mentioned, add it to
the discussion yourself).
• Discuss how music often contains these ideas, and has for centuries; songs
need not even contain lyrics to be similar to the mood and tone of Sonnet 18!
• The teacher plays selected songs one at a time. Discuss student responses.
Activity 5
• Review the idea that the tone, mood, and meaning of Sonnet 18 are found in
many areas, including other poetry.
• Provide students with copies of the selected poems to compare with Sonnet
18; you may use those listed above or select your own.
• Read the poems aloud.
• Discuss each poem as a class; how do they compare to Sonnet 18? What is
your personal feeling toward each poem? When were they written?
• Students create a Venn diagram comparing the similarities and differences
between Sonnet 18 and any one of the poems read in class.
Sample English Literature Essays
“Poetry is the image of man and nature.” Discuss the importance of the theme of
nature in two poems.
How is the theme of love treated differently in the poems ‘My Last Duchess’ by
Browning and ‘Shall I compare thee’ by Shakespeare?
Focus on Language
Sonnet 18 is one of the most famous poems in the English language. Why do you
think this is the case? How does the speaker use natural imagery to create a
picture of the young man's beauty?
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Assignment D
Write about someone or something that you really love.
My Last Duchess
by Robert Browning
That's my last Duchess painted on the wall,

Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf’s hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will't please you sit and look at her? I said
‘Frà Pandolf’ by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 't was not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
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Frà Pandolf chanced to say 'Her mantle laps
Over my lady's wrist too much,' or 'Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint
Half-flush that dies along her throat:' such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart - how shall I say? - too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed; she like whate'er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir,'t was all one! My favour at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace - all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
Or blush, at least. She thanked men, - good! but thanked
Somehow - I know not how - as if she ranked
My gift of a nine hundred years old name
With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame
This sort of trifling! Even had you skill
In speech (which I have not) - to make your will
Quite clear to such an one, and say, 'Just this
Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
Or there exceed the mark' - and if she let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse,
-E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Or sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will't please you rise? We'll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master's known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretence
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed
At starting, is my object. Nay, we'll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
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Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!
ROBERT BROWNING
Biography
Robert Browning (1812-89) was, with Alfred Lord Tennyson, one of the two most
celebrated Victorian poets. His father was a bank clerk, and Browning educated
himself by reading in the family library. He published many verse dramas and
dramatic monologues (poems, like My Last Duchess, in which a single character
speaks to the reader), notably the collections Men and Women (1855) and Dramatis
Personae (1864). His greatest success came in 1868 with The Ring and the Book - a
verse narrative in twelve books, spoken by a range of different characters. In her
lifetime his wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61) was more famous. She was
a semi-invalid, following an accident in her teens. In 1846 she and Robert ran away
from her father (who tried to control her) and eloped to Italy.
‘My Last Duchess’
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In Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess," a portrait of the egocentric and power
loving Duke of Ferrara is painted for us. Although the Duke’s monologue appears on
the surface to be about his late wife, a close reading will show that the mention of
his last duchess is merely a side note in his self-important speech. Browning uses
the dramatic monologue form very skilfully to show us the controlling, jealous, and
arrogant traits the Duke possessed without ever mentioning them explicitly.
The first two lines of the poem introduce us to the main topic of the Duke’s
speech, a painting of his late wife: "That’s my last Duchess painted on the
wall,/Looking as if she were alive." We immediately begin to suspect that the
duchess is no longer alive, but are not sure. The clever language Browning chose
suggested that something was wrong, but left enough ambiguity to quickly capture
our attention as readers. Also in these lines, we are given our first hint that the
Duchess is really not all that important to the Duke; he speaks of the painting as if
it was the Duchess, suggesting that his late wife was nothing more than her
external appearance. Instead of the painting looking as if it were alive, the
Duchess looks as if she were alive. Again, this seemingly small detail gives a
significant hint about what lies ahead in the poem.
While the Duke describes the history of the painting, he mentions the artist’s
name, Frà Pandolf, three times (lines 3, 6, 16). The first mention of the name was
all that was necessary to let the listener know who painted the work. The words
the painter or the artist could easily have been substituted for the second two.
The way in which the Duke repeatedly mentions the name Frà Pandolf suggests a
self-pride in the fact that he was able to hire such a famous painter. Frà Pandolf is
actually a fictional name, but we can assume that in the poem he is a celebrated
artist. The Duke repeats his name as a form of bragging about his wealth.
The Duke also shows off his control in the beginning parts of the poem. He adds a
parenthesis in his speech, "since none puts by/The curtain I have drawn for you,
but I" (lines 9-10). Here he says that nobody but him has the power to display the
painting. But this is obvious and did not need to be said. Since the painting is in his
home and he owns it, of course he is the one who would draw the curtain to display
it. He only adds this statement to highlight his control. As the poem progresses, we
find more mention of the Duke’s love of control and realize that it is a very
important thing to him. This line also is important because it shows that the
Duchess (now in the painting) is under complete control of the Duke and can only be
seen by others when he wishes it.
It was the lack of control that the Duke felt over his wife that caused him to kill
her. "She had/A heart - how shall I say? - too soon made glad,/Too easily
impressed" (lines 21-23). The Duke felt that his wife was too appreciative of the
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attention that other men paid her. He did not openly accuse her of adultery, but
condemned her flirtatious behaviour. He claimed, "all and each/Would draw from
her alike the approving speech,/Or blush, at least" (lines 29-31). To the Duke, it
seemed as if every man who passed his wife elicited a special, intimate reaction.
The Duke wanted his wife to smile at no one but himself.
The climax of the poem occurs in these lines where he describes what happened
when his wife’s affection continued to be non-exclusive:
Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. (lines 43-46)
The Duchess’s smiles to the other men aroused an anger in the Duke so powerful
that he gave commands to have her killed. His jealousy stemmed from his perceived
lack of control that he had over his wife. Now that she was dead and existed only
in the painting, he could have absolute control over her. His controlling nature
overwhelmed his morality and love for his wife. I think Browning chose to have the
Duke speak about his wife not because she was important to him, but because the
story of her murder displayed the controlling character of the Duke so well. The
unemotional and nonchalant way in which the Duke tells the story further
accentuates his character.
The final lines support the suggestion that the Duchess was not the main focus of
the poem. The Duke says to the emissary that he has been speaking to as they are
leaving his house, "Notice Neptune, though,/Taming a sea-horse, thought a
rarity,/Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me" (lines 54-56). The Duke’s
description of this statue is strikingly similar to that which he gave of his
Duchess’s portrait. He again highlights the name of the artist and the rarity of the
work. And, we can assume that although this is the end of the poem, it is not the
end of the dialogue between the Duke and the emissary. Just as we did not receive
the beginning of the conversation from Browning, we do not receive the ending. It
is quite possible that after the poem ended, the Duke continued to describe the
statue of Neptune in as much detail as he did the portrait. The poem focused on
this segment because it best highlighted the Duke’s controlling character.
The arrogance of the Duke was best exhibited by subtle comments that he made
throughout his speech. He scoffed at the idea that his former duchess could rank
"My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name/With anybody’s gift" (lines 33-34).
Here, the duke made it sound as if he was being generous when he agreed to marry
his wife. He felt that she should have recognized more clearly what a wonderful
gift he had given her. Just a moment later, he reasserts his superiority by stating
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that "I choose/Never to stoop" (lines 42-43). The Duke feels that he is too
important to even be bothered with small annoyances. He will not stoop to the
lowness of asking his wife to cease a behaviour that is obviously upsetting him.
Instead, he orders someone else to kill her because even the act of killing her is
beneath him.
Even in statements that on the surface appear to be humble, the Duke furthers his
arrogance. He says, "Even had you skill/In speech - (which I have not) -" (lines35-
36). There is a great deal of irony in this statement that overwhelms any modesty
that might have existed. The Duke’s claim not to have skill in speech lies in the
middle of a speech expertly constructed with rhyming lines, regular meter, and
imperious diction. An AABB rhyme scheme is found regularly throughout the poem.
Extemporaneously coming up with the words necessary to carry out such a rhyme
scheme would require a great deal of skill in speech. An iambic pentameter is used
throughout almost the entire speech. This also requires a fair amount of skill, for
even though iambic speech is common in English, keeping it so well regulated is
difficult. Finally, the diction further shows the skill of the Duke. He chooses words
that express his authority and his education along with what he was trying to say.
The Duke knows that he has great skill in speech and he also knows that the
emissary knows this. He is only saying that he does not possess skill in speech
because he knows that his audience will not believe him. His show of modesty is
merely an illusion, not true modesty.
The overarching irony in Browning’s "My Last Duchess" is that it really is not about
the Duchess, but instead about the controlling, jealous, and arrogant nature of the
Duke. In his monologue describing a painting of his former wife, the Duke
introduces us to his dark and sinister qualities. By giving us the Duke of Ferrara as
an example, Robert Browning subtly condemns the nobility for their poor
character.
Analyse the theme of relationships in ‘My Last Duchess’ and one other poem in the
Anthology.
Choose two poems on the theme of love. Compare the way in which the poets treat
the theme, highlighting similarities and differences in their content and poetic
technique.
Compare and contrast how two poets in the anthology have explored love and its
consequences.
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Focus on Language
What you need to find out first is the "who, where, when, and why" of the poem -
that is, who is speaking to whom and at what time and for what purpose. Try to
find out the role the listener plays in this poem.
What is the last duchess like? (See ll. 21-34)
What is the Duke’s attitude to his Duchess? (e.g. "Who'd stoop to blame /This sort
of trifling?" "E'en then would be some stooping; and I chose never to stoop"; "This
grew; I gave command; /Then all smiles stopped together"; "There she stands/As
if alive," etc.)
What does the ending reveal about the Duke? For instance, the mentioning of
dowry, and "Neptune ... taming a sea-horse."
Language Coursework
Assignment C
“Money and power cannot buy you love.” Discuss.
Assignment D
Create a villainous character and write a description of him or her.
Oral Work:
“Browning’s language now seems old-fashioned. His poem, though, is every bit as
relevant today as when he wrote it almost two hundred years ago.” Discuss.
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A Parental Ode to My Son, Aged Three Years and Five Months
by Thomas Hood
Thou happy, happy elf!

(But stop, - first let me kiss away that tear) -
Thou tiny image of myself!
(My love, he's poking peas into his ear!)
Thou merry, laughing sprite!
With spirits feather-light,
Untouched by sorrow and unsoiled by sin
(Good heavens! the child is swallowing a pin!)
Thou little tricksy Puck!

With antic toys so funnily bestuck,
Light as the singing bird that wings the air -
(The door! the door! he'll tumble down the stair!)
Thou darling of thy sire!
(Why Jane, he'll set his pinafore a-fire!)
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Thou imp of mirth and joy!
In love's dear chain so strong and bright a link,
Thou idol of thy parents - (Drat the boy!
There goes my ink!)
Thou cherub but of earth;

Fit playfellow for Fays, by moonlight pale,
In harmless sport and mirth,
(That dog will bite him if he pulls its tail!)
Thou human humming-bee, extracting honey
From every blossom in the world that blows,
Singing in Youth's Elysium ever sunny -
(Another tumble! - that's his precious nose!)
Thy father's pride and hope!

(He'll break the mirror with that skipping-rope!)
With pure heart newly stamped from Nature's mint
(Where did he learn that squint?)
Thou young domestic dove!
(He'll have that jug off, with another shove!)
Dear nursling of the hymeneal nest!
(Are those tom clothes his best?)
Little epitome of man!
(He'll climb upon the table, that's his plan!)
Touched with the beauteous tints of dawning life -
(He's got a knife!)
Thou enviable being!

No storms, no clouds, in thy blue sky foreseeing,
Play on, play on,
My elfin John!
Toss the light ball – bestride the stick –
(I knew so many cakes would make him sick!)
With fancies buoyant as the thistledown,
Prompting the face grotesque, and antic brisk,
With many a lamb-like frisk,
(He’s got the scissors, snipping at your gown!)
Thou pretty opening rose!

(Go to your mother, child, and wipe your nose!)
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Balmy, and breathing music like the South,
(He really brings my heart into my mouth!)
Fresh as the morn, and brilliant as its star, -
(I wish that window had an iron bar!)
Bold as the hawk, yet gentle as the dove –
(I’ll tell you what, my love,
I cannot write, unless he’s sent above!)
*Listen to the poem being read at:
http://www.cbc.ca/poetryplus/lyrical/hood.html
THOMAS HOOD
Thomas Hood (1799-1845), was born in London, England, the son of a bookseller. He
established himself as editor of a number of reputable periodicals and wrote much
humorous and satirical verse. Although well-regarded by his contemporaries, his
satire was generally criticized for lacking the caustic bite more often popular with
British audiences.
‘A Parental Ode to My Son …’
What is the poem about?

The poet is trying to write a poem extolling the beauties and virtues of his beloved
young son. However, the little scamp keeps distracting him by getting up to all the
usual tricks of his age group and so the poet has to ask the mother to take him
away.
The parent
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The parent is a father, loving, tender and besotted with the child. When he is
trying to be a poet he uses lots of really flowery language and constructions to
describe his love for the child - this compares really delightfully with the practical
and realistic exclamations with which the poem is punctuated as the child
interrupts/distracts his father.
The child
The child is a young son, aged as we know from the title, exactly three years and
five months. His name is John and he appears timeless - a twentieth century
toddler gets up to exactly the same antics as did this young scamp a hundred and
fifty years ago. We do not really see the child at all through the flowery, poetical
side of the poem (just his father’s infinite and beautifully expressed love for him)
but we get a vivid, moving picture of him in his father’s asides. A much-loved child.
The tone of the poem

The poem is detailed, tender and loving. It is a super juxtaposition (putting next to
each other) of the deliberate flowery style of poetry which is so representative of
Victorian verse and a very human voice describing a very real child that is as
relevant today as it was all those years ago. The poem is very humorous -
the humour is created by the father’s fussing and tone of voice, the fact he can’t
get on with what he has to do when the toddler is present and also some of the
comparisons.
The shape of the poem

The poem is in six stanzas and has a very strong sense of rhythm and a rigid rhyme
scheme within each stanza though each stanza is not the same. (Probably because
the writer was being so distracted by his son!)
Some examples of the poet’s specific use of language
metaphor - the poet uses a string of metaphors to describe his son: many of them
are not human: “elf”, “sprite”, “Puck”, “imp” which refer both to his size but also
the detachment from human cares with which the boy lives his little life. This is
picked up on again later in the poem when the poet addresses his son: “Thou
enviable being!/ No storms, no clouds, in thy blue sky foreseeing” when he extols
the life of the carefree child. He is also referred to as a “humming-bee” a “dove”
and “an opening rose” - none of which are human but which convey the senses of
noise and innocence intended
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simile - the child is compared to “a singing bird” a “lamb” “thistledown” “the morn”
and “its star” - these stress his innocence, freshness and the new ways of looking
at life which a child brings into a family.
alliteration - used to link words together for emphasis and to make them
memorable - “domestic dove”, “human humming-bee”.
It is the use of loving language, the endearments carefully written to display love
for this child - “darling of thy sire”, “idol of thy parents”, “father’s pride and hope”
which show us how much this child is loved by his parents - and yet it is still the
practical asides which really speak across the years to the heart.
Focus on Language
• How do you see the relationship being described here?
• What do you like about the poem and why?
• Think about descriptions and uses of language.
• Which poems would you compare it with?
Analyse the theme of relationships in Hood’s poem ‘A Parental Ode…’ and in one
other poem from the Anthology.
Assignment C
“Parents should have the right to smack their own children.” Discuss.
Assignment D
Write a story entitled ‘Father and Son’.

“ “ “ “ ‘The Joys of Parenthood’.
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Oral Work
Should both parents assume equal responsibilty in child rearing? Explain why or
why not.
What are the essential characteristics of a good parent?
What do you think are the best methods of disciplining children? Explain.
Discussion: “Your parents aren’t always the people you think they are.”
Debate: “This house believes that men are but children of a larger growth.”
UNIT 5
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• Upon My Son… by Ann Bradstreet
• Remembrance by Emily Bronte
• Remember by Christina Rossetti
Upon My Son Samuel his Going for England, November 6, 1657

by Ann Bradstreet
Thou might, God of sea and land,

I here resign into thy hand
The son of prayers, of vows, of tears,
The child I stay'd for many years.
Thou heard'st me then, and gav'st him me;
Hear me again, I give him thee.
He's mine, but more, O Lord, thine own,
For sure thy grace on him is shown.
No friend I have like thee to trust,
For mortal helps are brittle dust.
Preserve, O Lord, from storms and wrack,
Protect him there, and bring him back:
And if thou shalt spare me a space,
That I again may see his face,
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Then shall I celebrate thy praise,
And bless thee for't even all my days.
If otherwise I go to rest,
Thy will be done, for that is best;
Persuade my heart I shall him see
For ever happefy'd with thee.
ANNE BRADSTREET
Biography
Anne Bradstreet was born in Northamptonshire, England, in 1612. Her father,
Thomas Dudley, was steward to the Earl of Lincoln. Anne had a private tutor, and
access to the Earl’s library, and was, as a result, well educated, having a knowledge
of Greek, Latin, French and Hebrew. In 1628 she married Simon Bradstreet and in
1630 sailed with her family to America. The three month voyage on the Arbella
was rough and although she lived a reasonably comfortable life as the daughter of
one, then the wife of another, Governor of Massachusetts, things were different
and much more primitive than in England. Anne lived in a strongly Puritan society
and was unusual in that she broke the boundaries of wifehood and motherhood.
Despite being the happily married mother of eight children she became a published
poet. She died in 1672.
Social Context
Anne Bradstreet lived in a New England colony, with all the hardships that life in a
sparsely populated area presented: threats of Indian attack; epidemics; hazard of
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childbirth; loneliness. It was also a Puritan society, strong in the beliefs that God
controls everything, that suffering is sent to purify us and that worldly pleasures
are at best, vanity, and at worst, sinful. A woman’s place was in the home. It was
not the ideal climate for writing - women had little time for leisure activities;
society was not in favour of women writing, and there was no tradition of it in
America. As the Reverend Thomas Parker, a minister in Newbury, Massachusetts,
wrote to his sister, Elizabeth Avery, in England: “Your printing of a book, beyond
the custom of your sex, doth rankly smell.”
Literary Context
Anne Bradshaw’s poetry was first published in “The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up
In America; by a Gentlewoman in these parts”. Unknown to her, her brother-in-law
took it to England and had it published. It received some acclaim, and much
censure, because of her sex. She is the first published poet in America - and a
woman. At this time in America poetry was read by the educated colonists. It was
passed around in manuscript form among family, friends and communities.
Bradstreet’s two best known New England contemporaries – Edward Taylor and
Michael Bigglesworth – were conventional. They wrote to “teach, to preach, to
warn, inspire, console and entertain, to confirm cultural values and identity” (The
Heath Anthology of American Literature: Jeffrey Hammond (St Mary’s College,
Maryland) Ivy Schwatzer, Dartmouth College). In England the Metaphysical poets –
such as Donne and Marvell – were incorporating rational discussion of phenomena,
using conceits (witty comparisons) and hyperbole. Milton’s complex poetry focused
on religion (like Bradshaw he was a Puritan), Greek and Roman mythology, and the
evils caused by women. Bradstreet is influenced to some extent by all of these.
She writes from and about a Puritan community. She uses conceits - The Author
To Her Book is one (a response to the publication of her work before she had
polished it). Her themes are everyday and universal: love, childbirth, housekeeping,
death. Her language is more informal than that of the Metaphysical poets. She
did not write to preach or teach, but wrote to express personal feelings and
thoughts.
Title:Upon My Son Samuel his Going for England November 6th

1657
Form A 20 line poem addressing God; a prayer
Theme Love, separation
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Tone Trusting, supplicating
Mood Sadness at the separation; hopeful
Language The language of this poem is older than we are accustomed

to with many contractions; words like ‘stay’d’ meaning
waited, or ‘wrack’ meaning wreck; the use of thee and
thine; liturgical words- vows, grace, mortal, praise; even a
made up word- happfy’d. It may be easier to consider the
language in a 17th century Puritan context. Once we do this
we can see that it is simple, direct and moving – ‘Protect
him there and bring him back’- it sounds less like an order
than a plea from the heart.
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Content This poem is really a prayer for protection for Anne
Bradstreet’s son, Samuel. He was her eldest child, the one
she ‘stay’d for many years’ – she was married for some time
before she became pregnant. She had already mentioned
him in “In Reference, To Her Children” a poem about
children, like birds, leaving the nest. In this poem she
refers directly to the separation, which could be a final
one. The voyage he is about to undertake is dangerous -
Anne knew this from experience. Of her trip to America
she wrote of arriving in June at the ‘half dying, famine
ridden frontier village of Salem after a journey of 3
months of close quarters, raw nerves, sickness, hysteria
and salt meat”. She entrusts her son to God who is, for a
Puritan like Anne, in complete control of everyone’s life.
She trusts him as a friend to protect Samuel. He is, in
fact, the only one she can trust for ‘mortal helps are
brittle dust’. She is unhappy - her son faces danger and
possible shipwreck – but her faith is strong: ‘Thy will be
done’- God knows best. If she should die before her son’s
return, then there is the hope that they will meet in
heaven. No-one can be sure of that destination but she
begs God to give her that hope and comfort: ‘Persuade my
heart I shall him see’. This is a poem of praise for a God
who gave her a son, a young man who is hers by birth but
is, ultimately God’s child ‘but more, o Lord, thine own’. He
was an answer to prayer, a gift from God, and God’s help is
what she seeks once more.
Rhyme The poem is composed of ten octosyllabic rhyming
couplets. This has the effect of rushing the reader along,
giving some sense of the mother’s barrage of words to
persuade the Deity to hear her.
Rhythm 8 beats in each line, a regularity which presses home the
urgency of the prayer. Only one line has 9 beats, and the
extra word seems to focus on the ‘even’ – she’ll praise God
for ever.
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Compare how Thomas Hood and Ann Bradstreet have created the universal theme
of parental anxiety and concerns for the future of their children in their poems ‘A
Parental Ode …’ and ‘Upon My Son …’.
Focus on Language
In groups, discuss the language of Upon My Son Samuel His Going for England
November 6th 1657. Highlight words which are unfamiliar. Try to work out what
they mean. Replace them with modern expressions. Does this change the mood of
the poem? How?
Give pairs of pupils the poem cut into its rhyming couplets. Ask them to form them
into a poem. Have some pupils read out their poem and give reasons for their choice
of sequence.
Ask pupils, in groups, to consider words like resign, trust, preserve, protect, praise
and to come up with their own words to describe the mood and tone of the poem.
English Coursework
Assignment D
Write the diary entries of both Samuel and his mother for the night before he
leaves for England.
Oral work
Compose and present the prayer a mother might say for a teenage boy today, if he
were to go on a dangerous journey.
“Sons are closer than daughters to their mother.” Discuss.
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Remembrance
by Emily Bronte
Cold in the earth - and the deep snow piled above thee,
Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave!
Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee,
Severed at last by Time's all-severing wave?
Now, when alone, do my thoughts no longer hover

Over the mountains, on that northern shore,
Resting their wings where heath and fern-leaves cover
Thy noble heart for ever, ever more?
Cold in the earth - and fifteen wild Decembers

From those brown hills have melted into spring
Faithful indeed is the spirit that remembers
After such years of change and suffering!
Sweet Love of youth, forgive if I forget thee

While the world's tide is bearing me along:
Other desires and other hopes beset me,
Hopes which obscure, but cannot do thee wrong!
No later light has lightened up my heaven;

No second morn has ever shone for me:
All my life's bliss from thy dear life was given
All my life's bliss is in the grave with thee.
But, when the days of golden dreams had perished,

And even Despair was powerless to destroy,
Then did I learn how existence could be cherished,
Strengthened, and fed without the aid of joy;
Then did I check the tears of useless passion,

Weaned my young soul from yearning after thine;
Sternly denied its burning wish to hasten
Down to that tomb already more than mine!
And, even yet, I dare not let it languish,

Dare not indulge in Memory's rapturous pain;
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Once drinking deep of that divinest anguish,
How could I seek the empty world again?
EMILY BRONTE
Biography
Emily Bronte was born in Thornton, Yorkshire in 1818. Her family later moved to
the Parsonage at Haworth, Yorkshire, where her father, Patrick was rector. Her
mother died when Emily was three. Two of her sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, died
young. For a short time Emily attended Cowan Bridge School. She and her sisters,
Charlotte and Anne, and her brother, Branwell, lived intensely imaginative lives.
Charlotte and Branwell created an imaginary world - Angria – and Emily and Anne
created one called Gondal. They peopled these worlds with imaginary characters
and wrote of their adventures. Emily was a governess for a short time, and lived in
Brussels for under a year. She died of tuberculosis in 1848, having published one
novel, Wuthering Heights and some lyric poetry.
Social Context
The Brontes were not a wealthy family, but were well-off compared to many people
in nineteenth century England. They lived in an isolated part of England, removed
from the centre of high society and of the literary life of the country, London.
Their isolation, their sibling closeness and the wild beauty of their surroundings
influenced and inspired them. It was not expected that they would be published
writers, although they had been writing stories and poems since childhood. They
lived in a period when women of the middle classes, and they were lower middle
class, were not expected to work outside the home, nor to be educated the way
their brothers were - at school and then university. One occupation was open to
genteel women - that of governess. One did not need to be highly educated to do
this. It could be demanding, demoralising and demeaning. Emily suffered this for
six months. When she and Charlotte were preparing to set up a school of their own
their aunt, and housekeeper died. It was expected that Emily would give up her own
plans and ambitions and return home to take care of her father and brother, and
she did. It was not the done thing for young ladies to write novels dealing with
passionate love and the three sisters submitted their novels, and poems, under
masculine pseudonyms - Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell. When it was discovered that
the novels had been written by women there was an outcry.
Literary Context
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The Bronte sisters were writing poetry during the years when the influence of the
Romantic poets Wordsworth, Shelley, Byron, Keats and Coleridge was an
established force in English Literature. These poets reacted against the late
eighteenth century preoccupation with the imposition of order on their
surroundings, and gloried in the beauty of unconstructed nature. Their poetry left
the rigidity of tight traditional rules, stylised, contrived vocabulary and artificial
situations. They concentrated on the imagination, on nature, on emotions, on the
individual and expressed deeply personal feelings. These are the hallmarks of Emily
Bronte’s poetry. She was influenced not only by the enthusiasm of Romanticism but
also by the fervour of contemporary Methodism. It gave her the language to
express passion and many of her poems use the metre of Wesleyan hymns. Her
poems are intense and emotive, imaginative and often full of the presence of God.
‘Remembrance’ by Emily Bronte
Poetic Technique
Form Lyric poem; lament
Theme love, separation, death
Tone at first questioning, doubting, then certain and passionate
Mood despair, grief
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Language Great deal of repetition – cold, severed, forget, hopes, my
life’s bliss – to emphasise the effect the death has on the
speaker. The bird metaphor in stanza two reflects the
flightiness, the inconstancy of human thought. The change of
tense in the second half of the poem heralds a change of
thought and tone and answers the query raised. She DOES
remember, only too well. ‘Fifteen wild Decembers’ have not
succeeded in dulling the ‘rapturous pain’ of memory.
The hard, unfeeling words of the first half, expressing the

coldness of grief, such as ‘cold’, ‘wrong’, ‘sever’, ‘hover’,
‘suffering’, ‘wild’, ‘obscure’ give way in the second half to
softer words, hymn like words (not surprising considering her
Methodist background) such as ‘bliss’, ‘golden’, ‘joy’, ‘cherished’,
‘yearning’, ‘burning’, ‘rapturous’, ‘anguish’. These words inject
the poem with a passion which reflects the depth of her
emotions when she allows herself the luxury of remembrance.
Content The first four stanzas are concerned with the separation of
the lovers - this poem is a cry of grief for the death of a hero
by one of the women in the Gondal saga - explaining how death
and time have combined to separate them, and how the
relentlessness of life has led to her sometimes forgetting him.
Everything is cold, the word is repeated; ‘dreary’ emphasises
her feelings; December, the deadest month in nature, is used
to represent the passing of years, and they are ‘wild’ years. He
was the ‘sweet love of youth’- youth can be thoughtless - and
life –‘the world’s tide’ – is carrying her helpless along. She could
be forgiven, perhaps, for forgetting him. But the last four
stanzas give a different reason for her seeming forgetfulness.
He was the one love of her life: ‘No later light has lightened up
my heaven’. With his death her ‘golden dreams perished’. The
anguish of that blow brought her to despair; she wanted to die
herself: she had ‘a burning wish to hasten’ to the tomb with
him. Even yet she dare not dwell too long –‘languish’- on the
fact that they are ‘severed at last by Time’s all-severing wave’
for the divine ‘anguish’ that contemplation would cause would
be enough to drive her to despair – to suicide?
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Rhyme Regular – ABAB, CDCD etc
Rhythm Has the regular beat of a hymn, emphasis tending to fall at the
beginning and half way through each line.
Focus on Language
Spend some time examining the punctuation of the poem and text mark it for
yourself in preparation for reading it aloud.
In groups complete this grid using words, phrases or metaphors for:
The dead beloved How he made her feel Her present feelings
Underline the alliterative words in the poem, and the repetitions in the poem, and
discuss their effect on the reader.
Assignment C
Analyse and explain the effect that celebrity has on some people, so they feel they
have a right to celebrate and grieve with and for them e.g. the Beckhams, Big
Brother contestants, Diana, Princess of Wales (particularly after her death).
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Assignment D
Write a hymn of praise or of pleading.
Create a story, or poem, which has a hero and his beloved as central characters,
and which goes some way to explaining the strength of a love which endures long
after death.
Oral Work
Argue for or against cremation as the only civilised way to dispose of the dead in
the 21st century.
Describe a time when you were moved deeply by an event.
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Remember
by Christina Rossetti
Remember me when I am gone away,

Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
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CHRISTINA ROSSETTI
Biography
Christina Rossetti was born in London in 1830. Her father was a poet and a
Professor of Italian. She was a sister of William and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, both
of whom were in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. For a while Christina and her
mother ran a school, but that was given up and Christina lived quietly at home for
the rest of her life. She was briefly engaged to James Collinson in 1848 but she
could not accept his adherence to the Roman Catholic faith. She was very religious
and when she fell in love with Charles Carlyle could not marry him either because,
according to her evangelical beliefs, he was not a Christian. Her family were all
religious, her sister Maria becoming an Anglican nun. Christina never married. Her
writing is mainly religious in nature. She for a time wrote for the Society for
Promoting Christian Knowledge. She died of cancer in 1894.
Social Context
Christina Rosetti lived during the height of Victorian self confidence. The middle
classes, economically powerful, gained political power after the Reform Act of
1832. Their mores regulated society. It was a time of strict social regulations and
codes of etiquette. Women were expected to be gentle, nurturing, maternal - in
charge of the household, but with no power politically or economically. These were
the rules for the middle classes, not the working class. The rise in middle class
wealth was mirrored by abject poverty among the working class, especially the
urban poor who were subject to appalling public health conditions and long working
hours in vile conditions. These workers included women and children. Education did
not become widespread until the 1870 Education Act. Not all women accepted their
lot. One of the best known campaigners for women’s rights was Barbara Leigh-
Smith. She became a friend of Christina Rossetti. The latter, however, did not feel
that this campaign fitted with Christianity so she ignored it. She did not totally
ignore social conditions, but her attitude to them was coloured by her religion, her
belief that suffering is from God, to help us to grace.
Literary Context
Christina Rosetti, like Tennyson and the Brownings, was a Late Victorian poet.
While still using Romantic subject matter, an element of self-analysis, of self-
consciousness imbued their poetry. Tennyson’s melancholy comes through in his
verse: Elizabeth Barrett Browning writes of love and of the struggle for Italian
independence; Robert Browning displays a robust optimism; Kipling concentrated on
the glories of Empire. Christina was greatly influenced by both her religion and the
principles of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood to which her two brothers belonged.
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This society advocated, in art as well as literature, realism, attention to detail,
symbolism. They drew their inspiration from the Middle Ages and from
Christianity. In poetry this led to work which used lush vowel sounds, had erotic
overtones and much sensual description. Tennyson was associated with the
Brotherhood in his early days and it influenced Yeats and Gerard Manley Hopkins
later in the century. Christina Rossetti was encouraged by her family to write. Her
father printed her first poems on a private press, under the pseudonym Ellen
Alleyn. Her poetry is mainly religious in theme although she also wrote about infant
mortality and poverty. While she was aware of divisions in society she advocated
patience, long suffering and hope deferred as characteristics of true Christians,
particularly women. Her work has a kinship with much 17th Century poetry. She was
an admirer of Herbert and Donne. She is a melodious writer, using irregularly
rhymed lines and sensual descriptions. Her conviction that Divine love transcends
human passion gives her poetry a depth lacking in contemporary writers of religious
poetry such as Francis Thompson or Alice Meynell.
‘Remember’ by Christina Rossetti

Form Petrarchan sonnet
Theme death and separation
Tone loss and the pathos of love

Mood sombre, melancholy
Imagery/languag The ideas of the poem may be complex, but the language
e is simple. The universality of the themes of death, love
and separation make it fitting that this should be so.
Rossetti’s only forays into imagery are when she refers to
death. She first uses the euphemism ‘the silent land’.
This could mean that after death comes peace, or it could
be referring to the grave/cemetery. But in spite of the
hope of peace, even one like Rossetti, who spent her life
preparing for death, is reluctant to go. ‘I half turn to go,
yet turning stay’. Her later reference to death as
‘darkness and corruption’ remind us of the fate of the
body. Yet her concern for the loved one, which may mean
she is ultimately forgotten, remind us of the strength and
immortality of the spirit. The repetition of the word
‘remember’ tolls like a bell throughout the poem.
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Content This poem was written when Christina Rossetti was 19,
during the time she was engaged to James Collinson and
expresses thoughts of love which lead to thoughts of
death. Her life and faith would lead a reader to suppose
this is an autobiographical poem. It is imperative in tone.
She orders him to remember her when she goes away, and
at first it is not clear where she plans to go, but when she
mentions the ‘silent land’ the reader becomes aware that
she means death.
The first few lines suggest closeness between the speaker
and the ‘you’ of the poem- they mention holding hands and
plans for the future. The poem goes on to say they will be
separated by death and that then it will be too late to
give advice or pray. She will be beyond all that and all the
loved one can do for her is to remember her. But, at the
end, the self-renunciation which was part of Rossetti’s
religion and her life, leads her to say humbly that she
would prefer him not even to do that; she would rather be
totally forgotten than to cause him the sorrow and pain of
remembering her. If death leaves intact her present
thoughts and intentions it would be her wish that he
should be happy.
Rhyme abba abba cddece
regular rhyme scheme.
Rhythm Written in iambic pentameter, which suggests control.
The speaker is tightly controlling her emotions- thinking
of the time she will be ‘gone away, gone far away’. The
language of desolation. Will she be remembered?
Focus on Language
Have pupils, in groups, create a ‘thought web’ of the ideas in the poem.
Cut out and distribute some phrases, one to a group- ‘Nor I half turn to go yet
turning stay’; ;It will be late to counsel then or pray’; ‘Gone far away into the silent
land’; ‘A vestige of the thoughts that I once had’. Ask the children to interpret
them any way they like. As a class read the whole poem. See if their meanings
resemble Rossetti’s.
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Look at the poem as a sonnet and share readings of it to come to decisions about
the structure of this Petrarchan sonnet. How does the structure affect the
meaning, tone or mood of the poem?
Preparation for essay writing and suggested titles
Emily Bronte Christina Rossetti Anne Bradstreet
• In each of the poems find examples of language or expression which we no

longer use. Paraphrase these. Does the effect change?
• Religion is important to the writers of these poems. The deep effect of
their religion on their everyday lives, and their spirituality, may be foreign
to many modern readers. Complete this web:
Methodism
Puritanism
Main
principles
of
Evangelical What guides my

Anglicanism life and actions
How would a modern man or woman react to the situations presented in these
poems?
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• Complete this grid, using words and phrases from the poems which show how
the poets described the following:
Remember Remembrance Upon my son

Samuel
death
love
God/ religion
What does this tell us about their attitudes and feelings?
Compare the poems using this grid:
Remember Remembrance Upon my son

Samuel
Form
Theme
Tone
Mood
Language
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How did their religion affect the attitudes of Bronte and Rossetti towards death?
Rossetti faced a separation by death and Bradstreet faced a physical separation,

each from someone they loved. How did they cope with these separations?
Although love is a universal emotion there are different types of love and
different ways of expressing it. Select any two of the poems you have studied and
compare the ways the poets have expressed their attitude to love.
English Coursework
Assignment C
Either refute or defend the idea that religion prevents people from enjoying
themselves in this life.
Assignment D
Lovers are parted for many reasons. Write a short story about a parting, from the
point of view of each of the lovers.
Write a sonnet about either love or death.
Oral Work
Read Heaney’s “Mid Term Break” with the class. Discuss the poem. Do the
attitudes of the bereaved and of a person contemplating their own death differ?
Advise someone on the best way to break the news to a lover that one has to go far
away and will never be back.
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UNIT 6
• Death the Leveller by James Shirley
• On the Tombs of Westminster Abbey by

Francis Beaumont
• The Burial of Sir by Charles Wolfe
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Starter Activity for Unit 6
‘Death the Leveller,’ James Shirley (1596-1666)

‘On the Tombs in Westminster Abbey,’ Francis Beaumont (1584-1616)
‘The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna,’ Charles Wolfe (1791-1823)
Assessment Objectives AO1, AO2 and AO3 will be addressed.

Modelled and shared writing will be used to structure openings and planning for
essays.
Opening activity: FRAGMENTS:
The students work in small groups. Each group is given an opening fragment from
the 3 poems (See Student Activity Sheets p110-112). A list of prompts is provided.
Students read the fragment, discuss the prompts and comment below the prompts
and write 1/2 questions raised by the discussion. Each fragment is passed on to the
next group. As they receive subsequent fragments, they should read each other’s
comments and questions and respond to these.
Follow Up
Present the three poem titles. Ask the students to match the titles to the
fragments. They must justify their decisions.
Whole class discussion: how are the openings alike and how unalike?
Divide the class into three groups. Each group is given one of the poems. Read and
highlight any lines or phrases which are unclear. Underline any lines or phrases
which made a strong impression on the group.
The poems are passed on to the next group, read and discussed.
Whole Class discussion
• What are the meanings and messages of the poems?

• How does the title help in understanding the poem?
• Discuss the rhyming patterns and the rhythms of the lines?
• What effects are created by the rhymes and rhythms?
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• Comment on any interesting uses of language.
• What was noticed about the different layouts of the 3 poems?
• Consider the voice of the poem – who is speaking and who is the audience?
• Discuss the tone – is it angry, sad, lonely, brave, etc.?
• Identify the emotions and feelings in the poems. How have they been
communicated?
110
Student Activity Sheet 1
In your group, read these opening lines and discuss:

• the possible theme
• the uses of language
• the rhyming patterns and rhythms
• the context.
Below, write any comments and 1 or 2 questions raised by the lines.
Fragment 1
The glories of our blood and state

Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armour against Fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings:
Sceptre and Crown
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.
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• the context
Fragment 2:
Mortality, behold, and fear,

What a change of flesh is here!
Think how many royal bones
Sleep within this heap of stones,
Hence removed from beds of ease,
Dainty fare, and what might please,
Fretted roofs, and costly shows,
To a roof that flats the nose:
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• the context
Fragment 3:
Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,

As his corpse to the rampart we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O’er the grave where our hero we buried.
We buried him darkly at dead of night,

The sods with our bayonets turning,
By the struggling moonbeams’ misty light
And the lanthorn dimly burning.
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Death the Leveller
by James Shirley
The glories of our blood and state

Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armour against Fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings:
Sceptre and Crown
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.
Some men with swords may reap the field,

And plant fresh laurels where they kill:
But their strong nerves at last must yield;
They tame but one another still:
Early or late
They stoop to fate,
And must give up their murmuring breath
When they, pale captives, creep to death
The garlands wither on your brow;

Then boast no more your mighty deeds!
Upon Death's purple altar now
See where the victor-victim bleeds.
Your heads must come
To the cold tomb:
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in their dust.
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JAMES SHIRLEY
Biography
Shirley was a respected playwright who survived many upheavals in his lifetime: a
personal religious conversion to Catholicism, the English Civil War, the Puritans and
Oliver Cromwell, outbreaks of the Plague and exile in Ireland. He and his wife died
as a result of privations following the Great Fire of London in 1666.
He was born in London in 1596 and after a good education he took Holy Orders in
1620. His first published work was a romantic poem in 1618, generally agreed to
have been entitled ‘Narcissus’. However, in 1625 he converted to Catholicism and
had to resign his headmaster’s post in St. Alban’s Grammar School. In order to
earn a living for himself and his wife he turned to the theatre and began writing
plays. His work was influenced by the work of Fletcher and Beaumont.
In 1636 he went to Dublin where he wrote for the Werburgh Street Theatre,
reputed to be the first theatre in Ireland. By 1642, when Cromwell all the
theatres in England, Shirley had written 36 plays.
In his time, he had a good reputation as a dramatist. His plays were witty and
satirical, the themes relating to current styles and attitudes. His poetry was less
well known, although this poem, taken from one of his plays, has survived the
passing of time. Some of his plays continued to be produced in the 18th century.
‘Death the Leveller’

This poem is a dirge spoken at the funeral of Ajax and taken from Shirley’s play
‘The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses.’ The death of the mighty hero Ajax makes
the poet aware of the essential mortality of humanity. The tone is resigned and
fatalistic; death is the controller of all destinies and makes everyone equal
eventually. The king and the peasant, the soldier and the slave – all are subdued by
death.
There is no reason against Fate….
Early or late
They stoop to fate…
The imagery of war and battle are predominant: ‘armour’, ‘men with swords’, ‘pale
captives’, mighty deeds’ victor-victim’. The poem was written during the reign of
Cromwell when the Puritans closed theatres and all places of sinful pleasure. Rigid
class divisions in society were strengthened and life was short and dangerous.
115
There is a tone of defiance in the poem as the poet rejects these inequalities and
denies the importance of the earthly deeds of men. In the end:
‘Only the actions of the just

Smell sweet and blossom in their dust.’
These last two lines of the poem leave the reader with a sense of hopefulness.
Activities
(1) In pairs, discuss the following:
What is the impact of knowing that this poem is part of the text of a play?
(2) Annotating a poem:
The teacher should model for the class an annotation of the first verse of this
poem. This process can help a reader to think his/her way through a poem and
highlight interesting features of the text. Annotations will note different aspects
of the text, depending on the nature of the text being read. The following aspects
may be noted in annotations:
• Use of imagery
• Use of rhythm to create mood or enhance meaning
• The nature of the poet’s voice
• Questions raised by the reader
• Personal reactions or responses
• Underlining words or phrases which are striking or puzzling
• Interesting uses of language,
• And so on …
When the teacher has modelled the process for Verses 1 (and 2, if appropriate),
the students should annotate the last verse as individuals.
116
For discussion:
• Patterns of rhyme and rhythm
• The punctuation features, eg. use of colons and semi-colons and what they
contribute to meaning
• Use of capital letters
• Connections between sceptre and crown and scythe and spade
• The poet’s choice of verbs
• Metaphorical language and its impact on the reader.
Why is the final couplet separated from the rest of the poem?
Focus on Language
Death is personified in the poem. Describe the character of death as presented by

the poet by selecting words and phrases from the poem. Are such attitudes to
death considered old-fashioned and out-dated today?
Oral Work
In small groups of 4, present the poem as a performance, assigning lines to

everyone. Ensure that the presentation provides an interpretation of the meanings
in the poem.
117
On the Tombs in Westminster Abbey
by Francis Beaumont
Mortality, behold, and fear,

What a change of flesh is here!
Think how many royal bones
Sleep within this heap of stones,
Hence removed from beds of ease,
Dainty fare, and what might please,
Fretted roofs, and costly shows,
To a roof that flats the nose:
Which proclaims all flesh is grass;
How the world's fair glories pass;
That there is not trust in health,
In youth, in age, in greatness, wealth;
For if such could have reprieved
Those had been immortal lived.
Know from this the world's a snare,
How that greatness is but care,
How all pleasures are but pain,
And how short they do remain:
For here they lie had realms and lands,
That now want strength to stir their hands;
Where from their pulpits sealed with dust
They preach: 'In greatness is not trust'.
Here's an acre sown indeed
With the richest royalest seed,
That the earth did e'er suck in
Since the first man died for sin.
Here the bones of birth have cried,
'Though Gods they were, as men they died'.
Here are sands (ignoble things)
Dropped from the ruined sides of kings;
With whom the poor man's earth being shown
The difference is not easily known.
Here's a world of pomp and state,
Forgotten, dead, disconsolate;
Think, then, this scythe that mows down kings
Exempts no meaner mortal things.
Then bid the wanton lady tread
118
Amid these mazes of the dead;
And these truly understood
More shall cool and quench the blood
Than her many sports aday,
And her nightly wanton play.
Bid her paint till day of doom,
To this favour she must come.
Bid the merchant gather wealth,
The usurer exact by stealth,
The proud man beat if from his thought,
Yet to this shape all must be brought.
FRANCIS BEAUMONT
Biography
Beaumont was a contemporary of Shirley and there are obvious similarities
between them: each was essentially a playwright and they were writers of
comedies and tragedies which reflected on issues and concerns of their time.
Shirley was strongly influenced by Beaumont and indeed there is a striking
similarity in these two poems in terms of choice of theme and attitudes to death.
Beaumont was a law student who never practised law. He was a friend of Ben
Jonson and, when in 1607 he met John Fletcher, a fruitful collaboration began
which continued until 1613 when Beaumont married an heiress and abandoned the
writing of plays. He died soon afterwards at the age of 32.
The Beaumont/ Fletcher partnership was short lived but the plays that resulted
were highly regarded at the time. They had replaced Shakespeare by 1609 as the
main playwrights for the King’s Men, the top acting company. Beaumont’s writing
was strong, in formal and dramatic terms, while Fletcher was possibly the better
poet, inventive and amusing. Together they made a positive contribution to the
development of English drama.
119
‘On the Tombs in Westminster Abbey’
Observing the tombs in the Abbey, among the remains of the great and the good
of England, Beaumont reflects on how all have become equal in death. The tone is
solemn, valedictory, admonishing. Life passes relentlessly and inevitably ‘To a roof
that flats the nose’. He warns the reader not to be enticed by life’s allures:
‘greatness is but care….all pleasures are but pain.’
However, the rhythmic regularity of the poem, the rhyming couplets, seem to
dilute the gravity to some extent. The poet does not expect to surprise or terrify
his audience by his views and philosophies; he will merely confirm what they already
realise at a time when death was always near.
The poem is peopled by characters of the time: kings, preachers, landowners,

soldiers, poor men, wanton women, the merchant, usurer and the proud man.
‘Yet to this shape all must be brought.’
Focus on Language
Ask students to work in pairs to identify 4/5 separate sections within the poem.
What is the key idea of each section?
Lines 1 to 14: Life passes inevitably into death

Lines 15 to 18: Warning: do not be snared by life’s attractions
Lines 19 to 34: All those who now lie here
Lines 35 to 36: Beware!
Lines 37 to end: Admonishes those who forget their mortality.
Highlight words or phrases in the poem which confirm the age of the poem.
Do a similar exercise for ‘Death The Leveller’.
Are there any comparisons and contrasts which can be made between the two
poems?
Have attitudes to death changed?
Research a more modern poem which deals with the theme of death. How has the
poet presented death? Look at language style as well as treatment of theme.
120
COMPARISON: In pairs, complete the table below by finding examples of each
from the poems:
Death the Leveller On the Tombs in W Abbey

Voice
Context
Form
Tone
Mood
Imagery
Content
Rhythm
Rhyme
Summarise 1 or 2 of the most important differences between the two poems.

Draft a brief paragraph which outlines the key differences and similarities.
121
With close reference to the language, structure and style of the poems by Shirley
and Beaumont, compare and contrast the way each poet has been affected by
death, and explain which appeals to you most.
Oral Work
In pairs, create a role play: select two characters from the poem and have them
gossip about events of an ordinary day.
Alternatively, the teacher might use hot-seating, a conscience-alley or thought-

tracking to achieve empathy for the experiences and attitudes of the time.
Writing Process
- Teacher models the opening paragraph.
- Shared writing with the class to agree on the main ideas for the next 3/4
paragraphs.
- Divide class into small groups. Each group is given a different paragraph to
construct.
- Modelled/shared writing of the final paragraph.
Suggestion for Modelled Opening
The poems by Shirley and Beaumont deal with the same theme: death and its
power to reduce people to equals. They were written at around the same time and
interesting pictures are presented which give the reader some perception of what
life was like in the late sixteenth century in England. While treatment of theme
and patterns are very similar, the poems use different poetic structures and
contrasting styles of language.
122
The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna
by Charles Wolfe
Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,

As his corpse to the rampart we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero we buried.
We buried him darkly at dead of night,

The sods with our bayonets turning,
By the struggling moonbeams's misty light
And the lanthorn dimly burning.
No useless coffin enclosed his breast,

Not in sheet or in shroud we wound him;
But he lay like a warrior taking his rest
With his martial cloak around him.
Few and short were the prayers we said,

And we spoke not a word of sorrow;
But we steadfastly gazed on the face that was dead,
And we bitterly thought of the morrow.
We thought, as we hollowed his narrow bed

And smoothed down his lonely pillow,
That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head,
And we far away on the billow!
Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone,

And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him
But little he'll reck, if they let him sleep on
In the grave where a Briton has laid him.
But half of our heavy task was done

When the clock struck the hour for retiring;
And we heard the distant and random gun
That the foe was sullenly firing.
Slowly and sadly we laid him down,

From the field of his fame fresh and gory;
We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone,
But we left him alone with his glory.
123
CHARLES WOLFE
Biography
Charles Wolfe was born in Dublin in 1791 and died of consumption in
Queenstown, Cork in 1823. He is often considered to be an Ulsterman as
he was the curate in Donaghmore, Co. Down from 1818 to 1821. Wolfe is
remembered predominantly for this single piece which first appeared
anonymously in the Newry Telegraph in 1817. He did write more poetry but
only one other has survived, ‘To Mary’, which is included for comparison
purposes.
‘The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna’
The poem reflects on the death of an English general in 1809 at the battle
of Corunna during the Peninsular War. In command, Moore had led a small
English army through Portugal and into Spain in order to support a
rumoured Spanish uprising against Napoleon and to relieve Madrid. There
had been no uprising so he led the retreat through dangerous and difficult
snow-covered mountainous terrain, hotly pursued by Bonaparte and his
larger army. Moore arrived at Corunna harbour, from whence they hoped
to escape. He managed to defeat the French against great odds but was
killed at the very moment of victory. The story, as told through this poem,
has been used to inspire young would-be defenders of nations ever since.
Many generations of school-children have been required to memorise and

recite this poem. Its popularity can be explained by the pride in military
glory prevalent at a time when England was at war with Napoleon, who
posed a real threat. Its survival is explained by the need for following
generation to defend the homeland against ambitious invaders.
The rhythms and rhymes are regular and patterned which make it quite
easy to memorise. They create a sombre and solemn beat reminiscent of a
military funeral march. The hero is buried hastily without fanfare, prayer
or ceremony, at dead of night, without coffin or shroud, while the battle
continues nearby.
The emotions are a mixture of pride and admiration for the brave General,
fear and anticipation as they think of their own fate, and sorrow that he
is being left unceremoniously in a foreign land with nothing to mark his
grave. Echoes here of later poetry written during WW1 and WW2.
124
However, the poem is not depressing to a reader. The language is simple,
the ABAB rhymes are predictable and it is strewn with naïve simile and
alliteration. Yet it has an atmosphere which is moving and the imagery
effectively creates a sense of their loneliness and fear and also of their
pride and courage. We share their guilty haste and nervousness and we
visualise the scene:
‘By the struggling moonbeams’ misty light
And the lanthorn dimly burning.’
Activities
(1) Use modelled reading with the class to disclose segments,

beginning with the title, in order to encourage students to
predict and to build up atmosphere and meaning. As you move
through the verses it will become easy to predict the rhymes.
(2) Alternatively, in small groups, students could reconstruct the
cut-up verses of the poem. This is an effective way of
encouraging independent ‘making of’ meaning.
(3) Discuss ‘tone’ and ‘mood’: pride, fear, sorrow, regret…..?
Complete the table below by providing words and phrases from the poem
to illustrate the emotion. Add any other emotions to the list which reflect
the mood of the poem.
SORROW FEAR PRIDE REGRET
125
(4) Below is ‘To Mary’, the other poem written by Wolfe which has
survived. Read and discuss the poem: theme, tone, mood,
patterns of language, rhymes, etc.
(5) Use the two poems to write a brief review of Wolfe as a poet
for inclusion in a modern arts’ magazine.
‘To Mary’
If I had thought thou couldst have died,
I might not weep for thee;
But I forgot, when by thy side,
That thou couldst mortal be:
It never through my mind had past
The time would e’er be o’er,
And I on thee should look my last,
And thou shouldst smile no more!
And still upon that face I look,

And think ‘twill smile again;
And still the thought I will not brook,
That I must look in vain.
But when I speak thou dost not say
What thou ne’er left unsaid;
And now I feel, as well I may,
Sweet Mary, thou art dead!
If thou wouldst stay, e’en as thou art,

All cold and all serene
I still might press thy silent heart,
And where thy smiles have been.
While e’en thy chill, bleak corse I have,
Thou seemest still mine own;
But there I lay thee in thy grave,
And I am now alone!
I do not think, where’er thou art,

Thou hast forgotten me;
And I, perhaps, may soothe this heart
In thinking too of thee:
Yet there was round thee such a dawn
Of light ne’er seen before,
As fancy never could have drawn,
And never can restore!
126
In ‘The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna’, the poet describes the hasty
burial of a national hero. Compare and contrast this with one other poem
from the anthology in which the speaker conveys attitudes to death.
With close reference to the way each writer has used language to convey
attitudes to death, show which poem affects you most.
Assignment C
You want to launch a campaign to persuade the Government that war is

always wrong.
(a) In small groups, discuss how you might proceed.
(b) Decide on the forms of text/materials you will need to produce.
(c) Design a leaflet for distribution at a protest rally.
(d) Write a speech to be delivered at the rally.
Assignment D
Write the opening scene for a modern play in which a national hero’s life
and death will be recorded and honoured. (The subject of the play does
not have to have been a military hero.)
WEBSITES
www.absolutelypoetry.com
www.geo.ed.ac.uk
http://eir.library.utoronto.ca
www.cs.rice.edu
www.luminarium.org
www.//en.wikipedia.org
127
UNIT 7
The Exam
Terms Used in Examinations

128
These words are “directives” and ask you to present information in a
particular way. Review these and most of all note that there are different
ways of answering a question!
Compare
Examine qualities or characteristics to discover resemblances. “Compare”
is usually stated as “compare with”: you are to emphasize similarities,
although differences may be mentioned.
Contrast
Stress dissimilarities, differences or unlikeness of things, qualities, events
or problems.
Describe
In a descriptive answer you should recount, characterize, sketch or relate
in narrative form.
Discuss
The term discuss, which appears often in essay questions, directs you to
examine, analyse carefully and present the pros and cons regarding the
problems or items involved.
Explain
In explanatory answers it is imperative that you clarify, elucidate and
interpret the material you present. In such an answer it is best to state
the “how or why”, reconcile any differences in opinion or experimental
results and where possible, state causes. The aim is to make clear the
conditions which give rise to whatever you are examining.
Give reasons for your opinions

When you are instructed to give reasons for your opinions you must prove
or show grounds for decisions. In such an answer, evidence should be
presented in a convincing form.
Say
In questions which direct you to say what a poem is about you are called
upon to express the important points in a brief, clear narrative form.
Show
129
When a question asks you to show how a writer expresses her or his
opinions, thoughts or feelings, you are expected to give
evidence/illustration from the poem in support of your answer.l
General Tips for Answering an Examination Question

Requiring Extended Writing
130
• understand THE PURPOSE of your writing
• note WHAT YOU ARE ASKED TO DO
• unpack the question, looking at key terms
• note instruction words such as discuss, explain, illustrate, compare,
support, consider
• take account of bullet points or any help you may be given
• when you have all the information you need and know what you have
to do - you have to consider how you are going to communicate with
your readers
• use the texts you have already read as models
• PLAN – use a mind map or a writing frame
• INTRODUCTION should, obviously, introduce the topic but may
also include your attitude to it, some background information, a
quotation, key terms
• write in paragraphs
• each paragraph should deal with one key idea
• this idea should form the basis of your topic sentence
• a paragraph contains a topic sentence, usually near the start, so the
rest of the paragraph should develop this point, developing the
argument using relevant supporting evidence
• a paragraph should connect the previous and following paragraphs
using appropriate connectives
• CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH should return to key terms, the topic,
your attitude and may have concluding quotation or anecdote
• REVISION is necessary to make sure you have said all that you
want to say and have not put in anything irrelevant; to make sure
your meaning is clear; to make sure the writing flows and is logically
presented
• you must proof read to ensure correct spelling, punctuation and
grammar
Analysing Two Poems
131
Both poems deal with___________. The first poem ______ says______,
whereas in ‘_________’ it creeps up slowly.
As the first poem progresses _______ we find ________________.
The _______ is captured by the short, intense lines in which they appear,
such as ‘_________’.
This sense of _______ is created also by the use of words expressing

strong positive emotions, further enhanced by alliteration, in phrases like
‘__________’. This is, however, undercut by the long, slow final line of
each three-line verse, highlighting what has come between them.
In verse 5/6 we move to _________.
The alliteration of ‘smart ship sailing….stature’ and ‘grew in grace’ adds to

the positive feeling …
The mood of grim humour reaches a climax in the last verse …
In the second poem _______ the pattern of the verses is similar
The lines are again short, creating an impression of vitality, and the sense
of domestic harmony is captured in phrases like _____, in which
alliteration is again used to enhance the impression of life and vigour.
The personification and assonance of ‘sick leaves reel’ help to create a

dramatic change of mood from ……… to ……….
The symbolism reaches a climax of violent intensity in the last line

_______ with alliteration vividly enhancing the powerfully expressive
language of ________.
The language is gentle, expressing peace and tranquillity, and feeling which
is added to by the alliteration eg ______.
Both poems, therefore convey the same (or different) message through a
series of contrasts even though the tone of each is different ______.
In my opinion ______/ In conclusion ______/ All things considered

_____.
Points to Remember When Comparing Two Poems
132
• Write in paragraphs, with a general introduction and a conclusion.
• Give an overall idea of the subject matter – do not summarise each.

Comments on details of the poem should be linked with analysis of
the form, language and the literary devices.
• Quotations should be used to illustrate the points made. Quotations

can be brief and integrated into the sentence, rather than be given
a separate line. If it is necessary to quote at greater length (2 or 3
lines), it is best to set out the quotations in separate lines of
poetry, preceded by a colon.
• Comments on language can be related to tone or mood.
• Refer to the literary devices used – personification, alliteration,

assonance, etc. and the effects that they produce.
• The analysis of structure is always related to the development of

ideas, which is linked to the verse structure and the variations of
line length and verse rhythm.
• Giver your personal response, ensuring that it is an informed

reflection on the poems.
• Consider the poets’ intentions, thoughts, feelings and attitudes.
Example of Possible Planning Page
133
Poem 1 Poem 2
Title
Tone
Imagery
Form
Context
My preference
Essay Check List
134
Have I:
In my introduction: Tick
• set the context?
• addressed the key terms of the question?

• clearly defined my argument/point of view?
• used language to get the reader’s attention?
Overall:
• answered the question?
• presented a sustained argument?
• made my position clear?
• made logical connections?
• given my point of view with SUPPORTING
EVIDENCE?
• included relevant material/offered a relevant
selection of detail?
• covered everything?
In my paragraphs:
• written a topic sentence at or near the start?
• developed points?
• given supporting evidence?
• linked to other paragraphs with appropriate
connectives?
In my conclusion:
• summed up my main points?
• referred to original argument/point of view?
• made sure I have not introduced new ideas?
Proof read:
• checked my spelling/used a spell check?
• checked my punctuation?
• used the correct form of words?
• checked that verb tenses are consistent?
• checked subject/verb agreement?
Re-read the essay:
• does it say what I want to say?
• is the meaning clear?
Key Connectives to Use When Comparing and Contrasting Poems
135
Comparing – showing similarities Connectives used for argument
compared with therefore
in comparison with as a result
is similar to owing to
similarly because of
likewise thanks to
in similar manner despite
in like manner although
moreover even so
just as but
in the same way nevertheless
besides
Contrasting – showing differences also
in contast to still
is different from anyway
on the other hand in addition
yet furthermore
however alternatively
whereas from a different perspective
but from a different point of view
a counter argument is
Connectives relating to time or moreover
progression in a poem
at first
until When signalling emphasis
meanwhile most of all
up to that point least of all
from that point onwards most importantly
later on
eventually Conclusion
finally In conclusion
All things considered
In consideration of the points
outlined above
Finally
Assessment
136
Some ideas to help pupils as they respond to the poems in
Anthology 1:
– It is important for pupils to be aware of and have a printed copy of

the assessment criteria as outlined by CEA.
– They should also have a printed copy of the grade descriptions and
become familiar with the requirements needed for the top grades.
Suggestion:
1. Peer marking using assessment criteria –
– Each pupil writes a response to an exam question

– Peer/partner marks work using assessment criteria and gives a
grade
– Teacher marks work – compare /discuss response
*The idea is that all pupils in the class become familiar with course
requirements and have an opportunity to read the responses from all pupils
along the continuum of ability.
2. Shared classwork
Pupils prepare a response to a particular poetry question, e.g. as

homework.
In class, the teacher and pupils together complete a comparison
grid comparing and contrasting the two poems.
3. Modelled work
– Next, the teacher should model for the pupils how to write an
answer
– Teacher should extract relevant information to write an
introduction. He/she should then write a second paragraph
introducing poem one and then poem two (a writing frame).
– ** It is important for the teacher to think aloud and self correct,
as necessary, so that pupils see and understand the difficulties and
the thinking process needed when composing an essay response.
137
General
Poetry
Resources
GLOSSARY
138
acrostic A poetic form which is organised by the initial letters
of a key word either at the beginning of lines or with
lines arranged around them.
alliteration The repetition of a speech sound in a sequence of

words. The term is usually applied only to consonants
and when the recurrent sound occurs in a conspicuous
position at the beginning of a word or of a stressed
syllable within a word.
ambiguity The possibility of more than one meaning.
assonance The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds,

especially in stressed syllables – in a sequence of
nearby words.
ballad A narrative poem which was originally meant to be sung.

Characterised by short, regular verses with an abcb or
abab rhyme scheme.
blank verse Poetry written with rhythm and metre, but without
rhyme. Especially linked with iambic pentameter (10
syllable line with unstressed/stressed syllable pattern)
as in the words of Shakespeare.
consonance The repetition of a sequence of consonants, but with a

change in the intervening stressed vowel eg live-love,
lean-alone, pitter-patter
couplet Two consecutive lines of poetry which are paired in

length or rhyme.
dramatic A poem in which a story is related by a single person,

monologue (not the poet), speaking to others. The speaker utters
the entire poem in a specific situation or a critical
moment.
elegy A poem or song which is a lament, perhaps for someone

or something which has died.
figurative Use of a metaphor or simile to create a particular

language impression or mood.
139
free verse Poetry which is not constrained by patterns of rhyme
or rhythm.
half-rhyme Words which almost rhyme, e.g. polish/relish.
imagery Use of language to create a vivid sensory image, often

visual and auditory. Other senses (smell, taste and
touch) are less frequently used.
internal rhyme Occurs where a rhyme is used in the middle as well as

the end of a line:
“The arched rainbow was all aglow”
irony Words implying meaning opposite to their normal

meaning.
lyric A fairly short poem in which a speaker expresses

intense personal emotion, a state of mind or feeling,
originally meant to be sung.
metre The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem.
metaphor A comparison that says one thing is another thing,

rather than saying one thing is like another.
monologue A text spoken by a lone speaker.
mood Atmosphere, for example, “sombre”, “tragic”, “comic”,

“romantic”. This is different from the tone of a poem
which refers to the poet’s attitude e.g. “bitter”,
“angry”, “resentful”, “ironic”, “mocking”.
narrative poem A poem which tells a story, often a ballad.
ode Lyric poem usually addressed to the subject, therefore

written in the second person. There is no fixed rhyme
or rhythm pattern.
onomatopoeia Words which echo sounds associated with their

meaning, e.g. clang, hiss.
140
pace The speed at which it seems appropriate to read a poem. Poets vary
the pace to suit the mood or subject matter of a poem.
personification A form of metaphor in which language relating to

human action, motivation and emotion is used to refer
to non-human agents, objects or abstract concepts.
pun A comic effect suggesting two meanings from one word

or phrase.
rhyme Words containing the same rhyme in their final syllable(s) are said
to rhyme, e.g. down, clown; weather, feather; slenderly,
tenderly.
rhythm The pattern of recurrent stressed and unstressed

syllables. The beat.
satire The use of wit or humour to attack something.
simile The poet creates an image in readers’ minds by

comparing a subject to something else, usually using
“like” or “as”.
sonnet A poem of 14 lines which will usually follow any rhyme

scheme. Two traditional sonnet types are:
a) Petrarchan: abbaabba followed by 2 or 3 other
rhymes in remaining 6 lines.
b) Elizabethan: ababcdcdefefgg.
stanza A verse or set of lines of poetry, the pattern of which

is repeated throughout the poem.
structure The organisation of a poem. The arrangement of parts

of a poem (eg length of lines, use of stanzas,
progression of ideas).
syllable Each pronounced part of a word is a syllable. Words

with only one syllable are called monosyllabic. Words
with more than one syllable are called polysyllabic.
141
tone Refers to the expression of the poet’s attitude to the topic and to
the listener. The tone of a work can be happy, sad,
reflective, humorous, etc.
triplet A stanza of 3 lines, usually with a single rhyme
142
Some General Points to Consider When Exploring a Poem
Poetic Feature Points to Notice

Voice Is the poem written in the first person
narrative? Third person narrative? Has the
poet adopted a speaker or is the poem
written from a personal perspective? Does
the poem contain dialogue? Is it dramatic?
Context What is the historical/ literary/ social/
cultural background to the poem? What
are the poet’s personal circumstances at
the time of writing the poem?
Form e.g. sonnets/ quatrains/free verse. How
does the form complement the poem’s
content? Seamus Heaney: “The successful
poem strikes a happy marriage between
content and form.”
Tone The poet’s attitude to the topic or to
his/her speaker.
Mood This refers to the general atmosphere of
the poem and the emotional pitch of the
writing.
Imagery Are the images taken from nature/
technology? Do they appeal to the senses?
How? Why? Does the poet use similes/
metaphors/ alliteration in his choice of
imagery?
Content Look at common themes such as death/
love/ nature/ conflict/ friendship.
Rhythm Is the rhythm slow or fast? Does it have a
pattern? Iambic pentameter? Why?
Rhyme Does the poem use full rhyme/ half rhyme
or none at all? Why? How does the rhyme
add to the impact of the poem as a whole?
143
Guidelines for Analysing a Poem
To help you remember the important aspects of a poem, so that you can
‘see’ its achievements with more insight, the following guidelines are
provided.
1. SUBJECT MATTER of the poem: The question to ask here is: ‘What
event, situation, or experience does the poem describe or record?
2. PURPOSE or theme, or message of the poet: The question to ask

here is: ‘What is the poet’s purpose in writing this – what message
does he or she want to communicate?
3. EMOTION, or mood, or feeling: What is the predominant emotion,

or mood, of the poem? Does the mood change during the poem?
What emotions or feelings does the poet seek to evoke in the
reader?
4. CRAFTSMANSHIP, or technique: This aspect of the poem deals

with specific techniques the poet has used in creating his or her
work of art.
5. SUMMARY: Having analysed the poem, it is important to synthesize

(i.e. pull all the information together) into a summary. What is the
impact of the whole poem for you? How successful is it as a work of
art? Does it successfully achieve the poet’s purpose or is it flawed
in some serious way?
144
Looking closer at CRAFTSMANSHIP
One of the important aspects of a poem’s achievement is the

craftsmanship, or technique, of the poet. How does the poet achieve his or
her effect? What specific techniques has he or she used in the making of
this poem, and what is their effect?
The following outline is to help you understand the major elements of

craftsmanship.
1. STRUCTURE: How is the poem structured? Does it have a

conventional structure such as a sonnet, or an ode? Does it have
stanzas with a regular number of lines, or any other features of
structural design?
2. LANGUAGE: How would you describe the poet’s use of words – vivid,
striking, effective or colourless or predictable? Is the language
appropriate to subject and/ or theme? What effect does the
language have on the poem’s achievement?
3. IMAGERY: Are there any striking examples of similes, metaphors,

personification or symbols in the poem? What is their effect?
4. MOVEMENT, or rhythm: Does the poem have a regular (slow or

fast) rhythm? What is the effect of any rhythmic qualities?
5. SOUNDS: Does the poem have any significant sound features? Is it

musical? Does the poet use onomatopoeia, alliteration, or assonance?
Does the poem rhyme? What are the effects of these features of
sound on the achievement of the poem?
145
Theme
General or specific? Vocabulary
Simple or complex? Modern or archaic?
Obvious or hidden? Simple or complex?
Sound
Harsh? Smooth/Soft? Rhythm
Traditional?
Use of rhyme? Poetry
Effect of rhyme scheme? Regular or irregular?
Form Syntax
Free verse? Line length?
Effect of specific verse
form, eg: dramatic
monologue?
146
Poetic Forms
Poetic form refers to the poet’s choice of structure for the content of
the poem. Some poetic forms include: sonnets, ballads and villanelles.
The poet, Seamus Heaney, has said that the best poems have a happy
marriage between content and form. That is why it is so important when
writing a poem that poets choose a form that suits their poems.
147
TONE
Tone in poetry is created through the combined effects of a number of

features such as word choice, word order, rhythm etc. The tone is crucial
in creating the overall impact of a piece of writing. It is presented
through style and is usefully defined as language with attitude (that is,
attitude to the reader/listener and to the topic).
Word choice
Varied? Imagery
Effect ? Type?
Mood?
Word order Tone

Sound
Effect of techniques
choices? Onomatopoeia?
Assonance?
Rhythm
Regular or irregular?
Use of speech rhythms
When writing about the poet's use of tone candidates should consider:
the variety and range of tone used;

the effect of tonal shifts;
the distinction between the tone of the poet and the tone/s he gives to
the character created (speaker, sometimes called the persona).
148
RHYTHM, RHYME AND IMAGERY
Rhythm
Rhythm can be described as the flow or movement of words, phrases and

sounds within a line of poetry. It is the beat of a line. Rhythm is
determined by the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. In free
verse, the arrangement of words similar to that of natural speech creates
a more natural and less monotonous rhythm.
Rhythm can be used to great effect in a poem. For example, in ‘Stopping

by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ by Robert Frost the slow rhythm of the
lines simulates the pace of the falling snow.
In W.H. Auden’s ‘The Night Mail’ the quick, jaunty rhythm simulates the
quick movement of the steam engine as it races down the track.
Rhyme
Rhyme refers to the sameness of the final sounds at the end of lines of
verse. A rhyme can also refer to a word identical in sound to another in its
final sounds, e.g. plantation/ observation.
Poets sometimes use full rhymes and half rhymes in their work. A full
rhyme occurs whenever the last sound(s) of the relevant pair of words
have an obvious musical identity, e.g the words ‘wall’ and ‘tall.’
Sometimes, however, half-rhyme is used. This is when a pair of words have

an acoustic similarity but don’t have a perfect congruence of sound e.g.
whereas ‘wall’ and ‘tall’ strike a full rhyme if ‘wall’ were rhymed with ‘bill’,
it would be a half-rhyme. The omission of the letter ‘a’ and the inclusion of
the letter ‘i’ takes away the identical end sound.
149
Some General Reasons Why Poets Use Full and Half- Rhyme:
FULL RHYME HALF-RHYME
• Often suggests harmony e.g • Often suggests a lack of

between the poet and nature, harmony and creates a sense
between the poet and his/her of things being incomplete or
love, between friends unfulfilled e.g. the Anglo-
• Can suggest happiness and Irish poet, WB Yeats, often
completeness and often wrote love poems using half
creates a celebratory tone. rhyme about Maud Gonne,
Full rhymes often occur in the long-term object of his
Odes- poems of praise. unrequited love. If their
• Full rhyme can also suggest relationship had been more
that the poet has control successful Yeats may have
over the subject matter. written the poems using full
rhymes instead.
Imagery
An image is a picture created by the words in the poem. Very often a

poet’s choice of image will tell us not only what he sees but how he feels
towards his/her subject matter.
The Early Purges
“I was six when I first saw kittens drown.

Dan Taggart pitched them, ‘the scraggy wee shits’,
Into a bucket; a frail metal sound…”
Here Heaney uses images to convey the vulnerability of the kittens and
the hard-nosed approach the farmer must take in order for him to be able
to terminate the young animals’ lives.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
150
Figurative language is essential in certain types of writing to help convey
meaning and expression. Figurative language is necessary to convey the
exact meaning in a vivid and artistic manner. The writer has a story to tell
and the language used must portray every emotion and feeling possible on
the paper.
Language using figures of speech, such as simile, hyperbole, metaphor,

symbolism and personification to form imagery is figurative language.
TERM DEFINITION EXAMPLE

Alliteration The repetition of usually initial The wild and woolly
consonant sounds in two or more walrus waits and wonders
neighbouring words or syllables when we'll walk by.
Assonance The repetition of vowel sound in holy & stony

words or syllables and
fleet feet sweep by
sleeping geese.
Cliche A word or phrase that has become No pain, no gain

overly familiar or commonplace
Hyperbole Big exaggeration, usually with mile-high ice-cream

humour cones
her smile is as wide as

the ocean
Idiom The language peculiar to a group of She sings at the top of

people her lungs.
Metaphor A comparison that says one thing is I'm drowning in money.

another thing, rather than saying
one thing is like another Her eyes are jewels.
Onomatopoeia Naming a thing or an action by buzz, hiss, roar, woof

imitating the sound associated with
it.
Personification Giving something human qualities The stuffed bear smiled

as the little boy hugged
151
him close.
Simile A comparison between two objects The sun is like a yellow

using like or as ball of fire in the sky.
Her eyes are like stars.
Symbol A specific idea or object to A flag may be symbolic

represent ideas, values, or ways of of a country
life
Image A mental picture Two trees converged in a
velvet meadow
Paradox A contradiction The dry water
MNEMONIC TO USE IN THE STUDY OF A POEM
152
Voice Vera
Context Couldn’t
Form Find
Tone The
Mood Map
Imagery In
Content Charlie’s
Rhythm Rolls
Rhyme Royce
Vera Couldn’t Find The Map In Charlie’s Rolls Royce.
153
Appendices
Appendix 1:
154
Sample Appreciation of a Single Poem
(Remember – in the examination you have to compare and contrast two

poems. Some of the points in the appreciation below could be used as the
basis of comparison and contrast with the poem on pages 157-159.)
An Appreciation of The Darkling Thrush by

Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) apparently wrote this poem at the turn of the
nineteenth century. Hardy was trained as an architect’s apprentice in his
youth and had written many novels before he eventually returned to the
writing of poetry. Hardy was an agnostic, that is someone who believes
that it is impossible to know whether or not God exists.
The title of the poem is unusual in that Hardy uses the adjective
‘darkling’ to describe the thrush, a native European songbird. Keats also
used this adjective when he described the nightingale in a famous ode to
that bird. The poem itself is composed of four eight-line stanzas. Each
stanza employs an alternate rhyme scheme and has a strong rhythm. The
poet uses full rhymes and this would suggest that he is either happy with
his subject matter or that he is writing about an issue over which he feels
a lot of control. Because the poem deals with a bird’s song that troubles
‘the growing gloom’ the use of full rhyme and strong rhythm could be said
to be appropriate as they create a musical effect.
In the first two stanzas of the poem there is a sombre mood that is
directly affected by the desolate tone. The imagery, too, is negative with
many words creating a sense of dissatisfaction or disharmony. The frost,
which is personified, is described as being ‘…spectre-gray’ and the sun is
described in terms of being a ‘…weakening eye.’ There are some images
also which suggest disharmony and despondence. We are told that:
The tangled bine stems scored the sky

Like strings of broken lyres,
155
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.
The simile of the bine stems being like the strings of a broken lyre is
clever as it is music which will ultimately enter this poem to make the poet
question what is happening around him. The verb ‘haunted’ also suggests
that the people are shadows of their former selves and have retreated
from the bleak outdoors to seek warmth.
As Hardy wrote the poem at the end of the nineteenth century,
when he was sixty years of age, he might be looking back across the last
century, imagining it to be deceased, like a corpse. ‘The land’s sharp
features seemed to be/ The century’s corpse out leant.’ The fact that the
century is personified and given a capital C seems to give weight to this
idea. This also gives the poem a sense of drama as Hardy goes on to
compare the sky to the lid of a crypt and the wind as the death lament for
the ‘corpse’ of the last century. The use of alliteration and harsh cs (‘His
crypt the cloudy canopy…’) also creates a sense of hostility, thus
accentuating the poem’s sombre tone and mood. Hardy furthers this when
he tells us:
The ancient pulse of germ and birth

Was shrunken hard and dry
And every spirit upon earth
Seemed fervourless as I.
It is this lack of fervour that makes the tone of the first two stanzas
seem so despondent.
The song of the thrush in stanza three, however, marks a major
tonal shift in the poem. This bird in ‘blast- beruffled plume’ is ‘aged…frail,
gaunt and small’ yet it sings 'a full-hearted evensong’. There does not seem
to be a reason for singing the song- it is Winter, it is possibly hungry, and
as the Spring is several months away, it is not singing for a mate- yet it
bursts into song. Hardy goes as far as saying that the bird flings ‘his soul/
156
upon the growing gloom.’ This is an interesting image as the soul is seen as
our greatest possession yet the verb ‘flings’ suggests carelessness or,
possibly, joyful abandonment. The polysyllabic word, ‘illimited,’ also draws
out a sense of the degree of joy the bird feels.
In the last stanza Hardy’s sense of bewilderment continues when he
tells us that:
So little cause for carolings,

Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
Afar or nigh around….
Hardy is mystified so much by the bird’s sense of ecstasy that he
concedes that perhaps the bird, in its old age, is aware of a higher being
and it is that knowledge which gives it hope. Hardy, being an agnostic,
unfortunately is unable to share that hope. It is important to note that
the word Hope is personified in the second last line, but perhaps it is more
significant that the poem ends on the words ‘I was unaware.’ This seems to
suggest that a lower order creature, a bird, has significant knowledge
about creation of which Hardy is oblivious.
Appendix 2
Sample Appreciation of a single poem
157
(Remember – in the examination you have to compare and contrast two
poems. Some of the points in the appreciation below could be used as the
basis of comparison and contrast with the poem on pages 157-159.)
“I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud”:

Wandering Through Wordsworth’s Poem
William Wordsworth is a famous Romantic English poet known for his
imagery. In his poem "I wandered lonely as a cloud," we can see his use of
imagery and emotion at its best. This also happens to be one of my
favourite poems.
This poem's plot is simple. We the readers are being taken along for a
magical trip that the author is recounting. The speaker says that while
wandering like a cloud floating above hills and valleys he encounters a field
of daffodils beside a lake. These dancing, fluttering flowers caught the
heart of our speaker. We can obviously see that this moment in his life has
meant a great deal to him. He says that a poet could not help but be happy
in such a joyful company of flowers. He also says whenever he feels
"vacant" or "pensive" the memory flashes upon "that inward eye / That is
the bliss of solitude," and his heart fills with pleasure "and dances with
the daffodils."
The imagery Wordsworth uses is very powerful, making me feel like I too
saw this wonderful sight of daffodils. He uses gentle words like the gentle
flower that he is describing. He mentions that the daffodils are
“fluttering” “dancing “ and “twinkling,” such terms make the lines flow with
a musical eloquence. He is able to make the daffodils come to life in a
joyous movement making me feel like I am also swaying along with the
flowers.
158
We can see that he holds daffodils and nature in high regard. This poem
has a lot of nature images that you can practically see: the trees, the
water, the stars, and the daffodils. His tone is merry and flows quickly and
nicely. It's like he is creating a painting not a poem. The images around
him all seem to be in harmony, and, like he says, "dance" together. The
extent of his joy is when he is among the daffodils, but the greater
experience he seems to gain is the recollection of that moment of
tranquillity while with that "jocund company."
The cloud he mentions is used not to represent loneliness, but rather,
aloneness. Like they say, "there is a difference between being lonely and
being alone." The poet thinks of himself as like the cloud in the sense of
being free and being able to look at such beauty. He mentions the words
"solitude" and "lonely,” yet he doesn't sound depressed. Later I found that
even though he claims to be alone while taking in this sublime sight, he
really wasn’t alone--he was accompanied by his sister. Also he wasn’t alone
while writing the poem, his sister, Dorothy, helped tweak the poem for
him, and added the last few lines of the poem, which are among my
favourite lines of the poem: “They flash upon that inward eye Which is the
bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with
the daffodils.”
In the last stanza, he mentions that he thinks about this place when he is
alone and it makes him happy. He uses his experience as a vehicle of
escape. Overall this poem is very peaceful and presents a feeling of
tranquility. It is about a man confronting external nature and how with his
imagination it can fulfil him. His creativity seems to be encouraged by the
nature around him.
159
I often read this poem when I feel out of sorts and it is always able to
relax me and make me feel like a wandering cloud. Thus, I also use this
experience the speaker had as an escape.
Appendix 3
Some Quotations on Poetry for General Class Discussion:
160
The Sonnet
“…a moment’s monument.” Rosetti
“It is for those poets who, too long, have felt the oppressive weight of
liberty.” Wordsworth
Free Verse
“Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.” Robert Frost
“Poetry is an antidote to the poison level at which we often consent to

live.”
Penelope Shuttle
“Some things are constantly changing. Some things never do. Poets and
their poetry keep track of each.” Thomas Lynch
“Poetry makes an emotion conscious.” Peter Dale
“Great poetry is first of all sound.” Christian Wiman
“If poetry cannot deal with atrocities and man’s worst moments, then it is
dead.” Michael Longley
Appendix 4
161
‘Many poets write about the beauty of nature’. Using ‘Ode to Autumn’
by John Keats and one other appropriately selected poem discuss
which poet has conveyed the beauty of nature more vividly.
(Student chooses ‘The Daffodils’ by William Wordsworth)
Introduction:
Keats and Wordsworth are two Romantic poets of the 19th Century who
have celebrated the beauty of nature.
Ode to Autumn The Daffodils

Context 19 Century
th
19 Century
th
Romantic Romantic
Content Whole season Specific feature of
nature
Form/Structure Regular - 4 verses Regular – 4 verses
Ode Lyric poem
1st person 1st person
Present tense Past tense – changes to
present tense in last
verse
Rhyme/Rhythm ABABCDEDCCE ABAB rhyming scheme
Regular rhythm Regular rhythm/beat
Enjambment – flowing – use End-stopped
of long sentences and semi-
colon
Tone Sadness of autumn as a time Delights in sight
of change Joyful
Mood
Imagery Appeals to all of the senses Visual imagery

Voice
Effectiveness
of language
162
Appendix 5
Anthology One: Themes, attitude of poet, stylistic devices, etc.
Nature Family Love Character Death Memory Sadness Happiness Social (?) Sonnet Monoloque
Comment
A Bird √
A Parental Ode √ √ √
Binsey Poplars √ √
Break, break, √ √ √
Death... Leveller √ √
My Last Duch.. √ √ √ √
On the Tombs √ √
Remember √ √ √ √ √
Remembrance √ √ √ √
Shall I Compare √ √ √ √
The Burial √ √
The Daffodils √ √
Darkling Thrush √ √
To Autumn √ √
Upon my Son √
This is nether a prescriptive nor an exhaustive list.
163

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GCSE (CCEA) ENGLISH LITERATURE

Additional Teacher Resources

These materials were created by a Working Group set up

Maura Johnston – Literacy Team (SELB)

A Student’s Booklet to support study of the poetry in

Focus for Study and Required Skills 5

Unit 1: Introduction to Poetry 8

Unit 3: The Daffodils by William Wordsworth 45

Unit 4: Shall I Compare Thee… by William Shakespeare 70

Unit 5 Upon My Son… by Ann Bradstreet 88

Unit 6 Death the Leveller by James Shirley

Unit 7 The Exam 127

General Poetry Resources 138

This resource is intended to provide teachers with ideas and support

• ‘The Anthologies – An Introduction.’ (Sept. 2003)

The pack is offered as a set of suggestions only – teachers can select

A scheme of work is included for the teacher, as well as background

The Teacher Resource will be accompanied by a Student’s Booklet

Poetry Anthology 1 provides an interesting challenge for teachers and

Four of the fifteen poets are women: Ann Bradstreet is separated by

The Anthology offers many opportunities for linking, comparing and

The themes are quite various: humanity’s relationship to nature,

Poetry should be enriching and inspiring and these poems need to be

Any study of the anthologies should therefore focus on:

• Detailed analysis of the poems

*Students must make their own connections between poems.

In terms of required skills, candidates need to be competent in the following

• expressing ideas in a detailed and coherent fashion, using an appropriate

There will be a bulleted format to the questions in the Foundation tier.

UNIT TOPIC FOCUS PAGE

2 A Bird Came Down The Imagery, rhythm and rhyme 22

3 The Daffodils - Figurative language 45

4 Shall I Compare Thee … - Narrative voice, monologue and 70

5 Upon My Son… - Tone and mood 88

6 Death the Leveller – Encouraging independent cross- 107

7 The Exam Examination and essay writing 127

• To understand what poetry is and can be

Teachers are advised to select, as appropriate, some of the following activities

(i) Brainstorm – whole class

• Teachers should use a range of stimuli illustrating different poetic forms.

Texts might include

- Give out samples of imagery, alliteration, assonance, etc, from favourite

• Return to brainstorm – What is Poetry?

1 Starter Activity: (5 mins. recap at start of lesson) Teacher reads aloud a

Poetic Techniques Game:

• Divide pupils into groups of 4

Teacher should then model or share the reading of a number of different

For example: a ballad and a haiku or a simple sonnet and a haiku

Suggested Web Addresses:

Create your own poem using ICT

(ii) Write and illustrate a sonnet.

*See p145 for notes on poetic forms

Teacher should Model the annotation of 2 poems.

A poetic form, which is organised by the initial letters

The repetition of a speech sound in a sequence of

The possibility of more than one meaning.

The repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds,

A narrative poem, which was originally meant to be

Poetry written with rhythm and metre, but without

Two consecutive lines of poetry which are paired in

A poem in which a story is related by a single person,