THEME: LACK OF POWER

Learning Objective: To explore how the poet uses theme, language and structure to present a place

What impressions do you have of London?

Write down three adjectives to describe your impressions.
bbuusy
sy
busy

cro
wd
ed
historical

u s tl i ng
b

modeorn
ld dirty
Learning Objective: To understand the context and subject matter of the poem

William Blake was a prolific English poet and artist who is considered to have made a very important contribution to the
history of art and the Romantic movement, despite being largely unrecognised in his lifetime.

He produced some of the most memorable pieces of art and poetry ever created, and is widely remembered as ‘a man of
extremes’ – his comments about his society were often rejected by his contemporaries and only valued by critics later. He
was able to express social comment and philosophy through his creativity.

Much of Blake’s work reflects the influences of religion and revolution on eighteenth-century society. Although highly
religious, he was critical of the Church of England and used some of his poems to pass comment and judgement on the role
of the Church in society.

During the late eighteenth century the French Revolution was taking place, and a sense of uprising against authority (the
monarchy and the Church) was spreading. In 1792 (when ‘London’ was written) revolutionary mobs were invading Paris to
overthrow the king. Blake openly supported this rebellion, and despite the government putting in place a law to outlaw
writings of a disloyal nature, Blake still manages to reveal his discontent through the negative voice that he uses so well in
‘London’.

Stick the biographical information about William Blake into your

exercise book.
Underneath, list four things that you learn about William Blake.
Learning Objective: To explore how the poet uses theme, language and structure to present a place

The poem ‘London’ is from Blake’s collection ‘Songs of Innocence and

Experience’.
The The ‘Experience’
‘Innocence’ section illustrates
section is the negative side
positive in effects of modern
tone and life upon nature
celebrates and people. It
love, views the modern
childhood condition as
and nature. dangerous and
corrupt,
promoting
poverty, child
labour and
prostitution.

In ‘London’
WhichBlakecollection
uses snapshotsdoofyouthe city to depict
think his negative
‘London’ view of
is from?
society at the time. As with some of his other works, the poem forms a sort of
social protest. It reflects Why
Blake’sdo you thinkwith
disillusionment this?
religion and authority.
 What does this
picture say
about London in
18th century?

Poverty

Lawlessness

Immoral behaviour

Drunkenness

?
Hogarth’s ‘Gin Lane’ (1751)
Learning Objective: To explore how the poet uses theme, language and structure to present a place

given over to the

Find definitions for the use of business;
following words: worry or
rented; licensed anxiety
woe shaped by heating
chartered or hammering; a
fraudulent imitation handcuffs
manacles
forged
hopeless;
hapless public helpless
ban
announcement
plant disease
harlot blights prostitute caused by
insects; ugly
appalls greatly dismay urban area;
hearse
or horrify spoils

A vehicle which
conveys a coffin
 THEME: LACK OF POWER
I wander through each chartered street,
Near where the chartered Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every man,

In every infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forged manacles I hear:

How the chimney-sweeper’s cry

Every black’ning church appalls,
And the hapless soldier’s sigh
Runs in blood down palace walls.

But most through midnight streets I hear

How the youthful harlot’s curse
Blasts the new-born infant’s tear,
And blights with plagues the marriage hearse.
Learning Objective: To explore how the poet uses theme, language and structure to present a place

Repetition of ‘chartered’ – what

does this suggest?
What does
the verb
‘wander’ How does ‘flow’
suggest? Is represent a
the poet able juxtaposition to
to change ‘chartered’?
what is I wander through each chartered street,
happening? Near where the chartered Thames does
flow,
What is the
And mark in every face I meet
purpose of this
repetition?
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
What are the
two meanings
of ‘mark’?
Technique: ‘weakness’
and ‘woe’? What
image does this
create?

THEME: LACK OF POWER

Learning Objective: To explore how the poet uses theme, language and structure to present a place

What sense does this

verse focus on? What
effect does it create on
Repetition of the speaker?
‘every’. What does In every cry of every man,
this suggest? In every infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forged manacles I hear:

Key Image: ‘mind-forged manacles’

What does this key image suggest about the people Blake
describes?

THEME: LACK OF POWER

Learning Objective: To explore how the poet uses theme, language and structure to present a place

Chimney sweeps were usually

What different
young orphans in the care of
connotations
the church. How do their cries
could this
relate to the previous stanza?
image hold?

How the chimney-sweeper’s cry

Every black’ning church appalls,
And the hapless soldier’s sigh
Runs in blood down palace walls.

Possibly a reference to the

French Revolution; is he
suggesting that ordinary
people suffer whilst the rich
and royal are protected
behind palace walls?

THEME: LACK OF POWER

Learning Objective: To explore how the poet uses theme, language and structure to present a place

How does ‘youthful harlot’

present? What technique is
What is the poet
this?
still focused on?

How does
But most through midnight streets I hear this present
How the youthful harlot’s curse the youth of
Blasts the new-born infant’s tear, London?
And blights with plagues the marriage hearse.

How does the alliteration

‘blasts’ and ‘blights’
present the ‘new-born Another oxymoron – what is the effect?
infant’?

THEME: LACK OF POWER

 THEME: LACK OF POWER
Lo: to explore the power of the state through London

Exploring the HOW…

Questions: (Find quotes to support your answers)
1. Who has power, according to the narrator?
2. What is the importance of the use of the adjective
“chartered”?
3. What does the soldier symbolise?
4. Why is the oxymoron “marriage hearse” used?
Challenge yourself
5. How does the rigid structure of the poem show
power/conflict?
LO: to consider who controls the narrative shown us through the media

Who do you think controls the

media?

Are our opinions being influenced by what

the media shows us?
World War 2 (1938 – 1945)

1. What is being
photographed?
2. How do you suppose
the subject of each
photo feels?
3. Who is doing the
photographing?
4. How do you suppose the
photographer feels?
5. List 5 adjectives you
think describe the image
or the emotion in this
image.
Vietnam War (1955 – 1975)
Napalm Attack - 1972

1. What is being
photographed?
2. How do you suppose
the subject of each
photo feels?
3. Who is doing the
photographing?
4. How do you suppose the
photographer feels?
5. List 5 adjectives you
think describe the image
or the emotion in this
image.
 War in
Afghanistan
(2001)

The
Independent
 9/11 (2001)
(The Guardian)
1. What is being
photographed?
2. How do you suppose
the subject of each
photo feels?
3. Who is doing the
photographing?
4. How do you suppose the
photographer feels?
5. List 5 adjectives you
think describe the image
or the emotion in this
image.
LO: to consider who controls the narrative shown us through the media
What is a war photographer?
What is it like to be a war photographer?
Do you agree with what they do?
Why/why not?
 Carol Ann Duffy – The Poet

“What interested me in writing

the poem was the
photographer and the difficult
decisions he or she might have
to make while taking pictures in
a war zone.”

Carol Ann Duffy wrote this

poem after conversations with
famous War Photographer,
Don McCullin.
 “War Photographer”

In his darkroom he is finally alone

with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.
The only light is red and softly glows,
as though this were a church and he
a priest preparing to intone a Mass.
Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.

He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays

beneath his hands which did not tremble then
though seem to now. Rural England. Home again
to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel,
to fields which don't explode beneath the feet
of running children in a nightmare heat.

Something is happening. A stranger's features

faintly start to twist before his eyes,
a half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries
of this man's wife, how he sought approval
without words to do what someone must
and how the blood stained into foreign dust.

A hundred agonies in black-and-white

from which his editor will pick out five or six
for Sunday's supplement. The reader's eyeballs prick
with tears between bath and pre-lunch beers.
From aeroplane he stares impassively at where
he earns a living and they do not care.
 Theme
• Shows contrast between the reality of war
zones and safety of home.

• Photographer moves between these two

worlds but belongs to neither

• Photographer is shown as a conscious

recorder of the truth.
 Form and Structure
• Poem is set out in 4 six line stanzas of equal length.

• Each stanza ends with a rhyming couplet.

• The structure follows the process of photographic

development and the thought process that
accompanies it.

• Poem moves from series of observations to a clear

conclusion.
 His mind
Films of
horror Sense of peace
In his darkroom he is finally alone
contrasts with
war zone
with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.
Rows of bodies, gravestones
sibilance
Repeated ‘s’ The only light is red and softly glows,
lengthens
suffering as though this were a church and he Connotations of red –
Ritualistic. Place of peace danger, blood, death.
Highlights a priest preparing to intone a Mass. Red light is also known
serious as ‘safe light’ - irony
nature of Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.
task.

Caesura: Uses punctuation to fix Highlights brevity of

places in mind. Creates a list of war life. Short time we
zones. are on earth.
 Statement – he has to get Sibilance – messy sound.
on with it. Solution used to ‘fix’ photo –
irony that there is no
He has a job to do. Solutions slop‘solution’
in traysto war. A chemical
Now reaction
Onomatopoeia – slop messy
he has beneath his hands which did not tremble then
time to safety highlights messiness of war
think
about though seem to now. Rural England. Home again
his
work it to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel,
has a Contrast with war and how easily problems can
disturb to fields which don't explode beneath the feet
ing be solved
effect
on him of running children in a nightmare heat.

Reference to famous Nick Ut photo of the

‘Napalm Girl’. Also contrasts between safety of
home and danger of war zone.
Injects drama –
suspense.
Something is happening. A stranger's features
Connotations of distortion

faintly start to twist before his eyes

a half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries

Suggestion
of still
of this man's wife, how he sought approval Highlights
being alive
and moral
suffering without words to do what someone must predicament of
war
and how blood stained into foreign dust. photographer
and guilt
distanced associated
with it.
 Nature of his work. Can also carry connotations of
Juxtaposi right and wrong.
tion of A hundred agonies in black-and-white
100 with
5/6.
Shocking from which his editor will pick out five or six
contrast.
for Sunday's supplement. The reader's eyeballs prick
Short, sharp pain but no
lasting
with tears between the bath and effect beers.
pre-lunch
Althou Assonance
gh tears/beers -
From the aeroplane he stares impassivelyHighlights
at wheresmall
these No feeling for
space of time and
people home how little attention
pay his he earns his living and they do not care. is paid to images
wages and the little impact
he has Photographer lives between two worlds theybut
havebelongs to
no neither.
feeling
LO: to understand how context affects meaning in Kamikaze

Kamikaze

What do you
understand by the
word Kamikaze?
LO: to understand how context affects meaning in Kamikaze

Watch the video …

Has your perspective on Kamikaze pilots changed?

How?
LO: to understand how context affects meaning in Kamikaze

Read the poem

In groups respond to the question on the
stanza you have been given.

Then pass your stanza on to the next group.

a reading of Kamikaze
LO: to understand how context affects meaning in Kamikaze

Question 1

What ideas/themes
are presented in the
stanza?
LO: to understand how context affects meaning in Kamikaze

Question 2

What images are used

to reflect the
themes/ideas raised?
LO: to understand how context affects meaning in Kamikaze

Question 3

Which
word/structural/poetic
device choices are
effective/significant?
LO: to understand how context affects meaning in Kamikaze

Question 4

What does the author

want us to think/feel
in this stanza?
Her father embarked at sunrise
with a flask of water, a samurai sword
in the cockpit, a shaven head
full of powerful incantations
and enough fuel for a one-way
journey into history
but half way there, she thought,
recounting it later to her children,
he must have looked far down
at the little fishing boats
strung out like bunting
on a green-blue translucent sea
and beneath them, arcing in swathes
like a huge flag waved first one way
then the other in a figure of eight,
the dark shoals of fishes
flashing silver as their bellies
swivelled towards the sun
and remembered how he
and his brothers waiting on the shore
built cairns of pearl-grey pebbles
to see whose withstood longest
the turbulent inrush of breakers
bringing their father’s boat safe
- yes, grandfather’s boat – safe
to the shore, salt-sodden, awash
with cloud-marked mackerel,
black crabs, feathery prawns,
the loose silver of whitebait and once
a tuna, the dark prince, muscular, dangerous.
And though he came back
my mother never spoke again
in his presence, nor did she meet his eyes
and the neighbours too, they treated him
as though he no longer existed,
only we children still chattered and laughed
till gradually we too learned
to be silent, to live as though
he had never returned, that this
was no longer the father we loved.
And sometimes, she said, he must have
wondered
which had been the better way to die.
LO: to understand how context affects meaning in Kamikaze

Interpretations
The poem can be interpreted in different ways.
For each pair of interpretations decide
LO: to understand how context affects meaning in Kamikaze

Interpretation of whole poem

1. The poem contrasts 2. The poem is an
the vividness of the attempt to come to
pilot's moment of terms with the past and
choice with the achieve some kind of
disappointment of his closure.
life afterwards.

Task:
1. Decide which interpretation you agree with more.

2. Find evidence to justify your interpretation.

LO: to understand how context affects meaning in Kamikaze

Interpretation of last line

1. The poem closes with 2. The poem closes on a
a bleak view of her note of tender regret,
father that offers little which hints at
comfort or forgiveness.
tenderness.

Task:
1. Decide which interpretation you agree with more.

2. Find evidence to justify your interpretation.