Comparing poems.

Here are some suggestions - this is not an exhaustive list. See your exercise book for more.

This is a mixture of key poems from the higher and foundation tier.

Nature.

Death of a Naturalist - The Field Mouse - Sonnet.

Danger/Tension.

Storm on the Island - At a Potato Digging- The Field Mouse - On the Train - A Difficult Birth - The Affliction of Margaret (tension)

Parent/Child relationships.

Digging - Follower - Catrin - Babysitting - On my First Sonne - The Affliction of Margaret.

Patrolling Barnegat - Walt Whitman

This poem is an unusual sonnet (14 lines) written with an AA rhyme scheme throughout.



The poem is set on a beach on a stormy, wintry night. Someone, presumably the poet, is walking alone along the beach through driving snow, looking out to sea across the wild waves. Through the dark, snow and spray he is not quite sure what he sees - possibly a shipwreck, and a distress signal - then what seems to be a group of walkers, braving the storm. There is a real sense of danger and fear.

- GCSE BITESIZE

Whitman could be saying that "love is like walking along a snowy beach": beaches are usually places of fun and relaxation, but now this one is described as a haunting place which is difficult to walk along.

Use this poem to compare with other poems about danger (Storm on the Island etc) and other poem about nature (Sonnet, Death of a Naturalist, The Field Mouse).

Hope this helps.

Mid Term Break - Seamus Heaney.

"Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple"

There is plenty to say about this quote.

i) the fact that the word 'wearing' suggests something Heaney thinks is temporary and not part of his brother.

ii) 'poppy' is linked with rememberance, reverance, celebration and a sense of loss, grief and suffering.

iii) the specific 'on his left temple' shows how closely Heaney is scrutinising the body - a childlike, inquisitive mind.

Sonnet - John Clare

Sonnet - John Clare.

Comparable with Death of a Naturalist (HEANEY) and The Field Mouse (CLARKE) as they all deal with nature as a key topic/theme.

Sonnet and Death...

i) Nature is celebrated."...the summer beaming forth" (S)

and

"Bubbles gargled delicately..."(DoaN)

ii) Both tell of a personal reaction to nature as they are both in the first person, "I".

iii) Unlike Sonnet, Death...shows a negative side to nature. As we grow older we lose our infatuation with nature.

Sonnet stays postitive until the end."bright beetles" (S)

and

"obscene threats" (DoaN)

Sonnet and The Field Mouse.

i) Sonnet deals with a very limited scene, it is highly focused."the clear deep lake" (S)

Whereas The Field Mouse mentions wider settings.

"Summer in Europe" (TFM)

You could say John Clare is indulging himself in his poetry whilst Clarke is writing with a more global purpose/message.

ii)Sonnet uses very simple descriptions with little to analyse for deeper meaning (typical Romantic style).

"reed clumps rustle like a wind shook wood" (S)

Whereas in The Field Mouse, there is plenty to read with deeper meaning."The wrong that wokefrom a rumour of pain won't heal..." (TFM)

Overall, think about Sonnet as a poem about nature and think of the other two as having wider implications. They simply USE nature as a medium to discuss growing up (Death...) and the Bosnian War (The Field Mouse...).

Not to confuse matters, some say Sonnet has a sub text about freedom since Clare escaped from the mental asylum the year he wrote this. In this case, you could say that Sonnet is about freedom and being alive whereas in the other two poems, there is a focus on death and being restricted.

In terms of comparing quotes, look at the semantic field (groups of similar vocabulary) in all three poems. Sonnet is filled with positive vocabulary; Death... has some positive, some negative; The Fied Mouse has almost all negative vocabulary.

Hope this helps.

Danger in Of Mice and Men

DANGER (think also THREAT, TENSION, STRIFE, AGRESSION...)

i) Curley and his behaviour towards the other men. His presence in a room is often accompanied by feelings of uneasiness and tension.

ii) The fight scene with Curley and Lennie. The fact that Lennie holds back from fighting until George gives him the go ahead builds tension and a sense of impending violence.

iii) The way Curley's wife is presented as a dangerous character - a siren (see below). She is the ultimate 'jail bait'; she wears red which is symbolic of danger; she creates a reason for Lennie to get into trouble because she has soft, tactile hair and clothing. Her function in the novel is to destroy the dream and therefore she is built up as a dangerous character.

SIREN - a mythical seductress who would lure sailors to their doom by making them crash on the shore.

Overall, there is a feeling of danger because all these men are living in close, tense quarters with people they don't know, there is the threat of poverty around every corner and the danger that, because of the Depression, your job may not be there in the morning.

Literature exam

Revision for next week:

Why not get a friend or family member to test you on Of Mice and Men?

Make a list of the themes and characters and get them to pick one for you at random.

You then have 5 mins to write down or tell them what you know.


Another idea: give them your anthology and get them to read out a line from a poem at random.

You have to identify which poem it is, who it is by and then explain the line.

Good luck.

Keep checking for more revision help.

Digging

Digging is a poem about Seamus Heaney feeling he can't follow in his father's work as a farm labourer. He says he does have a skill which is as important: he can write. Throughout the poem he admires his father and his grandfather for their skills and although he doesn't have a spade to "follow men like them", he does have his pen so he will "dig with it".