CLASHES & COLLISIONS
Half-caste John Agard
Parade’s End Daljit Nagra
Belfast Confetti Ciaran Carson
Our Sharpeville Ingrid de Kok
Exposure Wilfred Owen
Catrin Gillian Clarke
Your Dad Did What? Sophie Hannah
The Class Game Mary Casey
Cousin Kate Christina Rossetti
Hitcher Simon Armitage
The Drum John Scott
O What is that Sound W.H. Auden
Conscientious Objector Edna St. Vincent Millay
August 6, 1945 Alison Fell
Invasion Choman Hardi
Collection B
ANALYSING THE POEMS
1. The aim of these materials is to help you to understand and think about the poems, so that you can write about them independently.
2. For each poem:
- Read the poem at least twice.
- You need to consider two key questions
o WHAT is the poem about? Summarise the key event, mood and effect of the poem
o HOW is it working? Identify 3-5 techniques that the poem uses to achieve its effect (this could include vocabulary, imagery, alliteration and rhyme, rhythm, structure, layout, etc)
GLOSSARY:
Rhythm - The ………………… of a song or piece of poetry.
Rhyme - Vowel ……………………. at the end of a word are repeated.
Stanza – The sections or verses that a poem is ………………………….
Lay Out - Lines and stanzas are laid out in a particular way which …………………………………………………………………….
Enjambment - Sentences or phrases run over lines, without a pause, often making a poem sound as if someone is ……………….…. to us.
Repetition – Words or ideas are ………………………………….
Alliteration - The repetition of the same …………………………. at the start of words in a line or sentence.
e.g. ……………………………………………………………………………..
Onomatopoeia – Words sound like what they ……………………………..
e.g. ……………………………………………………………………………………..
Oxymoron – Words which are opposites or strongly contrast are placed together to describe something.
e.g. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
IMAGERY: Words are used imaginatively to describe or give us a strong sense of things indirectly. There are three main forms:
1. Metaphor - An image which refers to something indirectly by saying it ……… something else.
e.g. …………………………………………………………………………..
2. Simile - An image which refers to something indirectly using the words …………. or ………………..
e.g. ……………………………………………………………………………………..
3. Personification - Where something non-human is given ………………………. qualities.
e.g. ………………………………………………………………………………………..
“Half Caste”
The poem is written by and from the perspective of someone who is mixed race. The poem is sarcastic in tone and makes fun of the idea that being mixed race makes you not a whole person. Consider why the poet wrote this poem?
1. Non-standard English – Caribbean Patois is used. This celebrates the poet’s own culture. Highlight a couple of examples.
2. The poem uses examples from great art and music and the weather (all of which are mixed). Highlight and explain these.
3. Repetition is used to emphasise the central point (“explain…”). This is because the poet is challenging the idea that …
4. The poem uses irony (sarcasm). The speaker is not serious about not being a whole person, but he has a serious point.
“Parade’s End”
A very visual poem about a family in Yorkshire who are persecuted because of their race.
1. Highlight the use of Yorkshire dialect.
2. Highlight the vocabulary that suggests that the family are scared or feel threatened in stanza 3.
3. The fourth stanza contains the key event of the poem and two strong images of the family “thundering” down the metal shutters of their butcher’s shop in their desire to get away at the end of the day, and of the “car skin pucker” when they find that someone has tipped acid over their re-sprayed car. Highlight these.
4. Consider why the car having been re-sprayed “gold” and then having to be stripped after its been vandalised, becoming brown again, is significant.
“Belfast Confetti”
The panic and confusion of being in a riot in Belfast in Northern Ireland, is described using the extended metaphor of punctuation.
1. Highlight/ underline all of the words about punctuation in one colour. This is an extended metaphor, using punctuation, to describe the riot. Conside why the poet uses the tools of grammar (of communication) to describe a riot (a breakdown of normal communication)
2. Highlight/ underline all of the words about street names in another colour. These streets are all named after battles from the Crimean war (Northern Ireland has a long and proud tradition of sending soldiers to fight for the UK).
3. Highlight/ underline all of the negative and violent words in another colour.
4. Layout: enjambment (running on lines) creates a sense of confusion.
5. The use of questions also create a sense of confusion.
“Our Sharpeville”
A white South African girl describes her confused emotions and awakening as she sees black miners on the day of the Sharpeville massacre (an infamous massacre of black protestors by white police in a township near Johannesburg).
1. A descriptive, narrative first person poem.
2. Uses powerful imagery to create a sense of shame, division and fear.
3. Repetition and alliteration used for emphasis.
4. Find, highlight and consider the following:
- The miners are described using an OXYMORON (contrasting words) that make them sound both known and unknown.
- This simile makes the miners sound like they are travelling somewhere beautiful and exciting.
- This metaphor describing her grandmother’s voice makes her sound like someone sweeping away the truth.
- The direct speech contains a threat to scare the little girl.
- This metaphor describes the dead as speaking, making it sound as though something terrible has happened.
“Exposure”
This is a First World War poems which describes the awful cold suffered during life in the trenches, and questions the point of the war.
1. Underline all of the alliteration. This is used to emphasise the mood and certain details.
2. In the first line, underline and label the metaphor
3. In line 7, underline and label the simile
4. Dawn and the weather are personified in stanza 3. Highlight and explain how it sounds/ feels.
5. Why does the air “shudder black with snow” in line 17?
6. Underline the repetition (look at the ends of stanzas) and the rhetorical questions. These create a sense of …
“Catrin”
The poem is about the relationship between mother and daughter. There is great ……. as well as immense ………………
1. Underline all of the alliteration.
2. In line 8, underline and label the metaphor. This is a powerful image of the … which links a mother and baby and symbolizes the link between …
3. Where are we in line 10?
4. The lines run on. Explain why you think the poet writes them like this.
5. Underline and explain the metaphor in line 25
6. Underline the words that rhyme in lines 21-24
‘‘Your Dad Did What?’
The poem is written to and about a teacher and something that happens in one of his/ her classes with a student when he gives the class the familiar task of writing about their recent holiday. The clue to understanding the poem is in the final two lines. There is a letter ‘e’ missing in the sentence “My Dad did.”
1. Write down clearly and neatly one to three sentences to explain what the poem is about (in your anthology on page 27)
2. There is a rhyme scheme in the poem. Mark this.
3. The final line doesn’t rhyme and breaks this. Mark this and make a note about what effect this has on the poem.
4. The ‘E’ grade that the teacher gives the student in the poem is important. There is a pun here (the letter is important in two ways) although this is not funny. Mark this and make a note to explain why it is important.
5. What is the mood of the poem? Highlight and label two lines that show this.
6. Label and highlight anything else that you think is interesting or significant in the poem.
“The Class Game”
This is a simple poem and its title tells us what it is about.
1. What sort of language does the poem use? – Label this
2. The poem uses the first person (‘I’). Highlight: This makes it …
3. Identify the rhyme scheme. What effect does this have on the poem?
4. How does this person sound about being judged by the way he/she speaks. Note this down on the poem
5. The poem uses rhetorical questions. Highlight these and explain their effect.
6. Label and highlight anything else that you think is interesting or significant in the poem.
“Cousin Kate”
- This is a ballad and a dramatic monologue where a young woman tells her story of spurned love, shame and revenge.
1. Note the strong rhythm and rhyme that the poem contains. This makes it lyrical and quick to read.
2. Why does the great lord ‘fill my heart with care’ on line 8? What does he use her for? Explain this.
3. Note the oxymoron the poem contains in lines 11 and 45. These show us that the female narrator has mixed feelings about her son who is …
“Hitcher”
- This is a violent poem that can be interpreted in different ways. A man, going to work, seems to be full of anger.
1. The poem is a dramatic monologue (it is written in the first person and uses ‘I’). The poem uses colloquial language (slang). This makes it sound …
2. Highlight the violent language
3. A little bit of alliteration in line 3 highlights the sense of desperation of the narrator. Highlight this.
4. The hitchhiker that the narrator picks up seems to be the narrator’s opposite. Explain this.
5. What or who could this narrator be thought to represent? (HINT: If he represents freedom and no responsibility or worries, why does the driver beat him up? – Because in life we have to accept …)
“The Drum”
This is an anti-war poem, warning against the mistake of joining the army.
1. The drum is relevant as it used to be used by armies in battle and is still used in modern day military bands. It is also a metaphor representing the call to young men to …
2. A strong rhythm reminds us of the military beat of …
3. Highlight the repeated words and phrases. These build a sense of …
4. The first stanza describes the reasons why young men are persuaded to join the army. Highlight these (the “tawdry lace” would be ribbons or strips of material that a girl might tie round the arm of a soldier she liked).
5. The second stanza describes the tragedies that war brings. The language here JUXTAPOSES the language of the first verse. Highlight the words that describe this.
“O What is that Sound”
This is a ballad (a lyrical, rhythmic story). A couple in a house address each other in couplets in each stanza.
1. The soldiers are first described using positive language. Highlight this
2. A strong sense of rhythm and rhyme (highlight and label these) create a sense of the soldiers marching.
3. Vague vocabulary (‘perhaps’), questions and the repetition create a sense of rising panic. Highlight and note this.
4. Each stanza, as the soldiers pass by another house, builds tension and suspense. Label this.
5. The penultimate (second last) stanza sees what happen? Why?
6. Violent language suggests that the door is broken down in the last stanza. Highlight this.
7. A metaphor in the final line suggests what?
“Conscientious Objector”
This poem is like a statement of belief. The poem’s narrator tells us what he/she won’t do. A conscientious objector is someone who refuses to join the army and fight because of their beliefs.
1. The poem is written in the first person.
2. The language of choice is used repeatedly (‘I shall’…’I will not’) Highlight and label.
3. Death is personified. Death as a horseman is an ancient idea and can be found in the Bible. Death is made to sound cruel and vicious – highlight and note this.
4. The narrator says that he/she will not serve death. Explain what it is that they are refusing to do.
5. The poem uses other images to explain how the narrator will not serve death. Highlight two or three of these (HINT: “route”, “pay-roll”, etc).
6. References to Cuba and the Balkans refer to actual wars. WW1 started in the Balkans.
“August 6, 1945”
- This poem describes the unimaginably awful – the effect of the atomic bom dropped on Hiroshima at the end of the Second World War.
1. The poem is written in the third person and describes two people: the pilot who flew the ‘Enola Gay’ (a plane named after his mother) that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and a victim of the bomb, a girl.
2. The first two stanzas describe the pilot’s view. Pleasant and very American metaphors describe the explosion. Highlight these. Why does the poet use these opposites (they could be described as OXYMORONS) to describe the bomb?
3. In stanza 4 the poet describes a girl. Highlight and note the simile used to describe her own skin that has been ripped off her back by the explosion. In the next stanza the people are again described as lizards. What effect does this create?
4. In the final stanza there is a sense of the pilot being haunted by what he has been responsible for. Why does the poet use a metaphor of “ladybirds”?