Best Books Study Work Guide: Poems From All Over Gr 11 HL. Lynne Southey

Скачать книгу

who used to live there.The word “ruder” (line 24) points to the assumption that Native Americans were more “primitive” and led a simple life, the implication being that were not “learned” (see line 1).The drawings are evidence of the kind of life they led.7The speaker points out what the drawings are of: and old elm tree with children playing in its shade. He reminds the visitor that shepherds in Europe still seek out (“admires”) (line 25) shade.By comparing the picture of the children playing in the shade to today’s Europeans, he is saying that it was a normal thing to do. Note that he describes the children as being “of the forest” (line 28), simple and unsophisticated.8He points out a Native American queen and savage shapes (possibly wild animals), of whom the Native Americans would have been afraid (“to chide the man that lingers there”) (line 32).He points out further pictures drawn, a woman (“queen”, possibly) and animals (“barbarous form”) (line 31). These again refer to a simple life.9He tells the visitor that at midnight when the moon shines, the dead, dressed for hunting (“for the chase arrayed”) (line 34) still chase after deer, both the hunter and the deer being “a shade” (line 36), a spirit or ghost.The speaker continues telling his belief that the dead continue their normal way of life. Notice the “still” (line 35), which implies that nothing has changed. He admits that they are ghosts, because they are dead, but the life they lead is the same as before. Life after death is the same as life lived. This is his main argument.10The speaker concludes his argument in this final stanza. Those who are afraid (of dying? of being sent to hell?) will be able to see for a long time still the pictures of a chief and his weapon, so that those who want proof of what he is saying (“Reason’s self”) (line 39) will acknowledge that what he says is true (“bow the knee”).The whole poem is an argument for the idea that life after death continues in the same way as life before death, that those afraid of death need not be. By acknowledging “Reason” he refers to the current belief that only science and what can be proved is true.

      Contextual questions

      1.Who is the “His” of line 9? Quote from the poem in answer. (1)

      2.What word in the final stanza is linked to the “learned” in the first? Explain your answer. (3)

      3.What literary device does the speaker use in the poem to justify the telling, the narrating, in the poem? (2)

      4.“The speaker is saying that belief is just that: belief. It doesn’t require proof or facts.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Give reasons for your answer. (4)

      (10)

Enrichment activityFind pictures of old San drawings found in South Africa and say in what way they are evidence of the San way of life. Describe the paintings you find to do this.

      London, 1802 by William Wordsworth

      (See p. 16 in Poems From All Over)

Title:	The poem is about London, as the speaker/poet sees it in 1802.
Theme:	The need for renewal of moral values in London (England).
Mood:	Pleading, urgent, unhappy.

      Discussion

      According to the speaker, London and its people have lost their way and the city is no longer what it used to be. People are not happy and have become selfish, have lost “manners, virtue, freedom, power”. The speaker calls on John Milton (1608–1674), who was an influential statesman and poet of the previous century, to come back and restore the England he had helped create. Milton was a unique human being (“dwelt apart”), unselfish and committed, and without him and his values England has become a “fen of stagnant waters”.

      The poem is a sonnet: the octet calls on Milton and explains what has become of London and why Milton is needed; the sestet praises Milton for the kind of person

      he was.

      Analysis

Lines		Comment
1–8	The speaker wishes that Milton were still alive as the country needs him because she has become stagnant.The church (“altar”), the army (“sword”) and literature (“pen”); the people (“fireside”), the wealthy people (“heroic wealth of hall”) and even the countryside (“bower”) have given up or lost their ability to be happy with themselves (“inward happiness”). Men, and he includes himself, have become selfish. He calls for Milton to come back and raise them all to their former and better state in which they behaved well (“manners” and “virtue”) and England was a free a powerful country.	In these eight lines the poet has condensed a great deal: he is addressing the late John Milton, whom he says the country needs; he explains why by describing what has become of people and the country; he pleads for Milton to return and lists the four main things that England needs and that they had when Milton was still alive. This is a remarkable feat, and it is done within the constraints of the sonnet form.Notice the use of metonymy (through which a part is used to refer to the whole).Notice the language (“thou”, “shouldst”, “hath”), which is the language of the time.
9–14	Milton’s “soul” or character was like a “Star”, elevated and above that of the common man. He stood out (“dwelt apart”) because of the qualities he had. His voice (or what he said) was loud enough to be heard, and powerful (people listened to him), “pure …, majestic, free”, conveying virtues that were admirable. And that is how he lived his life, cheerfully and piously (“in [g]odliness”) and yet he was the kind of man for whom no task was too humble.	The sestet praises Milton and gives his qualities. No reference is made to London or England in this section, but the reader understands that a man with Milton’s strength of character and integrity is needed to uplift the people and the city again.Notice the comparisons with star and sea, eternal entities that are larger than human life, and to which he compares Milton.

      Contextual questions

      1.Write out the rhyme scheme of the poem. (2)

      2.The above comment on the sestet mentions “the constraints of the sonnet form”. What are these in the context of the notes? (3)

      3.Identify the two similes in the sestet and explain how using them adds to the description of Milton’s qualities. (6)

      4.Read line 6 again. What effect does the caesura (pause, break) in the line have on the meaning? (6)

      5.In your opinion is this sonnet more in praise of Milton, or a lament about the state of England? Give reasons for your answer with reference to the poem. (3)

      (20)

Enrichment activityRead up on what London was like at the beginning of the eighteenth century.

      (John Rennie’s 19th century London Bridge)

      There was an Old Man with a Beard by Edward Lear

      (See p. 18 in Poems From All Over)

Title:	The title is the first line of the limerick.
Theme:	Nonsensical, playing with rhyme.
Mood:	Light-hearted, humorous.

      Discussion

      Although limericks are classed as nonsense rhymes, they do have an element of meaning to the words. Here the speaker is commenting on his beard, which is probably long and bushy, and saying that even birds would be able to build a nest in it, which is of course a nonsensical,

Скачать книгу