Half Term Independent Learning Tasks

Hello lovelies,

As well as finding time for a well earned rest, I'd like you to do the following:

1: Read Othello in preparation for next half term (this will take 3-4 hours)

2: Consider the following areas of study for the play (just do some back ground reading on any unfamiliar term)
 

Ø  Understanding the conventions of drama.

Ø  Shakespeare’s place within the literary canon.

Ø  New Historicist literary approach to the play.


I look forward to seeing you in just over a week.

Miss R x

SRN 2017

POETIC ANALYSIS: S.M.I.L.E METHOD

S - STRUCTURE:

How is this poem organised? (how many stanzas/verses)

How is the idea developed in each stanza?

(which words or phrases give the images or theme emphasis or clarity)

How is the poem visually structured on the page? What might this suggest?

(line length/rhyme scheme? Is there any rhythm/repetition/ enjambment?)

Who is the speaker? How do you know? What is the effect of this?

M – MEANING: (the pebble!)

What is the poem about?

Does it have a key message or overarching idea?

Which aspect of love is the poet exploring? What is their perspective?

Does the form contribute to these ideas or themes? (elegy/sonnet/free verse/dramatic monologue)

I – IMAGERY: (ripple)

What figurative techniques does the poet use to convey their ideas? Effects?

What effects do the similes, metaphors, personification, pathetic fallacy create? (what do they make you think? What comparisons do they conjure? How do they make you feel about the ideas being conveyed?)

L – LANGUAGE: (ripple)

Which words has the poet specifically chosen to convey their ideas?

Which word class do they belong to – is this significant? (e.g. active/passive verbs)

Is there a lexical set? How does this relate to the pebble?

Are there any polysemic words?

What are the connotations of specific words and how does this enhance our understanding of the central idea/theme?

E – EFFECT: (DISCUSS WITH S, M, I AND L!)

What is the overall effect of the poem?

What does the poem/techniques/structure make you feel/think about?

How does the poem explore this particular aspect of love?

REMEMBER: ALL COMMENTS NEED TO REFER TO FORM, LANGUAGE, STRUCTURE, CONTEXT

What is the speaker/poet’s perspective?

john donne- evie

John Donne- biography

John was a metaphysical poet who was born in London on 22^nd January 1572, John died in London on 31^st March 1631. His poems took many styles including, sonnets, religious poems, epigrams and elegies. His poems take the style of abrupt openings and various paradoxes. Donne for many years lived in poverty despite his career as a poet. In 1601 he secretly married Anne More and had twelve children. In 1602 he was elected as part of parliament but didn’t get paid for his position. 1615 John was awarded an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University.

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.

Andrew Marvell Biography - Nneka

Andrew Marvell was an English metaphysical poet, satirist and politician and had even sat in the house of commons between 1659 and 1678, During the Commonwealth period. He was born in winestead, England on the 31st of march 1621; he died at 57 on the 16 August 1678 in London. His most famous works were: "To His Coy Mistress", "The Garden", "An Horatian Ode". Andrew was said to be the single most compelling embodiment of the change that came over English society. He was a poet with an array of exquisite lyrics that blend Cavalier grace with Metaphysical wit and complexity. Marvell's first poems, which were written in Latin and Greek were published when he was still at Cambridge and lamented a visitation of the plague and celebrated the birth of a child to king charles I. Marvell served as tutor to the daughter of the Lord General Thomas Fairfax, who had recently relinquished command of the Parliamentary army to Cromwell. He lived during that time at Nun Appleton Hall, near York, where he continued to write poetry. One poem, "Upon Appleton House, To My Lord Fairfax", uses a description of the estate as a way of exploring Fairfax's and Marvell's own situation in a time of war and political change. Probably the best-known poem he wrote at this time is "To His Coy Mistress". Andrews works are said to contain religious themes and satirical material.


Examples:

• Eyes and Tears
• Bermudas
• Clorinda and Damon
• Two Songs at the Marriage of the Lord Fauconberg and the Lady Mary Cromwell
• A Dialogue between the Soul and Body
• The Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Fawn
• Young Love

The definition of love 

My love is of a birth as rare 

As ’tis for object strange and high; 

It was begotten by Despair 

Upon Impossibility. 

Magnanimous Despair alone 

Could show me so divine a thing 

Where feeble Hope could ne’er have flown, 

But vainly flapp’d its tinsel wing. 

And yet I quickly might arrive 

Where my extended soul is fixt, 

But Fate does iron wedges drive, 

And always crowds itself betwixt. 

For Fate with jealous eye does see 

Two perfect loves, nor lets them close; 

Their union would her ruin be, 

And her tyrannic pow’r depose. 

And therefore her decrees of steel 

Us as the distant poles have plac’d, 

(Though love’s whole world on us doth wheel) 

Not by themselves to be embrac’d; 

Unless the giddy heaven fall, 

And earth some new convulsion tear; 

And, us to join, the world should all 

Be cramp’d into a planisphere. 

As lines, so loves oblique may well 

Themselves in every angle greet; 

But ours so truly parallel, 

Though infinite, can never meet. 

Therefore the love which us doth bind, 

But Fate so enviously debars, 

Is the conjunction of the mind, 

And opposition of the stars.

George Herbert Biography-Nieve

George Herbert (April 3rd 1593-1st March 1633)

George Herbert was a Welsh-born poet , orator and Anglican priest and is recognized as "one of the foremost British devotional lyricists. Herbert was largely raised in England and received good education that led to his admission in 1609 as a student Trinity College, Cambridge. Then he became the University's Public Orator and he attracted the attention of King James I. In 1624 and briefly in 1625 he served in the Parliament of England.  Herbert wrote poetry in English, Latin and Greek,  and all of Herbert's poetry were published in The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations. This collection featured such works as the "The Altar", "The Storm", and "Love".  George Herbert's "The Altar" is a perfect example of  pattern poetry or a pattern poem, which is a arrangement of linguistic elements in which the typographical effect is more important in conveying meaning than verbal significance.


Here is an extract of George Herbert's "The Altar":

A broken ALTAR, Lord, thy servant rears,

Made of a heart and cemented with tears;

Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;

No workman's tool hath touch'd the same.

A HEART alone

Is such a stone,

As nothing but

Thy pow'r doth cut.

Wherefore each part

Of my hard heart

Meets in this frame

To praise thy name.

That if I chance to hold my peace,

These stones to praise thee may not cease.

Oh, let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,

And sanctify this ALTAR to be thine.

Herbert's poems have been characterized by a deep religious devotion, linguistic precision, metrical agility, and the ingenious use of conceit. Sam Taylor Coleridge wrote of Herbert's diction  that "nothing can be more pure, manly, or unaffected,"and he is ranked with Donne as one of the greatest metaphysical poets.

Andrew Marvell Biography - Kenzee

Andrew Marvell (31 March 1621 – 16 August 1678) 

Andrew Marvell was an English metaphysical poet, satirist and politician. He sat in the House of Commons at various points from 1659 – 1678 and during the Commonwealth period, he was a good friend of John Milton. Some of his most notable works include ‘To His Coy Mistress’, ‘The Garden’ and ‘An Horatian Ode’.

Marvell was born in Winestead-in-Holderness, near the city of Kingston upon Hull. Born to a Church of England clergy man also named Andrew Marvell, the family moved to Hull after his father was appointed Lecturer at the Holy Trinity Church, and Marvell attended Hull Grammar School. At just 13 years old, Marvell earned a BA degree from Trinity College, Cambridge. His first poems, published in Latin and Greek whilst he still attended Cambridge, lamented a visitation of the plague and celebrated the birth of a child to King Charles I. After the death of his father in 1641 as a result of drowning, Marvell travelled extensively on the continent, learning new languages and missing the English civil wars in the process.

Marvell spent most of the 1650s as a tutor, first for Mary Fairfax, the daughter of a retired Cromwellian general, and then for one of Oliver Cromwell’s wards. In 1657, Marvell was appointed John Milton’s Latin Secretary, a post that he held until Marvell was elected for Parliament in 1660. He held office during Cromwell’s government and represented Hull during the Restoration period. Holding a very publicised position of power during a time of tremendous political turmoil and upheaval almost led Marvell away from publication for good. Nothing escaped his satirical eye; he criticised both the court and parliament. If certain poems, such as ‘Tom May’s Death’, had been published in his lifetime, Marvell would’ve been extremely unpopular with royalists and republicans.

He died rather suddenly in 1678 due to a fever, and many of his works were published in the following three years after his death. A woman of the name Mary Palmer, Marvell’s housekeeper, had claimed to be his wife, apparently, in order to keep his small estate from the creditors of his business partners.

Marvell’s style has been described as “more than a technical accomplishment; it is, what we have designated tentatively as wit, a tough reasonableness beneath the slight lyric grace”. One of his most famous poems, ‘To His Coy Mistress’, fits the conventions of metaphysical poetry with the combination of an old poetic conceit with Marvell’s typically vibrant imagery and easy command of rhyming couplets. Other works of his include topical satire and religious themes.

'To His Coy Mistress'

Had we but world enough and time, 

This coyness, lady, were no crime. 

We would sit down, and think which way 

To walk, and pass our long love’s day. 

Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side 

Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide 

Of Humber would complain. I would 

Love you ten years before the flood, 

And you should, if you please, refuse 

Till the conversion of the Jews. 

My vegetable love should grow 

Vaster than empires and more slow; 

An hundred years should go to praise 

Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze; 

Two hundred to adore each breast, 

But thirty thousand to the rest; 

An age at least to every part, 

And the last age should show your heart. 

For, lady, you deserve this state, 

Nor would I love at lower rate. 

       But at my back I always hear 

Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near; 

And yonder all before us lie 

Deserts of vast eternity. 

Thy beauty shall no more be found; 

Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound 

My echoing song; then worms shall try 

That long-preserved virginity, 

And your quaint honour turn to dust, 

And into ashes all my lust; 

The grave’s a fine and private place, 

But none, I think, do there embrace. 

       Now therefore, while the youthful hue 

Sits on thy skin like morning dew, 

And while thy willing soul transpires 

At every pore with instant fires, 

Now let us sport us while we may, 

And now, like amorous birds of prey, 

Rather at once our time devour 

Than languish in his slow-chapped power. 

Let us roll all our strength and all 

Our sweetness up into one ball, 

And tear our pleasures with rough strife 

Through the iron gates of life: 

Thus, though we cannot make our sun 

Stand still, yet we will make him run.

Hi Ladies,

Please find a digital copy of the curriculum overview we discussed in class. Familiarise yourself with the set texts and components for each half term.

Miss R

Term	Miss Roden	Miss Willson
Autumn 1	Unseen poetry: Ø  Diachronic approach to poetic movements/contextualisation. Ø  Subject terminology: poetic forms/conventions. Ø  Homework: tasks set on Blogger. Ø  Key critical text: On Poetry by Glyn Maxwell.	Unseen prose:   Ø  Diachronic approach to Literary movements. Ø  Subject terminology: literary analysis. Ø  Homework: analysis of extracts.
Autumn 2	Text: Othello Ø  Understanding the conventions of drama. Ø  Shakespeare’s place within the canon. Ø  New Historicist literary approach to the play. Ø  Close textual analysis. Ø  Homework: essays to be individually and collaboratively planned on Blogger.	Text: The Great Gatsby   Ø  The conventions of modernist literature. Ø  Context: The Jazz Age/post war literature & culture. Ø  Close textual analysis. Ø  Strategies for synthesis. Ø  Homework: essays.
Spring 1	Texts: The Handmaid’s Tale & Feminine Gospels Ø  Targeted intervention for Othello. Ø  Introduction to dystopian literature. Ø  Cultural context: America in the 1980s. Ø  Critical approaches: feminism/postmodernism/new historicism. Ø  Comparative analysis/synthesis of the two texts. Ø  Homework: poetic analysis/ essay planning.	Text: A Streetcar Named Desire   Ø  Conventions of contemporary Drama Ø  Social and historical context Ø  Character analysis/exploration of themes. Ø  Critical approaches: gender studies/new historicism. Ø  Homework: essay practice.
Spring 2	Continuation of Spring 1	Continuation of Spring 1
Summer 1	Text: Frankenstein (selected students) Ø  Social and historical context of 18th / 19th Century. Ø  Conventions of Gothic literature and associated terminology. Ø  Literary allusion and intertextuality.	Text: Dracula Ø  Social and historical context of 19th Century. Ø  Conventions of Gothic literature and associated terminology. Ø  Literary allusion and intertextuality.
Summer 2	Academic essay writing workshops. Drafting NEA.	Meeting the assessment objectives workshops. Drafting NEA.