Poem Choices G11

Poem Choices G11

8 poems briefly introduced.

A Wife in London

Thomas Hardy

What's it all about then?

• This poem was written during the Boer war (1899 – 1902), of which Hardy strongly disapproved on moral grounds. It was his belief that the Boers were protecting their homeland, as everyone had the right to do. He penned several poems on the futility and loss of war, often focusing on personal stories, such as this one.

• The Tragedy and The Irony. The poem is divided into two sections, representing stages of the story, with headings that clarify the moral message. There are four quintains or five-lined stanzas

• About a Letter from a soldier to his beloved wife in London then a telegram telling of his death. This is where I got the idea for the perspective writing in grade 9 and 10 that made Emari and April cry!

When You are Old

W.B. Yeats

Yeats! There was a character too!

• When You Are Old, is directly addressed to the speaker’s lover. Yeats was born in Dublin, Ireland, and is one of the most celebrated poets in Irish history. Many of his poems reflect the Irish spirit, but this poem concentrates more on the love he once shared with a woman

• This is a poem that many see as highlighting the unrequited love between the speaker, presumably Yeats, and his former lover.

• Additionally, Yeats wrote the poem in iambic pentameter. This, coupled with the steady rhyme scheme, lends a sing-song quality to the poem. While the work is relatively short, like any Yeats poem, it is jam-packed with imagery and other poetic devices.

• I find it a rather cute little poem.

The Mountain

Elixabeth Bishop

• This is literally a mountain speaking.

• The mountain is given a voice to speak about its observations of the world, but also its personal feelings and concerns. It observes the life and death of ephemeral entities — the shifting boundaries of human borders, the death and decay of birds. It is particularly preoccupied with the unknown aspect of ageing, and also the access to knowledge around it that cannot be understood — a metaphor for our limited capacity to understand the world from a subjective viewpoint.

• Poignant in this time.

Waterfall

Lauris Edmond

A Kiwi gal then?

• The waterfall is the poem’s central symbol, standing for both the beauty of life and the passing of time. When the water reaches the dark pool at the end of the waterfall, time is up and life ends.

• The waterfall stands for both the beauty of life and the swift passing of time. In fact, the poem argues that, like a glorious sunset or a delicate flower, some things are beautiful precisely because they are so transient.

• Beautifully written with enough literary devices and language points to get you a huge score. Plus she uses euphony!!!

Homecoming

Lenrie Peters

Gambian Poet

• A Gambian born poet (when Gambia was a British Colony),One among the many is "Homecoming", a poem written with gentle tone of self-regret to reveal the theme of certainty of change.

• The poem Homecoming is among his collection which shows the corruptive greed of the tribal leaders while at the same time is balanced by nostalgia for a pastoral past with cautious assertion of hope for a future built on that past.

• Peters Homecoming writes of the sadness and strange shadows and skeletons which awaited him when he returned to Gambia to which he had longed for returning

• But most of all about a homecoming. Nostalgically sad.

Distant Fields / Anzac Parade

Rhian Gallagher

A time to remember.

• The Author of this poem, Rhian Gallagher, tried to capture and portray the very atmosphere of the ANZAC Parade. This parade occurs once every year on ANZAC Day, in an effort to remember and honor those who died fighting in the war of 1914.

• The poem aims at capturing and illustrating the physical as well as emotional environments of the ANZAC Parade.

• Not a lot to work with so context has to come in here.

The Wedding

Moniza Alvi

Migration

• The poem tells of the dreams of a bride but it is not a wedding. It is a migration, that is a marriage of two cultures when the migrator leaves his homeland for a host country. ... Though,bred and educated in England, Alvi has always carried the burden of duality of cultures,nationalities and ways of perceiving life Interesting and very thought provoking Some beautiful lines in here "like buffaloes under dark waterwe turned and faced each otherwith turbulence" "hold up my dream, trickyas a snake-chamber’s snake.Our thoughts half-submerged"

• Nice

Shirt

Robert Pinsky

Beware the teacher's trickery!

• Some bloke writing about a shirt and how it is made!!!

• At its most basic level this is a poem about making shirts. But it speaks deeply on themes of human rights and explores topics of consumerism and selective ignorance. Throughout the text Pinksy moves through stories, images, and historical examples of how the clothing industry has always mistreated its “employees.” 

• The poem consists of sixteen stanzas that are separated into sets three lines, or tercets.

• 16 verses about a shirt. Good Luck Val!

Done!

• I have attached the poems on the docs where possible but it was late last night so I missed some and others need copying again to show verses correctly EG The Wedding.

• These are the more modern poems we study.

• Language is fairly easy because of this.

• Some are hard to research.

• Good Luck!