Tell me again about the rabbits George...

Choose one of the quotations about or said by George, repeat it in a post and make a comment about what it reveals about the character of George.

"The first man...sharp, strong features."

"Guys like us...they don't belong no place."

"He's my...cousin."

"Hide till I come for you...Say that over."

"His eyes were hard and tight as wood"

Considering 'Havisham' by Carol Ann Duffy

Havisham

Beloved sweetheart bastard.  Not a day since then
I haven't wished him dead.  Prayed for it
so hard I've dark green pebbles for eyes,
ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with.

Spinster.  I stink and remember.  Whole days
in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dress
yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe;
the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who did this

to me?  Puce curses that are sounds not words.
Some nights better, the lost body over me,
my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear
then down till  suddenly bite awake.  Love's

hate behind a white veil; a red balloon bursting
in my face.  Bang.  I stabbed at a wedding cake.
Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon.
Don't think it's only the heart that b-b-b-breaks.

What feelings are conveyed by the metaphor 'dark green pebbles' in line two?

What effect is created by the speaker referring to her lost lover as a 'lost body' and a 'male corpse'?

Considering Kid by Simon Armitage

Kid

Batman, big shot, when you gave the order
to grow up, then let me loose to wander
leeward, freely through the wild blue yonder
as you liked to say, or ditched me, rather,
in the gutter ... well, I turned the corner.
Now I've scotched that 'he was like a father
to me' rumour, sacked it, blown the cover
on that 'he was like an elder brother'
story, let the cat out on that caper
with the married woman, how you took her
downtown on expenses in the motor.
Holy robin-redbreast-nest-egg-shocker!
Holy roll-me-over-in the-clover,
I'm not playing ball boy any longer
Batman, now I've doffed that off-the-shoulder
Sherwood-Forest-green and scarlet number
for a pair of jeans and crew-neck jumper;
now I'm taller, harder, stronger, older.
Batman, it makes a marvellous picture:
you without a shadow, stewing over
chicken giblets in the pressure cooker,
next to nothing in the walk-in larder
punching the palm of your hand all winter,
you baby, now I'm the real boy wonder.

Why do you think the poem is called ‘Kid’?


Which words and phrases reveal the anger, resentment and bitterness of the speaker?

Pragmatic is a terribly good word isn't it?

I've had some small problems with postings disappearing into the ether.  I became quite frustrated with the whole thing.  You should let me know if this one doesn't work! (?)

Kudos to Sean, Balt, Casey and Ema.

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/130detail.html

Go here. It's a good page exploring Sonnet 130.  Read through.  Notice how the author calls the poem 'pragmatic'. Find out what this word means and post a one word post consisting of a synonym for 'pragmatic' that you also feel describes the tone of the poem.

Let's start with the obvious then...

Right gang...

It's past my bedtime...

I'll admit something.  I don't have a plan for this.  I'm pretty sure that I've committed to make one of these blog entries every day until the literature exam.  And when I say I'll do something...

I had that idea about half an hour before I printed the pages and brought them to you.  So confident was I in it's goodideaness that I didn't check or review it!

The blog always was and still is a good idea.  Look at any previous post and bask in your communal glory.  The greatest capacity of the internet is to bring together communities with a shared interest; in this case you lot.

Concept One

When engaging in internet research it is always advisable to begin a the beginning.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Laboratory

Read the introductory blurb from the wikipedia entry for The Laboratory, then copy and paste the next stanza from the previous post.  Include a comment about the stanza.  

The first post has been completed for you.

This poem presents the desperately jealous feelings of a woman abandoned by her lover, who left her for a more womanly rival. It shows how deranged the protagonist's nature has become, who goes so far as to poison her rival in love. The use of rhyming quickens the pace of the poem, adding to the woman's increasing excitement as the apothecary grinds up the mixture. Many of Browning's poems were written about people with an unusual nature. At first glance, the poem appears to be written as if she were talking to the apothecary, but reading into it shows that she may be thinking to herself as at the start of the poem she tells the man to take his time, but as she thinks about the possibilities and power the poison will bring her she begins to hurry him. Her careless attitude towards her future crime suggests that she may have previously killed and does not care about being found out as she is proud of what she will have done.

It is set in seventieth century France and was written by Robert Browning. It was inspired by the life of Marie Madeleine Marguerite D'Aubray win Brivinlliers (1630-1676), who poisoned her father and two brothers and planned to poison her husband. ^[1] It was published in dramatic lyrics in 1842 with other famous poems such as My Last Duchess.

Who's with me then?

...It's An Accessible Art

"People can't put on an opera, but they can write a poem.  It's an accessible art."

This quotation from Simon Armitage is illustrative of his belief that poetry is for everyone.  As we have seen through our classroom studies Armitage's work deals with universal human themes; we have all been able to find a relation between Armitage's work and our own experiences.

It shouldn't be difficult for you to respond intelligently to the Armitage poems on the exam.

Remember the importance of close analysis though and of reponding to the poems on a word level.  Remember also the importance of using embedded quotation.

Embedded Quotation

Example

The central image in the poem 'Mother any distance greater than a single span...' is that of the tape measure that the poet employs with his mother in the measurement of the dimensions of aspects of his new accommodation.  The metaphor of the tape measure represents the connection between mother and son.  As they take the measurements the physical distance between the poet and his mother becomes greater until he holds onto the 'last one hundredth of an inch' of tape and until the mother's fingertips 'pinch' at the end of the tape.  The poet, through this metaphor, is illustrating how the poet and the mother feel about the changes that are occurring in their relationship with one another.  The words 'last one hundredth of an inch' suggest that the son's gaining of his independance is timely; that perhaps he has delayed making this move; whilst the word 'pinch' suggests a reluctance in the mother to release the connection.  It is my opinion that the relationship between mother and son changes, rather than weakens, with incresed independence.

Try embedding these words and phrases from the poem into your own paragraphs about the poem.

"reporting...back to base."
"hatch that opens on an endless sky"
"to fall or fly"

Have a go at it in some postings!

Revising a Text

As an old teacher of mine used to tell us, the best way of revising for an exam which is on a book...is to read the book. 

I understand that this might not be the easiest thing for many of you to achieve at this busy time. 

Below is a link to a downloadable audio version of Of Mice and Men; perhaps if you had a portable mp3 version then you might turn it on from time to time...

http://www.dedicationtechnologies.com/oman/