Year 9: Poetry Name: Poetry Contents ‘Wherever I Hang’ by Grace Nichols (1950-) Page 2 ‘The Night Mail’ by W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Page 3 ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’ by Wallace Willis (1820-1880) Page 5 ‘The Canterbury Tales’ by Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400) Page 7 ‘Paradise Lost’ (extract from Book 1) by John Milton (1608-1674) Page 10 Compare the ways poets present fictional journeys Page 12 ‘The Road Not Taken’ by Robert Frost (1874-1963) Page 13 ‘My Father Thought It’ by Simon Armitage (1963-) Page 14 Compare how poets reflect on journeys Page 17 ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ (extract) by T. S. Eliot (1888- Page 18 1965) Essay Writing Practice Page 20 1 Wherever I Hang – Grace Nichols (1950-) I leave me people, me land, me home For reasons I not too sure I forsake de sun And de humming-bird splendour Had big rats in de floorboard 5 So I pick up me new-world-self And come to this place call England At first I feeling like I in a dream - De misty greyness I touching the walls to see if they real 10 They solid to de seam And de people pouring from de underground system Like beans And when I look up to de sky I see Lord Nelson high – too high to lie. 15 And is so I sending home photos of myself Among de pigeons and de snow And is so I warding off de cold And is so, little by little I begin to change my calypso ways 20 Never visiting nobody Before giving them clear warning And waiting me turn in queue Now, after all this time I get accustom to de English life 25 But I still miss back-home side To tell you de truth I don’t know really where I belaang Yes, divided to de ocean Divided to the bone 30 Wherever I hang me knickers – that’s my home. 2 The Night Mail – W. H. Auden (1907-1973) This is the Night Mail crossing the border, Bringing the cheque and the postal order, Letters for the rich, letters for the poor, The shop at the corner and the girl next door. Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb: 5 Beattock – The gradient's against her, but she's on time. village in Past cotton-grass and moorland boulder Scotland; Shovelling white steam over her shoulder, moorland – Snorting noisily as she passes a piece of Silent miles of wind-bent grasses. 10 land Birds turn their heads as she approaches, Stare from the bushes at her blank-faced coaches. Sheep-dogs cannot turn her course; They slumber on with paws across. 15 In the farm she passes no one wakes, But a jug in the bedroom gently shakes. Dawn freshens, the climb is done. Down towards Glasgow she descends 20 Towards the steam tugs yelping down the glade of cranes, yelping – a Towards the fields of apparatus, the furnaces sharp cry Set on the dark plain like gigantic chessmen. All Scotland waits for her: In the dark glens, beside the pale-green sea lochs 25 loch – lake Men long for news. Letters of thanks, letters from banks, Letters of joy from the girl and the boy, Receipted bills and invitations 30 To inspect new stock or visit relations, And applications for situations And timid lovers' declarations timid – And gossip, gossip from all the nations, scared News circumstantial, news financial, 35 Letters with holiday snaps to enlarge in, Letters with faces scrawled in the margin, scrawled – Letters from uncles, cousins, and aunts, written Letters to Scotland from the South of France, quickly Letters of condolence to Highlands and Lowlands 40 Notes from overseas to Hebrides Hebrides – Written on paper of every hue, islands off 3 The pink, the violet, the white and the blue, the coast The chatty, the catty, the boring, adoring, of Scotland The cold and official and the heart's outpouring, 45 Clever, stupid, short and long, The typed and the printed and the spelt all wrong. Thousands are still asleep Dreaming of terrifying monsters, 50 Or of friendly tea beside the band at Cranston's or Crawford's: Cranston's Asleep in working Glasgow, asleep in well-set Edinburgh, or Asleep in granite Aberdeen, Crawford's They continue their dreams, – tea shops And shall wake soon and long for letters, 55 And none will hear the postman's knock Without a quickening of the heart, For who can bear to feel himself forgotten? 4 ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’ by Wallace Willis The poem we are learning about today is an African American spiritual song. It is believed to have been composed by Wallace Willis, a black American slave in the 19th century. Wallace Willis was a slave who worked on a plantation in Mississippi. He and his family were moved to a farm in Oklahoma, and it is believed that the song was composed on the cotton plantation there. Some believe that the song was used as a coded message about escaping their slavery and moving to the north of America, where slaves could have freedom. During this time in American history, slaves did not receive an education. Many were unable to read and write. The Bible still played an important part of slaves’ lives, though. This poem is part of the call and response tradition. This means that the leader would sing a line and then the others would repeat the line together. Often the songs were not written down, but they were passed down between generations orally. The songs were often about the struggle of slavery, oppression and the hope they had for the future. This type of music influenced gospel music traditions we have today. The content of the poem is based on a passage in the Bible. It is about a man called Elijah. Elijah was a prophet and miracle worker. This is the moment Elijah is walking to the river Jordan, he strikes the water and it is divided. He is then taken to heaven on a chariot that passes between the water. His assistant Elisha witnesses the miracle. As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. 12 Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his garment and tore it in two. (2 Kings chapter 2 verses 11-12) 5 Swing Low, Sweet Chariot – Wallace Willis (1820-1880?) Swing low, sweet chariot, Coming for to carry me home, Swing low, sweet chariot, Coming for to carry me home. I looked over Jordan and what did I see, Coming for to carry me home? 5 A band of angels coming after me, Coming for to carry me home. If you get there before I do, Coming for to carry me home, 10 Tell all my friends I’m coming too, Coming for to carry me home. The brightest day that ever I saw, Coming for to carry me home. 15 When Jesus washed my sins away, Coming for to carry me home. I’m sometimes up and sometimes down, Coming for to carry me home, 20 But still my soul feels heavenly bound, Coming for to carry me home... 6 ‘The Canterbury Tales’ by Geoffrey Chaucer We are going to be studying a section of a poem called ‘The Canterbury Tales’. This is a very long poem that includes 24 stories told by different pilgrims on a journey in Springtime. They travel the 50 miles from the Tabard Inn in Southwark (London) to the shrine of Thomas à Becket in Canterbury in Kent. Map of the route taken by the pilgrims The 29 pilgrims are referred to as a ‘company’ in the poem. These people came from varying walks of life. In ‘The Canterbury Tales’ the company was made up of a knight, a cook, a man of law, a seamstress, a friar, a sailor, a monk and many more. They take it in turns to tell stories as they travel to Canterbury. Their stories reflect their personalities and their social status. A pilgrimage was a rare occasion when people from different parts of society would interact as they had the same purpose. Journeys in Medieval England The pilgrimage to Canterbury would have taken three or four days on horseback, depending on how many times they stopped for rest. But the company would travel at just faster than walking pace, so traditionally it would have taken longer. Chaucer uses this context to write his poem. The fictional pilgrims were travelling from a city to the country. They would have seen the landscape change as they completed their journey. The tavern owner, Harry Bailly, suggests that they tell stories to pass the time and to entertain themselves. In Medieval England, the oral tradition of storytelling was a key part of life. Chaucer’s characters and stories are still famous today. Language The poem would have originally been written in Middle English which was a combination of French and English. This is because of the Norman invasion in 1066 when those in power spoke French. England at this time was undergoing great political and linguistic change, Chaucer wanted to create a snapshot of society at this time. We are going to read and study the poem in a modern translation. 7 The Canterbury Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400) The General Prologue When April with his showers sweet with fruit The drought of March has pierced unto the root drought – dryness And bathed each vein with liquor that has power vein – root of each To generate therein and sire the flower; plant When Zephyr also has, with his sweet breath, 5 Zephyr – the west Quickened again, in every holt and heath, wind The tender shoots and buds, and the young sun Into the Ram one half his course has run, Ram – zodiac sign And many little birds make melody of Aries (so it is That sleep through all the night with open eye 10 mid-April) (So Nature pricks them on to ramp and rage)- Then do folk long to go on pilgrimage, And palmers to go seeking out strange strands, palmers – To distant shrines well known in sundry lands.