YEAR 11 POETRY EXAM DRAFTING GUIDE

1. YEAR 11 POETRY EXAMDRAFTING GUIDE 1. OFFER A GENERAL INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT THAT SETS UP THE CONCEPTS OF THE TASK. Poetry is an often misunderstood medium, one that readers feel is obscured by hidden meanings. There are no “hidden meanings”, just a process of denotation and connotation that allows all readers to apply their own background and experience to the text.

2. 2. SUGGEST THE CONCEPTS OF DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION OF THE SELECTED POEM, ACCORDING TO THE GIVEN THESIS. The essential ingredients are : mention of denotation, mention of connotation, explicit reference to the given thesis (borrow its wording !) , mention of nationality. The Australian poem The Fisherman’s Tale by Randolph Stow denotes a narrative of men who work at sea and suffer the perils of that occupation. The oceans are a frequent and obvious setting for poems from the island continent of Australia, yet this poem also connotes the monumental hardships of men everywhere who must struggle to master the natural environment.

3. 3. Continue on to introduce the selected (seen) poem in similar terms This will complete your introduction by offering a full outline of what your essay will entail. Note that there does not have to be a similarity of theme or subject matter between your two selected poems (seen and unseen). Choose a linkage that suits : in contrast, similarly, another Australian poem that offers graphic connotation, a second work that allows us to see the distinction between denotation and connotation, etc. The ocean as benefactor and predator is also a connotation in Elizabeth Riddell’s poem Lifesaver where the primary denotation is of a drowned surfer being ceremonially returned to the shore.

4. 4. Begin your analysis/deconstruction of the unseen poem. You will already have annotated and underlined the poem appropriately. From this initial analysis, noted on the text itself, select between 4 – 6 “steps” of discussion which will enable you to investigate all aspects of the poem.

5. FOR EXAMPLE..... For The Fisherman’s Tale : • The overall mood, tone, denotation, layout/organisation of the poem. • Stanza One creates an initial feeling of bleak sadness and nostalgia with images of what the fisherman leaves behind as he sails to sea.... • Then there is a “gruff” change to the conditions of the environment... • There follows a depiction of turmoil and catastrophe as the sea begins to exert its power... • When “the sea grew still”, we are able to explore the consequences of the preceding action.... • Now the “deep/Eternities of sea” have asserted their dominance and....

6. Within each “step”, analyse how the poet has constructed his/her work in order to invite a certain reading. Follow the dot-points offered on your Task Sheet : • Subject matter • Language devices • Denotation and connotation • Nationality

7. You are writing about the poem, so you must use frequent quotationfrom the source – the poem. Follow the essay example supplied to you on how to integrate quotation. “Integrate” is the word. Pause for longer quotations, indent if they are more than one sentence, but do this infrequently. Borrow wording and phrases as often as you can to integrate into your expression, not to draw to a halt and interrupt the flow of your ideas. “A prayer was blown from the skipper’s son like spray” and yet this has no effect against the forces of Nature. When “an equal wind hurled curse and call away”, we know it is an uneven battle. The soft sibilance in “skipper’s son...spray” is contrasted with the guttural assonance of a “hurled curse” to illustrate this battle. Alliteration on “curse and call” echoes the abruptness of such an expression. The simile “like spray” tells us just how ineffective human wishes are under such circumstances. The sibilance is also present when “the salt flew in to cleanse his father’s tongue”. The father has not even managed a prayer. It is the salt itself, the bitter taste imagery apparent to all, that robs this mere mortal of even his power of speech.

8. Conclude the first section – after a number of well-constructed paragraphs, not a single “slab” – with a terse summation of what you have now proved, using the wording of the thesis to achieve this. While The Fisherman’s Tale can be adequately appreciated through its denotation of a story of perils on the high seas, it gains its full strength in connoting the strength and grandeur of environment and the monumental struggle to master it. Though an Australian poem, it speaks to all societies everywhere.

9. 5. Turn your attention then to your prepared poem. During perusal time, you will have transferred the preparation in your head onto the copy of the poem provided to you. Check these annotations and create a matching discourse to the unseen appreciation you have just completed. • Create a logical linkage that suits your selected text. There can be no universal advice on this one. Nothing is more Australian than a Surf Lifesaver, so the very title of Elizabeth Riddell’s poem connotes the idea of heroic figures battling the ocean, not too unlike the fishermen in Stow’s poem. However, just like that tale, this one also involves struggle that ends in tragedy, and connotes again the age-old quest to master our physical environment.

10. 6. Use the same process as for the unseen poem to select a series of points that will help you evoke the ideas, development, and invited reading of this second text. The same process applies : • discuss the subject matter of the poem • refer to a selection of language devices that help relate that subject matter to the reader • Demonstrate denotation/connotation to achieve an invited reading. Lifesaver opens with a graphic image of...

11. 7. The conclusion needs to be succinct, but don’t neglect it. Always allow enough time to make a strong, summative conclusion, but don’t try to reiterate content from your previous discussion. Main reference should be to the thesis. Good poems have no “hidden meanings”. Both Elizabeth Riddells’sLifesaver and Randolph Stow’s The Fisherman’s Tale produce strong enough denotations to produce serious thought – connotation – on their wider issue of the struggle for mastery of the environment. Good poems will always offer this context. These two good, Australian poems certainly do.

12. In summary..... • The given thesis is your structure for the essay • Your response to this thesis is the direction you need to follow throughout • Your discussion of subject matter/as fashioned through the literary devices/providing a strong invited reading....is your content. • Selected quotation is the evidence/proof for your case • Select ONE unseen poem and assess it along the exact same lines as you have been doing in class • .....and here’s ONE that I prepared earlier.... • Allow your mastery of the writing devices of poetry to show • Trust your developed intellect to appreciate the material and its invited reading (direction) • For 2010, you will be required to include reference to the Australian-ness of the poems (i.e. their Australian denotations) while portraying (connoting) unviversal ideas

13. The Fisherman’s Tale Randolph Stow (1930 - ) • Lamplight burns away in an ash of cloud; • The smoke-grey houses sift and fade behind • The broken summits of the sea; the loud • Bell’s benedictions dwindle out of mind, • Dissolving in the belfries of the sky • Where horizontal nebulous blue walls and cities lie. • All quiet on the dusklit sea. But gruff • And hindering a squall leaped out; the stars • Grew dark, the sun died out of time, and rough • Black rollers set the timbers screaming. Spars • Cried out like seagulls with the pregnant sails • And all the sky recalled the groan of hemp and scream of nails. • A prayer was blown from the skipper’s son like spray • And salt flew in to cleanse his father’s tongue; • An equal wind hurled curse and call away, Profane and pious being together flung • Into the boiling climax of the night, • The surge and plunge of sea-green ranges shattered into white.

14. But green, green are the halls beneath the sea, • And green, green the trailing ropes of light, • And there the Rock Man waited. It was he • Who filled their silver nets to leap and fight • With flashing scales, and he who also made • The wrack of froth and gale, for he who gave would be repaid. • The sea grew still; and under that mazed sky • The boat turned round and faded down the deep • Eternities of sea. The shorewinds cry • Warm from the hearts where those most loved, in sleep, • Dream on the coming home. But deaf they rest, • Their shell-white eyes awash with green, crushed to the Rock Man’s breast.