Year 10 English

1. Year 10 English Passionate Poetry

2. Pick one of these and tell the person next to you about a time when this feeling was pretty much on your mind.

3. How to Write Poems about Feelings Some of the best poems ever written are about feelings. You may want to write poems about your feelings, but perhaps you don’t know how to begin.   Here’s a good way to get started: On a piece of paper, write "sad," "mad," and "happy." Now add as many feelings as you can to the list. If you’re stumped for feelings, have a friend or two brainstorm with you. Choose one feeling from the list. Write down your answers to each of the following questions: When do I feel [insert feeling]? Why do I feel [insert feeling]? How does it feel to be [insert feeling]? Your answer will become the poem, although you may want to revise and polish the poem as needed. What will make the poem work best is if it tells a story or if people can learn something about you from the poem. Check the example in the next slide. Once you have completed the final draft of your poem, you could try designing a picture that illustrates your verse.

4. I feel really sad in the mornings…. My best friend has moved away. It makes me feel like I am the only pebble on a sandy beach.

5. Poetic Techniques Poetic techniques Poets use special techniques to make their language more interesting and effective. In fact, we all use them all the time in our everyday speech. Have a look at and complete this worksheet. Language techniques.docx A Word on Rhythm This is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in language. Syllables are the building blocks of words: (the stressed syllables are in bold italics) bit has 1 syllable. And/rew has 2 and Im/poss/i/ble has 4. Activity Write your full name and break it into syllables. Change the syllables that are stressed and listen to how it sounds!

6. William Blake An incredibly talented man Blake is often regarded as a visionary. His stances against slavery and child labour are evident in both his poetry and his art. See here: Resources\William Blake Biography.docx

7. More art

8. The Tyger The poem begins with the speaker asking a fearsome tiger what kind of divine being could have created it: “What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame they fearful symmetry?” Each subsequent stanza contains further questions, all of which refine this first one. From what part of the cosmos could the tiger’s fiery eyes have come, and who would have dared to handle that fire? What sort of physical presence, and what kind of dark craftsmanship, would have been required to “twist the sinews” of the tiger’s heart? The speaker wonders how, once that horrible heart “began to beat,” its creator would have had the courage to continue the job. Resources\The Tyger.docx Comparing the creator to a blacksmith, he ponders about the anvil and the furnace that the project would have required and the smith who could have wielded them. And when the job was done, the speaker wonders, how would the creator have felt? “Did he smile his work to see?” Could this possibly be the same being who made the lamb?

9. The Chimneysweeper England in the early Industrial Revolution was a land that became the wealthiest and most powerful in the whole world. It was a fortune built on the exploitation of the weak and most Vulnerable both at home and around the world through its colonies and Empire. Blake was reviled by what he saw and wrote about it passionately, seeking to change society. The loss of innocence is explored through poetry about child Labour. Resources\The Chimney Sweeper.doc

10. John Donne Recognised as one of the greatest English poets, Donne lived a very interesting life: Resources\John Donne Biography.docx The changing circumstances of his life are reflected in his writing. You have 2 poems to study, one form his early life and one from his older life. See if you can tell which is which! Resources\The Sunne Rising.doc Resources\Death Be Not Proud.docx

11. Revision Choose a poem from each poet. Learn and memorise: • the poems and • know the themes and • poetic devices used by the poet You will have a question about these poems in your yearly exam which will focus on the idea of how poetry can express ideas that a person is passionate about.