Exploring « Frog Prince » by Stevie Smith

1. Exploring «Frog Prince» by Stevie Smith

2. Class objectives: • Explore a contemporary British poem taking a multidisciplinary approach • Answer (maybe) the question “Who Am I?” • Share methods and techniques of teaching • Encourage lively discussions and future collaboration • ???

3. Identity - is whatever makes an entity definable and recognizable personal Ethnic • “Who am I?” online Gender regional Identity cultural national social

4. Do you believe your eyes?

5. Do you see black dots? Do they exist in reality?

6. What does it mean? (for our life)…for poetry?

7. “Frog prince” • Remind the original story (2 min) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcgubqHwBwE • Brainstorm your ideas about the content of the poem. What is it about? (2 min) Frog prince

8. Let’s read it now! Were your predictions right? (Question: what is the frog waiting for?) I am a frog I live under a spell I live at the bottom Of a green well And here I must wait Until a maiden places me On her royal pillow And kisses me In her father’s palace The story is familiar Everybody knows it well But do other enchanted people feel as nervous As I do? The stories do not tell,

9. Ask if they will be happier When the changes come As already they are fairly happy In a frog’s doom? I have been a frog now For a hundred years And in all this time I have not shed many tears, I am happy, I like the life, Can swim for many a mile (When I have hopped to the river) And am for ever agile. And the quietness, Yes, I like to be quiet I am habituated To a quiet life,

10. But always when I think these thoughts As I sit in my well Another thought comes to me and says: It is part of the spell To be happy To work up contentment To make much of being a frog To fear disenchantment Says, It will be heavenly To be set free, Cries Heavenly the girl who disenchants And the royal times, heavenly, And I think it will be. Come then, royal girl and royal times, Come quickly, I can be happy until you come But I cannot be heavenly, Only disenchanted people Can be heavenly.

11. That’s how Stevie reads it herself…Let’s listen? • http://www.poetryarchive.org/poem/frog-prince • How are your readings different?

12. Poetic “likbez”???dictionconnotationspeaker nursery rhymepoint of view

13. Comprehension check and summarizing a poem major ideas • What is the frog in the poem waiting for? • Summarize the major idea of each stanza in the chart: (in pairs)

14. Question time

15. Understanding the author • Read the biography of Stevie Smith and say what personal facts from her biography find their reflection in the poem.

16. Understanding the historical background • World War II • Fascism • Change of the monarch • New developments • Disappointment • Rebellion • Women’s rights

17. Who is the speaker of the poem? • What kind of speaker is that? • What does he feel? • How is he different from the original story frog? • What’s the relation between the author and the speaker? • What identity shows here? • What factors influence the content and the ideas of the poem?

18. Exploring the language of the poem • What is the diction like? • What connotations do words …. bear? • What is the rhythm like?

19. Exploring the ideas of the poem • Basing upon the speaker’s and the author’s identitiesand the background biographical, social, historical, cultural info, think of the ideas expressed in the poem and discuss the message of the story in your group and how it is revealed in the language of the poem. family message women death

21. Stevie Smith • A Russian who was born in a Russian city (Moscow?) and lived there all her/his life • A Buryat who was born and raised in Tunka (or other rural settlement of Buryatia) • Yourself as you are