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Starter Target word puzzle

D N DF E AN T E

RulesYou can only use each letter

once.You must use the centre

letter There is one 9 letter word

No foreign wordsNo words with initial capitalletter, e.g. people·s names

10 words - good; 18 words - very good; 27 words - excellent; 35 words - o

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Poetry about youThat is, poems that focus on what it is to be fem

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TodayThe focus will be on exploring the context of the poems we to focus on.

We will look at your opinions and thoughts on what is to bin 2011.

We will look at what your expectation of female poets are.We will explore what feminine and femininity means to yoI will tell you a little about our first poet, Elizabeth BishopWe·ll read ¶The Waiting Room· and start talking about it

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C ontextTalking about things around the poems we are acstudying is important because it helps you to grasideas and issues that the poet is going to be prese

and discussing in their writing.

Also, if we discuss our expectations and thoughts oissues then we can compare out thinking to that opoet, which helps you gain more personal respo

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Some big questions...To start, work with a partner or as a whole group.

Divide a sheet of A3 paper in to four and brainstorm aroufollowing four questions:

1) what do you expect female poets to write about?2) What is femininity? (brainstorm words and ideas and

a definition that begins ´femininity is...µ3) Do you expect female poetry to be feminine? Why4) What issues might a female poet be better at exploring

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DifferenceWhat differences might you expect be

poetry written by a man compared to pwritten by a woman?-C ontent?- Language?- Imagery?

Or do you expect no difference? Wh

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Four corner debate

´The female way of seeing the worlddifferent to the male way of seeing tworldµ

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Barbie Doll by MargePiercyThis girlchild was born as usualand presented dolls that did pee-peeand miniature GE stoves and ironsand wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:You have a great big nose and fat legs.She was healthy, tested intelligent,possessed strong arms and back,abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.She went to and fro apologizing.Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.

She was advised to play coy,exhorted to come on hearty,

exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.Her good nature wore outlike a fan belt.So she cut off her nose and her legsand offered them up.

In the casket displayed on satin she laywith the undertaker's cosmetics painted ona turned-up putty nose,dressed in a pink and white nightie.Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said.C onsummation at last.To every woman a happy ending

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Q uestionsWhat is MargePiercy·s attitude to the female

journey through life?What do you think she sees as the only featurwomen are valued for? Why do you think thisDo you think this is a good representation of

what women have to deal with in life? Why dthink this?

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More questions...I·m going to put a different question at every group.

Each piece of paper has plenty of room for you to write ythoughts on.

You will start with the question at your table - everyone iswrite something in response to the question.

You will then move around the room and visit each of thequestions, reading what other people have written and addiyour own thoughts.

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18/2 Starter Word of the Week

Something new from the English Department. Every week there will be athat may well come in handy when you·re writing essays to help set you other candidates when your writing goes in front of a marker.

This week: (copy this down)Zeitgeist, noun.The spirit of the time; the taste and outlook characteristic of a period or gIt is originally a German expression, which means ´the spirit (Geist) of th(Zeit)µ. It denotes the intellectual and cultural climate of an era.

8/7/2019 Intro to the In the Waiting Room

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Elizabeth BishopShe was the Poet Laureate of the United Statesfrom 1949to 1950, a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1956 anda National BookAwardWinner for Poetry in 1970.

She was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. After her father, asuccessful builder, died when she was eight months old,Bishop¶s mother became mentally ill and was institutionalized in1916. (Bishop wrote about the time of her mother's struggles inher short story "In The Village.") Effectively orphaned during her very early childhood, she lived with her grandparents on a farmin Nova Scotia, a period she also referenced in her writing.Bishop's mother remained in an asylum until her death in 1934,and the two were never reunited.

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Her attitude...´One of the causes of poetry must be, we suppose, the feeling that thecontemporary language is not equivalent to the contemporary fact; there issomething out of proportion between them, and what is being said in wordall what is being said in "things."...By "pretending" the existence of a langappropriate and comparable to the "things" it must deal with, the languageinto being.µWhat do you think she means by what is ´being said in words not at all whsaid in ´thingsµµ?What do you think this suggests for what she thinks the purpose of poetry be?

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´Language is born in order to grasp thatwhich escapes itµ

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Her attitude...´Off and on I have written out a poem called "Grandmother's Glass Eye" whshould be about the problem of writing poetry. The situation of my grandmostrikes me as rather like the situation of the poet: the difficulty of combininwith the decidedly un-real; the natural with the unnatural; the curious effectproduces of being as normal as sight and yet as synthetic, as artificial, as a g

What is natural about a poem?What is artificial about a poem?

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Her attitude...

´the most fantastic thoughts in the most correct andnatural languageµ, rather than ´the tiresome practiconveying the most trivial thoughts in the most fanlanguage.µ

´accuracy, spontaneity and mysteryHer three rules:

Poetry should be:

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Her styleBishop was a ¶Modernist· - which just means that she wawriting in a particular movement during the mid 20th cen

Modernism was famous for stripping back poetry as mucpossible. One poet, EzraPound, actually wrote three rules

for a particular group called the Imagists. While Bishop wa member of this group, the rules are useful for helping uunderstand Bishop·s style.

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Examples of Modernist StylePoem (as the cat)

As the catclimbed over the top of

the jamclosetfirst the rightforefoot

carefullythen the hindstepped down

into the pit of the emptyflowerpot

WilliamC arlos Williams

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EzraPound

In a Station of the MetroThe apparition of these faces in the cr

Petals on a wet, black bough.

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More Williams...Winter Trees

All the complicated detailsof the attiring andthe disattiring are completed!A liquid moonmoves gently among the long branches.

Thus having prepared their budsagainst a sure winter the wise treesstand sleeping in the cold.

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StyleThe style is consciously stripped back to ensure thedirect treatment of the ¶thing·. The poet veryintentionally removes or strips away anything that isdecorative. You won·t often see a lot of metaphor orsimile in this style of poetry. Rather, the style will bstraightforward.

Why might a writer want to write like this?

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A BishopPoemLet·s have a read of ¶The Fish·. As we·rereading think about the following question:How is this poem reflective of what Bishop·style is and what her vision of what poetry

should be?Give some specific examples from the poem

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The Waiting RoomTake care of this copy of the poem - you can alwfind the poem online if you lose it, but you will bmaking marks and annotations on this copy, so ywant to hold on to it to assist you when you·repreparing for essay writing.

Let·s have a read...

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First reactionsThese are just your initial thoughts, it·s okay to be confused at this point.

1) What stands out for you in this poem? (quote lines that really interest youreally confuse you, or both)2) Who is speaking? Write a brief description of who you think the speaker m3) How did you decide who the speaker was? (write down what your evidenc4) Is the language easy or difficult? And does it suit the speaker?5) Do you notice any language features? If so, what are they? (quote)6) What seems to be the story in your opinion? (Make a bullet point list)