Poetry

1
Poetry

• The importance of form and structure

2
Lesson aims

• Read poetry for enjoyment
• To learn how the form and structure of a poem
  affect its meaning
• To develop group discussion skills

3
40 Love

• middle aged
• couple playing
• ten- nis
• when the
• game ends
• and they
• go home
• the net
• will still
• be be-
• tween them

4
40 Love

• Discussion prompts (2 mins)
• What is interesting about the way the poem
  appears on the page?
• Poems often tell a story. What story do you
  imagine is being told here?
• Why does the poem have an unusual layout?

5
The clues in the title...

• 40 Love

6
40 Love

• Discussion prompts (1 min)
• What is the significance of the net motif in the
  poem?

7

• Sonnet 130
• My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun
• Coral is far more red than her lips red
• If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun
• If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
• I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
• But no such roses see I in her cheeks
• And in some perfumes is there more delight
• Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
• I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
• That music hath a far more pleasing sound.
• I grant I never saw a goddess go
• My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
• And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
• As any she belied with false compare.

8
Group discussions

• (2 mins)
• In pairs, colour the words of the poem which
  rhyme. Use different colours for each pair of
  rhyming words.
• What pattern do you notice about how the poem
  rhymes?
• Feedback.

9

• My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun
• Coral is far more red than her lips red
• If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun
• If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
• I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
• But no such roses see I in her cheeks
• And in some perfumes is there more delight
• Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
• I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
• That music hath a far more pleasing sound.
• I grant I never saw a goddess go
• My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
• And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
• As any she belied with false compare.

10
Quatrain

• My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun
• Coral is far more red than her lips red
• If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun
• If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.  

11

• What is the poet comparing the woman to in the
  first 8 lines of the poem? How does she compare?
• Is she better or worse? Discuss in groups.(2
  mins)
• My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun
• Coral is far more red than her lips red
• If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun
• If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
• I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
• But no such roses see I in her cheeks
• And in some perfumes is there more delight
• Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

12

• I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
• That music hath a far more pleasing sound.
• I grant I never saw a goddess go
• My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.
• Whats he saying here? Is her voice better than
  music?
• When she walks, does she float along like a
  goddess was supposed to do? What does his
  mistress do instead?
• So, what does the poet seem to be saying about
  his beloved so far in this sonnet?

13

• Discuss one interesting feature of the structure
  of the final 2 lines of the poem.
• (2 mins)
• And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
• As any she belied with false compare.
• So, does the message of the poem change at the
  end?
• How does it change?
• What could be the final impression left with the
  reader about the speaker and his beloved?

14

• (2 mins)
• Highlight, in a colour, the images which relate
  to human features in the poem.
• Where are these features most commonly used in
  the poem beginning/middle/end? Discuss with
  your partner.