A2 English Unit 4 Poetry

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A2 English Unit 4Poetry Carol Ann Duffy

• Oslo

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Oslo

• The title is the name of a real place.
• It is the subject of, but not named in the poem.
• Four quatrains and a couplet to end.
• Odd numbered lines rhyme or half rhyme.
• Lines of almost equal length create a regular
  rhythm.

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Oslo

• Speaks directly to the reader.
• Starts as instructions on what to do in a strange
  town.
• Town personified as revealing itself.
• Your own town could never do that because you
  have grown up learning it gradually.

4
Oslo

• Being a foreigner, not speaking the language
  turns a person into a baby again, innocent.
• Cliché- what cant speak cant lie?
• Strangers, foreigners are seen as invisible why?

5
Oslo

• Suggesting some bad behaviour. Getting up to
  mischief in a new place where no-one knows you.
• Innocent baby or grown up naughty?

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Oslo

• Enjambment from second to third stanza.
• Time passes, going from planning to go there to
  actually going through the door.
• Brief phrases, indicating the speed at which
  events take place.
• Ready to gamble.

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Oslo

• The writer implies this is the time for naïve
  tourists rather than real gamblers.
• How are they described?
• Repetition of bet suggests compulsive nature of
  activity.

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Oslo

• Fourth stanza starts with a cliché- win
  some/lose some.
• Comparing gambling to life in general?
• Hasnt caught the gambling bug as line one
  suggests writer is bored.
• Child like what next?

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Oslo

• Hotel seen as home whilst in this foreign town.
• With only a numbered key, impersonal no
  winnings.
• Writer appears to know Oslo quite well.
• Norwegian wood sly reference to Beatles song
  common referent in Duffys work.

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Oslo

• Last line of stanza
• For now, youre lucky
• Why?
• Moves onto last stanza couplet implies you
  may have lost money at tables but somebody loves
  you.

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Oslo

• Very complex full last two lines.
• Based on more clichés-
• Lucky at cards/unlucky in love, or vice versa
• Wishing on a star
• Choose a star with lover and agree both will look
  to it.

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Oslo

• Sieve suggests selecting one from many.
• Several incomplete phrases or sayings throughout
  poem.
• How much of what is here follows Duffys frequent
  use of conversational style?
• Where does she use figurative language?

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Oslo

• What is the general mood of the poem?
• How did you come to these conclusion?
• What can you cite from the text to support your
  views?